MY HOMAGE TO JOHN MICHELL
(Written
on 10 April, 2019 addressing
the
first image of M87 Black Hole)
Long
imagined you show your face
When
happens your ceremonial birth,
Your
father no more on the earth
Who’s
he the world could guess.
A
posthumous child you born
Stamping
as a truth his deed,
Like
him a beacon mankind need
Lighting
the dark area we not sojourn.
Transient
could be toil but not fame
His
fancy a facsimile of reality,
Optimizes
astronomy look up to eternity
Red-lettered
in history his name.
As
a star from the scientists’ constellation
His
work shedding light on cosmos realization.
WHITE CLOAK
The
foggy morning
wearing
a white cloak
deserves
her immaculacy,
impenetrable
and sublime
she
reigns supreme.
Dew
fallen night-long
on
the grass-blades
and
flower petals,
numbness
seizes
all
the molecules,
the
porters with new hope
struggle
to survive
when
the sun too.
The
time the sun wins,
also
their eyes shine
through joys of pain.
THE NOBLE MISSION
Basked
in the sunlight,
tree
leaves responding to the winds,
the
winds not indulging own indolence
itching
ripples on the calm water
to
curve out momentous drawings.
Bees
are to pollinate the mustard flowerets
hovering
golden smiles on the lands,
workers
sustain all by their diligence
all
efforts contribute to dynamism.
How
could I be included in this mission!
Simply
my mind scribbles itself
and
the pen makes a visual read.
Is
it something, asking myself,
to
set the civilization on move?
Texts
and simulations open windows
me
on a time machine to move.
CONFINEMENT
Confinement,
a four-walled state,
being
confined within
is
a self-living art,
an
identity unchangeable
but
when forceful it is
a
taxation on mind and soul.
A
pet bird in golden cage
with
food stuff in beak
jealous
of the traversing flocks,
the
chained dog of the rich
practicing
the routine walk
barks
at the street dogs,
zoo
animals survive their best
dreaming
of their wild lives.
Sacrificing
all the best,
a
captive soldier
or
a revolutionary
can
suffer the worst.
THE SPRING
The spring has come again
for his annual routine visit
taking all in vernal sweep.
Nature is performing her arts
clad in magnificent robes,
myriad hues have blushed
the tender cheeks of earth,
passionate hearts stuffed with love
in search of someone else,
the cuckoos keep on cooing
to meet their mates.
All in festivity of love
many a Venus growing
lovesick for their Adonis,
the admirers live disheartened
when the spring recedes
but only the poet knows
how to retain eternal spring.
NIGHTMARE
Who listens to her crying?
Certainly a few. She’s dying,
Wounded for brutal violence,
Lifelong painful experience,
The real nightmare
Unbearable to bear,
The violation of chastity
Certifying her social identity!
What an act ignoble!
Victim’s loss irreparable,
This crime is a curse
Justice shouldn’t prove farce,
Nowhere confirms security
Peaceful life with dignity,
Woman can win her fight
If social perspective is right.
EASIER TO
RENOUNCE
The flower smiles
spreading fragrance in the air,
so for the bees
leaving honey in the hive.
At the time of Autumn
the green trees
revealing the skeletal view,
the snakes shedding off skin.
Lessons also in holy texts
it’s easier to renounce
than to hold forever,
sillier to sink in own ocean.
DICTATORS STILL
LIVE TODAY
Blood-seeds they’re
wishing the earth to be red,
power, money and circumstances
germinate them to grow up.
Whipping the world
they resemble the thunder,
their ambition remain unsaturated.
Standing on the red carpet,
the soil wet in blood
they laugh aloud.
They dance to annihilate,
the cruel minds
devoid and barren
could create hells,
painful cries lull them
to sleep as lullabies.
Genocide is their hallmark,
world peace the great enemy,
the inexorable legacy continues,
dictators still live today.
THE
ULTIMATUM
The sun is welcome
When the fog pervades,
The unquestionable role
To restore the visibility.
After the fall of leaves
When the trees look bare,
For the green foliage
We invoke the spring.
When the temperature hikes
Dark clouds harbinge rain
To the dry, sultry earth,
Grasses feed on Nature’s honey.
Oh Love! So your relevance,
When values are trivial
And faiths get cracked
The ultimatum sustains survival.
UNIFIED AS
WHOLE
All to be taken up,
the minor and the major
unified as the whole.
A grain of sand not negligible
in the vast, open beach
contributing to uniformity.
A drop of water inseparable
from the oceanic store
and additive to expansion.
Minorities around the globe
deserving honour in nations,
the true beauty to democracy.
BIODATA
Hemanta Pramanik (b.1971): A bilingual poet, short story writer, children’s author, critic and editor lives in Berhampore, West Bengal, India. An M.A. in English literature and an English teacher in a higher secondary school. He writes both in Bengali and English. Widely published in many international print and online magazines, journals and anthologies. Songs of Immortality is his debut poetry book. He edits an English literary magazine to his literary passion. The book Survival and Other Stories is his maiden short story collection. Email: hkp.lit@gmail.com
