Kaveri Poem by Madathil Rajendran Nair
Kaveri
Bone-dry she lay
in the heat of May
raising mirages -
a parched wasteland
of shimmering sand.
The Ganges of the South,
deserted by life,
contouring a countryside,
devoid of any mirth,
like a ghost's smoky trail,
lined by plastic waste,
dry grass and bushfire.
Trucks queued on her sides
countless, waiting to slide
on to her bosom of sand beds,
their bellies empty
craving for hungry fills.
While those that had got in
ravaged her flesh
like maggots that feast
on a mammoth cadaver -
a ghastly sight
of necrophagous greed.
Shanties that lined her sides
waited at dried up taps
hoping for unexpected boons
of trickles from unsure heavens.
An old man labored on the roadside
to wash himself free
of the lather he had built
with just a morsel of some precious fluid
in his rusty bucket whose bottom leaked.
While motorists wearing goggles
sped past sipping water from bottles
bought from distant shops
at exorbitant price,
looked on by the thirsty street.
The celestial beauty who was ordained
to help churn the nectar of immortality
from out of the turbulent seas of mundane inconstancy,
then, later to be the consort
of sagely wisdom
whose stoup she escaped
to sing the song of love,
to flow and fecundate lands desolate
and to wash the Feet of the Truth of Reality
resting on the Snake of Eternity,
enroute, at the three temples
of manifest reality - future, present and past.
She lay dead - the sacredness of yore
my aunt used to chant holy hymns about
every morn with water in her folded palms
looking at the crimson Sun emerging from the clouds.
Mansions of concrete will be built
mixing truck-loads of her sand
cluttering the entire countryside and beyond.
Brides will enter them holding earthen lamps
with prayers on their lips,
dreams brimming in their eyes.
Will Kaveri join in
and sing with the dames again
her ancient celestial strains?
Or will the sands wail from the walls
echoing the whimper of their imprisoned souls?
A magnificent poem! ! ! I love the way you select your words- -they paint an extraordinarily resonant landscape and the humans that skirt it. There is poetic genius at work here! An old man labored on the roadside to wash himself free of the lather he had built with just a morsel of some precious fluid in his rusty bucket whose bottom leaked.- - - - - - - - - - In five lines you created a scene that I will see in my mind's eye everytime someone mentions a dry land under drought-like conditions. 10+++++++++++++++++
The celestial beauty who was ordained to help churn the nectar of immortality from out of the turbulent seas of mundane inconstancy, then, later to be the consort of sagely wisdom whose stoup she escaped to sing the song of love, to flow and fecundate lands desolate and to wash the Feet of the Truth of Reality resting on the Snake of Eternity, enroute, at the three temples of manifest reality - future, present and past.... loved these lines. This is a beautiful poem on river Kaveri with touching expression. Thanks for sharing.
Kaveri poem brings out the sorry state of a great river. On one hand we have global warming and water in rivers is not adequately replenished. On the other hand it is water management and water disputes between states. Water is held upstream and the flow is disturbed. The poem brings out the condition of one river among many which are in a similar state. Thanks for all the thought provoking lines in your great poem.
It is sad to see a river which once flowed like a voluptuous young maid luring and enthralling many hearts now lies like a shriveled dried up old hag, devoid of the succulent sap that once flowed through her veins. It is partly due to man's irreverence to Nature. Now in the trail of her barren stretch, who knows if concrete buildings won't come up! Along with this ghastly image, the poet has created a plethora of arresting scenes..... an old man with a rusty bucket of water with its bottom leaking, trucks lining up to fill their empty insides with sand mined from the bank, the motorists with goggles speeding past, unmindful of everything.... a great poem! I see this as a deep lament arising from the heart of a Nature lover! Top marks!
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4/24/2024 10:51:30 PM # 1.0.0.1119
Man has been plundering nature for his own short term gains while looking away from the larger picture of the tragedy that is now unfolding in front of our very eyes. As Susan Williams says, ' there is a poetic genius at work here! ' and I concur with this epitome emphatically.