God, save me, save me from

From every side,If his good and badAre not considered.One cannot be goodFrom every perspective,One cannot be free fromIt all, be sure of,Someone is short of something.

I do not know itHow to greet her!Thank You, GodFor your gift of her.

Brorn and brought in the villagesOf far flung hamlets and thorps,Sleeping early in the evening,Arising early in the morningAs for bringing water,Sweeping the floor,Taking the cattle out,Throwing cowdung outAdnd cleaning the shed,Applying the mud paste over the muddy kitchen?Taking breakfast whatever stale food of the nighttime available,Late into the day,When the school starts by 10…

Into their hearts.Heartless, mindless,The dull-brained fanatics,The so-called zealots.

Bura mat kaho nahi,Mai J.P. ke bandaro ki baat karta hunJo ki muha noch lengeiBigad jaanei par.Gandhii’s monkeysnot,Do not see bad, do not hear bad,Do not talk bad not,I talk of J.P.’s monkeysWho will bite int eh faceIf disturbed.

I am hearing, hearingThe music of yours,The rhythm of speech,The cadence of melody,The falling and rising pitchOf speech,The music of life,Rhythm of speech,Rhythm of life!Elizabeth Bishop,Bishop,You in the need of music,Music of lifeAnd its melody,Melody breakingWith the cadence of speech,Rising and falling pitch of sound,Sound sonorous and musical!With Worcester, Massachusetts,Florida in image and pictureAnd mind,You…

Astronauts, cosmonauts,Moon-talkers, space-walkersIntercepting aliens,Aliens in the spacefrom Mars or elsewhereFrom this universe.

Of her ownAnd stood I hearing her speechlesslyJust like turning stone,As what to say to, what not?Do you love me? Do you love me, say do you love me? ,I still hear the voiceAnd the heart feels it painIn remembering her, Oh, this lost love!

April Fools’ Day,Is that a fools’ dayOr fools having a heyday,Having a laugh?Now I understand it,It is a day of jokes and humour,Genteel jokes and fun,A day of enjoyment,European and English fun.But I feel sorry to say aboutThe Indian fools,Blunt and bogus,Blockheads and dullards.One Indian illiterate menial boy,When asked I about his wife’s name,Said he…

As both of them appear to be political activistsAnd pamphleteersRather than literary men,Bringing literatureCloser to political scienceRather than literature.

Or an Oriental fellowOr an ashramite of the Pondicherry AshramaOf Sri AurobindoHolding talks with K.D.SethnaThe poet and critic and sadhaka,Who is sheContributing to London Poetry?

Had not been modern or mod,From the villages to the towns and cities,On the road of progress, development, education and civilization,But nature is nature,Wild, brutal, beastly, stormy, quiet and leveling it all in time,Full of vegetation, creation and destruction.In the beginning, man liked it to go with the speed of development,Trying to fill with roads…