Επιμέλεια: Εύα Πετροπούλου Λιανού
Dr. Tamali Neogi is Assistant Professor of English at Gushkara College, Gushkara (West
Bengal), India (Affiliated to the University of Burdwan). She has authored V.S.Naipaul: Dark and Comic Vision ((Authors Press, New Delhi) and a novella, The Woman of Patashpur, and edited Postmodern Voices: An Anthology of Poems, Volume VIII, and is the Associate Editor of the Anthology of Ethical Poetry, a venture of International Academy of Ethics. Currently, she is editing An Anthology of South Asian Women Poetry. In an academic career spanning two decades, Dr. Neogi has published research papers/reviews in eminent literary journals in India and abroad, and short stories in significant edited volumes. Besides, she has presented
research papers at National and International Seminars, and presided over Paper Reading Sessions. Her poems have already been published in internationally renowned journals/magazines and newspapers, and translated into Chinese and Romanian languages. She has participated in FCO International Festival, Carlos Hugo Garrido Chalen Literary Festival, Jeanette Tiburcio Marquez International Festival, broadcasted on Mexican Satellite Television Platform of Cabina 11Cadena Global.
Defenceless as a Lone Child
I know her,
The majestic tree in my yard is her world.
What happy time she spends with her mother!
The rubbing, the squeaks, the chirping
Vignettes of music
in the silent show of cruel passions,
as a distressed heart dances momentarily
in ecstasy of hope?
Little cares the seasonal blow
for the unnamed tenderness,
nurtured in the nests.
Soon the world turns into a dilemma
when the mother dies,
the day the leafy palace is flattened
and like our wayward desires,
our obsessions
the baby squirrel starts indulging in pranks
on the tree and on grassy ground
learning the ways of the world all alone.
Where to go for the nuts,
here, there or elsewhere?
Running, jumping, fighting,
intrusive thoughts for my lazy afternoons.
What’s the precept that enlivens her existence?
I ask myself.
Perhaps a life spent in expectations,
hundred times better than
wasting days in hope.
Squirrel, squirrel, little squirrel,
will you ever know,
in life never resign or withdraw,
for the waves of expectations keep you afloat.
Therefore, expectancy
come and fill my heart,
even though wrongly,
like the little one.
Let my life flow and blow
in misdirected endeavours,
like the passenger of the ship in Iceland
defenceless as a lone child,
where fateful mosses
soon overtake the little
nameless colours,
saplings of hopes.
The Woman on Bed
Fragile body, frosty head, the woman on bed,
Don’t lament for past glory,
the love lost,
even Rohini is lonely with fading beauty and
Bounty of warmth, once charismatic,
It’s now never ending winter inside Taurus.
Redness of cheeks faded ages ago,
yet wanted, for hundred services rendered,
How is it dear wife,
suffering the consequences
of the cataclysmic energy of your partner?
How many nights thou love songs
soothed the arid heart of thy master,
while threatened by shadowy figures,
the headless demons,
the competitors, the rivals,
as the god frantically walks back homeward?
When the soul of Daksha’s daughter
pines for salvation,
yet the deceased body lingers for long,
Woman on bed, hear if thou can,
The old moon God,
praying for your early demise.
Is it for pleasure or freedom?
What will happen
if women per chance know
the deep holes on the moon
causing convulsions with black desires,
as hoarseness penetrates velvety layers
or mourns for the loveless woman.
*Daksha-Hindu mythological king
Sweetest Daughter of Earth
“Air, water, wind!
Look back and listen
what’s wrong
if a canoe floats on the mighty sea,
like hopelessness eyeing a harbour
for sojourning and anchoring
not for better life or mythic peace
but blessed subsistence,”
pleads the naïve girl.
“Sweetest daughter of Earth,
Fortune lies your path
as God of island protects
the non-descript canoe
but is enticed by the undulating canoe.”
The seafarers deem it an unequal love.
“Hear the joyful music of his soul,”
whisper the fishes to one another,
“Love’s trappings overpower our lord,”
“Awkward”,
say his consorts.
“Awake knowledge,
even though eyes have a great Fall. “
Swimming across oceans,
comes the white fish,
an old friend of the lord, luminous,
Adulterous passion rules and blinds
though late, the lord understands
A woman who seeks blessings,
shouldn’t be desired for.
The girl concludes
Blessings of pure heart,
is as rare as selfless love.
