ISSUE-VII August 2009 - THE ENCHANTING VERSES INTERNATIONAL poetry journal

   ISSN-0974-3057

The Enchanting Verses

International Presents

ISSUE -VII August 2009

    ALL SELECTED POETS AND POEMS

The spirit of poetry combines the profundity of the philosopher and the child's delight in bright pictures.
[Franz Grillparzer (1791-1872), Austrian author. Notebooks and Diaries (1837-1838).]

In view of this half-sight of science, we accept the sentence of Plato, that, "poetry comes nearer to vital truth than history."
[Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), U.S. essayist, poet, philosopher. Nature, ch. 8 (1836, revised and repr. 1849).]

EDITORIAL

Poetry over the years have immortalized great personalities with its diversity, beauty and alternative meaning through the same words. The splendor of a poetry lies in its philosophy and language which in turn brings out the magnificence and literary quality of a person.

Who has the power to prefix the words “bad” or “good” before poetry to make it a universal acceptance.?None until it speaks up itself.

Poetry does not necessarily signify the affluence in language but the course of an evolving heritage.

Our civilization has crossed many years of survival where each century was marked by the theory of “Survival of the fittest”. The elements of literature cannot be considered as any exception which too has marked several phases and ages in the accounts of the earth.

Simple prose can be treated as an element of communication amongst community of different cults and classes but poetry is the element of communication of one’s soul with inscrutabilities, mysteries and wonders of Nature.

The poets contributing in different issues of this journal takes us to a different dimension of thinking each time we go through them.

In this issue:

Dorin Popa has been awarded the Enchanting Poet award.

Leonard Daranjo has been awarded the Editors Choice-I Award

Muhumuza Kenneth Ezra has been awarded the Editors Choice-II Award

Vaibhav Pandey has been awarded the Editors Choice-III Award

We have also a book review of Mr. Basant Kar’s Upcoming poetry book “The Unfold Pinnacle” and a special translation work of Bengali Poet Mr. Subhas Ghosal by Uma Chattopadhyaya.

We have also added random articles upon Metaphysical poetry and an article upon writing Haiku. We have also one the lectures of Dr. Leo Rebello featured in this issue.

This ISSUE of THE ENCHANTING VERSES is dedicated to Henry Wadsworth-Longfellow

Henry Wadsworth-Longfellow was a powerful figure in the cultural life of nineteenth century America. Born in 1807, he had become a national literary figure by the 1850s and a world-famous personality by the time of his death in 1882

Henry's grandfather, Peleg Wadsworth (1748-1829), was a Revolutionary War general who later served seven terms in the United States Congress. The family home in Portland was built for Peleg in 1785-6.

Father Stephen Longfellow (1776-1849) was a lawyer and legislator who helped found many of Maine's early cultural institutions, including the Maine Historical Society (1822). Henry's mother and early encourager was Zilpah Wadsworth Longfellow (1778-1851), direct descendant of Plymouth's John and Priscilla Alden, and a woman of learning, wit, and liberal religious convictions.

Longfellow attended Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, Maine, where he met Nathaniel Hawthorne, his lifelong friend and literary colleague. After graduation in 1825 and three years of touring and study in Europe, he assumed the professorship of modern languages — then a relatively new field — at Bowdoin.

His publishing record (six foreign language textbooks in as many years) finally earned him a similar post at Harvard in 1834, beginning his long association with the city of Cambridge.

Longfellow was a devoted husband and father with a keen feeling for the pleasures of home. But his marriages ended in sadness and tragedy — the first to Mary Potter, of Portland, who died in 1835; the second to Fanny Appleton — the great love of his life and the mother of his six children — who died of burns from a terrible accident in 1861.

A deep nostalgia for his life with Fanny colored the rest of Longfellow's life. Longfellow published his first poem at age thirteen in the Portland Evening Gazette — a precocious sign of an astounding literary career as editor, anthologist, translator, playwright, novelist, and, above all, poet. His many published works sold in phenomenal numbers and multiple editions.

Most important are Ballads and Other Poems (1841), Poems on Slavery (1844), Evangeline (1847), The Song of Hiawatha (1855), The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858), Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863), his translation of Dante's Divine Comedy (1867), and Keramos (1878).

One of Longfellow's favorite metaphors is the backward glance. People in the present look back into their distant pasts and make a discovery. What had once been history — political, conflicted, sad, and bloody — could now be seen as imaginative myth: ordered, noble, and a source of strength. Longfellow wrote for a young nation ready to make this backward glance.

The Indian, the Puritan, the Acadian had all, seemingly, sacrificed their identities on America's stage. In return they would become our originating legends. It was Longfellow's genius and unique opportunity that supplied his country with its mythic past. He did so in a supple lucid verse: moody, melodic, and filled with moral tenderness. For this he was loved.

Award Winners

The Enchanting Poet Certification

Nobody understands anybody

absurd claims so many times I had
Radar perfect I thought my soul
steps for your breath to ta
for your tears
inside the other with fervor with love
I can finally get savior
if I discover with disappointment
we are prisoners of our skin
and your song and crying your eyes ta
emotions, and your dreams dissimilitude
all are mine forever churchyard
and all I will forever be foreign
through tears, sobbingly you collect lost
I can not hug you can hug
ever
exist in me deeper than your heart
They 're whispering and you shiver in the distance:
No one understood by anyone
never!

by Dorin Popa

Editor's Choice-I Certification

The Diary of a Bird with Broken Wings

Instead of accepting

The crown of cosmic consciousness

I writhe and I squirm

In the agony of daunting ignorance

Unable to direct my awareness

To life’s subtle innuendoes

Inviting me into

The ever widening expanses

Of an inner realm

I know that I shall never be at peace until

I sip from the chalice

Life holds out to me; until

I hold still and allow

The inner stirrings to erupt

Into a full blooded

All encompassing knowingness

Experienced by the knower; until

The clarity of a pristine consciousness

Pouring into a crystal bowl

Is reflected by a million eyes

But alas

I shall not be willing

To exchange this state

Of inner discordance

For one

More amenable

To the complacency

Of peace and tranquillity

For this discordance; this disharmony

Shall not be assuaged until

I open my heart

To the light beyond

The pale of darkness

The openness beyond

The bars of confinement

By Leonard Daranjo

Editor's Choice -II certification

Savor the Moment

In Light, we see!

With intent, we are free….

Choosing to live a balanced Life,

generous with our Love

Is it just for us?

How about the stray dog looking for its lost master?

Trampled by woe!

searching for a house with Love

with no Choice but to hold on.

Is there a way for us to Change?

to savor the moment now?

Choosing,

To Love unconditionally!

To Give incessantly!

To draw closer in Unity!

Is there time for us to grow?

could the Moment be now?

For whatever we sow…..

Its not about how,

In time it will show,

however slow,

“Now”

To savor the moment,

to regain the peace lost;

To keep the pride hoist.

By Muhumuza Kenneth Ezra

Editor's Choice-III Certification

A Farmer's Fantasy….

With just a handful of barren land,

And tottering dreams based on the sand.

Yet the desire continued to bloom,

To produce the green out of the doom.

No frill now, can satiate his needs.

A tinge of grass is for all he pleads.

Extracting life out of nature's legacy

So small is that farmer's fantasy......

By Vaibhav Pandey

Metaphysical Poetry

A term used to group together certain 17th-century poets, usually DONNE, MARVELL, VAUGHAN and TRAHERNE, though other figures like ABRAHAM COWLEY are sometimes included in the list. Although in no sense a school or movement proper, they share common characteristics of wit, inventiveness, and a love of elaborate stylistic manoeuvres.
Metaphysical concerns are the common subject of their poetry, which investigates the world by rational discussion of its phenomena rather than by intuition or mysticism. DRYDEN was the first to apply the term to 17th-centurypoetry when, in 1693, he criticized Donne: 'He affects the Metaphysics... in his amorous verses, where nature only should reign; and perplexes the minds of the fair sex with nice speculations of philosophy, when he should engage their hearts.' He disapproved of Donne's stylistic excesses, particularly his extravagant conceits (or witty comparisons) and his tendency towards hyperbolic abstractions. JOHNSON consolidated the argument in THE LIVES OF THE POETS, where he noted (with reference to Cowley) that 'about the beginning of the seventeenth century appeared a race of writers that may be termed the metaphysical poets'. He went on to describe the far-fetched nature of their comparisons as 'a kind of discordia concors; a combination of dissimilar images, or discovery of occult resemblances in things apparently unlike'. Examples of the practice Johnson condemned would include the extended comparison of love with astrology (by Donne) and of the soul with a drop of dew (by Marvell).

Reacting against the deliberately smoothand sweet tones of much 16th-century verse, the metaphysical poetsadopted a style that is energetic, uneven, and rigorous. (Johnsondecried its roughness and violation of decorum, the deliberate mixtureof different styles.) It has also been labelled the 'poetry of stronglines'. In his important essay, 'The Metaphysical Poets' (1921), whichhelped bring the poetry of Donne and his contemporaries back intofavour, T. S. ELIOT argued that their work fusesreason with passion; it shows a unification of thought and feelingwhich later became separated into a 'dissociation of sensibility'

Text excerpted from:
The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. Ian Ousby, Ed.
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1998. 623.

POETRY COLLECTION

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How To Write A Haiku Poem
By Ed Weiss

So, you want to know how to write haiku poetry. Some people think it should be easy to do. And, like most things, when you understand the underlying principles, it is! Let's begin.

First, let's dispel the 5-7-5 thing right away. Modern haiku is not a slave to the 5-7-5-syllable rule discovered and used by Japanese poets. The good thing about this (actually, it's a real good thing) is that you're no longer a slave to fitting your words neatly into a predefined shape.

Now that we no longer use this syllable rule, it really comes down to what modern haiku poets refer to as fragment and phrase theory.

The majority of modern haiku poetry consists of a fragment, usually no more than 3 words, and a phrase, usually no longer than 5-10 words. The fragment sets the scene or mood while the phrase concretizes it and makes it more substantial. For example, in the haiku:

early evening --

small flat stones

line the shore

You can pretty much guess which part is the fragment and which part is the phrase. The thing that makes this poem unique (and all haiku poems) is the juxtaposition between fragment and phrase. When done "right" you get something many haiku poets call an AHA moment where thought stops and you're transported into the poem firsthand. This is what haiku poets shoot for... that AHA moment. When it happens you know it. And when it doesn't happen - well, you know that too.

You'll also notice the two hyphens at the end of "early evening." This is called the "cut" and is used to make the juxtaposition stand out more. Many haiku poets no longer use the cut but it's really up to you.

Well, that's it. A crash course on how to write haiku.

About the Author: Edward Weiss is a poet, author, and publisher of Wisteria Press. He has been helping students learn how to write haiku for many years and has just released his first book "Seashore Haiku!" Sign up for our newsletter and get free haiku poems delivered to your inbox every week!

Visit http://wisteriapress.com

Source: www.isnare.com
Permanent Link: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=71629&ca=Poetry

Translations and Poems in Various Languages

Poetry by Subhas Ghosal as translated by Uma Chattopadhyaya

A Red Brick Pathway

The unfinished sojourn of mine

Results to memory,

When I can see a red brick pathway

Is on its way to be.

Whether at day-break or at noon

Or at the dead of night with a waning moon----

Memories blurred to me.

How young or even how old

I could be at the moment,

Or slipping between ages at least

Only to end up at the end.

I may recall though faintly though

The heart in ecstasy swelled,

While desire and depth

Entwined playfully.

Fee swept upwards arms swung down,

Approaching I was

With my sojourn along.

I had to stop a recognition

Of all known seen so far,

It happened all the way when

I could enter deeper.

It was a brick red pathway

I was left with,

I had nothing and nothing beneath;

So far as I could see---

Only a red brick pathway

Was left to me.

Ode To Time

Who is the one to create you, Time immortal,

And invest in you a power immense,

Graceful is the dip you perform into

The blue mist endless.

The fall time is fast slipping by,

The bed lamp is left all so dark,

Only atop the night sky gleams

A curious query mark

about how you are there.

And the question waiting to be resolved,

Now lie so low as a corpse sprawled----

With all delusions of grandeur

and cleverness uncovered.

So Long After

The truth unfurls and only so long after

With my eyes opening alright----

To see one playing mandolin and feel how

He can keep his deafness discreet.

Dawns the truth so long after

To reveal the real things;

You may hope to reach just over there,

Even with a stout pair of wings.

No lotus yet in bloom and

Water lilies only to delight,

Turned obscure if not vanished

All that sought-after in life.

The truth, one now makes out clear,

Is ever unrevealed so far,

And what a bid to veil it

From being deeper.

Book Review of The Unfold Pinnacle by Basanta Kumar Kar,

Reviewed by Mr. Sonnet Mondal.

The Unfold Pinnacle as the name suggests unfurls the very ill-trodden and threadbare condition of the poverty stricken and backward class Indian Women and the exigent lifestyle that see to have become their lifestyle under years of oppression and neglect.

The book is also a question against the three fold feminism movement which inspite of its tough and long fight has failed to remove the sufferings of the Indian Women. The language of the book is all the time poetic studded and ornamented with meters and ambiguity.

The book opens with the poem “Faith First”

The following lines in the poem is like an echo of the 20 year old Scheduled Caste woman residing in the conflict hit relief camp:-

“Smoke and cloud work in tandem

Swings of snow peep

Hills draw lines, mesmerize

They butcher;

My earth’s paradise marred with hate crime.”

The poems like “Neighbour”, “Too Late” and “Puzzle” very clearly indicates the helplessness of a tribal mother. The Poems like “Charity”, “Ritual”, “Capital”,” Tempest” and “Unique” points out the poverty and daily fight of the women.

One of the best compositions in the book is “Ripple”.

Basant’s narrative power and creative prowess blooms in this poem that blends aesthetics, philosophy and materialism in just 25 lines. A tremendous comparison between human and nature can be felt all the time while reading this poem.

The very opening lines in the poem are thought provoking and appealing:-

“Monsoon be the season

Vanquish summer, autumn, winter and spring

Blue clouds change; rain torrential

Thunderstorm, lightning shadow rainbow colours

Shower touches forbidden isle

I drain;

Merge and submerge

With rhythmis succession of steps

Wish to be lost in the lonely silence.”

This poetry book is a rare piece which has been totally dedicated socials maladies with a fresh way to describe them, to instill a greater feeling and awareness among the seemingly sleeping people who has not yet learnt the lessons of humanity and civilization and who are responsible for the tattered and torn condition of Indian Women.

All the poetry in the book seems to have been written in one breathe and have ample space for the readers to enrich themselves in modern literature, alert themselves with a present unwanted situation that must be swayed off let alone with enjoying the book.

Write Poetry to Cope with Turmoil
By Dr. Leo RebelloWorld Peace Envoy, IAEWP. Ambassador, WONM. World Peace Laureate, WDP.

Penning a poem is about observing the world within or around you.

It is also claimed that writing poetry is good for your mental health,
especially in a world full of turmoil and stress.

A new study has found that writing poems, no matter how 'bad' they may
appear, helps the brain to cope with emotional turmoil and to reduce anxiety,
fear and sadness - the less vivid and descriptive the poem is, the better is
the mental unloading.

According to Dr. Matthew Lieberman of California University, expressing
one-self in print is "a sort of unintentional emotion regulation" as it
inhibits parts of the brain linked to emotional turmoil, and increases
activity in the region to do with self-control.

In their study findings released on Valentine's Day 2009, the researchers
proved the therapeutic powers of writing by scanning the brains of 30 people
as they described distressing pictures. Dr. Lieberman and his team found that
the act tended to reduce activity in the amygdala, that part of the brain,
which deals with control of emotion and fear.

Anger is momentary madness. In our experiments too, we found, that poetry
reading or writing regulates our distress and especially in the war zone, or
to calm down those incarcerated in prisons, poetry writing has a profound
calming effect on the agitated minds.

We have worked with hyperactive or disturbed children. We have worked with
children of disturbed families, those affected by riots and natural calamity
and separated from parents, especially children whose parents are in jail or
children who have been abused. Making them recite poems or teaching them how
to write poetry, we invariably found, has an instant calming effect on them,
as poetry is the language of the soul, language of peace and language of the
universe.

Like in meditation you listen to the inner voice, poetry is another
medium to find the god within you - poetry reading or writing leads to
awakened consciousness. If poetry is accompanied by lilting music, then
listeners experience subliminal bliss and communion with the universal mind,
which is perfect.

We had a teacher who taught us Sanskrit through slokas (psalms) and laid the
foundation for study of poetry, philosophy of life and wisdom of the universe.

The poems of great poets exude warmth of love, embody sparks of societal
unrest and goad the readers to a plan of action. Hence, a Poet is called an
unacknowledged legislator of mankind.

The best examples of uplifting poetry are "Prayer for Peace" by St. Francis
of Assisi, or "Don't Quit" by Anon, which have inspired millions from
emotional abyss. Poetry lovers will also remember "The Impossible Dream"

from La Mancha (Musical).

Like reverse osmosis, a method of extracting essentially pure, fresh water
from salt water, Poetry brings out purity within you, by removing the
pollution from your body, mind and the spirit. Poetry like meditation helps
one to reminisce, retrace, re-vest, refresh and renew oneself.

In conclusion, poetry is an instrument of love and understanding, peace and
harmony, hope and faith and all that is good and perfect.

I will read to you a few of my best poems, which will de-stress you and inspire

you to work for a World Without Borders, World Without Tears and

World Without Wars, and if you write poems that are uplifting, I shall surely

include them in the poetry section of this monumental book to be released in

USA in July, at an International Peace conference organised by IAEWP,

at which I have been invited to speak as the World Peace Envoy.

UNITY POEM - by Dr. Leo RebelloWhen we ran away from the towering inferno
of terrorism, we became one human race!

When the planes hit and the imposing buildings
fell, we ran in one direction - towards safety!

When we prayed together and lit candles
we longed for hope and became one faith!

When millions observed silence, and thousands
protested against war, we spoke one language!

When we volunteered and collected blood,
all religions mingled in our arteries and veins!

When guns were consigned to fire and hands
were joined in unity, poverty ended, tears vanished!

When leaders united with the commoners and
sang together 'World is One', peace returned!

All selected Poems and Poets

for August 2009

Mellow Light

     I think Forsythia is mellow light,
     Beyond the confines of all wrong or right,
     That warms war weary eyes against the night.

     The power of its brave statement after pain
     Makes one believe that hope is not in vain.
     Something resembling sun will rise again.

     Sheer beauty has the solace to restore
     The soul until the ignorance of war,
     Is nothing but a shadow anymore.

     Shine on Forsythia burn like a prayer,
     For those who sent their good-byes home by air,
     We wish for them,always a spring somewhere.

                              by Sandra Fowler

SAVE THE WORLD

                       I
THE SIGNS OF THE TIME
LIKE HUNGER, WAR, FLOOD, OR EARTHQUAKE
WON'T YOU THINK IT'S AN END OF THE WORLD?
II
THE QUESTION OF THE TIME
IS THERE'S A PLACE TO LIVE LIKE IN PARADISE
WON'T YOU THINK LIFE ON EARTH IS A CHANCE?
                 REFRAIN
AROUND THE WORLD THERE'S SADNESS AND FEAR
CAN'T YOU THINK, OH WHY
AIN'T WE ARE THE OUTBREAK OF LAW.
LOOK AROUND AND PICTURE THE WORLD
IT'S HARD TO PAINT SOMETIMES
CAUSE WE ARE THE OUTBREAK OF LAW.
                   III
THE ANSWER FOR THE COMING TIME
LET US SAVE THE WORLD TODAY
WE CAN STOP THIS MISERY BY CHANGING OUR WAYS

REPEAT REFRAIN
                BRIDGE;
SAVE THE WORLD
SAVE THE WORLD, MY FRIEND
SAVE THE WORLD ..TODAY
FOR TOMORROW'S CHILDREN
SAVE THE WORLD.

by Narciso Favores Escala

One

The Universe is my home.

Together we shall roam

The many miles and ages.

It is a home of no specific

Beginnings or endings

Only experiences forevermore.

So let us not be in conflict

With each other unnecessarily

But live in a way that you

May see yourself inside me

And that I may see myself

Inside you.

By John Zayec

An appeal to my Lord

An appeal to my Lord

Is it a blessing or curse?

Is it a heaven or hell?

Am I in the hands of Lord or devil?

It’s my state My Lord!

There are some nobles and angels and

A lot of devils among them

There is a smile of glee and beauty ,but

also a lot of evidences for pain and sorrow

Am I a man blessed or cursed

my Lord! come to answer me and

hear my appeal to live with peace

Victories are following me in my way and

the failures are guiding me ahead

There is a delightful dawn in the East but

a great threatening from dark west

There is a plenty of meals in a golden plate but

many worms are moving in it

To live or to die

It is my question of this second

My God!

Come and answer me with your grace

By Saktheee S Ravichandran

Do Not lament.

Do not lament when I die,

Its another way to say good bye.

On my journey to a better place.

Getting a signal from heavenly palace.

We all must cross this threshold,

My passing away- silently behold.

To a temple of learning I will soar,

That my soul has been craving forever.

You do not know the knowledge I will gain,

So do not lament on the occasion in vain.

Your lament shall make my path thorny,

So bid me good wishes for a happy journey.

- By PRADEEP KUMAR MOHANTY

Williams Was Wrong

Go to the country, if you please, with me,

Although Williams thinks the country will bring us no peace.

Not for the small violets that grow on furry stems

in the long grass among lance shaped leaves;

Nor for the country people would plow and sow

with flowering minds and pockets at ease;

Nor for the pursuing peace.

Not for anything, for noting.

Sky in the country is wider, and this is true.

The openness there is nothing and everything;

Empty pockets make rich heads if you see everything,

But empty heads if only for peace and see nothing.

The country will bring us no peace,

But I will go to the country, and will you go with me?

By Kavin Fang

Aung San Suu Kyi, nightingale of Love!

Mother of peace who weeps bitter tears because of the insanity
that inhabits the gilded palaces of power.

White dove in which the warriors of injustice
stole the hope of flying on the meadows of freedom.
To you I sing a song of love!
To you I play the notes of Liberty!
To you I give the Triumph!

Nightingale of love, your glow shines on the universal mind of man.
Your example warms the heart of Humanity.

The ego of powerful people is poisoned by the power of demons
that persecute the innocent and do not know
that the law of cause and effect condemn their souls
to expiate their cruel actions in the storm.

The negative telepathic thought inculcated by the princes of evil
subdues and blinds the polluted and uncontrolled minds
of those involved with power.
Your tears shine like
diamonds of light in front the world,
who admires and supports you with his energy of love.

Aung San Suu Kyi, your jailers will fall
in shame and defeat, in front of the community.

Inexorable fate created by their negative

energy and uncontrolled mind

Your heart pierced by ignorance
and betrayed by your own government is fed
from Humanity shocked by the madness of dictatorship.

Angel of human rights, you will fly in the
freedom of days flowered with the sun.
To you I sing a song of love!
To you I play the notes of Liberty!
To you I give the Triumph!

By Elisabetta Errani Emaldi

Love Sonnet

In faith I don’t love thee resort to my eyes

For they reveal the myth hidden deep awry

But ‘tis my heart that hasten rather than shy

Who urges me despite my love never declines

Nor would time restrain thy temperate nor would thy charm fade

Thus add senses to my mind unswayed with the days

And long accumulated naïve intimate glooming by grade

On contribute to us verse perpetually in time sung throughout centuries

Where thou art staying, and love evokes

Mark the overflow of emotions you’d perchance no longer let go

To cherish the moment we possess accompany thou achieving all your goals

Would I revive dost thou heart glow

‘O carpe diem as thine inward eye could seek and seize

‘Twas always thus, and always thus will be

by Xie Ze-min

WE APPRECIATE YOUR FEEDBACK

THANK YOU

©2009The Enchanting Verses International NO PART OF THE CONTENTS OF THE ISSUE-VII OR THE WEBSITE CAN BE COPIED FOR COMMERCIAL OR OTHER PURPOSES WITHOUT THE WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE ENCHANTING VERSES INTERNATIONAL.

THE ENCHANTING VERSES INTERNATIONAL poetry journal

ISSN-0974-3057 The Enchanting Verses International PresentsISSUE -VII August 2009 ALL SELECTED POETS AND POEMS