Shoeless in Noakhali – Poetic Homage to Gandhi

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Gandhi

Shoeless you did walk

Broken glass on routes

With bloodshed in riots

Soles bruised sorely bled.

Dr. Lalit Mohan Sharma, a renowned poet from Himachal Pradesh, India shares poems from his book ‘Eyes of Silence’, published in 2020, to pay homage to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who was assassinated on Jan 30, 1948

Dr Lalit Mohan Sharma - India- Sindh CourierHailing 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

2bc9e4c1-9fc2-48c9-8c26-03fe75bb5237_570Shoeless in Noakhali

         I

The year forty seventh

Of twentieth century

How could you plug ears

To bar the cries of rioters

 

Twin nations at birth

Tearing at each other

With swords and knives

Violence ripped honor

Conversations ceased

Bouts of shrill shouting

Made headlines/ stray

Acts to protect the other

Assailed loot and arson

    II

 Shoeless you did walk

Broken glass on routes

With bloodshed in riots

Soles bruised sorely bled.

 

Your presence for peace

You did chide the niece

As she warmed the water

To wash the cuts in soles

Many hardly get wood-fire

In kitchen to cook meals

 

Can only walk barefooted

Where is shed the blood

Of your fellowmen

Shoeless Walked in Noakhali.

***

Gandhi_in_Noakhali,_1946_cropped
Mahatma Gandhi in Noakhali

Prayer

Wherever you are/ Sons of Man

Neither a Hindu Muslim Parsee

Nor a Christian of any color

May not the medieval shadow

Darken the future scenario

Nor sedition threaten the free

In merry joy live the poor cow

And the prosperous calf be free

To dream and share and to laugh

 

Beware beware/ Listen friends

Of rhyming Babari with Dadri

Forget not the icons you adore

Vivekanand Gandhi and Tagore

Shaheed-e- Aazam who wrote

Why am I an atheist/ forget not

Glory of country and its men

Over- rides conversations regional

The religiously and sectarian

 

A blind devotion to the man in saddle

Degrades rule of law/ says Ambedkar

God like sun moon trees and rivers

Say bojour salut to one and to all.

***

mahatma and manu gandhiEyes of Silence

Fog gets fairly thick

Even as the sun sets

And it’s rises on time

In- between sets in night

With a faint wick

Each candle burns

For the March carries on

Defusing the fog in the dark. 

 

Stray dogs whine a bark

Rich pets wag their tails

Or moan/ heads on paws

 

A polity of skyscrapers

Has plenty of escalators

Fog sails thru windows

Doors split at footfalls

A choiceless state waits

Must know at what time

To step on and step off

The active escalator.

__________________

Read: On Being Non-Violent

 

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