SPIE Dennis Gabor Award

A Painter’s Despair

A PAINTER’S DESPAIR A painter fancies Nature and spends days to paint the dawn In its rising and its shadows before it disappears Into the surge of village life. Nature watches life on the move, as does the day It peeps at the painter's work posed on a large wooden easel, While the painter keeps pouring his heart, Brushes and paints in hand, to create a vibrant palette. The painter gazes at his artwork. In his eyes, the dawn he beholds Is not the same as on his canvas. Nature, gracious and humble, bows to the artist's dawn. Paints fuse to give the dawn a glow, the like of which Nature Could never have composed. In despair is the artist – he has failed to ornament Dawn’s Natural smile for the day. Two perspectives of the same Dawn, so distant, yet united in one.

A Grand Bouquet

By Pramod Rastogi

A Grand Bouquet 

Years have rained from the sky
Like flower petals falling leisurely 
On the face of a life in a trance.

Each year one flower more
I have added to my bouquet,
Kept in a fancy glass vase  
On the altar of my mystic past.

The bouquet has a sacred look 
With sleek flowers of all sizes,
Of myriad colours and hues. 

I look back at the titanic altar  
And perceive a feeling of joy
And nostalgia for the years
That I collected these flowers.

Alas, this imposing bouquet  
And the aroma it imparts
Are my only pieces of fortune.

The years have faded away
And so have many flowers.
Only a few robust ones are left
That perfume my heart.
		
The years will all melt away 
And the vase will soon be full.
On display will be vivid colours
And a delicate fragrance to recap
The undying spirit of my life.

A candle will then be lit 
In grief and in tribute  
To the grandiose bouquet 
That had adorned this vase.

Pramod Rastogi is an Emeritus Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland. He is a Member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences. He is the 2014 recipient of the SPIE Dennis Gabor Award. He is currently a guest Professor at the IIT Gandhinagar, India.

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