Format: Kindle Edition File Size: 1471 KB CDN$6.79 Print Length: 118 pages Publisher: Muse India (June 1 2020) Sold by: Amazon.com Services LLC Language: English ASIN: B089KKL85F# 23 [My Poem]
HEARTS TOGETHER WE SHALL OVERCOME
Leonard Dabydeen
Hearts together we shall overcome this. It is our fight. Our gallantry by fate To scythe this evil, invisible blitz.
COVID-19 is a cunning ingrate Stifling air we breathe, keeping us indoor. It is our fight. Our gallantry by fate.
We stand firm. Sanitize more than before To ward off mystery of this virus Stifling air we breathe, keeping us indoor.
Our fight must touch hearts with much impetus: Take heed of all our health practitioners, To ward off mystery of this virus.
Heart and soul we shall follow our doctors. In unshaken faith, we shall overcome; Take heed of all our health practitioners.
Now we must take note to value our home. Hearts together we shall overcome this. In unshaken faith, we shall overcome, To scythe this evil, invisible blitz.
When the world is embracing social distancing, this special issue of Setu on LOCAL will give a window to the readers. Love for the immediate never comes with an expiry date. It breaks boundaries at several levels. Celebration of the local is praxis of a postcolonial society. We are at first local, then global. Local happening, events and rituals, tea shops, vendors, falling of leaves, gossips, etc are our immediate culture where usual doors of escape are shut and sealed. Writers have words and images for all minute occurrences of daily acts. For them, history chose to smell nothing but the stench of burning flesh. Acts of history is nothing but the barbed wires running through streams of blood They sounds very distinctive here. All writers’ is a search, the shore of which keeps us alluring: “Gaze at night at the lonely planet Which attracts satellites as does a magnet. The glow of the sun is its own, nor a gift of a deity Nor does the lack of company eclipse its glory.” The primary function of all the arts is to make us more aware of ourselves and the world around us. Indian art possesses harmony and proportion and can hold its own against attempts at derision. Clay, wax, wood, bronze, stone-whatever material the artist lay his hands on with his consummate artistry in brilliance shone. Ecological crisis, gender stereotyping, patriarchal hegemony and contemporary socio-political situations are some of the other prominent issues that find voice in this collage of ideas. In fascinating poems by poets from different cultures rain-drops and life interplay in a spirit gay like the notes in a symphony, rising, falling, diverging and coalescing for eternity. Nothing can stop the flow of the heart—love! The vision of love is like a post rain rainbow. The objective of this special issue of Setu is to attend that blessed state of happiness. Writers are good friends for all seasons. I thank all soul makers of this very special issue for Setu. -Jaydeep Sarangi.
NOT IN THE LEAST WHAT I EXPECTED
Not in the least what I expected
Or hoped for
But my sons spoke to me
In their separate ways
To either demonstrate care
Or concern for being their Dad
They put me under locked-down
With their Mom, of course
In a house I call my last retreat
Or home, as it were, to set myself
Free at last – yes! Free at last!
They said to me that at my age
I am absolutely qualified
To be certified positive for COVID-19
They said it is a pandemic killing machine
Invisible to the eye, but sensitive to my lungs
And so they quarantined Father and Mother
In masks and unflinching social distancing
One in the kitchen, the other in the living-room
And us parents spin the coin of Life
To herald our fate, nothing to lose
But Time to solicit our survival
Myself in the kitchen
Mom on a sofa,
Focused on Krsna consciousness
Glowing in slokas of Bhagavad Gita
Mantras and bhajans cheerful
Songs of my soul
Feats of Sundarakanda
Listening attentively
I wonder
How long will this last
Oh quarantined man?
A VISION
(haiku)
Painting a vision
living in a new normal
moon emerald niche.
BEAT IT
That
this
virus
will be strong
on the impotent
will not recce life eternally.
By grit determination, we
shall break through its hold
social distancing
face mask
beat
it.
Leonard Dabydeen, Guyanese-Canadian free-lance writer, poet, and book reviewer. Author of Watching You, A Collection of Tetractys Poems (2012); A Collection of Tetractys and Fibonacci
Poems Jogging in the Mind 