Women Poetry: Ms. Pankajam K, India

Exclusive: Women Poetry: Edited by Padmaja Iyengar-Paddy

K Pankajam

THE VIOLATOR AND THE VIOLATED

Medusa, the maiden, saw only dead men

she left her legacy to the women in the world, not wholly.

Countless victims like Asifa in Kathua

with no vipers on their heads

could not make men stony in one look.

Poseidon, the violator 

made Athena’s temple impure, with his sin  

and his numerous cohorts  

continue to celebrate his heroism even today.

Violator is not at fault, violated is

and she was slayed with Athena’s Shield!

Seaweeds in red sea turned into corals, they say,

getting sprinkled with the blood of Medusa,  

All seven oceans are soon to turn red with corals.

Medusa, the monster became the epitome of female fury

The tale may be old, facts not; they are fresh and true.

Let the violated acquire the powers of Medusa 

Let’s hold aloft the victims’ rights, not their heads.

***

MORTAL TO IMMORTAL

Beauty is a blessing to women

It might turn a curse too.

Medusa the mortal Gorgon, no exception. 

Eye of Sea God fell on her, 

her astonishing beauty, her fault. 

Athena could also not stand the beauty of her priestess.

For making love in the temple

Goddess made her awful with tangled snake hair,   

but gave power to make men stoney in a stare

with her snake-like pupils and green eyes. 

Was it a curse or a blessing? Indeed, the latter,  

for men could not go near her

and she became the protectress of women 

Looking at her reflection in the mirror  

Perseus when beheaded her, that too in sleep,

the cowardice proved the power of Medusa,

the symbol of female power became immortal. 

***

Pankajam K is a bilingual poet and novelist.  Her poems, book reviews and articles have been published in many journals and   anthologies.   She has to her credit twenty-four   books; fourteen books of poems, a translated poetry collection in French, & three fictions in English.   Three books on literary criticism discuss her works in detail.  A book of critical essays and research papers on her poem   titled “Poetic Oeuvre of K Pankajam” has also been published.  She is the recipient of many awards such as Rock Pebbles National Literary Award. 

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