RANJANA SHARAN SINHA

 

 

A City Of Strangers

 

A Janus-faced city

under a blue-black vault!

The burnt out ends of

a million smoky days

seem to conspire to a wasteland

ravaged by uncertainty and solitude.

 

Life without a heartbeat:

The rush and tumble amid

mask-wearing robots !

Love-- strings of blinking bulbs--

Gropes through the mist

soused with darkness,

like the images drawn up

on fogged up windows.

 

Unbelievable play of paradoxes--

Extreme noise...extreme silence!

Laughing through tears,

crying through smiles,

crazy faces with chaotic feet--

Where do they go?

 

From the cityscape to the moon,

and the canvas of stars,

the uplands hang like

a trackless wilderness,

without babbling brooks of life,

some feverish dreams caught

in the webs of constellation!

 

All's changed since I,

playing with childhood friends

in this city, once intimate,

enjoyed many blissful moments!

Oh, some elusive, innocent shadows

come with a scent sublime

touching every fibre of my being!

 

A quantum leap in imagination--

The heart trembles in anticipation:

Surprise rainstorms shower

the dry zone-- spring suddenly sweeps:

Brilliant desert flowers bloom

to blanket the arid land!

 

RANJANA SHARAN SINHA

 

DR. RANJANA SHARAN SINHA: A recipient of many awards at national and international levels for her poetry, Dr. Ranjana Sharan Sinha is an acclaimed poet, author, academic and retd. professor of English, RTM Nagpur University, Nagpur, India. Besides the awards she has received a commendation from the former President of India, A.P.J.Abdul Kalam for her poem 'Mother Nature'. Her poems are included in Postgraduate as well as B.A.( Major) University Syllabus and have been translated into a number of foreign languages. Her poems, short stories, articles and research papers have been widely published in prestigious dailies, magazines, archives, e-zines and journals. Her poems have featured in more than forty international anthologies including those of World Poetry Movement (WPM). Authored and published 10 books in different genres and nearly 50 research papers. One of the members of the Editorial Board, Our Poetry Archive (OPA).