Three Poems by Amita Paul aka Amita Sarjit Ahluwalia

 

THE YUGEN TRIO OF POEMS

 

Yugen 1

Dull Gold and Charcoal

 

A dull gold night with charcoal shadows

The streaks of clouds across Night’s tear-stained face 

Cradling a veiled crescent of August Moon 

Such that one only sees its aureate light 

Unless one stares intensely : the clouds move 

For the wind moves them , but

Who moves the travelling Moon 

That has no wings or feet nor its own light 

Should one see the Sun in the light of that Crescent

Swaying like a cradled babe in its cloud hammock ?

Who rocks the Moon to sleep ? 

 

Meanwhile , the Sky 

Sheds Dewdrop tears 

And Night Flowering Jasmines 

Lift up their fragrant faces like gold cups

To receive their elixir . 

 

The World is full of Wars : should one be sad ?

For here in solipsistic cocooned being

Is Peace - that passeth Understanding.

 

 

Yugen 2 

Snow on Snow in a Fir Forest

 

Snow lay deep on the high rolling hills 

All traces of life buried far beneath

It’s soft thick layered blanket of some weeks

Only a few heads of the tallest spruces

Fir trees and pines poked out from its expanse

But they too were enveloped in the swirl

Of freshly falling snow from a grey sky 

Not even sky but air so thick with flakes

It looked like heavens had dissolved in snow-mist

So all-pervasive was the long snowfall

Shrouding the sun whose presence was more felt,

Than seen, in a faint surreal cold light

That told one it was day not eve or night

And soon only the nearest four or five 

Fir trees remained visible to the sight

The further ones hidden by bridal veils

Of ever thicker and yet luminous mist. 

Somewhere beneath are hidden berry bushes

Mosses and ferns and rocks and shrubs and grass

Somewhere close by are sheltered moose and elk

And deer and snowshoe hare and vole and chipmunk

Goshawk woodpecker vulture nuthatch jay

Mossed umber moth and monarch butterfly

Waiting, waiting, waiting, for warm days to return .

 

Science explains the fall of rain and snow

Direction and momentum of the wind

The formation of rocks craters and lakes 

The evolution of species of plants 

And mammals ; even the shape 

Of every unique snowflake 

 

But what explains the wonder and the awe

The sense of something near and yet unknown 

That this near blankness , falling white on white

This long drawn out holding of green life’s breath 

Evokes in viewers hearts without a sound

In muffled silence held as in a trance

Waldensamkeit of fir forest in snow

With more snow falling , hour upon hour

Day after day, weaving in winter months

To cosmic time , to texture of existence 

To what was ever so , and is , and yet

Of something ever more about to be ?

 

 

Yugen 3 

Who knows why Roses ? 

 

Roses, big blowsy ones, maroon, and red,

Mauve, magenta, pink, apricot, peach 

Yellow, cream and white, 

sprinkled with spices and drops of musk

Left to fade in a pale blue ceramic bowl,

Their damask petals wrinkling like old silk

Fragile as worn out muslin , edges dry

And dark and crumbly as slowly singed paper 

Were left to make pot pourri, but for whom ?

The maker herself ? As gift for a friend ? 

As memento for an estranged lover ? 

Who knows ?

Who knows why roses bloom and why they fade ? 

Who knows who made them as they are and why 

Before they came to be bred in new forms ? 

Who knows why we find in them beauty ?

Who knows why they tug at the heart ?

Who knows why they enchant the sight and smell ?

Who knows why roses make men melt and women smile, or weep, or smile through tears ? 

Who knows why roses can’t be thrown away ? 

Who knows why they were made and made so lovely ? 

Who knows why roses ?

 

Amita Sarjit Ahluwalia is one of the various pen names used by Punjab-born, Patna-based retired Indian bureaucrat Amita Paul , for her original writings in different genres, in English, Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi, featured in various anthologies, journals, and online poetry writing forums.

She was awarded the NISSIM International Poetry Award for 2019 for her contribution to English Poetry, and the Reuel International Prize for 2020 for Non-Fiction for her Experimental Prose plus Multi-Media Anthology, ‘The Saaqi Chronicles’. Destiny Poets, Wakefield, UK declared her Poet of the Year 2020, and also Critic of the Year 2020, an unprecedented coincidence.

Her more recent work can be seen in ‘Impressions and Expressions’, a 2021 anthology of international poetry edited by Oman-based poet, Amita J.Singhvi, on Spillwords, in GloMag August 2021 and in the Yugen Quest Review , April and August 2021.