Mr K. Sushil Paul, Assistant Professor and Head, P.G. Department of English, Sri.Y.N.College, Narsapur, West Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh, presented his poems at several literary and public gatherings. His first collection of poems, 'Saraswathina, Hladini and Juvenelia', was recently released by Prof. I.V.Chalapathi Rao, Editor, 'Triveni'. His second collection of poems 'Symbiosis-Syncopation and Synaesthesia' is now in the press.
61. Phoenix or A Will-to-Order
Like a wind hover, I stir and soar,
Like a falcon, I break away, gyrate, still soar, swivel -
Strain, on the vertical axis of stress and strain,
Till I reach the breaking point: And, there, then, buckle,
As the colt or donkey of the Sire, sauntering or tied:
To be reigned, or freed, or brought to Him,
Let the neck and back be broken,
That I may learn to listen, submit, sorrowful and thankful,
And unselfish, willing and self-obliviated, serve, be used,
To project, proclaim, herald Him, and for Him to ride.
Let the vessel be emptied, and be broken,
In the blacksmith's workshop be melt,
And molten, be poured and moulded anew,
That I may be filled, and complete be.
Let me through the dismal tunnel pass,
To grope in darkness and blinded be,
To realize, value, and want that delivering light,
That I, like Saul, may turn Paul.
Let me parch and thirst more and more,
As in the sandy deserts, that I may all the more,
Wish for the quench: To drink at the source,
That I may, thirst less be, and of the Holy Grail drink.
Break open the heart's closed doors,
Blast my soul, that I may, No self have,
And selfless, seek in a quest untiring.
Shatter me whole and seek me out,
That I may, forever and ever seek,
Until nothing of me, but all of you have.
Shatter me, shake me ashamed, destroy,
Help me offer, all my ills, for a sacrifice,
Wring me, that I may ring out and ring in,
Warp me, that I may never be the same,
Let me a real phoenix be: bent, twisted, crumpled, buckled,
Brought down, burnt and to ashes turned, whereupon,
Moulting, crying out, fastening, quickening, reconnoitering and buckling,
From the ashen to rise.
O' let me, a Phoenix true be,
As Thou Art.
62. Demented Nations: A Momentous Truth
What's in any nation's history to pride in!
For all mankind's story, is but subjection of others.
'Tis but a chronicle, of crusades and jihads,
Of blood, shed of the innocent, by kings and leaders,
In the name of race, caste and class,
For power or pelf, or to live luxuriant, or
To satisfy egos great - Truncating life,
By divine sanction or otherwise, perpetuating family reign.
'The king is dead, Long live the king', though no good.
And Renaissance, a new lease to intelligence gave,
When a freak of genius, of evolution spake:
"Survival of the fittest."
And Lo! The phrase became the Bible and the Lord.
But the doctrine turned poison,
As the bee sipped and stung, and,
Thus drunk, the colonized bee-mind craved to colonize.
And all ills as '-isms' were systematized, were canonized.
Tasting success, the lion goes for the kill, to absolute its power,
Races raze races, blast, destroy, marginalize humanism,
Careless, or for survival or security, pretexting, predicating and justifying,
Nations turn nuclear - to prevent war!
America patents the 'Neem tree' and Indian 'Basmati' rice,
Africa and the Heart of Darkness too, and all the world.
Industry capitalizes resources human and natural,
Produces bulls and manufactures men-things.
Experimenting science, technology and medicine,
Its cures, helmets and drugs, test on animals:
Killing other life to prolong man's, or for decors, perfumes and silk,
Deforesting to provide, polluting to prosper, killing to live.
Rummaging the earth, ravaging the nature, destroying the ecology.
Well aware, but not beware. No care, Don't care, Doesn't care,
And thus gifts the earth with rains acidic.
Shall we allow, the gall to maul?
Should our children, cursing us,
Pray for showers unacidic?
Come on man, let's preserve ourselves, and secure a future.
Let's - shall we - have an inner ecology,
Or demented be, and rave!
Do we have it in us?
That inner ecology.
