FINDING HERSELF
On a mission
She wades through unexplored shores
beyond the dense pine forests
past the sounds and sights of
civilization
that indefinitely extend into serenity,
traverses beyond celestial horizons
devoid of kinship and cognation,
Her sanguinity deep within
freed from the clutches of the green
interpret life differently; diligently
penetrating the labyrinths
plumbed deep within the recess
that lie camouflaged
beneath avarice and vice
Soon, the ascent begins
She soars effortlessly!
*DRAUPADI, ME TOO! (MINUTE POEM)
All odds she is ready to face
without a mace
through thick and thin
with grit and grin.
Tightly she holds the magic key
God hears her plea
as she glides past
when the die’s cast.
With malice he comes to accost
decorum lost
Hands wrong too much
Her soul can’t touch!
(*Draupadi – the wife of the Pandavas
in the Indian epic Mahabharat)
ODE TO A PEASANT
WOMAN
Biological clock stirs her at the crack
of dawn
A distant cuckoo’s call as she stifles a
yawn
Horizon dark over the distant hills
Into the undergrowth beyond the mills
past endless stretches of eerie silence
As the unseen hand offers guidance
She gingerly walks to attend Nature’s
Call.
Before long, the morn will fall.
The morning chores complete
Off to the field, as the goats bleat
to lend a helping hand
and earn a few pennies off the land.
The toil from daylight to dusk
stripping the blades of husk
Together moments at lunch
Dry rotis with pickle, partner and
she munch.
At the mini-temple hidden by hedges
With utmost faith and sobriety
prostrates before the woman deity
Her weather-beaten face
still has beauty in trace(s)
As she trudges home barefoot
her emotions stay put
no melancholy or frustration
In her routines, no cessation
Her forbearance - Unparalleled!
Hema Ravi has verses published
in Metverse Muse, Efflorescence, Amaravati Poetic Prism, Symphony of Peace,
Women, Wit and Wisdom…... Her Haiku, Tanka, Form poetry and Free Verses have been featured in various online and print journals. Her write ups have won
prizes in the Femina, Khaleej Times (Dubai) and International Indian
(Dubai). She has published in the
Hindu’s Voice your Views and Open Page.
She is the author of Everyday English, Write Right Handwriting Series 1,
2, 3, co-author of Sing Along Indian Rhymes and Everyday Hindi. As an IELTS and
Communicative English trainer, she empowers youngsters to their fullest
potential. As resource person for workshops, she draws reticent speakers to the
forefront, encourages them to communicate with confidence and clarity. She is
the Secretary of the Chennai Poets’ Circle and the India Poetry Circle, a
what’s app group of poets from diverse backgrounds that publishes Confluence -
collaborative poems.
Poems with a very sensitive, salubrious & aesthetic touch. Can anyone say rhyme interferes with a natural poetic flow, once they read Hema's poems "Draupadi, Me Too" and "Ode to a Peasant Woman." Eureka, Hema!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Atreya Sarma Sir......Comments from a poet of your stature mean a lot!
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