THE BANYAN CITY
To unearth the roots
of a banyan
is never easy.
Chop or hack. The old banyan
with the roots spread
over a century.
This aged city,
facing the withered glory,
now wrinkled, cracked,
weather-beaten,
with dim eyes,
has stood the time.
The heavy breath,
breathing. A river turns
into a gutter. There is humming
of vehicles. The city mumbles.
You grapple for meaning
in the traffic of noises.
The old banyan
is no more. You can no longer click
that tree at the crossroad, combing
the National Highway number eight
when you enter Vadodara.
The roots won't die.
You witness rebirth
in the mould of stone. A sculpted ghost.
MAKING A POEM
To write a poem the pen
has to slide making a line
over a sheet. You see a
snake uncoil. Words bare
themselves. You come to know
what nakedness is or does.
Manaka's charm works as a
rule. A Sage needs senses.
In this episode the pen runs
out of ink, refill. The sound
of music resonates. Sheets flap.
The dance of the black ink and
A little light. A poem is made.
Vihang A. Naik is a contemporary poet from India. His works are widely published and anthologized and have won several awards. His poems have appeared in Indian Literature: A Sahitya Akademi Bi-Monthly Journal, Kavya Bharati, POESIS: A Journal of Poetry Circle, The Journal of The Poetry Society, The Journal of Indian Writing In English, The Journal of Literature and Aesthetics, among other significant journals. He is educated from The M.S. University of Baroda with Philosophy, Indian and English Literature and has taught English for more than a decade at Gujarat, India. His collections of poems include City Times and Other Poems (1993), Jeevangeet (2001), and Making A Poem (2004). His latest collection, Poetry Manifesto: New & Selected Poems, will come out in 2010. He has his personal website at http://www.vihang.ind.in /for poetry lovers.
To unearth the roots
of a banyan
is never easy.
Chop or hack. The old banyan
with the roots spread
over a century.
This aged city,
facing the withered glory,
now wrinkled, cracked,
weather-beaten,
with dim eyes,
has stood the time.
The heavy breath,
breathing. A river turns
into a gutter. There is humming
of vehicles. The city mumbles.
You grapple for meaning
in the traffic of noises.
The old banyan
is no more. You can no longer click
that tree at the crossroad, combing
the National Highway number eight
when you enter Vadodara.
The roots won't die.
You witness rebirth
in the mould of stone. A sculpted ghost.
MAKING A POEM
To write a poem the pen
has to slide making a line
over a sheet. You see a
snake uncoil. Words bare
themselves. You come to know
what nakedness is or does.
Manaka's charm works as a
rule. A Sage needs senses.
In this episode the pen runs
out of ink, refill. The sound
of music resonates. Sheets flap.
The dance of the black ink and
A little light. A poem is made.
Vihang A. Naik is a contemporary poet from India. His works are widely published and anthologized and have won several awards. His poems have appeared in Indian Literature: A Sahitya Akademi Bi-Monthly Journal, Kavya Bharati, POESIS: A Journal of Poetry Circle, The Journal of The Poetry Society, The Journal of Indian Writing In English, The Journal of Literature and Aesthetics, among other significant journals. He is educated from The M.S. University of Baroda with Philosophy, Indian and English Literature and has taught English for more than a decade at Gujarat, India. His collections of poems include City Times and Other Poems (1993), Jeevangeet (2001), and Making A Poem (2004). His latest collection, Poetry Manifesto: New & Selected Poems, will come out in 2010. He has his personal website at http://www.vihang.ind.in /for poetry lovers.
