From Readers
The new alliance comes from the South!
To Michael, Eulalia, Laura, Siddhartha...
And to all of those who believe that poetry is
the cry of rage from the voiceless
Not only does the South also exist,
Better said it is the South that exists:
From the South comes change
Energy, strength.
Where the North sows desolation
The South makes hope grow.
The South is reinventing everything,
Not just values, feelings and colours
But also practices, methods, concepts:
It has learnt certain co-ordinates from the North
And inspires in them the life that gives wings to the mind.
You continue with your schemes, so empty of life:
Believing it all so clear, you are ensnarled
And by doubting about pardoning our debts
You mortgage your own future
You still believe that you help us with everything
While we fill you with life and meaning.
The illusion is over, we have lost our sense of the North!
There are no longer maps, nor truths, nor rights:
There are struggles seeking how to live in dignity,
Marches that weave together peaces,
Values that emerge in the bases,
And sad expert meetings
With spirally decreasing iterations
That feed back into frustrations, perfect emptinesses,
Digging the grave of a world that is mentally dying.
Martí Olivella, Bangalore (March 2000)
Return to Top
A testing time
Monday the 11th of May
Just another day,
Letters to write, bills to pay,
No different from the rest,
No sign or portent to suggest
Mushrooming clouds were on their way.
Will we call this Monday Black?
Or just as we would,
With Friday, call it good?
Either way, come what may
It is a red letter day,
But can we roll it back?
Now is a time, a testing time
Of a different kind.
Fast forward or rewind,
That is the question.
Let's pause and think.
Do we have a choice?
Is ours a lone voice?
Are we on the brink
of extinction?
Just remenber
It's either love or terror,
And no room for error
Didn't Auden prophesy
'love one another or die'
and Foster say,
'just connect'
or words to that effect?
Are the clouds a sign or portent,
That love's the only deterrent
To keep death at bay?
Pradip Sen (India)
* The author has been writing & publishing poetry since the late 40's. This poem refers to the Indian nuclear testing on the 11th of May 1998.
Return to Top
| 
