Tuesday, 3 August 2021

THE POET, THE PLOUGHMAN

As I see confronting armies

from among my people

seeking my support,

telling me what they stand for,

I say, be Krishna, be Arjuna,

be Kaurav kin, Karna,

Dhritarastra, Shakuni, Drona

or whatever you like,

I will not take sides, I will not strike

so long as the game goes fair

and all is well.

 

A lover of human values,

at one with creative fraternity of all

those striving for peace and social justice,

a poet is a kind of ploughman.

His pen is his plough with which

he cultivates aesthetic pleasure,

poetic justice is his harvest, his treasure,

by which the two Poles he binds together.

 

Honest, impartial and judicious writing

is like tightrope walking in a meditative mind.

 

So, I stand apart alert and watchful,

expressing my joy when all goes well

and disappointed at times of foul play,

I express my displeasure.

 

Fare forward friends, be fair,

not that killing a monkey is no sin

if the killer is the son of a Brahmin.

 

When there is injustice anywhere

and humanity is at stake,

words shedding their softness

crush everything to pieces,

the nasty tricks of lure and deception

and all rapturous recess.


Copyright: Bipin Patsani

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