A poignant poem celebrating love and nature, tinged with sadness, by Dr Nandini, exclusively for Different Truths.
Often I visit you as a tramp and come back like an empress. Or maybe, I assume, presume so in delight. Sometimes you are faceless. You lack your troposphere, thus, the grey sundown town by your shore dries up one’s heart. Still, I seek refuge in your familiar world of off-the-cuff words. Still, I promise you a sonnet when you ask – a sonnet to the sea in some far-reaching twilight! No matter how it chills or snows or shines, winter in the seashore lacks sunshine. No matter how much pain one would squeeze in the stomach, the sea laughs toothless and looks at me with transparent glass-like eyes. Waves glitter like Venus in the darkness of night. Last night, the howling clouds. Wind surfaces on a moonlit night the moon is massive as a smoothed golden ring. I promise you a sonnet, oh sea! Perhaps you, too, have a secret. You won’t tell me, just as I didn’t tell anyone neither my mother nor my grey-eyed lover nor even to the poplars at the far end of the garden. Listen to my sonnet, the song of broken threads and enhancement, gather a few drops of my alphabets in your palm and sprinkle some on your face! See how the sea and the sonnet merge like melody and dirge. See how the blazing sun and the soothing shower fuse; if possible see the trajectory to living through my sonnet to the sea and through my elegiac, plaintive Muse.
Picture design by Anumita Roy, Different Truths
Prof Nandini Sahu is the Vice Chancellor of Hindi University, West Bengal, and a celebrated Indian English poet and Amazon’s Best-selling Author. Formerly a Professor and Director at IGNOU, New Delhi, she is the author/editor of 23 books. A double Gold-Medalist, her accolades include a Gold Medal from the Vice President of India for English Studies, the Michael Madhusudan Academy Award-2024, and the Tagore Samman-2025. Her expertise spans Folklore, Hindu Studies, Comparative Literature, and Critical Theory.
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