Tag: EPFL

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Poetry

The Solitary Tempest

By Pramod Rastogi

O clouds of loneliness,
I beckon your shadowed embrace.
Drift gently into the seams of my heart,
And rain, soft as whispered sorrows.
 
Sweep away the filth and dust,
The clinging residue of ceaseless strife,
Etched by life's restless tumult,
And leave behind a moment's quiet clarity.
 
But, O clouds, be but a fleeting guest,
Do not settle as my abiding home.
The deeper you linger,
The heavier grows your weight.
 
You threaten to rend from me
The final thread of self,
A fragile anchor to light and hope,
Swept away in torrents of despair.

Pramod Rastogi is an Emeritus Professor at the EPFL, Switzerland. He is a poet, academician, researcher, author of nine scientific books, and a former Editor-in-chief (1999-2019) of the international scientific journal “Optics and Lasers in Engineering”. He was an honorary Professor at the IIT Delhi between 2000 and 2004. He was a guest Professor at the IIT Gandhinagar between 2019 and 2023. He is presently an honorary adjunct Professor at the IIT Jammu.

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Categories
Poetry

Poetry by Pramod Rastogi

From Public Domain 
ETERNAL LIGHT 

Every night, beneath the veil of stars,
I feel your love, mother,
As vast as the ocean,
Its depths whispering calm paradise.

Your eyes, golden pools of tenderness,
Once held my fears,
Turned tears into sweetness,
And wrapped my heart in peace.

Though time has drawn you away,
I find you in the quiet,
In the light that lingers on the horizon,
In the bosom of memories woven into my soul.

You are the warmth beneath the cold,
The golden thread binding my days,
The eternal whisper of love
That lives within me,
Undimmed by the passage of time.

In this stillness, I carry you,
Guardian of my heart,
A light that will never fade,
A love that even the night cannot steal.

Pramod Rastogi is an Emeritus Professor at the EPFL, Switzerland. He is a poet, academician, researcher, author of nine scientific books, and a former Editor-in-chief (1999-2019) of the international scientific journal “Optics and Lasers in Engineering”. He was an honorary Professor at the IIT Delhi between 2000 and 2004. He was a guest Professor at the IIT Gandhinagar between 2019 and 2023. He is presently an honorary adjunct Professor at the IIT Jammu.

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PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL. 

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles

Click here to access Monalisa No Longer Smiles on Kindle Amazon International

Categories
Poetry

Dreams Are Not for Real

By Pramod Rastogi

Wake, my cherished daughter,
And see who waits at your door.
Step forward, welcome it warmly --
This dawn, a guest meant for your heart.
 
Dawn is a dense foliage, alive with its flame.
Look how it rushes to embrace you.
Pluck it from the sky, let its glow
Fill the vase of your waiting soul.
 
Inhale the sacred scent it offers,
A divine aroma to ease your sorrow.
Exhale your grief into the morning light,
For your heart -- steadfast and jewelled -- endures.
 
Through every shadow, my love remains,
A constant light to ease your pain.
No trial too heavy, no wound too deep,
My arms are here, your fears to keep.
 
Fairy tales are not birthed in heaven.
They do not spring from the void.
Remember, they are our creation,
And you, my dear, bring them to life.
 
Your father held you once in his arms,
Steadying you to explore new paths.
Be not despondent; time will mend the scars.
Dreams with edges are dreams that endure.

Pramod Rastogi is an Emeritus Professor at the EPFL, Switzerland. He is a poet, academician, researcher, author of nine scientific books, and a former Editor-in-chief (1999-2019) of the international scientific journal “Optics and Lasers in Engineering”. He was an honorary Professor at the IIT Delhi between 2000 and 2004. He was a guest Professor at the IIT Gandhinagar between 2019 and 2023. He is presently an honorary adjunct Professor at the IIT Jammu. 

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PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles

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Categories
Poetry

Footprints of Love

By Pramod Rastogi

From Public Domain 
I would love to live a life
In rhyme with the wise
To help our planet renew
Its heydays of yore,
When a child could dream
Of the moon as a football
And would need to just stretch
His hands to touch the ball.
 
I live in accord with visions
Built with imagination.
Tied to my wishful dreams, 
I like to give nuances
To my fleeting clouds of hopes 
With a sketch pencil that scribbles
The rudiments of my compositions
Eager to soar.
 
Clouds soar when winds are nigh.
The Oceans, the Earth, and the sky sigh.
I leave footprints of my own
At a languorous pace
To embrace our progeny
On the palette of my dreams.
I leave these footprints of love
That leave no trace and sound.

Pramod Rastogi is an Emeritus Professor at the EPFL, Switzerland. He is a poet, academician, researcher, author of nine scientific books, and a former Editor-in-chief (1999-2019) of the international scientific journal “Optics and Lasers in Engineering”. He has published over hundred poems in international literary journals.

PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles

Click here to access Monalisa No Longer Smiles on Kindle Amazon International

Categories
Poetry

Silent Companions

By Pramod Rastogi 

SILENT COMPANIONS 

The distance between us two has grown.
The day starts and ends with our disapprovals.
How long can we share a life lived in strife
Where clouds of admonitions rain forever? 

Nostalgia I cannot relinquish resides in me. 
She lives in me and I cannot leave her. 
The sounds of melancholy live in our eyes
And they sing in quiet their songs of despair.

Love has gone on a journey oceans away. Roads
Are quiet and silence reigns as our talks flounder. 
Holding hands and embraces are lost.
Storms build up and are lost. That is our destiny.

The monsoon settles down now to stay longer
And spring has shrunk to be as good as absent.
Yet, in every ray of sun, I want to relive the spring.
Not many more blossoms are left for me to live

Pramod Rastogi is an Emeritus Professor at the EPFL, Switzerland. He is a poet, academician, researcher, author of nine scientific books, and a former Editor-in-chief (1999-2019) of the international scientific journal “Optics and Lasers in Engineering”. He has published over hundred poems in international literary journals.

PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles

Click here to access Monalisa No Longer Smiles on Kindle Amazon International

Categories
Poetry

The Tomb of Our Love

By Pramod Rastogi

My heart is in upheaval. 
I long for you to knock at my door,
To give me the joy to be your host.
I have longed for this day,
To have you with me and for me alone.
I have waited so long for the footsteps of spring.

The road map of our luminous past,  
By which our relationship passed, 
Is still as painful to recollect as it is to relive, 
Still as crushed by your psyche in distress.
Hardly were you ever in your full senses. 
You had to vanquish your curses to be here.  

Yet, when I saw you in your lonely silence,  
I shed all my misgivings, 
And welcomed you in my heart.
I will love you and seek nothing in return.
Vanishing images of our lovely past
Will be cherished in the tomb of our love.

Pramod Rastogi is an Emeritus Professor at the EPFL, Switzerland. He is a poet, academician, researcher, author of nine scientific books, and a former Editor-in-chief (1999-2019) of the international scientific journal Optics and Lasers in Engineering. He has published over ninety poems in international literary journals.

PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles

Click here to access Monalisa No Longer Smiles on Amazon International

Categories
Poetry

Morning Sermons

By Pramod Rastogi

Painting by Sybil Pretious
Ecstasy fills your morning sermons,

And words flow from your beak

Like bullets from a machine gun

At a frightful cadence that belies

Your tiny size with two tender eyes.

 

Your freewheeling words tear asunder

My early morning sleep ritual

That allows me to soak in the miseries

Of our planet and its inhabitants,

Elevating me like an icon.

 

Yet I dream to see the world

From your perspective by undoing

Your uncombed melodious flow

To understand why you speed up,

Alas, to slow down all too hastily.

 

Your escapades are legendary.

You fly from one end of the globe

To the other, noting in detail

Different colours of human misery

Which you store in your memory.

 

Even if I do not understand your sermons,

There is no divergence in our positions,

And that's such an enlightened feeling.

Coming from the tree next to my house

The tonalities in your chirps heal me.

Pramod Rastogi is an Emeritus Professor at the EPFL, Switzerland. He is a poet, academician, researcher, author of nine scientific books, and a former Editor-in-chief (1999-2019) of the international scientific journal Optics and Lasers in Engineering. He has published over ninety poems in international literary journals.

PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles

Click here to access Monalisa No Longer Smiles on Amazon International

Categories
Poetry

Letter

By Pramod Rastogi

Courtesy: Creative Commons
LETTER

The postman has passed by my house.
The news is out, and joy is in the air.
The letter is from my beloved mother 
Who lives on the other side of the globe.

People, curious, wait outside my house,
Waiting for me to unveil the letter’s content.
Winged with cheer, I run around the house,
Ecstatic to have a letter from my mother.

Age seems to have overtaken my mother,
She cannot travel nimbly so far by a flight.
Rain is unsubdued and the wind crackles, 
Yet people wait to know how she is.

Loving bonds are what connect us at heart.
Trees have lost most of their golden leaves.
Autumnal wind makes me think of heaven.
Words afloat tell me she lives no more.

Pramod Rastogi is an Emeritus Professor at the EPFL, Switzerland. He is a poet, academician, researcher, author of nine scientific books, and a former Editor-in-chief (1999-2019) of the international scientific journal “Optics and Lasers in Engineering”. He has published over ninety poems in international literary journals.

PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles

Click here to access Monalisa No Longer Smiles on Kindle Amazon International

Categories
Poetry

History in the Making

By Pramod Rastogi

Clio, Muse of History, Painting by
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 – 1656). Courtesy: Creative Commons
History has a long past, shrouded
In layers of the mist of Time,
Most of which is unseen in a museum. 
History has a future vast as an ocean.

Of times whose tides are frontline,
We are in the middle of the flow
Between a past catching up on us
And a future we are catching up to.  

We must dig deep in the gaping ruins 
To perceive all that remains cloaked 
In the halls of maligned controversies, 
In tune with ruling elites of the times.  

Painted dark might be the white,
And painted white might be the black,
This is how history is entrenched
And has seen snowflakes fall in the Sahara.

The past is in the jaws of the present
Which is incessant in its slither
Into the jaws of a future, rather nebulous, 
To drag it into the past sliding behind.

A lava of tears flows down the cheeks  
Of history as we wield its resolute truth 
Until it remains a shadow of itself.
It sheds one last tear and sails on.

Pramod Rastogi is an Emeritus Professor at the EPFL, Switzerland. He is a poet, academician, researcher, author of nine scientific books, and a former Editor-in-chief (1999-2019) of the international scientific journal, Optics and Lasers in Engineering. He has published over ninety poems in international literary journals.

PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL

Click here to access the Borderless anthology, Monalisa No Longer Smiles

Click here to access Monalisa No Longer Smiles on Kindle Amazon International