Guntur National Poetry Festival, Quay journal, Liberated Muse Anthology

Poetry Festival, Guntur

Some poetry news. Had submitted two poems for a poetry festival to be held in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India. "Finding Foremothers" is one of them. The other was "Europe" but I had to withdraw it realizing there might be a copyright problem. I had submitted EUROPE elsewhere having renamed it "Outsiders". Anyway, since the Guntur folks were kind enough to accommodate my late realization and the subsequent request, I sent off a replacement poem titled "When Langston Hughes Visited My Home".

The festival people actually really deserve my thanks. The festival anthology apparently was already over in the press and they made special arrangements to include the changes. Thanks to Nagasuseela and Gopichand for this gesture.

I am invited to Guntur for the festival where the anthology will be released on July 2. And participating poets are to read their work. But still thinking whether I can make it. I am traveling to Kolkata and Guwahati to see family and then come back to Delhi in mid-June. Thereafter I have some other engagements in Delhi. So, we'll see about Guntur. But indeed what a nice thing to be invited there and if I cannot go, I sure will miss meeting several good poets.

Blogger-poet friend Tikuli Dogra is invited to the festival as her poems have also been accepted for the anthology. Congrats Tiku!

Ruba'i in Quay

Quay journal of poetry and arts published from Texas has been delayed a couple of months. Karen Terry, their poetry editor, wrote saying they are ready to go to press. She sent me the galley proof of my THE FIRST APPLE SINGS A RUBA'I, which I sent off promptly after checking. Hope to see Quay soon.

Liberated Muse anthology

Another delayed project has been the "Free Your Soul" anthology from the Liberated Muse Productions, Washington DC. Three poems of mine -- CHAKRA WALKING; RELEASING RITES BY WATER and AN IMMIGRANT'S TUNE are going to be featured there. Khadijah Ali-Coleman, editor and coordinator of the project announced recently that finally the stage is all set for its release in a program marked my reading and performance of poetry and music by artists.

Day 14: "A Ghazal And a Ruba'i"

Here was the Day 14 prompt, a special one: "Today is Tuesday, which means two prompts. First prompt: Write a love poem. Second prompt: Write an anti-love poem. Simple as that." Read more at: April PAD Challenge: Day 14

~~A GHAZAL And a RUBA'I~~

1. Ghazal: “Love Labored, Not Lost”

This my fiery desire, my passion, my frustrations are new

Please understand because this trembling love itself is new

You who smile at my impatience, my eager foot-tapping

How’d you know: for me you and for you, yes, I am new

There was a time, silly, when moonlight seemed out of focus

As soon as I saw your face, after long separations, anew

See, the morning again has dawned abashed with such pleas

Facing the ray of your lips, arms, throbbing blood and sinew!

Remember that first rendezvous in the dark movie theater –

I still have the browned dog-eared tickets as if they are new

The first exchange of words that mostly meant nothing then

They come back to me like precious jewels shining and new

You do hear me speak but don’t hear what my heart sings

Go on, trick me, your stance is something I always knew

So if love is my forte and sweet ignorance is your clever ploy

Tell me “Navi”, what’d you achieve with ballads old or new?

**

2. "The Wife Sings A Ruba'i"

Wish it were two homes side by side

Us, meeting and loving at will, any woe denied

A sherbet glass, wood apples and Megh Malhar tones

Is it not love’s best flavor picked and tried?

Images from the Internet: Rajasthani miniature & Persian art

Writing Ruba'i

Of late I've been reading and practising writing "rubaiyat" (plural), an adapted form of the classical Persian quatrain, each derivative quatrain or four-lined verse called a "ruba'i". In Persian I'm told, the ruba'i is only 2 lines long...

The most famous example of the adapted rubaiyat form in English is Edward FitzGerald's 1859 translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Another very popular form of this Persian quatrain is found in Robert Frost's 1922 poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening". We've all read it, haven't we? Still one of my favorite poems.

Now each ruba'i that I've written below are only evolving ones, because I'm constantly changing them and re-working them. It is not as easy as it seems, but definitely fun, especially when the rhyme scheme has to contain a pithy idea. Here I use the AABA rhyme scheme:

Brutus Sings A Ruba'i

From behind O Caesar, when I saw your trusting head
I imagined homeless folks, kids hungry in bed
Democracy raped, chasms deep all around
That noble moment let my hand, remorseless, strike you dead.

Shakuntala Sings A Ruba'i

If a ring were everything, a face, an identity
I should call my luck all but serendipity!
Thus I too have learnt to take a passing fancy
At faces like talismans. There’re too many, O king, in your city!

(I don't like putting footnotes, so I'll let readers find out on their own about Shakuntala's story and the reference here...)

Mobocracy – a Ruba’i

This is where you took home millions
And nurtured your unworthy scions
Those that hardly cared for a ballot to come clean

Or reach out to lambs eaten by lions!

(Persian literature in translation has engaged me ever since I was a child. For more information we can go to A Brief History of Persian Literature, by the Iran Chamber Society. Feel free to add more ruba'i on the Comments section or on your respective blogs. Will be fun!)