Sunday, December 15, 2013

Pathways



Understand, I'll slip quietly 
away from the noisy crowd 
when I see the pale 
stars rising, blooming, over the oaks. 

I'll pursue solitary pathways 
through the pale twilit meadows, 
with only this one dream: 
You come too.


© Rilke

3 comments:

  1. DEAR READERS
    PL READ A NICE BOOK REVIEW OF THE BOOK ''YEARNINGS'' (ABHA AYENGER) BY PROF KULDIP SALIL PUBLISHED IN SOME JOURNALS FOR KIDN PERUSAL OF VIEWERS OF THIS BLOG/SITE, THANKS AND REGARDS. PL SEND UR COMMENTS ALSO, IF YOU DESIRE SO--

    “Yearnings - a notable collection of poetry”

    Yearnings- Poetess: Ms Abha Iyengar, Pages: 112
    Publisher: Serene Woods, Photo
    D-72, Nivedita Kunj, Delhi -110092
    Printing: Thomson Press India Ltd.,
    Cover Design: Hami (www.facebook.com/getyourhami)
    Her website: www.abhaiyengar.com,
    Her blog: http://abhaencounter.blogspsot.com

    Internationally renowned poet Abha Iyengar has brought out perhaps her first collection of poems ‘Yearnings’. The most striking feature of her poems is their freshness and simplicity. These are poems of love and romance in which emotions dominate. They bear a stamp of authenticity in that they give expression to felt experience. The mind and heart of the poet shines through these poems. These poems are hers and hers alone. One of the qualities of good poetry is that it is not a part of the heaps; it stands out for its individuality rather than for imitation of a model big or small. Many a poet who writes in English has been undone aping T.S. Eliot and his ilk Abha escapes that snare and writes what springs from the heart and goes straight to the heart. A few examples speak for themselves:
    Time
    It is morning
    The dew hangs on my lips
    I drink it
    Instead of your love.
    It is noon
    The sun burns my skin
    Peels it
    Instead of your passion.
    It is night a
    And loneliness spreads its fingers
    On me
    Instead of your touch.
    I am waiting,
    When day and night is you.

    This is not one dimentional poetry. Pain and anguish is another aspect of their themes. For instance see this poem:
    Social Misdemeanours
    From the goody-goody girl image
    The serpent sometimes crawls out,
    To take a snipe at civilization
    And then retreats,
    Shamefaced
    And contride
    At the heinous act committed,
    Hiding itself
    From accusing eyes.
    So with a quick smoothening of skirts,
    The smile fixes on once more,
    A momentary lapse, ignore it now
    We shall continue as before.

    Strange Lands
    In Berlin I cried,
    My body racked with pain,
    I nearly died.
    In Boston I cried
    My sister in law had cancer,
    She died.
    In Paris I cried,
    Of a heart wounded and despaired,
    My soul died.
    I have cried in strange lands
    And strangers have held my hands.

    This collection is quite likely to make its mark in the world of poetry.
    - Prof. Kuldip Salil (Ex- Reader, Hans Raj College, DU)
    1770, Outram Lines, Kingsway Camp, Delhi-9

    ReplyDelete