Jyoti Kanetkar, INDIA

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

CELEBRATE   

You’ve been journeying quite a while

Now my girl. You’ve walked shoulder

To shoulder with men, mile upon mile.

Take off your heels, stand down for a second.

Stop running till you’re breathless minding

Home, hearth and the rest of the world.

Stop. Look. Blink. Smile. Hold on to the

Familiar, just for a while, when the dark

Unknown bothers you.

Walk with your feet in the cold, gentle

Stream when the angry sun is burning

The tree tops.

Sing out your song into the silence around

And the birds will hear and dance.

Above all stand tall and be counted that

You have dared to walk and be alone.

Without being afraid that you will fall.

Jyoti Kanetkar is an international and national award-winning writer and poet, both in English and Marathi. Her poems, stories, essays and articles have appeared in magazines in India, UK, Canada and US. She has contributed to the literature art and culture journal ‘Setu’. Her stories and poems have appeared in the Destine Literare Magazine, Canada. Her published material includes four short story collections and a collection of poems in Marathi.

The second collection of her poems is being published soon. 

---

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