Happy I am going to be in Dazzling Bards (Volume one) of poets of today who write in English by Kiriti Sengupta to be brought out with an introduction by Yayati Sri Madan Gandhi, founder-president of Poetry Society of India.

Let me make a quick announcement here. This is something that I could never imagine beforehand. It was Subhankar Paul, the editor of 'Hiranyagarbha' who practically forced me to write on the contemporary Indian poets, the ones who are writing in English-language. I went on writing, critiquing, and much more with my select poets and their works, and kept counting on the scores of remarks of my readers and well wishers on the posts I made. My enterprise reached its pinnacle as Sri Madan Gandhi, the founder-president of The Poetry Society of India happily agreed to produce and publish my manuscript in the form of a book, titled MY DAZZLING BARDS (Vol:I). The book will be published in a month's time, and will be available all across the nation. I have personally requested Sri Gandhi to write the foreword of my book.

My beloved poets, you beget and feature in all the ten chapters that my book will comprise of. Would you, please, let me know your feedback?

I take this opportunity to present my first rendition in Hindi (edited by Nitin Soni, New Delhi.):

हर दिन सुनहरा होता है
बस अपनी और सिर्फ अपनी ही
नज़र का फरक बन जता है।

ये जो सूरज है, इसे
रात भी भुलाती नही
चांद भी सुबह
मुस्कुराते हुए नज़र आता हैं।

An article on my poetry.

My Beloved (Part IX)

Here comes a poet, who loves to research on the words and their mechanism of unfurling flavors; an extremely talented academician Dr. Ampat V Koshy (Ph.D.) is my next poet. He is presently an assistant professor in the department of English, Faculty of Arts (Girls), Academic College, Jazan University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He did his research on Samuel Beckett’s poetry in English, majoring in modern English poetry. Dr. Koshy was born in Trivandrum, Kerala, and he has had three poetry titles, and four titles on serious literary critiquing. Once a regular columnist with the Plumtree Books and Publishers (United Kingdom), Dr. Koshy prefers to remain reticent about his literary achievements. In the year 2012 a poem of his was nominated for Pushcart Prize for poetry. He loves to be referred to as a ‘natural poet’ who derives much inspiration from almost everything that surrounds him, and that poetry is his ‘spontaneous’ expression. As the noted critic-translator-poet Bina Biswas remarked, “Dr. Koshy is not drawing from Borges or Nicholas Boileau or Paris Review interviews, although he mischievously sends his readers on such wild goose chases. He is drawing from texts he is teaching and his experience as a seasoned poet and critic who appreciates reading new poetry.” Let me share a few of his poems:

Chanson

Far away, love is
waiting
alone in a double bed with
hope
that one day there will be no hollow
nearby. Thus it copes.

Far away, love is
waiting, thinking
one day there will be someone
who appreciates me for
my....self, and all else thereby

Far away love is waiting
silver hair in its black
far away

Love never fails
because
it cannot lose, anyway
in a contest
where the rules keep
changing
each and every day
not knowing what is happening
It only keeps on going
far away
pretending
everything's alright
far away... elsewhere, tonight

As I said in my introductory lines, Dr. Koshy has this brilliant ability to wrap and unwrap his poems with flavor. Chanson is a lyrical French song, and by using it as the title, the poet immediately includes some lyrical flavor into the poem. And look, I am not wrong at all. With ‘everything's alright / far away... elsewhere, tonight’ Chanson turns up to be an orator’s delight! The following poem reveals the ‘spiritual’ self of Dr. Koshy:

Shivashakti

Why, when it comes to you alone
am I not able to
hurt you?
When everyone else hurts me
I swallow it, in my pride
remain standing, to their dismay
It leaves only a blue mark on my neck
and I destroy its effect.
I can hurt them back
if I want.
You alone get away
with 'blue' murder.
What pleasure do you get
in being cruel to me
testing the limits of my patience
sawing off your own support?

This is a splendid creation by Dr. Koshy as it superimposes the image of Lord Shiva, who only consumed the unholy of the universe, on the pivotal sketch of a general male who is supposed to cushion the stresses of livelihood! Dr. Koshy stood impeccably male, and I simply can’t resist myself from quoting one of my poems here (Ref: The Reciting Pens, Inner Child Press, U.S.A., 2013):

Y-gene

My friends were aware of the wish I nurtured.
If I had a daughter,
I would name her Srividya!
No, I was not influenced by any actor.
There are a lot of disputes, prevailing over
the sibling rivalry of the sisters
in every corner of Bengal.
I thought my daughter would grow up to say
‘Hey! You were all so wrong.’
Our prayer room hosted a dazzling crystal Sri Yantra
on the holy altar.

My wife’s desires were too girly.
She wished to drape her daughter
in frilled dresses to look gorgeous.
She also had good plans to find her daughter
the best possible groom, so that my wife could live hassle-free!
Prior to her labour, my mother-in-law
keenly observed my wife’s navel and opined,
‘Come on, it’s a boy!’
It was a boy of course -
A cute little thing of two and a half kilos.
To take care of the borderline weight,
special supplements were arranged.
My wife looked bright in pride, and
you could see it in her eyes.
We thanked and worshiped the Narayana
right after the Holy Bath.

My son is now at school.
It’s a co-education convent.
After his school he returns home and tells his mother,
‘Girls were all sitting on the left.’

(Translated into English by Rituparna Sarkar from the original Bengali written by Kiriti Sengupta.)

Gina McKnight: N a d e z h d a

Gina McKnight: N a d e z h d a: World acclaimed poet Dr A.V. Koshy is presently working as Assistant Professor in Department of English, Faculty of Arts for Women, Jaza...