Vijay Nair: Poetry (Voices Within 2021)

Vijay Nair has retired as an Associate Professor of English. He was awarded the Reuel International Prize for Writing & Literature in the year 2016. He was the ‘Critic of the Year’ in 2016, 2017 & 2018 at Destiny Poets, UK and was also adjudged the ‘Poet of the Year’ in 2018 by the same poetry group. Three of his poems have been included in the PG syllabus of BBMK University, Dhanbad. 

A Poem and Her Poet

How long does a poem wait for her poet

To catch up with her? She has landscapes

To capture, and a procession

Of protestors to click, and others to touch,

While he scratches his head searching for

Lice, and images to satisfy her body and soul - - 

How long does a poem wait for her poet

Before she grows impatient with his worthless wooing

And decides to pack her bags and go?

And as she waves goodbye and blows kisses

The train of his thoughts

Disappears into the last tunnel - - 

How long does the poet wait for another poem

To smile and make a pass at him

Standing, empty-handed, on a crowded platform?

***

The Hall: 2022

Our poems follow us faithfully

Like bruised and battered bodyguards

With the warmth of images waking up our childhood - -

In the mist, words linger with your breath

And as you sway into the crowded hall

I hear gasps - -

You read your verses, promiscuous and free

In an orgy of adjectives and applause:

I blew your trumpet from time to time - -

But still you are restless, my love

Like in those days of anxious lockdown

Seeking to retrieve the missing pages of a lost year

We know there is always a pause

Before the living, lie

But the dead raise no dust. 

***

Summer of ‘79

Your waste-paper basket holds a collection

Of wrinkled and smudged

Letters of the alphabet - -

With every fresh attempt

Less spontaneous than the first

Your calligraphy improves

And words grow into verses

Beautiful yet shallow:

The scent of passion disappears

With each new quest

For the right word in the right place - -

You say you can read her mind

Like the back of your sweaty hand

And that all your life you have walked the talk - -

Days wait for us to fill them:

She waits to read the scribblings of your heart.

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Life, Cognition and Creativity 2021 :: Setu, January 2021