☛ Creative Section of October, 2024 issue (Vol. 5, No. 2) will be published on 1 December, 2024 (Sunday).

C A L A M I T Y

 


C A L A M I T Y

-         Suresh Pande (India)

                                                     

I.

     

C  a  l  a  m  i  t  i  e  s

Almost ’ll are natural

What is rational

Past the magical

Seems moving

Day in and day out

Long ensconced clout

Challenging the base

The starting place                                                           

Of the man-made                                                          

Colossal universe.

 

II.

 

Now………..!

More often than not

Panic heedlessly has brought

To naught

The Himalayan rot

Wreaking distraught

Among badly fraught

Indigenous installations.

 

III.

 

Sensitively prone

To seismic drone

To tectonic plates

Of hoary templates

The spiritual throne

In dimensions towering

In chattels flowering

Reverberate timeless legends

Into myth-born U t o p i a s.

 

IV.

 

Alas!

The throne

Abruptly has met

Long forgotten set

Of  lasting hoodoos

Avenged by Nemisis

For nativity’s

Talk of the town.

 

V.

 

The hills, the mountains

Deemed to be fountains

Ever growing in faith

Devotion and dedication

To the Lord Supreme

To the God in His abode.

 

VI. 

 

Regrettably  now……..!

Machine has replaced man

Automation is turning wan

In the wake of such a construction

Civilization is piling destruction

The sacred pilgrim shrine

Suborning tourism and crime.

 

VII.

 

Predictably the wrath of God

Burst forth to stir the soul

On 16th June 2013

At the abode of Lord Shiva

The Himalayan T’Sunami

To Become a whammy

A well known Mommy.

 

VIII.  

 

Likewise on 7th  February 2022                                        

The Himalayan deluge swept                                           

In shifts abrupt                                       

The whole of Raini—                                       

A lonely hamlet                                        

Amid hills and dales                                        

Same as in Wales                                     

There-- the people                                   

Still get fear and alarm                                    

When clouds roar in the sky.

                                                         

IX.

 

What’s more

In store

For natives

Of UK*

For country-folks

The nation walks

On sinking land

Subsidence hit

Flood flit

By dart of waters

Aquifers bursting beneath

As infernos underneath.

                        

X.

 

The age-old Mulberry Tree                           

Underneath being carefree                        

Adi Shankara---A Sage                        

In Meditation age                      

Saw a beam of light                     

To christen upright                   

The place : the monastry                  

As an abode of light.                                               

 

XI. 

 

The tree itself now

Sheding leaves

Auguring omens amiss

For the days coming

On and ahead.

 

XII.

 

Who will heal

Restore and deal

The ailing wailing planet?

Local global agencies

With means meta-modern

OR

 

XIII. 

 

Invisible omnipotent                                                                    

Unseen drives                                                                   

From the above                                                                  

From the beyond                                                                  

Higher than the

Creation:

The manifestation divine.                                                               

 

*U.K. – Uttarakhand

 

 

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