WELCOME
TO
OUR POETRY ARCHIVE
FROM THE EDITOR
Most people infected with
the COVID-19 virus will experience mild to moderate respiratory illness and
recover without requiring special treatment.
Older people, and those with underlying medical problems like
cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, and cancer are
more likely to develop serious illness.
The best way to prevent
and slow down transmission is be well informed about the COVID-19 virus, the
disease it causes and how it spreads. Protect yourself and others from
infection by washing your hands or using an alcohol-based rub frequently and
not touching your face.
The COVID-19 virus spreads
primarily through droplets of saliva or discharge from the nose when an
infected person coughs or sneezes, so it’s important that you also practice
respiratory etiquette (for example, by coughing into a flexed elbow).
At this time, there are no
specific vaccines or treatments for COVID-19. However, there are many ongoing
clinical trials evaluating potential treatments.” ------ World Health
Organization
This is the most unfortunate
time in recent history of human civilization to begin an editorial of an
international monthly web journal with the introduction of a notice issued by
World Health Organization. The world is striving hard to combat the most infectious
disease human civilization has ever encountered.
None of us is safe. The disease
may infect anyone anytime anywhere. Nobody knows who and when and where. People
are hiding from the virus everywhere. Get locked in their own homes. The usual
course of our everyday-life has changed dramatically everywhere. People are
afraid to meet anyone outside. Streets are deserted. It seems to be the setting
of a horror movie. Almost everything is closed down to a halt. Nobody knows for
how many days or even months. Every day the number of infected people is
increasing by leaps and bound. The death tolls are mounting high enough to make
everyone alarmed and afraid. The economy is crashing down in most countries.
Which will most likely be followed by starvation, famine and more deaths. So,
at present we are in a mess. The most difficult situation after the end of
World War II. The most hovering question is, who will be the next victim of
Corona Virus COVID 19.
The topic of the year 2020! All
the other news has been side-lined by COVID 19. We don’t know how the world
will overcome this pandemic. And when! But we can foresee thousands of people
will never see the morning sun again. As yet, we have lost about thirty thousand
valuable lives around the world. Even most specialized doctors and nurses have
lost their lives in the battle against corona virus. And the tragedy is still
looming large even after almost three months since its first strike.
One can only hope to remain safe
at home locked down and isolated from the social community. But this cannot
work for an infinite period of time. People have to go out to buy food grain
and other essential commodities to carry on living. Again, the risk of getting
infected with COVID 19 is much higher when stepping outside of home. So, either
one can remain safe from the corona virus by isolation and has to starve and
die inside the protection of one's own home, or one has to take the risk of
getting infected by this deadly virus by stepping out of home to buy essential
commodities and food. Either way death can overcome us.
When death is knocking at your
door, what will you do? Will you go on with your usual schedule of everyday
life? Obviously not. We will certainly try our best to fight and remain alive
till our last breath, which is what we are actually doing right now in our
individual capacities. I am not sure whether it is the proper time to publish
any literary journal right now. But, as the editor and publisher of Our Poetry
Archive, one of the most talked about international monthly web journals of the
present day, I feel it is my duty to publish this April number according to the
scheduled time. I also hope that many of you, as regular readers and poets of
OPA, will take time to flip through the journal especially now when we all
should try to keep up a certain level of normality and seek support and comfort
in poetry among other things.
Yes, it is a most tragic time in
our recent history. People are fighting against this dangerous disease around
the world. It is therefore a special challenge for OPA to publish the first
issue of the sixth year of Our Poetry Archive. It is not an easy task to
publish a web journal every month right on time. But we have done it every month
since April 2015 with precision. It has been possible only due to the poets who
have provided their unconditional support and thanks to the readers worldwide,
who have made the journal so popular internationally. We remain obliged to our
readers and poets. As the founder editor, I would also like to thank all my
colleagues of the editorial desk who have lent their unconditional support
round the clock and helped to carry on with each and every publication month
after month.
I would like to conclude this editorial
note with few reflections on this worldwide pandemic. Let us first assume this
is a natural phenomenon. If that is true, then we should consider this pandemic
as a wake-up call for mankind. Through science and technological breakthroughs,
we have damaged our mother nature beyond imagination. Our everyday life is
hurting nature a great deal. It is high time to become aware of this fact. The
Global Warming has reached an all-time high, which is the root of many recent
natural disorders. We should also keep in mind that the random use of deadly
missiles on a massive scale has also harmed the ecosystem of the world. We have
also destroyed the ecological balance through exercising our pride and power of
questionable technological innovations. And if we are not ready to acknowledge
our own wrong doings, we will certainly live in fool’s paradise. Nature will
not spare us forever. It will strike back in numerous ways and forms, which
will demolish our pseudo paradise to the ground. If we don't learn the lesson
now, it will possibly be too late to save mankind in our beloved world.
If, on the contrary, COVID 19 is
a man-made virus, as many people assume, then we should be aware that we are
heading towards our suicidal end. Provided that it is a true fact that the
biggest pharmaceutical industries are involved in a sinister plot of making
huge profit through selling vaccines against COVID 19, which after all may be
their own invention, then we would have the scenario of the world turned into a
ghetto where we are mere pawns of capital. Let’s hope this is not true,
otherwise nature will take its revenge soon. And nobody will remain safe, not
even the deadly and evil monsters who might have plotted this pandemic.
Summing up, in either case the
post COVID 19 world will never be the same. Our social structures and community
standards will surely be affected beyond imagination. Whenever will step
outside our homes, we will be afraid of contact with our fellow beings. This
will drastically affect the human relationships. Nobody will feel safe among
others. Can you imagine the impact of this behaviour in our everyday life? The
post COVID 19 era may take a sharp turn from the traditional human history.
Today we can only hope that these are just today's premonitions and that tomorrow
we will wake up to a better, rejuvenated humanity.
*Edited By Aprilia Zank
From The
Editorial Desk
OPA
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