LIFE AND AFTERLIFE 

Life after life, birth after birth 
We are rolling here 
carrying all the passion 
All the miseries and small happiness 
in our lonely breasts.
With so much pain and remorse 
Forgetting everything about the real truth 
With so much pain, so many miseries. 
We wallow in mud and mire
Without thinking about our true nature  
Our original mission.
 
We forget that we are a guest 
For the time being 
In this mortal field.
We have to leave this place one day. 
Our mission here is to earn a divinity 
Which is the only thing we will carry 
to the other world.

Our mission is to achieve 
divinity during this lifetime. 
Our mission is not to amass material wealth 
fame and ephemeral properties. 
But the permanent bliss and happiness. 
It will pass this mortal hemisphere and will be radiant 
in the other world free from all 
bondage of material field.


SOFT GAZE

I remember meeting with you was accidental.
It was a nice coincidence.
Now I could not think of a life without you.
God has sent an angel like you.
To set my life purposefully
Thus you have become an essential person to me
I know what I have gained.
Need not to elaborate 
Sometimes life changes so quickly 
through companionship
A sweetness of life has begun with you.
One thing is sure, there is a flow of verses.
And you  have become the theme of my poem
For, you yourself is a beautiful poem.
With your nice eyes and cascading hair
 And flower-like soft gaze



RHYTHM

Everywhere Nature is smiling with a rhythmical spell.
Everywhere is heard its supreme music.
As Nature opens its face in the eyes of the dawn, the leaves and creepers dazzle in aureate sunshine.
The dew drops glitter like pearls in the grass.

The birds flutter in the sky in groups with chorus leaving their rhythmic verse in the breast of time.
The buzzing of bees and insects creates a magical rhythm.
The flowers in spring dance in the sweet breeze in a rhythmic way.
The whisper of the vernal wind is mesmerizing and enthralling. 

The rustle of branches and leaves is soft and vibrating.
The flower opens silently with a rhythmic note creating a soft vibration in the air.
The sea with its dancing waves creates a beautiful symphony all the time.
It vibrates the shore enlivening, and invigorating the pristine earth with new energy and life.

The magical autumnal moon looks enchanting. In the rainy season, there is a beautiful movement of the clouds.
The raindrops create a rhythmic sound on the leaves and creepers.
All the heavenly bodies like the sun, stars, and planets all exist and move in a rhythmic vibration of forces.

The eternal subtle relationship between different creations is called rhythm and they cling to each other.


BOUNDLESS LOVE 

I have visualised the glory of boundless love in you.
Your eyes gleam of pure love.
That never wants anything in return.
I appreciate your belief in love.
If love is lust, the essence of love is lost.
In love, we just maintain a makeshift way. 
It ends with a casual life.
In most cases, love is not transported to a superior level
Love dies much before it blooms.
It dies with the disappearance of the body.
It destroys in body's level.
Love ceases its divinity.


Bio

Maheshwar Das is a bilingual poet, translator, editor, and story writer. He writes in English and Odia language.
He has been pursuing his creative writing for the last twenty years and has authored more than one thousand English poems. All of his poetical exposition centres around Nature, God,   love, and relationships. Some of his poems have been translated into international languages. He has co-authored three English anthologies of poems with his two friends.  Besides he is the co-author of more than fifty English anthologies of poems of many literary groups.
He holds the degree of M.A. in both Economics and History. He has accomplished a Ph.D.  degree in sociology from Utkal University. He also holds a law degree from M.S. Law College, Cuttack. He hails from Mallipur in the district of Cuttack, Odisha, India.
His English poems have been published in several national and international journals and Anthologies and have gained worldwide appreciation. He has received so many accolades from various national and international literary groups. He is a recipient of the Gold Medal award from the World Union of Poets, Rome.

Birthday Poem
 
My mind is filled to capacity by the divine.
There is no longer space for unresolved pain.
Although it never ceases to beat on the door 
of my sanity.
The divine excludes all misery and transforms 
it into love.
As the divine protects its own.
You ask me, 'What about the demands of the outside world.'
There is no outside world.
Only a false world made from fear and loathing.
A  world  tormented by misery and pain.
Waiting to enter and shake it up.
Ah, I say there is no world only love.
for that is what I choose.
What you choose is held in exile until you are ready.
The things of the earth need no external pleasure.
They are secure within.
Demons can no longer survive in the mind as there
is no air for them to breath.
They trip on the ruby slippers left by a lost and
tormented child.
Now healed, safe and free.
The woods are cold and dangerous.
and the life they offer is seductive.
The woods are full of hidden thorns and grief.
They must be left on the craggy rocks.
The must die before inflicting pain and sorrow.
Do not go near them for like burs they will stick
to you forever.
 
Sandy Rochelle

Mock Poet

 

Out of the blue of the internet

someone

asked me, as a non-poet,

to recommend a poem

for a special issue on non-poets

recommending poets.

 

Okay! I said. But!

There is a problem!

(Drumroll.)

 

I am a poet!

(Imagine a fanfare here.)

(You can find one on the internet.)

 

Out of the blue of the internet

someone

responded. “That’s okay,” they said.

They added, for encouragement:

“I play tennis sometimes.

But it’s not like I’m a tennis player.

Hobbyists are fine.”

 

Hey! I said.

(Imagine a sad fanfare here.)

(Imagine a weeping emoji.)

 

I have a book!

I am a real poet!

 

The internet shimmered.

The fanfare died.

I recommended

someone.

And sat down to write

whatever this is.

 

Not a poem.

WALKING with JESUS

Matthew 16:21 (NIV) -”Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

My witness is that Jesus told me to pick up my Cross and follow Him. I have found my life in walking with Jesus, carrying my cross in all kinds of situations. Walking through the light and darkness. Walking through the dry seasons in my life and the storms in my life. Walking each step following You, Lord. Your yoke is easy for on my own there is pain and sorrow for what I have lost. Your salvation has removed that pain and loss. I have been restored. My salvation and redemption have brought me eternal salvation. For I walk with you, and each step is a step of joy and faithfulness. In this life, there is peace, contentment, and joy. In this life, there is freedom from the pain and suffering that had held me captive. 

My soul is following your commandments to love others as myself. I love myself because of your sacrifice on the Cross for me. It is that ultimate denial of self which brought my freedom. Freedom brought with Your suffering and humiliation and finally Your Crucifixion. A sacrifice of the ultimate love for me dying on the Cross. You gave me a glimpse of eternal life preparing me for God's Kingdom. You showed me the Kingdom within me: mercy and forgiveness and gratitude. It is this mercy that brings me before your Glorious Father, as I kneel, at the altar of my heart. Moments in solitude and quietness are the essence of who I was created to be. Yes, I will pick up my Cross and follow you for you are my Lord, King of my redemption. 



CONVERSATIONS with GOD

For Dee my mother


 My foster mother Dee always spoke about God and Jesus Christ. God knows, she would say, and God doesn't like ugly. She always listened to the gospel station that was her life and took care of us children. Washing and ironing clothes and cooking our meals and preparing us for school. Washing our faces and combing our hair and putting Vaseline on our ashy skin. 

Our clothes were always clean. We were taught manners and to be respectful to all adults. Mostly, I remembered feeling alone and empty since my biological mother had left me. Dee took me in when I was two weeks old. I lived with her until my aunt adopted me at eight years of age. My conversations with God started at eight. I remembered Dee always talking to God aloud. Talking to God came naturally to me. Dee always talked to Jesus and she insisted He listened. Maybe He would hear my prayers. My fears and loneliness and anxiety were overwhelming. Walking the streets of D.C., I was afraid and felt terrorized with good cause because of the violence and turmoil in the streets.  


My aunt adopted me at age eight.  My aunt was Catholic, and being Catholic, she took me to Mass every weekday and Saturday and on Sundays. It was at a morning mass when the priest summoned me to the altar. I was to assist him on the altar to serve communion. This was my invitation to serve God as well. I stepped onto the altar. God wanted me in my street clothes. God wanted me. I genuflected (kneeling and making the sign of the Cross). The priest opened the gate and I stepped onto the altar for the first time, standing to the right side of the priest carrying the host plate (this is used to catch the consecrated host so it won’t touch the floor if it falls.)  

He served communion to each person, as they kneeled at the altar to receive Communion. He walked to each person kneeling with their eyes closed and their tongue out receiving the body of Christ. There was a sense of reverence for helping serve the body of Christ. I felt a personal calling to serve God and a closeness to God. Looking back on this experience. I realized God was real and wanted me to serve Him. This feeling of connecting to God never left me. 


My conversations with God began shortly after that first encounter. I had a place where I felt wanted. It was Holy Redeemer Church. From ages eight to ten, my refuge was the church. The calmness of God’s presence was the same as that first time serving communion.  I longed for God’s calming presence within me. There was a calling within me to recapture that loving and warm presence of God. 

I sat in the front pew and observed the altar candle burning (which served as a reminder of God's light always burning). I studied the white candle burning as it flicked side to side. This was God’s light and I watched it calmly. The colorful votive candles burned with various colors. red, blue, and yellow as I sat  there alone with the Holy Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.) The ceiling was covered with murals covering the dome.  Angels adorned the dome in a pretty sky-blue background with white wings.  There were statutes of Mary and Joseph and other Holy figures. This was the Holy family of Jesus. 

I now understand the meaning of hiding myself in myself
Myself finds myself crawling and craving towards the broken shadows of my grandfather's grave
I drank from my his grave till grief mastered my ancestry
Flaunting my name, myself drowns in my thoughts
Suddenly
She knocked on my soul
I entertained her footsteps while she dined drinking my wine
We shared the same bed and bread; I became her wife
Living an invisible life
Myself and her


Jesse Pheebemi Emmanuella