Roopali Sircar Gaur: Poetry (Life, Cognition and Creativity)

Roopali Sircar Gaur

Travelling Tales

I am a snail....

slow moving with antennas on my head. 

I carry my home on my back 

travelling quietly place to place. 

When evening falls 

a car honks 

I just curl up inside.

I am not homeless...

You see I carry my home on my back. 

You can call me anytime anywhere 

I won't take up your place 

I have my own home on my back. 

I did once think I was without a home

I did believe I had nowhere to go

And then it dawned upon me one morn

I carried on my back my own home.

The home on my back never burdens me.

It never asks me to leave. 

I don't fear harsh voices

The night always is tranquil.

For a long time 

I did not know 

I carried my home on my back.  

***

The Mango Tree

Silent and still 

Its heady fragrance mocked my arrogance.

The dark green leafy coffer

could no longer hold its pink and gold offer.

Something deep inside the nectar filled tree 

compelled it to give. 

It seemed to know to give 

Is the only way to live.

Give me shade. I will hide my spade

Give me fruits. I will not cut your roots.

Give me rain. My skin burns with hot pain. 

I had bargained. 

Now as I greedily sucked the juicy gold 

I too could not hold

Gratitude filling my stilling heart .

I knew like the mango tree 

I too must give 

Or else how will I live?

Can one alone suck life’s sweetness

And not care to share?

***

Looking at the Guava Tree on a Humid August Morning

Before the rains go away

Don’t forget to plant a Guava tree

The golden fruits are for free.

While the green thick leaves hide

And you can your time bide

You will see 

green red beaked 

Parrots on a spree

check check check

peck peck peck 

Butterflies stick 

some pollen 

On the fruit fallen 

While merry Worms 

crawl into its sweet belly

Full of pulpy jelly.

Black birds, hungry birds 

and fast moving squirrels, 

They would all rather

on your Guava tree gather.

Chirps and squeals

Shrill fills and sharp bills

Sudden bursts of quarrel

And then a harmonious still

Grand display of a strong will.

Don’t forget to plant 

that Guava tree,the one that gives you 

Golden yellow 

Fruits for free.

***

 
Bio: Roopali Sircar Gaur, Ph.D. is a retired English professor (Sri Venkateswara college, University of Delhi), and Founder President of YUVATI, a nonprofit organisation working for adolescent girls and boys across India. Sircar Gaur also works with children from underserved communities in what she calls Mera Kitab Ghar: The Backyard Book Club she established as a pop-up book club. She also taught Creative Writing at IGNOU for many years. Sircar Gaur is a widely published columnist and writer, who has written for peer-reviewed journals, and presented papers and served on academic conference panels at Universities in the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States, Canada and India. Her book The Twice Colonised: Women in African Literature is a seminal text on those subjects. She is also the co-editor (with Anita Nahal) of the anthology, In All The Spaces-Diverse Voices In Global Women’s Poetry (2020). Sircar Gaur has traveled the world, and now lives in Meerut, India with her retired military spouse and their three dogs.

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Life, Cognition and Creativity :: Setu, December 2020