A SOLITARY PLUCKER

A SOLITARY PLUCKER

Ah! Once, I chanced upon a rustic and solitary plucker

Plucking jollily in a fancy garden, flowers of myriad hues,

With raptest attention, sweetest elation and utmost care,

Smiling, on the emerald blades, like sparkling dawn dews!

I was caught, unheeded, by her mystique, but melodious croon

I feared, lest I should, by her mesmerizing symphony, soon swoon,

And be oblivious of my own mortal enntity by that heavenly Sprite

Who did, perchance, alight to spell-bind all with her gluing sight!

Oh! Her pleasing presence produced around a hallowed and elysian halo

That instantaneously stole my heart, beckoning with a twinkling ‘Hello!’,

Tickling with her tantalizing Aura as if, to treasure fondly, to swallow

Metamorphosing a poor, common wayfarer into a rich, fortunate fellow!

Ah! The distracting loads of cares pressed me to bid a sad, hesitant adieu to her

Still, she will keep resonating in me like a nimble, murmuring Stream forever…….

N.B:  The above poem is inspired by William Wordsworth’s poem “SOLITARY REAPER.”

1. Smiling, on the emerald blades, like sparkling dawn dews!

The above line is in inversion.The correct order of the line is:

Smiling, , like sparkling dawn dews, on the emerald blades!

2. Tickling with her tantalizing Aura as if, to treasure fondly, to swallow

The above line is in inversion.The correct order of the line is:

Tickling with her tantalizing Aura as if, to swallow to treasure fondly.

GLOSSARY:

* rustic and solitary - country and lonely

* chanced upon - came across/met by chance

* jollily – happily

* myriad hues - countless colours

* raptest – keenest

* elation – happiness

* emerald blades – green coloured blades of grass

* mystique - air of secrecy

* melodious croon - musical song

* lest - for fear that

* mesmerizing - attention-grabbing

*symphony -  piece of music

*swoon - lose consciousness

* oblivious – unmindful

* sprite – fairy

* perchance – perhaps/ possibly

* hallowed - sacred

 *elysian halo – heavenly circle of light

* instantaneously - at once

* tantalizing Aura - tempting atmosphere

* treasure -save

* swallow – conceive of immediately

* Metamorphosing – transforming

* wayfarer – traveler

* hesitant adieu - unwilling farewell

* resonating – echoing

* nimble - lively

*murmuing - speaking softly

 ©Shankar D Mishra 28.08.2017

Blog: sdmpoetry.blogspot.com

E-mail: shankardmishrapoet@mail.com

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ANOTHER VERSE ON “NOT MARBLE, NOR THE GILDED MONUMENTS”

ANOTHER VERSE ON “NOT MARBLE, NOR THE GILDED MONUMENTS”

 Neither marble, nor the gilded monuments;

But my pure love for you is so sincere, firm and fast,

That the all powerful Time can hardly ever it blast,

For, it will illuminate under all the circumstances till the very last,

For, it is, indeed, all rotting erosion and fretting corrosion, past!

When the rich statues get demolished by the wrath of woeful wars,

The glitter of the gilded monuments when many a gory brawl mars,

When the lethal weapons, leave on them, a hundred million fatal scars,

When all the gorgeous and dazzling material glories seem a trifling farce,

Oh! My love rhyme can’t be affected a little even by the glare of the Mars!

You can surely beat the all devouring, unavoidable and deadly death,

You will stride like the sparkling full Moon against all the oblivious breath,

You can still be the same Cynosure of your true and steady lover’s loyal eyes,

Till the Doomsday, you will remain for him the same unsullied, shining Prize!

The above poem is inspired by William Shakespeare’s Sonnent “NOT MARBLE, NOR THE GILDED MONUMENT dedicated to his beloved.

 GLOSSARY:

 *verse – poem/rhyme

* gilded– gold coated

*monuments – statues, buildings,mor other structures erected to commemorate a notable person or event

* rotting - decaying

* erosion – the gradual destruction or decaying of something

* fretting – annoying or disturbing

* corrosion – the process of damaging

* past – beyond

* wrath - anger

* woeful - sorrowful

* gory – violent/brutal

* brawl - fight

*mars – destroys

* lethal – deadly

* fatal scars - deadly marks left by wounds

* gorgeous and dazzling - attractive and glittering

* trifling farce - insignificant ridiculous situation

* glare of the Mars – angry look /violence of the Roman god of war

* stride – walk with long, decicive steps in a spcified direction

* oblivious breath - forgettable experience/phenomenon

* cynosure – a centre of attraction

* Doomsday – the day of the last judgement

©Shankar D Mishra 26.08.2017

Blog: sdmpoetry.blogspot.com

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A PRAYER TO LORD GANESH

A PRAYER TO LORD GANESH

O Lord! Only for Your infinite Mercy, the water in the rivers ceaselessly flows,

Only for Your boundless Mercy, man incessantly and abundantly grows,

Only for Your illimitable Mercy, away misfortune in an instant flees,

Only for Your endless Mercy, lasting happiness smiles as the verdant trees!

O Lord! Fathomless mains of sorrows turn into nectars only at Your graceful glance,

Health, wealth, prosperity and contentment do steadily enhance!

Your bounty rains to dispel the world's dark, bleak and deadly ignorance,

And, Your generosity keeps pouring on Earth the much needed sustenance!

O Lord! May You shower Your celestial blessings upon all till eternity,

May Your sweet blessings remove from the world all sordid negativity,

May Your rare blessings infuse in every being purity, integrity and impartiality,

May Your unique blessings establish love, fraternity, harmony and humanity

May Your heavenly blessings bring an end to vice, cruelty, sorrow and poverty,

May Your Panacean blessings preserve the Earth from all evils till perpetuity!

 N.B: Lord Ganesha’s significance in Hindu mythology Ganesh Chaturthi is believed to mark the birth anniversary of the deity and is celebrated on the fourth day (chaturthi) of the Hindu calendar month of Bhadrapada. Ganesha or Ganpati is the younger son of Lord Shiva and Parvati. He is believed to remove obstacles (hence Vighnaharta, one of his 108 names) and is invoked for blessings at the start of any endeavour as the lord of good beginnings.

There are various stories about his birth. One legend narrates that Ganesha was created by goddess Parvati out of dirt and set to guard her privacy while she had her bath. When Ganesha stopped Lord Shiva from entering their abode, he got angry and severed Ganesha’s head. Parvati was heart-broken and to appease her, Lord Shiva fixed an elephant’s head on the child and thus, the elephant-headed Ganesha came into being. Another legend has it that Ganesha was created on request of the demigods to remove the rakshasas (demons) who were hindering them .

The history of the festival

Its origins are related to the freedom movement. Back in 1893, freedom fighter Lokmanya Tilak wanted to bring people together to create a feeling of patriotism. At a time when the British government frowned on Indians gathering together, Tilak urged people to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi publicly. Sources: Google published by the Hindustan Times.

GLOSSARY:

 * abundantly - richly

* incessantly – continuously

* verdant – green

* fathomless – immeasurable

*gracious – merciful

* panacean – a curative medicine for all diseases

* futile – useless

* infuse – instill

* perpetuity - time without end

 ©Shankar D Mishra   13.09.2018

Blog: sdmpoetry.blogspot.com

E-mail: shankarmishra314@gmail.com

TO THE MODERN OZYMANDIAS

TO THE MODERN OZYMANDIAS

O the modern Ozymandias tyrant, oppressive and cruel!

Why do you, like arrogant and haughty balloons do swell

Why do you seize the sceptres by all possible foul means

Why do you take over like the stinking, unhygienic dustbins?

O the modern Ozymandias insane, repressive and despotic!

Why do you thrive at he cost of sweet and laudable logic

Why do you kindle to misuse your wasteful, sinewy muscles

Why do you rain bloods and spread broils, brawls and tussles?

O the modern Ozymandias, blind, barbaric and savage!

Why do you nurture to torture the innocent with your rage

Why do you lick public smiles with your all gulping tongues

Why do you sing, on the poor, wretched graves, your victory songs?

O the modern Ozymandias corrupt, vitriolic and vice!

All your predecessors have paid, and you too shall pay the price.

Nothing remains around except one’s noble and virtuous deeds

For, injustice, at last, bleeds, while Justice ever endures and leads!

N.B: The above poem is inspired by P. B Shelley’s poem “Ozymandias”. 

Sources: Wikipedia

Ozymandias was a Greek name for the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II, who ruled from 1279 BCE to 1213 BCE, in the 19th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. Shelley began writing his poem in 1817, soon after the announcement of the British Museum’s acquisition of a large fragment of a statue of Ramesses II from the thirteenth century BCE, leading some scholars to believe that Shelley was inspired by this. The 7.25-ton fragment of the statue's head and torso had been removed in 1816 from the mortuary temple of Ramesses at Thebes by Italian adventurer Giovanni Battista Belzoni. It was expected to arrive in London in 1818, but did not arrive until 1821.^[5][6] Shelley wrote the poem in friendly competition with his friend and fellow poet Horace Smith (1779–1849), who also wrote a sonnet on the same topic with the same title. Smith's poem was published in The Examiner a few weeks after Shelley's sonnet. Both poems explore the fate of history and the ravages of time: even the greatest men and the empires they forge are impermanent, their legacies fated to decay into oblivion.

GLOSSARY:

* tyrant – tormenter/ dictator

* oppressive – cruel/ harsh

* repressive – cruel/ exploitive

*despotic -  cruel/ autocratic

* laudable – praiseworthy

* kindle - stimulate

* broils - fights

*brawls – fights

*tussle - fights

* barbaric – cruel and uncivilized

*savage – wild/fierce

* gulp – swallowing

* wretched – miserable

* vitriolic – spiteful/ venomous

* predecessors – antecedents/here, likeminded people of the past

©Shankar D Mishra  Posted on blog: 23.08.2017

Blog: sdmpoetry.blogspot.com

E-mail: shankardmishrapoet@mail.com

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MY CONCEPT OF TRUE LOVE

MY CONCEPT OF TRUE LOVE

True love is indeed a heavenly abode of catharsis

It has no scope for being mean, licentious and selfish,

It is a untainted and delicious seasoned with sacrifice

Oh! It is a perennial source of celestial Bliss!

True love harnesses no base propensity

It is, for Its votaries, a lovely, sprightly Deity,

It is high above any fear, concealment and anxiety

Oh! It is based on a rare absorption of bitter adversity!

True love knows not any deceit, pretence or treachery

It never gives birth to greed, envy, revenge or lechery,

It is alien to immoral deviation, depravity or perjury

Oh! Yes, It upon the Earth, the invaluable Treasury!

True love can, with ease, change rusty iron into glossy gold

It can transform every commonplace into something unique untold,

It can turn an abominable hell into a pure, sacred and hallowed Paradise

O that I had been adorned with this unthinkable and unattainable Prize!

N.B.: This poem is composed at Nityanand Dash Sir’s suggestion after he went through and liked my poem “LOVE IS NOT……” Thank u, sir, for your inspiration.

GLOSSARY:

* catharsis – purification of evil/dirty things

* licentious – immoral

* untainted – clean

* deceit – dishonesty

* pretence -  deception

*treachery -  disloyalty

* lechery – act of provoking lustful activity

* perjury - lying under oath

* with ease – effortlessly

* glossy – shiny/ lustrous

* commonplace – ordinary

* abominable – awful/hateful

* hallowed – holy

* adorned with - decorated with

©Shankar D Mishra 15.08.2017

Blog: sdmpoetry.blogspot.com

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LOVE IS NOT…….

 LOVE IS NOT…….

Love is not, on the flowing water, an evanescent bubble

Love is not, under a collapsed dome, dusty, powered rubble,

Love is not a whimsical shower of an ugly promiscuous lust

Love is not an explosive cracker to be ever irrationally burnt!

Love is not, the charred coal of devious, villainous  distrust

Love is not, a haven of the hallucinative and ever melting frost

Love is not,  an iron bar under the sway of gnawing, rotting rust

Love is not,  a wind blown wretched balloon buffetted by gust!

Love is not, a hapless puppet in the hands of heinous, tactful fools

Love cannot be vanquished and evanished by  odious, infernal rules

Love is not a spurious staircase of delusion that leads lovers to a hell

Love is not an unsteady candle that is most likely to put out and fail!

Love is not a jail where condemnable and contemptible culprits dwell

Love is not a Utopian Empire where nothing but reveries always prevail!

GLOSSARY

* evanescent – disappearing

* promiscuous lust - immoral desire

* irrationally – illogically/ absurdly

* devious, villainous  distrust - deceitful, infamous  mistrust

* hallucinative – without reality

* sway of gnawing - influence of biting/eating away

* buffetted – struck hard

* gust - blast of heavy air

* hapless – luckless

* heinous – wicked

* tactful – diplomatic

* vanquished - defeated

*evanished – driven away

*  odious - hateful

* infernal – about hell

* put out – extinguish

* condemnable and contemptible - blamable and disgraceful

* Utopian Empire – an unreal territory/a fool’s paradise

* reveries - day dreams

* prevail – rule/dominate

©Shankar D Mishra 15.08.2017

Blog: sdmpoetry.blogspot.com

E-mail: shankardmishrapoet@mail.com

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AN INDEPENDENCE DAY RESOLUTION

AN INDEPENDENCE DAY RESOLUTION

O my dear country men!
 Let’s not celebrate It as a mere flatulent and flamboyant formality,

Let’s not proclaim the hollow, parched and clichéd assurances,

Of socio-economic justice, indiscrimination and equality,

And hoodwink the hapless, credulous and gullible masses!

 

O my dear country men!
Let’s not misconceive of the nuances of Inner Freedom,

In the sense of only political sovereignty:

It’s being free from moral depravity,

Being away from our own Five Senses’ serfdom,

Eradicating the Evils of illiteracy, ignorance and vulgarity,

Curing the unbearable plagues of hunger, thirst and poverty,

Keeping the slow poisons intoxication and addiction at bay

Not coming under the ugly, attractive and tasty falsehood’s sway,

Not defiling the valued Virtures of honesty, loyalty and chastity

Not sowing the baneful seeds of envy, hatred, betrayal and cruelty,

Not planting the saplings of malice, terrorism, treason and communalism,

Not stifling Humanism, Nationalism, Rationalism and Eartheism!

 

Unless we can practise this sacred, solemn and indispensable Resolution,

What’s the sense of a shallow, sham and pseudo ‘Independence Day Celebration?'

Glossary

* flatulent – about empty assurances or proclamations

* flamboyant – showy/colourful/flashy

* parched - dry

* clichéd – unoriginal/the same/no new

* hoodwink - deceive

*hapless -  ill fated/miserable

* credulous - innocent

*gullible - easy to fool

* nuances – delicate degrees/states

* sovereignty – independence/ self-government

* depravity – immorality/ wickedness

* Five Senses –  Sight (vision), hearing (audition), taste (gustation), smell(olfaction), and touch (somatosensation) are the five traditionally recognized senses.

* serfdom – a state of slavery

* eradicating – eliminating/ending

* vulgarity -  indecency/ bad or uncivilized manners

* keeping at bay – remaining away from

* sway – influence

* defiling – polluting

* chastity - purity

* baneful – destructive

* treason - betraying one's own country

* stifling – suffocating

* Eartheism – thinking of the well-being of the living and non-living things of the whole earth

* shallow – superficial/not deep

* sham – pretence/ not real

* pseudo – artificial

©Dr. Shankar D Mishra, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India 

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A STRANGER’S STRANGE MADNESS IN AN AUGUST EVENING

A STRANGER’S STRANGE MADNESS IN AN AUGUST EVENING

O my dear, distant Darling

Thy inviting odour of love maddens me curling

Thy alluring aroma of love keeps about me swirling

Thy appealing, unseen beckons keep me ever unfurling!

O thy tantalizingly invincible restrictions

Keep enhancing my restive and gloomy frustrations

Whispering to me to venture into a stormy, ruffled Sea

To unshackle thee to be openly one with thee in glee!

O my sweet, silent and seducing Stream

Thy cascading smiles placate me to the brim

Thy lively shadows wakes me up in an August evening dream

Thy blithe memory doth every instant my endless joy teem!

Like a dry River, I know not how long to await, sweat and fret

Albeit  “Better late than never.” shall ever gratify a stranger’s Fate!

N.B: The above poem was composed last evening at around 6 pm, afer reading a love poem, “LINES TO AN INDIAN AIR.” written by P.B Shelley addressed to his beloved Miss Sophia.

* inviting – attractive

* alluring - fascinating

* about – around

* appealing - attractive

* swirling – spinning

* beckons – gestures/signals

* unfurling – opening out

* tantalizingly invincible – tormentingly unbeatable

* restive and gloomy - restless and depressing

* ruffled - disturbed

* glee – delight

* unshackle - release

* seducing – exciting

* placate - calm down/satisfy

* to the brim – fully/completely

* blithe – happy

* teem - be full

* albeit – although

* gratify – please

©Shankar D Mishra 13.08.2017

Blog: sdmpoetry.blogspot.com

E-mail: shankardmishrapoet@mail.com

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DOUBT

DOUBT

Yes, the bouts of doubt do always agonizingly rout

Do fetch in an Oasis of joy an untimely dreary drought,

Do drive straight off, the magical Charms of life, sorely out

Tumble life’s dream Castles, however the loyal plinths are stout!

Yes, doubt is a drop of catastrophic venom

That turns a happy life a worthless apple of sodom,

Beckons in life, in a trice, tearful doldrums

Fans wildly to extinguish Life’s light like blind storms!

Yes, doubt is an erroding and ruinous salty air

It turns, in a jiffy, the milk of trust excruciatingly sour

It ignites its wanton devotee to heartlessly spit, hate and glare

It slaughters its victim with its baseless charge of mean mire!

Thus, let the seeds of doubt never in one’s life sprout

Let the dagger of doubt never mistake life for a trout

Let the dragon of doubt never sting one to a premature demise

For, a normal mortal dies once, alas, doubt’s prey every moment dies!

Thus, let not the Quake of doubt disrupt one’s sweet equilibrium

Let not the Tsunami of doublt plunge one into doleful delirium

Let not the Pirate of doublt plunder one’s invaluable peace gem

Let not the pelting Stone of doublt detach one’s life out of its Uniqe Stem!

* agonizingly rout - painfully beat/overthrow

* straight off - at once

* catastrophic venom - tragic poison

* apple of sodom – an attractive but meaningless and poisonous fruit

* beckons – signals/calls

* in a trice – suddenly

* doldrums - sadness

* erroding and ruinous  - harmful

* in a jiffy - in a moment

* excruciatingly sour - painfully sour

* glare - look angrily

* mean mire – unreasonable defamation/offense

* demise – end/death

* doleful delirium - sad restlessness/sadness

*pirate – sea robber

O GOD! LET ME BE MUNDANELY UNIMPORTANT!

O GOD! LET ME BE MUNDANELY UNIMPORTANT!

Yes, the importance of being important is much less

Than cultivating the rare virtues of sublime goodness!

The importance of being a triumphant in Chess

Is not so important as winning the interminable Life’s Race!

Yes, the importance of being a sycophantic Orator is much less

Than deriving, from practising bitter-sweet restraint, eternal solace!

The importance of amassing transitory, exhaustible wealth is much less

Than despite being ragged and poor, putting on an invaluably Decent Dress!

Yes, the importance of being materialistically best is much less

Than, to attain celestial Rest, when He does bounteously bless!

The importance of being an affluent, but fleeting and greedy guest

Is much less important than lasting Contentment’s lustrous Taste!

O God! Let me be mundanely unimportant to feel Thy Blissful Divine Importance

Alas! But for which, any other so-called importance sheds essence and substance!

©Shankar D Mishra 10.08.2017

E-mail: shankardmishrapoet@mail.com

Blog: sdmpoetry.blogspot.com

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