Poetry: Nishi Pulugurtha (Tagore Special)

Nishi Pulugurtha

They linger on

Do you know your songs are still sung

we dance to them

sing them in tune, out of tune

in various languages

at time just a line

that I heard that plays on

or the tune that brings back a memory

Just lingers on

 

 

Do you know we still read your poems

at times earnestly

at time because we have to

at times because everyone is doing

Or because we need to

 

We read everything you have written

years ago

To find resonances

In a world that is narrow, with walls coming up

On all sides

Constricting

in an intolerant world

Where dreams die

Where masks prevail

Where a hidden dagger lies in wait

 

And I wait . . .

ei akashe amar mukti aloy aloy 

 

BIO: Nishi Pulugurtha is an academic and writer based in Kolkata. Her publications include a monograph on Derozio (2010), a collection of essays on travel, Out in the Open (2019), an edited volume of essays on travel, Across and Beyond (2020), a volume of poems, The Real and the Unreal and Other Poems (2020), a collection of short stories, The Window Sill (2021) and co-edited a volume of poems Voices and Vision The First IPPL Anthology (2021). A second volume of poems is forthcoming from Writers Workshop, Kolkata. She also writes on Alzheimer’s Disease.

She is member, Advisory Board ARDSI Calcutta Chapter and Editor of the ARDSI National body Newsletter.

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Tagore Special :: Setu, May 2022