It Was 1986 When I Started Writing In English, But No Favour Found I In The Critics Of India Poem by Bijay Kant Dubey

It was 1986 when I started writing in English,
But no favour found I in the reading professors,
I wen on writing
Without caring for fame,
Bearing it all silently,
Wrote for self-pleasure,
Never for publicity
Though I needed it desperately
In sickness and ailing for poetry
And once I left the hope of living,
Poetry damaged me in such a way,
As so much mad had I been after,
If time permits, I shall someday,
How mad had I been,
Pursuing and perusing it
Day and night, year after year?

There came the days of poverty and hunger,
Scarcity and problems,
Money had not been in a plenty,
The hand to mouth money,
Readings and studies costing more,
Philosophy leaving it no scope
For practical thought and thinking,
During illness medicine had not been,
Under the cold nights in the cottage
I used to sleep,
The quilt too had not been good enough
And we used to shiver,
Over duty, domestic works and day and night studies
Used to take it all
And instead of purchasing clothes,
I used to books.