The commonwealth of literature
Is dotted with brilliant stars…
Jernail S. Anand, an eminent poet from India, shares his poetry
Dr. Jernail Singh Anand, based in Chandigarh, is an Indian poet and scholar credited with 170 plus books of English literature, philosophy and spirituality. He won great Serbian Award Charter of Morava and his name adorns the Poets’ Rock in Serbia. He was honored with Seneca Award LAUDIS CHARTA by Academy of Arts & Philosophical Sciences, Bari, Italy 2024. He is Founder President of the International Academy of Ethics and conferred Doctor of Philosophy (Honoris Causa) by University of Engineering & Management, (UEM) Jaipur. Email anandjs55@yahoo.com
The Commonwealth of Literature
The Commonwealth of Literature The space is occupied by authors
Who live only in their works
Or by scholars who know
In depth about them, their lives
And philosophies they lived by.
Real heritage of the human society,
They represented their times
Presenting a faithful picture of society
Like The Canterbury Tales.
To know them and their times
Should be our concern
But not our only concern.
Much water has flowed down
The Don, the Thames, and the Ganges.
They stand behind us
To provide a background
Against which we have to judge
The foreground meant for us.
A painter paints only the background
And avoids saying anything his own
Because he is too involved
With the past connection
In this obsession, perhaps
He forgets it is not
His interaction with the past,
But his grapple with the present
That offers ground for immortality.
The commonwealth of literature
Is dotted with brilliant stars,
But let us not count them out
Who are struggling
And engaging powerfully
With modern reality
The creatives of our times
Who, far more than being scholars,
Are distrusted as philosophers.
***
COSMETIC SURGERY OF AN EMOTION
There are doctors and doctors
But a good doctor knows
How to conduct an operation
On a patient.
He etherizes the patient
And in that state
Scissors the flesh,
And sends the menace out.
And then there are pain killers
Followed by relief services
By friends and loved ones
Visiting the patient with hired smiles.
I am now thinking of the poet
How he effects cosmetic surgery
On an emotion,
And robs it of its immediacy
The poet gives it some sedatives
And some injections too
Which divest it
Of its cries and sighs
The emotion is given
An ultimatic transformation
So that when it rises from the book
It catharizes its visitors.
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