by Gopikrishnan Kottoor
Take heart, heart that you have not lost heart
after all this-the idols you dreamt on have shattered,
their lips have broken beyond the realms of kisses;
take heart again, of the things you saw, those that tried
to break you to bits, but you saw through it all;
even though it was pain, was it not all dear
when you thought of them all, all over, again?
The mysteries of the flesh that you shared; that seemed
white as a promise,but was blackened to break and fall;
the images you saw through that in the name of love
and destined to throw you in a fall- Aren't you glad
you survived them all ? And with the gift you had
turned them into a compass for future call ?
Take heart again, the ways you tread, where you
think is fruit is but a weed or layered nothings at all .
Do you know yet, of any one that loved without grieving?
Or grief, pain-shell, that emptied the heart in the name of love
that was but bitter lust ? You see it everywhere,
in songs, in the voice of the dying debonair,
in the sculptor's hands at work forthe shape of love
sculpting till he breaks his stone.
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ABOUT THE POET ~
Born (1956), Trivandrum, Kerala, India., Winner, All India Poetry Prizes, Poetry Society, India-British Council Awards (96, 97, 98), and other leading poetry prizes. Poetry published in Ariel (Canada), Orbis (UK), Nth Position (UK), Bluefifth Review (UK), Toronto Review (Canada), The Illustrated Weekly of India, Kavya Bharati (India), Fulcrum (USA), Verse, Seattle, (USA), Indian Literature, Arabesque Review, Plaza (Japan), Chandrabhaga (India), and others. Founder editor, Poetry Chain. Participant, MFA, Texas state University, (2000) Poet in Residence, Augsburg University, Germany (2004). Important works : Poetry : Father, Wake Us In Passing, (German Translation, Wolfgang Heyder) A Buchenwald Diary, Mother Sonata, Victoria Terminus, Poems Selected and New (2010). The Coloured Yolk of Love (2012). Drama: Fire In The Soul The Mask of Death. Novel : A Bridge Over Karma (Novel). Poetry included in The Bloodaxe book of Contemporary Indian Poetry In English, The Golden Jubilee Anthology of Post Independence Indian poetry In English, and Poetry Society, India anthologies.
