Teesta Review: A
Journal of Poetry, Volume 7, Number 2. November 2024. ISSN: 2581-7094
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Ishmeet Kaur Chaudhry
The
white clouds sat on the mountains
with
the faded grey droplets of unexpected rain,
falling
on the lush green field,
where
the Viceroy and the Vicereine must have walked in purple robes once,
now
covered with the yellow, pink, white, blue and orange flowers.
The
sun peeps through the silver clouds
emitting
a golden yellow ray,
warming
up the pale bodies turning blue with the chill at dawn…
The
sky turns orange
when
the greying darkness of the dusk begins dominating the distanced blue
The
sky sometimes white, or blue or maybe orange,
at
times, shrouded with a dusky grey…
these
colours are challenged by the rainbow that embraces
the
snow-clad silvery white mountains with its
overwhelming
arch.
Ah! These
beautiful colours of nature inciting wonder,
the mesmeric
human eye,
a magic of tiny
photo receptors,
a play of visual
light and reflection.
Human Folly
---
Ishmeet Kaur Chaudhry
As the sunlight
warms up the day,
the flowering
buds,
the lush green
grass, the sand and the sea, all come to life
the birds fly,
hopping from one branch to another,
the clanging
of cranes,
the chirping
of the crickets,
the buzzing of
the honeybees collecting nectar,
the clattering
of the grasshopper’s wings is heard,
the leaves
open up and,
the trees bend
towards the sun,
the fruits
ripen,
the roots
rejuvenate with a fresh energy,
I too open my
eyes,
in gratitude
for a new day that just unfolded,
freshening up
my body and the spirit,
ready once
again, to be painted in the several colours of life,
and… if you
feel that the Creator is
hidden somewhere in
the sky above you,
busy crafting the
world play…
controlling
the universe,
just ask the
Sun that warms up the Earth with its light
about Its
whereabouts,
for the
Creator lies in Its creation,
rejuvenating
life everyday with Its light.
Humans beware!
This beauty
and these songs may not last long,
for your greed
and lust,
the felling of
the trees and forests by you,
the thoughtless
digging of the earth,
the
contamination of water with chemical waste,
and the
polluted air,
may call for
your extinction soon.
But the light
will shine,
the day will
unfold,
the sun will
rise and live forever
to mock at
human folly.
Uncertainty and Hope
---
Ishmeet Kaur Chaudhry
uncertainty shrouds
on the
crossroads…
don’t know which
road to take!
Darkness casts
its dark spell…
waiting for the
dawn,
the first ray of
sun
to lighten up
and show me the
path meant for me.
The Shadow and the Light
---
Ishmeet Kaur Chaudhry
The
shadow chases me and stalks
refuses
to walk beside me
sticks
on like a ghost- a flicker
or
an alter-ego…
overpowering
and unreliable
but
it dims by the evening and
even
disappears at night
at
last, … I get my space…I breath and…I am free…
for
the shadow is nothing without light.
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Bio:
Dr.
Ishmeet Kaur Chaudhry (educationist, author
and poet) teaches at the Centre for English Studies at Central University of
Gujarat, Gandhinagar. She was recognised as an Inspired Teacher for The
President of India’s In-residence Program at Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi in
June 2015. She has been largely
interested in areas of literatures of margins, studies of violence, trauma, and
women studies. She has also been actively engaged in Comparative Studies and
Translations from Punjabi into English. Her recent work has been on violence
studies engaging with discourses on the 1984 anti-Sikh carnage in Delhi. Her
latest book is Black November: Writings on Anti-Sikh Massacres of 1984 and
the Aftermath (Speaking Tiger, 2019). Her collection of poems is Forbidden
Button and Other Poems (Signorina Publications, 2020). Her poems have been
published in prestigious journals like Muse India, Culture Cult,
and South Asian Ensemble and prestigious anthologies like Yearbook of
Indian Poetry 2021 and Amity Peace Poems by Shahana Ahmed. Her poems
have been translated in Marathi for the anthology of Indian Women Poetry
by Prithviraj Taur and Swati Damodar: Stri Kosh: Bharitya Istri Kavita.
Her poems are being translated into Gujarati and Catalan (Spain). Her poems in
Panjabi were published in Preet Larhi. Her interview was also projected
on Prasaranga Kuv (University of Kuvempu) page.
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