Welcome to Poetry Garden

Our paths have crossed for we are related in the Spirit of Poetry. We share a common passion. A common love. While you are around, do enjoy my poems. And let me know your opinion about my poetry. Let me treat you with poems which will touch you with a world of emotions. Some poems will refresh the way you think and feel. Some poems will take you on a journey of self-discovery. Some other poems will put you in tune with silence. Some poems will just mirror you.

Come let me walk you in my Poetry Garden.

Musings By Sea

Who Reads Poetry?

I am aware that this form of literature is 'out of fashion' . In such a dismal situation it takes courage to publish a book of one's poems and perhaps even greater courage to read it, let alone appreciate it. Because who reads poetry these days other than the 'enthusiast' and the poet himself. Yet I will venture. I will 'take the road less traveled by' . Already the choice itself has made all the difference for me.

    The poems are basically the vibes of my emotional responses to internal or external stimuli. The creative process is rather unconventional in my case. A thought enters my mind. I mull over it, in the sense that I reflect on it, meditate on it, till I explore it in all its ramifications. The thought melts and becomes subjective. After experiencing it intensely from the standpoint of the soul, the objective viewpoint emerges in the flash of a poem.

   The emotions expressed in these poems are as old the Himalayas.  I make no tall claim of their being my creation. What I would lay hold on is my experience of these elemental thoughts and feelings and the subsequent endeavor to clothe them. These emotions are my emotions; they have become a part of my being.

   I am rather not technically skilled in the nuances of versification and not well-read, if that were to be the yardstick of scholarship. Only a few books adorn my shelf. What I thoroughly enjoy is reading life at first hand and writing the 'rounded experience' in the fashion the soul deems fit. These 'outbursts' are definitely not spontaneous. They have aged in the cask of my heart.

   The poems span over a decade of turbulent thought. They were written usually after periods of contemplation on what caused ripples in my heart. Their source has been my interaction with the world. In my case, sadly, the literary world has had little to offer other than motivation. Perhaps I have not been fortunate enough. Yet I must confess that the few thought-diamonds chiseled by master-craftsmen have shed their radiance on my thought-process.

 Wonderful Verse!
 - The International Library of Poetry

 ...Testament to the diversity of your poetic talent.
 - Poetry.com

 The experiences springing out of the stillness of a deeply meditated mind have been conveyed in these poems.
- K.V.P.Rao, Literary Critic

The poems are on different themes covering the diverse emotions that add life to life. Most of them are reflective in nature trying to depict a mood. In some, the thought is dense while in some it appears to be shallow like the ebb and tide of a wave. Whether dense or shallow each each poem is 'the crystallization of my emotional experience' .

As such, the tone and tenor of these poems is quite different. I have made a sincere attempt to translate the feelings sprouted in my heart in the simplest terms. Yet when I have read them to friends or to scholars they have expressed a certain difficulty in grasping their purport thoroughly which they have attributed to a degree of sublimity and subtlety in them. Hence the bit of explanation for every poem.

    Initially, I have been tempted to call these poems 'Lyrics of life' but that will be a tall claim for the poems do not embrace the whole spectrum of life. So I have gone for the title Musings by Sea which I believe reflects the spirit of the poems.

    The spring of my courage has been my elderly friend, noted critic and author    Mr. K.V.Purneswara Rao. I owe my thanks to him, first, for encouraging me to pool my poems, secondly, for his frank criticism, and lastly, for suggesting the idea of explanation for every poem and for the assistance in writing it.

The Fire Of Love

Love rules the court, the camp, the grove
The men below and saints above
For love is heaven and heaven is love

                                                             - Sir Walter Scott

A Labour Of Love

A chance reading of Vidyapati's Classic 'Love Songs' of Radha and Krishna translated by Duben Bhattacharya struck a chord in my then love-warming heart, which resulted in these poems. They were written during the dulcet days when I was courting my own 'Radha '.

    Love is beyond all rules and laws. In fact, it is law unto itself. It evokes every shade of emotion in the heart it smites. Having been love-smitten, I have tried to capture its contours.

    I had been so influenced by the poems of Vidyapati that the reader can notice my feeble verses reverberating to his 'Majestic Muse'. This I am not in the least ashamed of. The reason is simple: I have followed 'Love' . Moreover, like Vidyapati, I believe that 'the divinity of Krishna and Radha is of little consequence, since it is as lovers that they are commemorated' in these poems.

    Every lover is Krishna and every beloved is Radha. The legend of their love is experienced by all that have felt Love's 'electrifying touch'. I share the opinion that 'Krishna and Radha symbolize the Embrace of Yin and Yang, the Unification of Masculine and Feminine energies, the merging of Humanity and the Divine. When one transcends and a wakens to the Truth, one sees that we are all united with the universe and that we are never alone. When our energies balance, we manifest our own reality. That is the essence of Krishna and Radha, the Divine Embrace'.

    At the time of writing these poems, I must confess that I did not have the slightest idea of who Vidyapati was. It then did not matter. However, my good sense prevailed and I wrote the following in the margin of my notebook: Vidyapati's Classic 'Love Songs' of Radha and Krishna, translated by Duben Bhattacharya. Now as I get my manuscript ready I have gathered the little I am able to of Vidyapati. I am thankful that my heart has been tutored by no less a poet than Vidyapati.

     Vidyapati (1352-1448) was born in the village of Bisapi in Madhubani, on the eastern side of north Bihar. He was a courtier,scholar, and prose-writer. Though a Bengali poet, he is primarily known for his love-lyrics composed in Maithili, a language spoken in the towns and villages of Mithila.Vidyapati's love-songs recreate the amorous world of Radha and Krishna, the major symbols of love in Indian mythology and literature, in the well-known tradition of the love-inspiring early Indian poem called 'Gita Govinda' by Jayadeva. Such poems convey the devotion of Krishna's worshippers through the metaphor of human love.

     While Jayadeva's poem celebrates Krishna's love and pays comparatively little attention to Radha the woman, Vidyapati is primarily concerned with the intense passion of Radha's love. I, with my mortal heart, have attempted to strike a balance between the two. At times, I have clothed my emotions with the garb of Krishna and at other times with the bashful apparel of Radha. I have played both the parts within myself: personally and vicariously. The mention of bites and fingernail marks is found in many a poem. They are considered signs of passion in Indian tradition.

     They express the emotive power of the union between the lover and the beloved. It must be mentioned here that 'the associations are not sadistic, but more like 'hickeys' in American tradition or 'love bites' in the British tradition'.

     I have called these poems 'The Fire of Love' in the sense that love, like fire, is all-consuming and all-purifying. The longing heart holds the inferno of a thousand suns. The cool shower of the sweetheart's sight soothes the searing soul. I can vouch for it .

     I am most grateful to Sri Duben Bhattacharya whose translation fanned the flames of love in my heart. Again I owe my gratitude to Mr. K.V. Purneshwara Rao, author of 'The Cave of Wonders' for working in me the wonder of noble aspiration.