Pankajam Kottarath, INDIA

Exclusive: Best of Women Poetry: Edited by Padmaja Iyengar-Paddy

K Pankajam

CAGED BIRDS SNORT

Caged birds crave for freedom to court
They don’t chortle or sing, but snort
to say protection is not by prisoning.
Their mumbling moans reach my ears.

Make me a crow to cleanse the society of all filths,
an eagle to strip away humanity’s stinking sores
or an owl to stay awake during nights to evade evils
and then I will sing like a cuckoo to celebrate life.

Words are my soul’s romance with God.
Wish I use it with purpose and positivity.
They tell me they can do much more
than I think what they can.

Thoughts are the batons
to cross the ocean of ignorance
Let’s find out our own batons and rise
like a phoenix from the ashes of our dreams.

A squeaking fledgling gets fed first
Like a crying child, milk.
Women, we are born to live, not just to exist.
Let our voice be loud and clear.

If sorrows are our cousins
Joys are our soulmates,
let them come and go as guests
they can’t be staying with us for long.



Pankajam Kottarath, retired from BHEL as Dy Manager/Finance, is a bilingual poet and novelist living in Chennai.  She has to her credit, 19 published books including 11 books of poems, one translated into French, 3 fictions in addition to poems, book reviews, short stories and articles published in journals/anthologies.  Three literary criticism books discuss her poetry viz., ‘Femininity-Poetic Endeavors’ by Dr VVB Rama Rao; History of Contemporary Indian English Poetry-An Appraisal’ by PCK Prem; Socio-Cultural Transition in Modern Indian English Writing & Translation by RK Bhushan Sabharwal.   She is a recipient of   awards such as Rock Pebbles National Literary Award 2019, Cochin Litfest Poetry Prize 2019 and ISISAR International Essay Competition Award.

---

Best of Women Poetry -2020 :: Setu, March 2020