O love! Thou are not for me
My bleeding heart shall not hold thee
Thou made a home, in lonely dreams
A bird, in search of mountains and hills
O love! What did thou give me?
Ephemeral joy, filled with shadows
Scattered grains floating in the water
I held thee close to my chest
Thou stabbed me in the back
My verses lose rhyme, by thy grace
A splash of ink fills the yellow page
The tale of love is written on smoke
Adrift on the fickleness of wind.
It Takes Some Darkness
Patti Masterman
Patti Masterman hails from Oklahoma City, United States of America. Born on 24th of May 1960, Masterman manifested a special liking for poetry since her lower school years. She loves to write down and share with the world her own unique life experiences. She loves it best when poetry comes naturally to her – writing a poem without any effort and expectation and then being startled at the finished product when the final word is written. An insatiable reader, she enjoys reading a diverse assortment of poetry by other poets, both living and dead. “It Takes Some Darkness” is a wonderful testament of Patti Masterman’s matchless style, class and craft. The poem works on the principle of contrasts and divergences. Binaries are set against each other to bring out their exclusivity and splendour.
It takes some darkness to unveil the light:
The dark diamond, in the midst of squalor;
Revelatory schism, of blackest night.
It takes some evil, to unmask the pure:
The slanted shadow, running crooked walls;
Trickle near the stream, of tainted sewer.
It takes the demon, to oppose the saint:
As cunning plans, reveal the innocent;
And bravest courage, holds up the faint.
In the midst of two illumined souls,
A mirror shows back to them their splendor;
But beside that fullness: the ravening hole.
I wish I were Heartless
Pranayee Gupta Rachamalla
Pranayee Gupta Rachamalla (1997 - ) is a promising young poetess from Telengana, India. She is a forensic science student, Vedic Maths teacher and acupuncture - acupressure therapist. She started writing poems at the young age of 12. She loves nature and is in turn inspired by it. Her interests include painting, gardening, poetry, chess and Mathematics. “I wish I were Heartless” is a fascinating poem that explores the heart-brain / reason-passion dichotomy. The speaker desires to be heartless not because she is rational and unpoetic; she believes that it is infinitely better to be heartless than be heir to heart-aches and heart-breaks. The poet finds delight in the fact that heart cannot think.
I wish I were heartless,
or better to have been stone-hearted
because in such a case never will I be downhearted,
much better than anything else.
Even being careless or senseless is much better
because brain and heart make us decide,
brain says what is correct and wrong for us
but heart always says things that bring joy to us.
Brain makes us follow the path that brings success
but heart shows us the way to happiness,
heart is such a poor thing,
works for us , exists solely for us
but takes all our thoughts,
without sending them to brain,
in order to create the presence of
joy and woe in the world !
It gets depressed for a slight failure
celebrates a lot for a little success
and freezes for even a small shock,
gets excited with anxiety with feelings and random thoughts
but I feel happy that it cannot think.
It only feels, it has no eyes to see or to blink!
And when it start to feel things of this sort
it ends up like this
Though it is the cause of all the problems,
It is the need for every solution!
To the Light
Ric S. Bastasa
Ric S. Bastasa is a Regional Trial Court Judge in the Philippines. He entered the Jesuit seminary in 1982 and studied Philosophy in Ateneo de Manila University. He completed the course in law from Andres Bonifacio College in 1987. He finds time for poetry despite his hectic trial schedules in the court. He is happily married to Emma Zanoria. The poet dedicates “To the Light” to our desire to go into the light. He explains: “We fail sometimes considering our human frailness, and so to balance our failures with our innate desire for goodness, we finally arrive at a compromise: live our frail humanity but at the same time also struggle for what is divine and perfect. The ‘gray’ shade is that compromise”.
To the light
we aim ourselves
away from darkness
we swear
But I guess
not too much light
in the same manner
that I do not
have so much of
this darkness
To both
we shall be blinded
let us settle
midway
to dusk let us toast
this drink
of gray.
Mother Tongue Complex
(An Impression of the Polish Poet Adam Zagajewski)
Sophy Chen
Sophy Chen, Lihua Chen (1975 - ) is a Chinese contemporary poetess and translator. She was awarded the Legendary Poet Award in 2012 by www.poetry.com. In the same year she won the annual International Best Translator Award 2012 instituted by IPTRC. In 2014, she won the Chinese Contemporary Poetry (2013-2014) Translation Award. She has till date translated six Chinese poetry collections into English. “Mother Tongue Complex” is a graphical description of her first rendezvous with the Polish poet Adam Zagajewski. Evidently the language barrier keeps the audience deaf. The beauty of this poem lies in the effortless ease with which the poet transfers the helplessness of the audience onto the performer.
It rains cats and dogs outside
Before going up on the stage to accept his prize, he always
Straightens his clothes and sits properly with a serious look
Readers line up waiting for his signature
They are craning their necks to look at him to sign
Putting pen to paper with a line, in silence
It seems unable to see a trace of his expression changes
You can feel his
Philosopher’s unique qualities
“Nice to meet you Sir!
Could you sign ...?”
I opened the title page of the poetry anthology forward
He, bewildered, after his translator
Gave him a sign, quickly swipes
His pen to sign his name in Polish
Then, silence
In an hour-long Polish rewarding speech
He speaks earnestly, but
We look at him deaf, until into our eardrums
Finally is poured a lingua franca:
“Ladies and Gentlemen”
Beautiful tone, natural, gratifying
In the poem reading part, he seems to feel
The daze and helplessness of the audience and then he is forced to squeeze out
A large section of fluent English opening remarks...
White Nights
Tatjana Lončarec
Born on 15th September 1965, Tatjana Lončarec is a poetess from Zagreb, Croatia. Since taking writing seriously in 2000, she has published two collections of poems – That the World does not Die (2005) and Crowned Roses (2008). She is an active member of "Morning Poetry" and a regular in Rijeka, the Croatian literary society. “White Nights” is a poem about the beauty of nature and the triumph of goodness over evil. The interplay of dualities is evident throughout the poem, subtly hinting at the coexistence of paradoxes in th
e universe.
Do you know that will come with lights
White Nights
in the dark will blossom flowers
dark beauty will not prevent
to rule in all its glory.
Breathe life into dead things
famous voice roars into infinity
heaven called to realize dreams
How do you say
that they have already arrived with lights
White Nights
because I know that the fear of happiness
is exactly the same as fear of sorrow,
For now I only whisper quiet
and speak through the body and eyes
sneak around glaring lights
White Nights
to perform and make us whole.
Ironic Path
Waheeda Khan
Waheeda Khan (1973 - ) is a lecturer in English at Karnataka University, Karwar. A mother of two kids, Miss Khan loves her teaching profession and enjoys the company of her students. To her, writing poetry is part of her being, so much so that she did not actually realise her scribbling to be poetry until she was told so. She writes poetry in English and Urdu. “Ironic Path” focusses on the ironies of life with all its intricacies.
Attempt to live
And death will come -
Tongue in cheek, soft footed.
Attempt to die
And life will come -
Merrily jingling, urging us to seek
Illusions, like sand in hand...
Attempt to be firmly rooted
And tornadoes gather-
Uprooting everything we exist for.
Attempt to fly away
And hurricanes rage-
Plunging back, on lands
Barren as weedy landscapes.
Attempt to plough and reap
And droughts come-
Scorching to cracks every twig fertile.
Attempt to laze, shunning all bother
And monsoons came-
Flooding the only hearth one could stand on.
Attempt to attempt
And boulders fall-
On every path we choose.
Attempt to be still and content
And opportunities come-
Teasing like desert mirages.
But, we shall not ever cease our attempts
To earn and achieve - thereby winning
Fate's chagrin and jealous contempt.
###
About the Editor
Manu Mangattu is an Assistant Professor in English hailing from Kerala, India. Born on 21st of December 1985, he imbibed his penchant for poetry and flair for writing from his parents. He completed his post-graduation in English Language and Literature from Mahatma Gandhi University Kottayam securing second rank and a career as a litterateur. Soon he joined the Department of English, St George’s College where he has been imparting lessons in English literature ever since. He delivers lectures on topics ranging from literary theory and Sanskrit poetics to critical appreciation and creativity. His areas of interest include Western and Eastern aesthetics, celebrity studies, diaspora literature and musicology. His latest published works include articles on inclusive education, gendering of genius, phenomenology and eco-aesthetics. He writes poetry both in English and Malayalam. He calls himself a brooding romanticist in poetry, a doubtful debutant in fiction and a morbid classicist in criticism. He is on the editorial board of Spring Magazine, an online journal customised for literature students [ISSN Online: 2455-4715] and has served as the chief editor of an anthology of research articles (ISBN: 978-93-85105-32-6). He runs a website www.mutemelodist.com that caters to the creative aspirations of budding writers. He is happily married to Neethu Tessa and settled at Kalathipady, Kottayam. He can be contacted at [email protected] , +91-9496322323.
Pain Pleasure and Paradox in Poetry: A Verse Compendium Page 4