If civil society digs out details on riots,
A ruler knows how to manage the media.
Conspiracy theorems are perfect way outs
To justify the governance mathematics
Dr. Lalit Mohan Sharma, author of ten books, shares his poetry
Hailing from Himachal Pradesh, India, Dr. Lalit Mohan Sharma, born in 1952, has published ten books of English poetry which include ‘Man with A Horn’, ‘Eyes of Silence’ and ‘There’s No Death’. His book, A Three- Step Journey, is English translation of Zahid’s Urdu poems. ‘Icicles of Time’ is the latest in 2024. Sharma was conferred with ‘Master of Creative Impulse’ at World Poetry Conference in 2019. A former Principal, Government College, Dharamshala, he has been anthologized in several books of poetry, stories and such books of academic interest as 21st Century Critical Thought: A Dialogue with Post-Modern Voices Vol I, (2020), A Handbook of Contemporary Ethics, (2024), Ed by Molly Joseph and JS Anand
Cult of the Nazi
Well, I’m deception, I deceive is not how
You would say but that I’m being myself,
And truly so; evil doesn’t appear as itself
But as the angel led astray, hence fallen.
If the homes are turned into rubble
You can’t blame the bulldozers but
You can leak stories to the media in order
To orchestrate narratives of noble intent.
If civil society digs out details on riots,
A ruler knows how to manage the media.
Conspiracy theorems are perfect way outs
To justify the governance mathematics.
Aesthetics of living in benevolence
Do seem archaic if you happen to see
Cheer leaders of such populist men
Who are always Right in what they do.
Haunted by the imagined ideal from
The past, a greater landmass of a nation,
Galvanizes the patriotic verve in them and
Attack neighbors with easy conscience.
They say one thing to do it differently,
And what they think you never know.
For them the Nazi cult is a way of life,
A million wiped out of eight billions!
***
An Act of Love
Aren’t you proud of taut tone of muscles
And the soft smooth spread of the flesh?
Thus genetic gifts of a natural legacy
Bestowed by being born to your parents!
How in appreciating the beauty of body
Our minds usurp the rights to own it all!
Almond in the eye, on the lips the soft
Mouth of a little bird, shoulders shine
With the hazel touch of a tree trunk and
A gentle leaf flutters among the tresses,
Arms, elbows, wrists, palms and fingers
Weigh in with love like the light footfall.
Surrender not in the pride of your being
To another who slave to his feelings and
Unaware of thoughts of gentle touch,
Neglects your value as a human being!
The body physic is half of a relationship,
A fickle mind takes its time to be steady,
Too eager to bite than stay to appreciate,
The beauty of surrender in an act of love
***
Needle of Time
When you begin to thread each needle
Of time with the god you worship or
A man you embrace as a spiritual icon,
Spontaneity reasons out of your system.
Several windows are shut as distractions
For you must withdraw into yourself and
Let your preoccupation be that name,
His image and his words like a message,
Remind you of the intangible, the sacred
Inner being of the very everlasting life.
It’s not the physical alone that defines,
But more so the psychic strength that
Shall define you, not failures but attitude
That you assume shall stamp character.
You can claim being above the normal
Though discerning can spy the abnormal;
Yet you cannot but remain focused and
Always ignore the road you didn’t take.
_________________
All the poems are well articulated ..thoughts spun with grat clarity …seem like exhortations to an invisible listener .. how to behave in a particular situation…..
Latest poetic outbursts of Dr Sharma marks a significant departure from poetry of his earlier and middle phases so far as profound understanding of things are concerned. The balance and beauty of the stanza where he questions the role of surrender in love, “Surrender not” and “surrender in an act of Love” establishes him as one of the finest poetic voices of our times.