(A Tanka)
CONTENT can’t conceive
Poetry all by herself,
Being a maiden.
She therefore must marry FORM
To beget POEM offspring.
LET WORLD PEACE OUR MOTTO BE - A KIRIELLE
(Note: A single rhyme ‘bbbb’, has been used for alternate stanzas)
Before it takes the tag ‘extinct’,-
Dissolving like a peppermint,-
To salvage PEACE let’s all agree:
Let ‘World-Peace’ our motto be.
Let’s form a single family, -
Spreading like a banyan tree, -
To safeguard this commodity:
Let ‘World-Peace’ our motto be.
Wherever we live, - east or west,
North or south, - let’s do our best
To make our earth terror-free:
Let ‘World-Peace’ our motto be.
With focused eyes let us see,
For taking aim accurately
To shoot out Violence completely:
Let ‘World-Peace’ our motto be.
Let PEACE be our poesy’s theme;
Let PEACE be our life-long dream;
Let PEACE create new history;
Let ‘World-Peace’ our motto be.
Let’s attune Technology
To Peace, for our prosperity,
As well as, of posterity:
Let ‘World-Peace’ our motto be.O SCIENTIST!
O SCIENTIST!
(RONDEAU IN TETRAMETER)
O Scientist, no more arms invent:
To heal, not harm, your skill is meant.
Old war’s ruins await repair:
For new ones wherefor, then, prepare?
Widows’ wails and loud laments
Of those whose homes are razed or rent,
The orphaned, maimed, don’t make you repent?
From throes of woes your brethren spare,
O Scientist!
Armour, instead of arms, invent,
To even Nature’s raids prevent.
Construct a case with cautious care
For housing Peace and all That’s fair.
Then will be your time well-spent,
O Scientist!
NEVER SAY DIE
(RONDEAU IN PENTAMETRE)
Never say die though hardships hound your head:
They come not singly, has it not been said?
These troubles are like social beasts and birds:
They always come and go in flocks and herds,
By no apparent leader being led.
So cower not but challenge them instead:
They all will flee if only some have fled.
To foil fear, Bravery’s belt who gird
Never say die.
Yes, triumphed they, profusely who had bled
And yet, with Courage, conquered demon Dread.
Of such heroic persons haven’t you heard,
For whom Victory was the main watchword?
So though you bleed, as long as you’re not dead,
Never say die.
TO A COCKROACH
(Burns Stanza Sequence)
The most detested pest you are!
The way one’s hearth and home you mar,
Not even mice can stand on par!
You are, in truth,
Of vermin all, the super-star!
You have no ruth.
At times you glide, at times you crawl,
At times you fly and, like a ball
Buffeted hard, you headlong fall
On our faces!
You spawn on floor, on roof, on wall,
And all places!
To drive you out, we’ve found a way:
Many a brand of lethal spray
Is being sold in shops today,
Which can kill yoYou poor thing, ere you fall its prey,
Bid us ‘adieu’!
TO THE NEW MILLENNIUM
(SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET)
O Time’s titanic offspring come to earth,
A marvel is your own stupendous womb
Wherefrom a thousand sons shall take their birth
To raise, on Hade’s immigrants here a tomb?
Are you the premier proxy of our Lord
Sent to rid, through your children’s aid, the world
Of all the countless apples of discord -
By Satan being relentlessly hurled?
May your first-born be a War-exporter,
Exporting War to Hell by fastest planes!
May the next one be a Peace-importer,
Importing Peace from Heaven by dove-trains!
This wondrous ware could be our magic wand
To exorcise all evils from our land.
Bionote
Dr. Tulsi happens to be the Editor-Publisher of the world acclaimed international poetry journal Metverse Muse, which was launched in January 1996 with the specific purpose of reviving the past glory of classical / metrical poetry.
The academic aspect of Dr. Tulsi's life had to ply a path strewn not exactly with roses. Due to several circumstances, her formal education ceased with the Sixth Standard in School. She had thenceforth to adopt the roles of both the 'teacher' and the 'taught' for completing, privately, her Matriculation, Intermediate and B.A. (Eng. Litt.). The conferment of Ph.D. on her was on the basis of her first three self-authored poetry collections. Ten such works of hers have been published till date. Over a score of Awards / Honours / Medals have so far come her way (from institutions both in India and abroad), most of them for her journal Metverse Muse, and the others for her own poetry (and Music).
Several poems of hers have been tanslated into a dozen other languages, including five Indian ones.
Dr. Tulsi was earlier in the Andhra Pradesh Secretariat service at Hyderabad for over a decade, having bagged the State First rank in the Andhra Pradesh Service Commission Examination for Stenographers. Ten years later, a Notification calling for applications for the post of 'Reporter' (single vacancy), issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat (Lower House of Parliament), was brought to her
notice, and she forwarded her application through proper channel. She again stood FIRST in the Test (for Reporters) held by the Lok Sabha Secretariat at the ALL INDIA level - for which around three hundred candidates had appeared. She thus not only secured the only post then vacant, but created a new record of being the first woman Reporter in the Indian Parliament. (There were no women Reporters even in the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Parliament).
Apart from dabbling in fabric painting, origamy etc., Dr. Tulsi was a practitioner of South Indian instrumental Classical Music (Veena). She participated in half a dozen public performances, in addition to four on Doordarshan (National T.V.), while still in New Delhi. She had however to bid farewell to Veena over twenty five years ago, due to arthritis of the knees. (She has recently started practising on the Veena again, sitting on a sofa, since she cannot sit on the floor- as is traditionally required).
She presently spends a major part of her time producing consecutive issues of her magazine Metverse Muse, while bringing out her own poetical works off and on.
No comments:
Post a Comment