Farewell, My Winged Words
- Deep from the Soul -
K. Radhakumar *
Poem!
I look it up in the dictionary.
One defines, and I quote,
'A poem is a piece of writing
In which the words are chosen
For their beauty and sound
And are carefully arranged,
Often in short lines which rhyme.'
This is not the definition for me.
I have been trying to define it
Since my late teens.
I still cannot
With a note of finality.
Sometimes, I feel
I've got it cracked.
The next moment, I know
It would apply to me
And not to you.
One must define it for oneself.
I keep on writing poems
Without satisfying myself
What a poem is
And my poems never smile contentedly.
In so doing
Maybe I am defining it my way
And I call myself a poet.
Yes, I am a poet
By nature and by inclination.
All the finer things in life
And the man in the street!
I love poetry
Art, philosophy and all things spiritual.
Strangely disturbed I am
After 9/11
And I can hear myself think
What a poem is,
Quite seriously,
When the entire world is still clearing
The debris from the twin towers.
There is nothing poetic about it.
It is maybe poetic justice
Civilization and innocent lives
Should be on the receiving end.
What is threatening world peace?
Peace is a very loaded word here
And what a loaded question!
The prospect of nuclear winter looms large
The garden needs a good spring clean
Before the flowers are in bloom
And the world smiles with my love.
It is high time
The loner of a poet or a weakling
Reinvents himself
Here in this place as
Tens of thousands of flowers
Under the ugly wheels of a noisy tank.
I wish the poet had blossomed
Into a real man
For life in the modern times is punishment
Of a crime one has not committed.
* Poem written by K. Radhakumar which was published at Hueiyen Lanpao (English Edition)
This poem was posted on January 22, 2015.
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