Earth Melodies: Alka Balain

Alka Balain

The Visitor

at Singapore Botanic Gardens

 

In Dell’s 4 pm hour near Swan Lake,

Phthalo green watercolours swim,

slender-necked lotuses sleep.

In the dense foliage nearby,

the call of a pink-neck pigeon

occasionally stirs leaves.

Moist hanging ferns shelter

moss rockeries; waning

daylight wanders through

the wandering woods.

I climb the stairs to come

across a plant with one leaf.

The info board nearby reads —

transplanted successfully in

the alien land after several trials.

 

Begin with Happiness

 

A beautiful day. 

Bengaluru skies.

Champaka clouds

on Nandi Hills.

Breeze fans

coconut fronds.

Shisham leaves

summer in the sun.

A red darter flits

over a marigold.

I haven’t seen

one before.

A nuthatch chirps —

what sweetness,

O bird, you hold! 

A bagula rests

on the grass, at ease

with the shadow

that falls.

I want to be this day.

 

Mormon

 

I spot a bright blue-black butterfly 

near Auroville's Purity Guest House.

She sprints ahead on her Asian wings,

then pauses on the red grained soil. 

I pass by her to take the Anasuya grove.

Swiftly, she joins before disappearing 

around the winding path. 

Her existence adds joy to my heart.

And I found my poem on her wings.

 

 

Bio: A postgraduate in management, Alka Balain is an educator turned poet and artist. She is the club chair of the Writing Enthusiasts' Club, Indian Women's Association, Singapore and Chapter Head-Singapore, Asia Literary Society, India. Alka is a member of the Asian Literary Society (ALS), India and the Asia Pacific Writers & Translators Group (APWT), Australia. Alka's poems have been shortlisted for the Glass House Poetry Award 2024, ALS Wordsmith Award 2024/2020, Poetry Festival Singapore-Catharsis 2021/2023, and Wordweavers Contest 2022. She is the author of ParijatPetals: of longing and seeking.

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Setu, October 2024

Poetry: Alka Balain

Alka Balain

Ginger

 

I had left my soul behind 

and forgotten my way to it.

My mystic friend had to 

deliver by making me drink 

the sea in his eyes.

I drift in its waters, and 

he sweeps in silence.

 

I turn into a still wind.

I hear the bulbul notes.

I listen to what the breeze says 

to the daisies that make them gaily. 

I sit under the night sky and 

talk with the stars, not about 

myself or my friend anymore

 

As I savour my ginger tea, I also 

tell you what my friend told me: 

all are equal.

But poetry and painting 

came hand in hand

and refuted us both.

They started to sing

Beak and Wings, 

unexpectedly sneaking 

while we played seek and run, 

humbling us both. 

 

Is there something beyond 

the two creative partners? 

I leave it to you to decipher 

who I speak about.

***

Divine Eyes

 

Oceans of purity and depth.

I swim and drown in them.

The clear, pristine waters 

reflect the light of our one soul.

Fluid and transparent waves, 

the sun rises and sets in them.

The magnetism these eyes command 

is a bridge to the divine world. 

I live in yours, or you live in mine.

I cannot decipher.

In your eyes, I melt like a candle 

and burn like a moth.

 

Those who did not see their purity  

have closed their eye to love.

Don’t trust these eyes, 

enemies of love say.

If I close my eyes, 

will you not reside then?

Skilful thieves they are, 

beguiling the soul away.

Will they have to atone 

for their deceptiveness 

when the jury of honour 

tries them in a court and 

ask them to confess their sin?

 

Our soul will stand in testimony 

to their innocence.

How can they be charged guilty 

of a crime for which they have 

only been a conduit?

***

Soul Seduction 

Seduction of the beloved soul

by the purest essence, Divinity.

A naked body is erotic but

is no match for a naked soul.

Seduction by an interchange 

of cosmic energies, 

I intertwine and integrate with 

the One and Only 

who activates and reconfigures,

the 5D and 3D boundaries blur. 

Without physical touch, 

seduction reaches zenith 

in its naked truth.

My fear of oblivion dies, 

for soul seduction is a forever.

***

Born and raised in India, Alka Balain loves poetry, painting, and swimming. Her writings have appeared/are forthcoming in Usawa Literary Review, Kitaab, AlSphere, DREICH Review, The Green Journal, Poetry India(wing of Ethos Literary Journal), The Hooghly Review, Journal of Asian Arts, Culture and Literature (JAACL), Indian periodical, Live Wire, Visual Verse, Amethyst and elsewhere. 

She has contributed to several anthologies and shared poems on many platforms: Poetry Festival Singapore, DLF Gurugram Poetry Festival, St Stephen’s College Lit Fest, and Spoke and Bird, among others. 

Alka organises literary events for the Asian Literary Society in Singapore and is working on creating an all-inclusive community. She spearheaded and curated indigenous language panel discussions published on UNESCO’s Indigenous Language portal. She presently chairs the Writing Enthusiasts’ Club of the Indian Women’s Association, Singapore. 

Her poems have been selected for the Poetry Festival of Singapore Catharsis 2021 and 2023 and featured in the Wordweavers Poetry Contest 2022. 

Instagram:  Alka Balain (@flames_and_flowers)

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Setu, October 2023