Death stands at a distance
all day all night, smiling, unblinking,
like that picture under the staircase.
...
The whimsical moon shot past me
like an arrow, in a flux
I saw it as a mirror
revealing myself to me.
...
I am an Indian poet in English!
How long shall I wear this elegant
garland? Can I even put it down?
...
After you left
only after you left
I could guess
that your shadow spreads
...
That foot that has walked
On thorns
All through the day for you.
...
Dr. Nandini Sahu’s preoccupation with poetry began very early in life, and today she is a major voice in contemporary Indian English poetry. A double gold medalist in English literature, she was award winner at the All India Poetry Contest, has been honoured with the Shiksha Ratna Puraskar and has to her credit the coveted Bouddha Creative Writers’ Award. A doctorate in English literature from Visva Bharati where she worked under the tutelage of eminent poet and academic, Late Prof. Niranjan Mohanty, Nandini’s creative output has been widely published in India, U.S.A, U.K., Africa and Pakistan. Her published volumes of poetry include The Other Voice; The Silence; Silver Poems on My Lips, and Sukamaa and Other Poems, and Sita (A Poem), and most recently an edited anthology of women poets titled Suvarnarekha. Presently, she is Associate Professor of English at the School of Humanities, Indira Gandhi National Open University [IGNOU], New Delhi, where she has designed academic programmes on Folklore and Culture Studies, Children’s Literature and American Literature. Broadly, her research interests pan across Indian Literature, New Literatures, Folklore and Culture Studies, American Literature, Children’s Literature and Critical Theory. As a serious academic, Dr. Sahu has presented papers on various subjects in India and abroad. She has authored/edited volumes like Recollection as Redemption; Post-Modernist Delegation to English Language Teaching; The Post Colonial Space: Writing the Self and the Nation; Folklore and the Alternative Modernities (in 2 Vols), all titles that cumulatively bring out the range of her oeuvre! She is the Chief Editor/Founder Editor of Interdisciplinary Journal of Literature and Language(IJLL), and Panorama Literaria, both bi-annual peer-reviewed journals in English. Her most recent poetry collection Sita (A Poem) promises to be a whole new take on the Indian epic.)
Who Says Death Is The Only Truth?
Death stands at a distance
all day all night, smiling, unblinking,
like that picture under the staircase.
Are you waiting for the last bus?
Do you know, the sands are slowly
rolling through the gaps of your fingers?
Tighten your fist. You are enlightened to
pick one – the coffin or a life of action.
From one birth to another, augment the civilization.
Does your laugh tear your shrunken lips?
Open your wardrobe, cover the breast of the poor,
apply on your lips the balm of a millennium’s rebellion.
Who says death is the only truth?
See, your body of fog is still seated on the throne.
You still shine in the firmament of stars.
I extend my good wishes! Nandini Sahu is one of the few striking female voices in Indian English Poetry.
Very good poem please keep it going Nandini Sahu By Henry Reyes