Επιμέλεια: Εύα Πετροπούλου Λιανού
Palette of Dreams
Dreams deferred are not stale like vegetables in pale and pink,
Nor leak like water from a blocked kitchen sink;
They have colors to transform themselves
Into art on canvas of life, like magical elves.
The held brush is not like a magician’s stick
It does not strike itself to touch unfinished work with a flick;
It needs will-powered bristles to transform with the grit
And sustainable need of the dreamer holding it.
As white as snow on a mountain top, dreams dazzle and allure
The aggression will melt them away without potential to cure;
Neither can these be played anymore,
A slippery path can not be averted, is now impure.
Still and serene like waters of a blue lake-
Dreams are Co2 unlike oven ready to bake;
Nonexistent, without nurtured feelings and thoughts,
Nor do they quench onlookers without joining the dots.
Dreams deferred accumulate,
With the green time, they germinate;
Cracking the grey rock of the status quo,
Pushing boundaries with will-powered blow.
A Flower Blooms
A flower blooms
In the spring
In my backyard
Sending invitations to bees and butterflies
For inspection and absorption
With a message
Of fertility and tenderness.
A flower blooms
Suggesting not to cry a pang of sorrows
But to sing a song of joys with-
Accordion caterpillars
Bass beetles
Bugle blossoms
Drum leaves
Guitar dragonflies
Harp bees
Saxophone hoppers.
A flower blooms
To send signals-
Of hope
Of colours
Of vibration
Of growth
Of sunshine
In the gloomy
Decayed existence of creatures!
Tanka Sequence: Invocation of an Ascetic
Enclosing a house
blowing the Shinghini-horn*
eeriness is stopped
by mystical kundalas*
invoking the Mother Earth.
In the hunted house
chants by Kanphatta-yogi*
tells a bewitching story
that cure in utter darkness
guarantees the next sunshine.
During broad daylight
the cure from the yogi’s chants
bring bold cheerfulness
turning omen into bliss
like chlorine breaks down ozone.
1 A blow horn carved from deer antlers
2 Heavy earrings worn by male Yogis
3 A clan within the Nath community
Bio: Mr. Kuma Raj Subedi, ESL lecturer, is a bilingual poet and translator from Australia. He is also the recipient of The Best Poet of the Event Award in International Nazrul Poetry Festival-2023, Bangladesh. His debut anthology The Colours of Spring is themed around nature, female suffrage, memories, and identity. His numerous poems have been published in various anthologies, journals, magazines and reviews in many countries.
