Poems

by

Sukrita Paul Kumar

I Ching

Not five thousand years ago

But yesterday

In a flight of freedom from

the silky sheaves

of affluent slumber

folded in

A coffee table book

in a Hong Kong household

Our great ancestor

Grandfather Fu Hsi

the Chinese seer

Leapt out of chronology

Freed from the tentacles of calendars

and exhaled

into the

landscape of my soul

splitting the mountain ranges

of my existence

all into sixty four hexagrams

each one a tell tale oracle

he said

the geometry of my being

aligned with

wind earth heaven

fire rain moon

mountain and thunder too –

With the call of lineage

answered

I stood like a heron

in contemplation

still and steady

Ready for the cries of birth.

The Mad Woman On  The Avenue Of Stars

Hanging stars

Suspended in dusk

Stars below

under the feet,

Stars over the head,

Stars wandering away

from lovers’ eyes,

Stars slipping out of children’s dreams

Ocean waves

Splashing ripples of colour

on innocent wonder pulled out

of nursery rhymes

Chinese wrinkles

giggling and breaking into

shimmering creaks

And vales twinkling

The old woman tearing her hair

and squealing in Cantonese glee

All those cobwebs of silence

surrounding people

revealing, dissolving

in the din of stars.

…………………………

Ambers  In  The Pacific

On your chest lies Pele

the formidable

Goddess of volcano

The flow of her red hair

Trapped in the cracks of

Molten lava

Ambers in the coastal sun

Aloha

Be not in slumber

Says Papa the male god

Raising his neck from the

treacherous oceanic depths

From island to island

Hawaiians dance hula

Their simmering hearts

Tuning to Laka’s call

Whistling in the breeze

Islands of desire

Fed on sacred food

Islands with white shores

Combating tiger waves

Islands held in Kumulipo

The Creation chant

In multiple rainbows

That Hina climbed

To reach the moon

When the moon is full

They see her

In the tides that rise

They hear her

in the rumbling belly

of the dormant volcano,

Mauna Kea…

…………………………………………………………………………

AMBERS IN THE PACIFIC

On your chest lies Pele

the formidable

Goddess of volcano

The flow of her red hair

Trapped in the cracks of

Molten lava

Ambers in the coastal sun

Aloha

Be not in slumber

Says Papa the male god

Raising his neck from the

treacherous oceanic depths

From island to island

Hawaiians dance hula

Their simmering hearts

Tuning to Laka’s call

Whistling in the breeze

Islands of desire

Fed on sacred food

Islands with white shores

Combating tiger waves

Islands held in Kumulipo

The Creation chant

In multiple rainbows

That Hina climbed

To reach the moon

When the moon is full

They see her

In the tides that rise

They hear her

in the rumbling belly

of the dormant volcano,

Mauna Kea…

…………………………………………………………………………

OF  NEW  LIVES

What is that,

Yonder, out there?

Not a shadow, not indeed,

But definite contours of

A body reflecting an already tough mind

A stubborn shadow of her own

A fledgling come into a lingering adolescence

With threatening wings

large and awkward

A warring life

Marching in defiance

Deadening the mother, her adventures,

Leaving her cold and alone

A corpse

Inside the tomb

Strangled by fear and caution

Its the daughter giving

Birth to a new mother,

A mother-fledgling fluttering for

Fresh skies and new grounds

For yet another journey.