Friday, May 1, 2020

NilavroNill Shoovro


WELCOME
TO
OUR POETRY ARCHIVE


FROM THE EDITOR

So, now we are living in a pandemic world of COVID-19. Locked down at home or in isolation at quarantine centre or fighting for life lying on the hospital beds. The term “pandemic” has a long history, it is still not been defined by many medical texts, and the conception is still changing. But there are some key features of a pandemic, including wide geographic extension, disease movement, novelty, severity, high attack rates and explosiveness, minimal population immunity, infectiousness and contagiousness, which help us to understand what pandemics are. The negative impacts of pandemic are serious. Pandemics can infect millions of people, causing widespread serious illness in a large population and thousands of deaths. All these are the realities of this COVID-19 pandemic with high morbidity and mortality around the globe. A security threat of pandemic influenza as is not a recent phenomenon. Global security is threated from pandemics, in terms of lives and economic stability An effective and efficient emergency response can reduce avoidable mortality and morbidity and reduce the types of economic and social impacts. How to have an effective and efficient emergency management will be a critical task of governments to deal effectively with disease outbreak and a pandemic.

The social impacts of pandemics can be severe, include travel is strictly limited, and schools are closed, markets and sporting are closed. All these are the everyday reality in this pandemic with true potential for high morbidity and mortality. Population mobility is also a key factor. Movement is difficult and the travel including visiting families, carrying goods to markets are restricted by military check points. The closure of airports and cancellation of flights affecting people’s travel, livelihood, and family life. With the rapid development in worldwide aviation over the last two decades, the risk of global pandemics has escalated with increased passenger traffic. Closing the airports harms the economy of the affected regions. School closure is often considered the first non-pharmaceutical intervention for implementation in a pandemic, as students are effective in spreading the virus. Timely school closure and cancellation of public gatherings is significantly associated with reduced mortality related to influenza epidemics. With the disruption of food supply in the cities, people cannot find necessary food and living things because market and shops remain closed. This also can cause a long-lasting change in people’s diet. Pandemics are no longer simply the domain of public health and clinical medicine, but are a social issue, a development issue, and a global security issue. Pandemics cause devastation to human lives and livelihoods much as do wars, financial crises. Pandemic prevention and response, therefore, should be treated as an essential tenet of both national and global security – not just as a matter of health.

Pandemic influenza represents a serious threat not only to the population of the world, but also to its economy. The impact of economic loss can result in instability of the economy. The impact is through direct costs, long term burden, and indirect costs. The direct costs of dealing with the disease outbreak can be very high. The long-term burden is also severe. One of the main burdens is from the loss of earnings of those who have died. Indirect costs are also very heavy. They include everything that contributes to a decline in GDP. Some sectors of economy may be more heavily affected than others. Thus, pandemics have both immediate and long-term effects that can damage the economic life of a nation for many years to come.

So, the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has created a global health crisis that has had a deep impact on the way we perceive our world and our everyday lives. Not only the rate of contagion and patterns of transmission threatens our sense of agency, but the safety measures put in place to contain the spread of the virus also require social distancing by refraining from doing what is inherently human, which is to find solace in the company of others. Within this context of physical threat, social and physical distancing, as well as public alarm, what has been (and can be) the role of the different mass media channels in our lives on individual, social and societal levels?

Mass media have long been recognized as powerful forces shaping how we experience the world and ourselves. This recognition is accompanied by a growing volume of research, that closely follows the footsteps of technological transformations. Are media still able to convey a sense of unity reaching large audiences, or are messages lost in the noisy crowd of mass self-communication? Do social media provide solace or grounds for misinformation, (de)humanization, and discrimination? How can different media industries and channels for mass communication promote adaptive responses to foster positive health attitudes and adherence to preventive measures? How media impact the dynamics in the private domain (e.g. strengthen family bonds versus domestic conflict and violence)? All these are to be watched closely now and throughout the upcoming times.

We think mass media should play a key roll to keep us united in the name of humanity and solidarity. We also think web journals as well as literary activities around the world can also play a definitive roll to guard us from phycological as well as mental problems in this horrific time. It can also help us to communicate with our inner souls and can keep us engaged with creativity to harness our individual potentialities. Even during this locked down period this will help us a lot to shift our imbedded fear of deaths and the overwhelming anxieties of upcoming economics hurdles into some more prosperous and creative activities.

So, with this vision we at OPA has prepared yet another monthly edition of Our Poetry Archive. May 2020. We are really excited to introduce poet Hela Tekali of Tunisia as the Poet of The Month. Dr. Aprilia Zank the distinguished member of our editorial team has taken an exclusive interview of the poet. Personally, I remain obliged to both of them for this present edition. We hope our readers will enjoy this edition even more in this locked down period.

Like the previous years, this year also we’ll publish the yearly OPA Anthology Of Poetry 2020. This year we have selected the topic as “Striving for SURVIVAL”. We are glad that more than hundred poets around the world have already submitted their poems written on this special topic. Any poet can also participate in this upcoming Anthology with at least 3 poems written in English, only on this topic. To submit poems, one has to send also the recent profile picture and a short BIO written only in 3rd person narrative. The submission address for this Anthology is opa.anthology@gmail.com

Poems submitted in .pdf files will not be accepted. The last date of submission is 30th May’ 2020.

From The Editorial Desk
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HELA TEKALI WITH APRILIA ZANK


APRILIA ZANK TALKING WITH
POET OF THE MONTH

HELA TEKALI
MAY 2020

APRILIA ZANK: According to the American poet Robert Frost, “Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.”

Can, in your opinion, all thoughts be 'translated' into words?

HELA TEKALI: I agree with the statement of Robert Frost who is doubtlessly my favourite poet , but I will add that thoughts not only must be ‘translated’ into words, but also into ‘actions’ for poetry cannot be an ‘achieved tract’ without being put into a firm ‘act’, which has ultimately to do with the religion of love, humanity, justice, spirituality, and above all spreading the Will of Almighty God on our Beloved earth.


APRILIA ZANK: The English romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley once wrote: “Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar.”

Can you explain how poetry unveils the hidden beauty of the world?

HELA TEKALI: I have once written that

“Your ego is a veil between you and your fairy tale,
lift up its dreary curtain for love to be certain.’’

I totally agree with Percy Bysshe Shelley when he claims that: “Poetry unveils the hidden beauty of the world” since poetry is the one of the most spontaneous genres of writing, it henceforth deals with the inner self, as it flows randomly from the layers of the soul. Poetry is ,thus, one of the most transparent doors to ‘inner beauty’, and the truest gateway or pathway to grace , it is a cure to the soul once the poet becomes a mirror to himself , and realizes the genius behind his pure soul. When the poet takes a supernatural, or a hidden thing and makes it sound familiar this is how he turns the magic into reality, and thereby lifts up the veil behind the hidden beauty of the world.


APRILIA ZANK: The American poet of English origin W. H. Auden was convinced that, “A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.”

Do you think that poetic language should always be refined and cultivated, or may it also be rough and raw if necessary?

HELA TEKALI: I think that the poetic language should be always refined and cultivated, then be kept rough and raw even though this may also depend on the type of reader, whether he is an avid reader of poetry, an enthusiast, or he belongs to a low-level readership. I have once written that ‘poetry is the flame that burns but does not extinguish. It is the fire that can’t be expunged by any language.” In spite of the poetic devices, and the level of diction that must be respected whenever one writes a piece of art while keeping at pace with the prevailing genre of his century, taking into account, the stylistic, as well as, the linguistic and poetic skills. However, this does not exclude the fact, that in my opinion, a good piece of writing is the one that leaves its imprints on the reader’s mind thanks to the didactic, and prophetic message it carries despite the fact of shedding the light on its refinement, or roughness.


APRILIA ZANK: Please consider the following statement of the English scholar and poet A. E. Housman: “Even when poetry has a meaning, as it usually has, it may be inadvisable to draw it out... Perfect understanding will sometimes almost extinguish pleasure.”

Do you write or prefer explicit poetry with an obvious meaning or message, or rather more cryptic, challenging poetry?

HELA TEKALI: I’d rather prefer to write cryptic or challenging poetry with an underlying message, or meaning. Indeed, I am for mystical or Sufi poetry that carries a hidden lesson, and leaves an open door for a free interpretation from the side of either the reader, or the literary critic. I do not think that there is a ‘perfect understanding ‘of any poem whatsoever, since the audience may differ, they may either be religious, atheist, spiritual, or even antagonistic.  When taking the example of sufi poetry some readers may stop at the erotic message expressed in the verses , while others may read between the lines since this ecstatic pleasure heightens the spirit from the shallow, bodily , or fleshly desire to experience the most heavenly , spiritual, mystical nirvana , as it is stated in those lines from the Rumi:

“In your light I learn how to love
In your beauty how to make poems
You dance inside my chest when no one can see you
But sometimes I do
And this sight has become this art.”


APRILIA ZANK: “Poetry heals the wounds inflicted by reason.”, is a famous quote by the German romanticist and philosopher Novalis.

To what extent can poetry have a therapeutic effect?

HELA TEKALI: I once said: ‘’ That poetry is the best therapy to the self in the form of soul healing.” And that ‘Everything starts with the scar for the wound to bloom into a blessing star.”

I totally agree with Novalis’s statement, Poetry is more about intuition than reason as it deals with feelings and insight rather than mere logic. As Ernest Hemingway wrote in his famous quote that ‘There is nothing about writing than to sit at your typewriter and bleed.” The best form of pleasure, the search for peace of mind, and the sensation of tranquillity that the poet can achieve is through this “ spontaneous overflow of emotions’ inked by his bloody pen which can be the outcome of suffering, misunderstanding, sense of solitude, grief, sorrow, or dissatisfaction from society and his incessant endeavour to change the reality of his surrounding, or bring a decisive turning point emanating from his revolutionary thoughts.


APRILIA ZANK: According to Salvatore Quasimodo, an Italian poet and literary critic, “Poetry is the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be interior and personal which the reader recognizes as his own.”

Is, in your opinion, the poet primarily a personal voice, or rather the echo of his fellow beings?

HELA TEKALI: The poet is both a personal voice and the echo of his fellow beings. Ordinary beings sometimes are incapable of translating their wrath or dissatisfaction about society into words, or actions. It is up then to the poet to take the initiative, and to turn what he sees, as wrong or an unacceptable conduct in his society into persuasive or convincing euphemistic and poetic eloquence. The poet, then ,acts as a personal voice on behalf of his fellow ordinary beings, as well as, an echo speaking in the name of a whole community, spreading light behind darkness, justice behind unfairness, and love behind hatred .He is a seer, who plays the role of a didactic messenger, using his highly philosophical discourses to connect with the supreme forces of nature , endeavouring to establish eternal justice on earth.


APRILIA ZANK: The American literary critic M. H. Abrams asserted that, “If you read quickly to get through a poem to what it means, you have missed the body of the poem.”

Do you also think readers need to be educated as to how to go through a poem? If 'yes', in which way?

HELA TEKALI: Certainly, readers have to be educated to know ‘how’ to go through a poem. We have to scan and skim the poem, stop at every poetic device, stylistic and linguistic structures. Many poems have hidden messages, cryptic or even challenging allusions, that require a highly cultivated, or an erudite reader to fathom into its hidden connotations. The complexity of the poem requires an experienced reader who is able to decipher the underlying, profound level; and not to rest at the literal level.


APRILIA ZANK: Let us now consider the words of the American songwriter and poet Jim Morisson: “If my poetry aims to achieve anything, it's to deliver people from the limited ways in which they see and feel.”

Can you please tell us how poetry can be/become educational?

HELA TEKALI: Poetry can become educational likewise as Nelson Mandela stated: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Through its didactic and metaphoric message, poetry can influence the world, and be influenced by it. Indeed, strong emotions and the power of feelings transmitted through this piece of art can change the way we think, behave, or even feel. Like the Romantic poets in the 18 th century, who primarily led to the industrial revolution , and Enlightenment, and were able to establish a metamorphosis from a society blindly believing in rationality into a society where romanticism, power of strong senses, intuition, insight, celebration of the individual, importance of imagination , nature as symbol of life , and as a ‘ caring nurse’ became the prevailing attributes of the Enlightenment era.


APRILIA ZANK: The British-American poet T. S. Eliot claimed that, “Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.”

Do you sometimes/often experience 'love at first sight' for poems that you have not understood immediately/completely?

HELA TEKALI: Of course, I do believe that we can fall in love with a poem at first sight but it depends on the power of delivery, or revelation from the side of the poet. Not all poets are ‘genuine’, ‘authentic’, ‘spontaneous’, ‘colourless’ in their insight, and are capable of arousing such impact on the enthusiast. I do believe that a romantic poet like William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, or William Wordworth is able to indulge the reader in his wondrous, sensitive, imaginary, revelatory, supernatural mainstream, than a rational poet could perhaps ever arise.



APRILIA ZANK:  Paul Valéry, a French poet, essayist, and philosopher, said: “A poem is never finished, only abandoned.”

Do you also think that the final 'embodiment' of a poem happens in the mind of the reader?

HELA TEKALI: I do not think that any poem is abandoned since its didactic message is always open to interpretation done on purpose by the writer to invite the reader to visualize the ‘embodiment of the poem’. Each reader may envision a specific version of the lesson acquired from the poem according to his experience in life, or past mistakes that s/he endeavours to avoid in his present situation, and the blessings he expects for the future. I think that every poem is never finished or even abandoned, but a piece of enlightenment drawn by the poet to incite the reader to be as imaginative, and visionary as the poet.


APRILIA ZANK: The famous British-Indian writer Salman Rushdie believes that, “A poet's work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep.”

Should, in your opinion, poetry have a strong social and/or militant component?

HELA TEKALI: Poetry indeed has both a strong social, and a military component. In periods of colonisations, many revolutionary poets compose poems with anti- social, and anti-political allusions to incite the public stance to take on militant decisions to defend the interests of the country from political turmoil, social injustice, sex discrimination, racism, slavery, despotism, unfair imprisonment, and to take decisive actions to stop imperialism, and call for independence.


APRILIA ZANK: The poetic credo of the highly influential American poet Maya Angelou was the following: “The poetry you read has been written for you, each of you - black, white, Hispanic, man, woman, gay, straight.”

Do you also think that your poetry addresses a large and varied audience?

HELA TEKALI: All poetry must address a highest audience. Poetry is a universal plea, or a nationwide appeal to stop all forms of corruption, injustice, racism, sexual abuse, ethnicity, rape, religious fanaticism, etc...I believe that my poetry is a call for a religion of love, and above all the awakening of the soul. Despite our religious creed, my poetry is a message for all varied audience to open their third eye, and see that the body is just an ‘entropy’, a ‘simulacrum’, a ‘Da-Sein’ as Martin Heidegger coined it; the body alone cannot lead to a ‘ pure consciousness’, but it is a crucial vehicle or a medium to awaken the hidden beauty inside us, and to harmoniously connect with the divine energies of nature that allow us to be creative, imaginative, visionary. The world is full of ‘bodies, and devoid of souls’. Once the body becomes aware of the soul, and ultimately of it elevated intellect which is the spirit. Once the soul is silenced, the spirit is heightened, and the more it is inclined towards the spiritual temple, the deeper it becomes likened to Angels as Picco Della Mirandella once stated On the Oration of the Dignity Of Man.


HELA TEKALI: Hela Jenayah Tekali is an outstanding mystical poet from Tunisia. An English teacher at the Faculty of Science, Tunisia. She has authored 6 books on Sufism and Spirituality, and Mystic poetry. Halos of Light ( poetry 2015) , the Quest of Love ( poetry 2017) , the Soaring of my Soul ( poetry 2018) , Mystical Eye ( 2018) and The Song Of The Thirsty Bird ( 2019) ; “Metaphysics : A Mirror to Mysticism” ( literary criticism 2019).She has co-authored a book on Indo – North African Poetry entitled ‘Eternal Showers’. She has also figured on several international anthologies such as Rain Drops of Love, Birds of Peace, Ambrosia, and Our Poetry Archive. Hela Jenayah Tekali is a thorough – bred mystical poet who was honoured as Most Outstanding Mystical Poet by Philosphique Poetica, an international forum dedicated to Poetry, Art, and Philosophy. She was also conferred the Award of Ambassador of Literature by Motivational Strips, another international portal dedicated to poetry.



Dr. APRILIA ZANK is an educationist, freelance lecturer for Creative Writing and Translation Theory, as well as a multilingual poet, translator, editor from Munich, Germany and an Author of the Poetry book BAREFOOT TO ARCADIA. Born in Romania, she studied English and French Literature and Linguistics at the University of Bucharest, and then moved to Munich, Germany where she received her PhD degree in Literature and Psycholinguistics for her thesis, THE WORD IN THE WORD Literary Text Reception and Linguistic Relativity, from the Ludwig Maximilian University, where she started her teaching career. The research for her PhD thesis was done in collaboration with six universities from Europe, and as a visiting lecturer at Alberta University of Edmonton, Canada. Dr Aprilia writes verses in English and German, French and Romanian and was awarded a distinction at the “Vera Piller” Poetry Contest in Zurich. Her poetry collection, TERMINUS ARCADIA, was 2nd Place Winner at the Twowolvz Press Poetry Chapbook Contest 2013. In 2018, she was awarded the title “Dr. Aprilia Zank – Germany Beat Poet Laureate”, by the National Beat Poetry Foundation (USA). She has been an acclaimed guest at cultural events in Germany, Great Britain, Canada, Turkey, Singapore and Romania, where she read her poems, delivered lectures on various topics. Her poems and articles are published in many ezines and Anthologies of different countries.

HELA TEKALI


HELA TEKALI

My Grounded Body

In my galactic space I choose to dwell,
Giving meaning to my existence
I open my heart and listen
To the secrets of my inner space
It tells me to be brave, passionate, wild, and free
And I am willing to surrender like I were a fertile tree.

My galactic space tells me to ground my soul in my body
So that I may find temporary peace on earth
For once I am earthed, I understand,
The profound truth behind my existence,
And I will see everything with clarity,
That this grounded body is my temple of divinity
I can now travel through this galactic vacuum
I see myself as a structure of atom split into
Multiple galaxies and planets that define me
A cosmic space I choose to dwell will divine me
I will be the creator of my own world, here I'll stay
With my grounded body as my Mother Nature
She will heal me infusing her vibration into this new creature.
Jenayah Hela tekali
Copyright 21/03/20








Telepathy

Love between us starts as a telepathy
Exchange of mirror neurons between you and me
I see you despite the distance that separates us
It's like neuroscience that connects us.

The psycho space becomes a vacuum place
Consciousness runs faster than any kind of race
Our bodies and souls soar in the open sky
Ethereal selves glide high; and soulfully fly.

Telepathy is this union between you and me
Older than billions of years, and any time of history
It is this spirit of science that bonds us together
A butterfly of the ethereal self-softer than any feather.

Telepathy is that energy between you and me
With vibration, frequency, a bit of electricity
When your spirit touches mine even from afar
Distance dissipates as you appear before my eye.
Jenayah Hela Tekali
Copyright 15/ 03/ 20








The Big Bang Of My Heart

Existence starts with an explosion of my heart
With hydrogen and helium blowing up from the scar of my art
I am that carved stone that gushes water
The cracked rock with an unchanged matter.

Existence is tied to a mystifying chemistry of love
Two bodies that dissolve into a chemical reaction
Alchemy that splits into magic from above
Oxygen and water turning into a chemical equation.

A field of electrons constitutes my nuclei
Protons and neutrons wobble, whirl, and sway
A puzzling magnetic field my heart is trapped in
A Big Bang, a chemical nomenclature of good and sin.

An explosion of my heart gives birth to my muse
Anions and ions that crash, disperse, and fuse
Chemical compounds drown me in this ingenious periodic table
For the big bang of my heart has become my new label.
Jenayah Hela Tekali
Copyright 28/02/20










Hydrogen And Helium
(HHe)

Is my soul made both of hydrogen and Helium
Or of the two compounds of methane and iron
I am the essence of my own chemistry
And the chemistry of my own essence
I am the noble gas that gives impetus to my magic
The oxygen and water that give birth to my lyric
My soul takes birth out of the womb of chemistry
For hydrogen and helium dissolve in my poetry
My E motion is tied to a chemical reaction
A formulae of electricity and magnetism that convert into a chemical equation
The kinetic theory of gases inspires my muse
To write about the chemistry of the universe
As substances and their behaviour with my
Kinetic energy burns and fuse.
Jenayah Hela Tekali
Copyright








"BE" And It "Is"

From surat yasin originates all my " Sin"
It is my self-redemption when i look from within
It has always been my beholder and my glory
from a past full of mistakes that led to my sad story.

Allah created the universe by uttering " Be!" and it is,
and destroyed it by the utterance of die and it is
He who hath created the heavens and the earth is able to lead me
Far beyond the dungeons of darkness and sins and heal me.
He who hath given birth to dry bones, and decomposed bodies
He who hath created Jesus in the image of Adam from dust and said: " Be!" and it is
He who hath granted zakarya with Yahya when he was old and his wife barren did whatever He please
He who hath gifted Mary with a son when no man touched her
when he hath decreed a matter said to it: " Be!" and it is.
How can now rules of science be valid in front of " His"?
When above the " Relativity" of time and space He decides: " Be! and it is
So glory to Him in whose hands is the dominion of all things
In whose utterance lies the truest " Theory to Everything."
" Relativity ' is that modern concept that is still submissive to the will of the " Sublime"
Whenever one of us sins and asks for forgiveness His mercy challenges all boundaries of space and time.
Love is granted to all when He decides: "Be! and it is"
All source of " knowledge” ‘itself dissolves in front of ' His'.
Jenayah Hela Tekali
Copyright 29 /01/20


HELA TEKALI


HELA TEKALI:Hela Jenayah Tekali is an outstanding mystical poet from Tunisia. An English teacher at the Faculty of Science, Tunisia. She has authored 6 books on Sufism and Spirituality, and Mystic poetry. Halos of Light ( poetry 2015) , the Quest of Love ( poetry 2017) , the Soaring of my Soul ( poetry 2018) , Mystical Eye ( 2018) and The Song Of The Thirsty Bird ( 2019) ; “Metaphysics : A Mirror to Mysticism” ( literary criticism 2019).She has co-authored a book on Indo – North African Poetry entitled ‘Eternal Showers’. She has also figured on several international anthologies such as Rain Drops of Love, Birds of Peace, Ambrosia, and Our Poetry Archive. Hela Jenayah Tekali is a thorough – bred mystical poet who was honoured as Most Outstanding Mystical Poet by Philosphique Poetica, an international forum dedicated to Poetry, Art, and Philosophy. She was also conferred the Award of Ambassador of Literature by Motivational Strips, another international portal dedicated to poetry.



ALEXANDRA H. RODRIGUES


ALEXANDRA H. RODRIGUES

Payback

She is a lovely little lady
Quite spry for her age
She is fun on every level
Never resorts to tantrums or rage.

At times she was rich
And sometimes poor
No matter what
She remained always demure.

Wherever she could she would spread a smile
It would make any sadness pass in a while

It gave her pleasure to share what she had
There was never a time when she really got mad
When we visited she would invite us to stay
Till later she would send us with a kiss on our way

Then one day a turn of events appeared
I had stopped by her house to be cheered
The greeting I got was anything but warm
My brain immediately sounded alarm.

The lady who always looked so proper and prim
Seemed in a puddle of blood or was it jelly to swim
“Leave me alone,” she did stutter
Followed by a vile curse I’d never heard her utter.

I felt to me as if I had gotten hit by a truck
That I knew her good side became her luck
Knowing how sweet and happy her mannerism was
Made me decide to stay and check for the cause

Then suddenly she gave out a loud scream
Choked, then spit out what looked like cream
Irritated she stamped her feet
I realized that for 911 emergency was dire need.

The poor lady a seizure had had
That I had stayed and acted I was now very glad.
Had she been a nasty old witch during times before
I admit I would quickly have been out the door.

Our lady friend, she recovered well
To whoever wanted to hear this story she would tell
I got more praise than I deserved
She will never know that I had between decisions swerved.

It seems true that if a good deed one does perform
It reaches the universe and becomes one’s norm
Good produces good, so try to be nice
It is only fair that being bad has rightfully its price.







Monkey – Monkey

In a Zoo and born in a cage
Puck had no wish a challenge to wage.
Given the daily necessities
He had no desires, did not seek release.
Wild monkeys came to visit from the outside
Tried to convince Puck to join in their fight
Stressing that freedom is everybody’s right.

“I see it is hard for you to survive,” said Puck
“Why would I give up my easy life, why tempt luck?
“Do you have no far- reaching goal?
No yearning that inhibits your soul?”
Puck was asked by the free roaming monkey bunch.
“Don’t you have about liberty a hunch?”

Puck shook his head. “All I hear of is killing and war
Animals are tormented more and more.”
With gusto a banana he peeled.
While happily on a swing he kneeled.
“I can climb around or go to sleep,
At all times the advantage of choice I reap.”

As the exchange of words went on
A caregiver entered the cage with a ton.
He refreshed the water and cleaned the floor.,
Done, with a smile and a mumble he shut the door
“You animals for sure have a good life
For comfort like this I myself always strive.”

Aha, Puck thought
If a human would like to change with me
No advantage in being free, I can see.
The group of wild monkeys went their way
They saw no use near the captive to stay.
Being monkeys they could not understand
What with “To each his own. Is meant.








My Garden

Year after year my garden goes through stages
As does our body while it ages
With spring incarnation begins
The embryo is free of sins.
Virgin plants push through the earth
Like babies do at time of birth.

In summer the splendor makes whistling winds sing
The June bride shivers with joy and takes her ring.
Flowers and trees thrive in their beauty,
The man in his prime is conscious of duty.

When fall comes nature acquires a veil
And the minds of people follow this trail.
Remote sadness mingles with peace,
Leaves unwillingly abandon their trees.

During winter grounds fall dormant in snow and ice
The human heart beats calm and wise.
All is filled with anticipation of the unknown
God gave us nature and life as a loan.

ALEXANDRA
H. RODRIGUES