“To be killed in a war is not the worst that can happen. To be lost is not the worst. To be forgotten is the worst.” ~ Pierre Claeyssens – This poem is dedicated to all warrior poets and writers who have fought in wars, and to the poets and writers who have been the victims of wars. Let’s not forget them and their sacrifices.
On the eve of its 77th Independence Day, the world looks towards India, filled with wonder and high hopes. Meanwhile, India looks toward the world with hopeful anticipation, yearning for prosperity and global peace, particularly after the Ukraine-Russia conflict. Like any other country, India has its own unique challenges, problems, and ways of handling them, often not in line with Western approval. India’s distinct cultural identity, along with its social and political ideologies, does not conform to the template of Western culture and socio-political norms. Yet, India, since its independence on August 15th, 1947, has stood firm, akin to the Himalayas, regardless of the approval or disapproval of nations that feel challenged by its strong presence not only in South Asia but on the world stage.
My creative journey that began with “Chand Ka Paivand” (Patch of Moon), my first collection of poems I wrote in my teenage years and published in 1985, will be literally bound for the moon someday—who would have thought? Check out the full story in the New York Times published on July 27th 2023. Lunar Codex is a time machine to the future, an ultimate anthology of art and literature, a museum on the Moon. It is a set of time capsules, a message-in-a-bottle for future generations.
With the rain, we shall return to life again, the last tree standing in the forest said, before falling into the bushfire. The animals fled their homes. A mother koala, scorched, went looking for her baby, limping on the charred ground. The birds abandoned their nests and flew to fetch clouds from far skies. No one really knows how many birds and animals died, how many trees fell, offering their last sermons, but the earth. The earth remembers everything…
“River of Songs,” poem from “Bare Soul,” the winner of the “Naji Naaman Poetry Prize for Creativity” (2017), translated into Arabic by the Iraqi-American poet Dunya Mikhail, the recipient of the UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture and UN Human Rights Award for Freedom of Writing, published in the latest print edition of “Acculturation” magazine from the United Kingdom. “River of Songs” poem and poetry film have been archived by Lunar Codex to launch on the moon on two separate NASA missions in 2022 and 2023. https://linktr.ee/kalpnasinghchitnis
by Kalpna Singh-Chitnis The lives of indigenous people, their land, culture, identity, and virtue mattered, yet they didn’t. October 12th is celebrated as Indigenous Peoples’ Day in America, previously called Columbus Day. I am happy to see this change and awakening in America. We can’t sweep our history under the…
