Dr. Namita Laxmi Jagaddeb, INDIA

EVERY WOMAN IS A POET

Everywoman is a poet born to compose a world

of love in a poem rhymed with cadence

of nature, rhythms of rain and wind

of a good earth painted green; pampered with

whispering days and nights,

of a sun, moon and a crowd of stars.

She is to compose a world in a poem

of sweet freedom, weaving twigs and straws

together with things unfettered from daily miscellanies,

the things used, overused, misused, abused, too,

with free style vulgarities.

She, thus, traverses back and forth immensely

as history comes haunting her;

the men and myths and their wanton display

of women hit her hard in the face.

Anyway, it is the way of going about the reality

she has to tackle with a smile,

all that is junk, dirty and ugly;

cleansing and sharpening the tools with

a “fullers’ soap” and a “refiner’s fire”,

for she is to compose a world of joy

in a beautiful poem that will

“never pass into nothingness”.

I AM A FREE WOMAN

I’m born of earth, I love it,

the sweet earth; but I loathe a golden deer,

for you to catch for me; a fleecing vision

sighted and lost moment to moment.

I, too, resent the “Laxman Rekha”

in whatsoever guises that shut off the doors

of life on womanhood.

Thus, no tear, no test of fire I admit,

for I’m a free woman.

All I want is you; to stop skirting

and take a plunge headlong into me,

my realm of silence; make it abuzz

with a honeycomb, I built for you

without your knowing it.

I’m born of fire, I like it, the fire of love

but I loathe the fire balls in their hundred eyes

of a whole gang of royalty feasting

on a woman, while devil’s fingers

labouring to unscrew her modesty and

a know-it-all smiling messiah finding it

not too late to help her out.

That’s rubbish; the myths and masks you wear

and admire, I’ve no need of them,

for I’m a free woman.

All I ask of you is; take my hand and fly

with me in the sunlit air,

till our feet are bouncy and

wings bright and breezy;

for all I need is you, to rise

and rise with me.

SHE IS A WOMAN

                                                

You killed her moment by moment,

by your thousand savage hands;

yet, she thrived; because, she is a woman,

a goddess, unkillable.

You killed her on live pyre; called her a “sati”;

You killed her in a lifelong prison of

forced bereavement; called her a dowager

wedded to the departed for lives on end.

You killed her, a half bloom soul awaiting

light and wind to smile; called her a virgin wife.

You killed her innocence in frenzied fancy,

when she was yet to know the world,

and called her a whore.

Yet, she thrived; because, she is a woman,

a goddess, unkillable.

Beware! She’s a spring breeze, can turn into

the eye of a storm any moment to break your neck.

She’s the sandal wood paste for a scorched heart,

can flare into a raging fire to devour a whole forest.

Beware! She’s a woman, a goddess, unkillable.

Dr. Namita Laxmi Jagaddeb is a lecturer in English at Mahima Degree College, Bijapali, Jharsuguda, Odisha (India). She writes poems in Odia and English and translates them into both languages. Her poems appear in State journals and International anthologies. Currently, she functions as the Chief Sub-Editor of ‘Rock Pebbles’, a UGC approved Peer-Reviewed Journal of Language and Literature. She is an official member of WNWU, Kazakhstan, which conferred upon her International Diploma, ‘TEMIRQAZYQ-the Best Poet-Writer of the World, 2018’ and ‘World Laureate in Literature-2018. She has been awarded the Bharat Ratna Indira Gandhi Gold Medal for 2018 by GEPRA. She has been presenting Research Papers in National & International Seminars and Conferences in India and abroad. Recently she has received the Biyotkesh Tripathy Best Paper Award (Runners Up) in International Conference on Performing the Nation, 2019, organized by Berhampur University.

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Women, Power & Creativity :: Setu, March 2019