The heavens cannot howl.
We can scream under the skies.
Inside us,
Can we hear someone wail?
– Diwik Ramesh in Poora Aadamee
It was one of those events that happen
When a cotton bud blossoms
It prays and groans
Don't let me turn
Into a killer's uniform
– Punjabi poet Surjit Patar
Surendra Mohan
When Surendra Mohan
Words do not always liberate
Sometimes they also imprison
I am in search of such a line
That will set me free
From the web of suffocating sentences.
– Punjabi poet
Four-wheelers whiz past
To collect and convert
Every drop of sweat
Into cash and profit.
– Ramesh Dutt Dubey in Teji aur paisa
Words change their meanings over time. Malls once
Mighty monarchs passed.
Pious-king Yudhisthir too departed.
This land did not go with anyone.
O Ruler,
The domain will not accompany thee.
– Anshu Malwiya in Hariyali ke Akhetak
Along with
They who in folly or mere greed
Enslaved religion, markets, laws,
Borrow our language now and bid
Us to speak up in freedom's cause.
– Cecil Day Lewis (1904-1972)
This time Gandhi has died
And the heart is now relieved
Hope is rekindled
That people will now think
What after leaderism?
– Taranand Biyogi in Maithili poem
'Saal-dar-saal Gandhi-badh&
There is no statuette
to measure the miles lovers
cover to torch a police station,
their down or breasts not fully grown
as the ideals they die for.
Hunger too
