This winter too, we can see
Will arrive like a dragon
With a thousand tooth sharp enough
To bite into the bones of the homeless.
This winter is no different
From his predecessor of 2012-13
Come November and we say fine things
About a life free from the heat of a hot past
That fled from us just for a while
And we see a milder Sun and Larger Moon in the sky.
But this winter too has his intentions strong.
This winter too, we can read
About the Siberian winged beauties
Flying unto our milder north India in hundreds
Where the homeless will fight with cold and frost
With the mist of an unknown December descending on them.
This winter will bring us tales miserable.
In Delhi and Jaipur and in Bhopal and Patna
We saw him raging like a bull with horns,
In Shimla and Indore and there in Kanpur and Jallandhar
We saw him brandishing his sword of fury and spite.
Thousands of homeless died and suffered to no end
With the destitutes and the strays lying frozen.
This winter too perhaps
Is going to arrive with a natural rhythm to his treat,
We poets may be lost in its 'pleasant' grip
And we may sleep under a blanket warm and forget the rest.
Let us spare a little time yet in anguish and concern
Over the hapless victims of this winter of reality...
your last stanza is appealing for help for the needy. they remain in our prayers. winter can be cruel. a good read
Your final line covers these words so well. Thank you to for your poet notes to make us all truly understand. If only the lucky like myself knew how wealthy we all are just for health and a warm home.
I say in hindi dhoond ki saari oas ki gahane khadi wo pahne/ footpathon par rahne waale sahme huye hain// nice to enjoy and think
... a nice write... there are lots of people in india.. who donot even have a roof over their head... while we enjoy in our homes during winter... it is these people who feel the real chill....
nice write.... winter in India.... no winter is the same. all winters might be the same... it depends, hahaha
Strong words to tell the reader of the homeless plight in the cold nights of the winters claws of death...you open your heart to tell this tale of the poorest of the poor...thanks for your message and care...regards
This poem is a summons to people of good will to rally in support o those less fortunate. You vivdly describe the need for this inteervention and only a stony-hearted person could read your and not be moved to action.
seasons of changes that rage around us........some that sooth, some that thrash.............but as a poet says They are clouds/ they will fly away as all clouds do.................excellent poem of past and present and future as well.........
The poem sets the tone with the first two lines - This winter too, we can see / Will arrive like a dragon - This is the most objective assessment of the tyranny unleashed by the winter season. Hats off to you, dear poet.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
Nature-poetry is not always the songs sung in its praise, this is the biased side of a supposedly indifferent Nature, the way we are experiencing the extremity of weathers, now who can say that class-distinction is only the human flaw, when it is equally Nature's vice too...what Modern Man has done with the atmosphere & surroundings in the guise of his progression and advancement, when the ball comes in Nature's court, it returns it to Man sometimes by retaliating through floods, storms, hot summers and chilled winters...and the victim is not the kings but the clowns, who are deprived of all luxuries, facilities, even the bare necessities of life, who don't have their hand in the progression hostile to nature in the form of pollution... For this poem Winter is the character portrayed so realistically that there's no denying the fact that for a few last years, it is as threatening as the summer is, in our countries there are scenes around when we see homeless people as misery-incarnate...For the poem i must say it is an honest depiction realistically presented in a language that plays with an easy and flexible expression making the otherwise a difficult task of the poet easy to feel and visualize for the readers...the facts and figures are so well-knit that they don't leave any jarring effect...a memorable write! ! !