SUMITRA MISHRA

SUMITRA MISHRA

A Prayer

I offer my eyes to you

My Lord

Intoxicate them

With the charming visions of your world.

I offer my ears to you

My Lord

Infatuate them

With the melodious music of morning prayers.

I offer my limbs to you

My Lord

Strengthen them

With the desire to serve the helpless, poor in need.

I offer my mind to you

My Lord

Enlighten it

With the holy words of gospel to dispel mortal fears.

I offer my heart to you

My Lord

Conserve it

Load it with the fragrance of love for one and all.

I offer my life to you

My Lord

Consecrate it

Lead me beyond the dark lakes of pretentious faith.

Benign Silence

When I am sarcastically pinched,

“The silent is a fool

The mute is a moron

For strong sounds make the world move and obey.”

I look at Nature to reason it out,

The trees look supplicating at me

Their sounds resound in my mind,

“Is it your voice?”

I ask, they answer.

“Doubt not yourself as a fool or moron

Try to feel the benign silence of Nature;

Lo! Look at your garden, the plants, bushes and grass,

Every day you plunder their fruits, flowers,

Branches, leaves, twigs, roots

Even the sap in their veins

And the juice in their heart

But they neither shout nor roar

Humbly they tolerate the cut or the slash

Bowing their heads and hands in benign silence

Can’t you feel their pain, their joy?”

I complain,

“But they have no power to shout,

Maybe they are bereft of voice and courage.”

A whirr, a hiss, a slush follows.

The breeze softly caresses my cheek,

I hear the voice again,

“Come, sit here by my side

On your shadowy south balcony

Where the coconut trees

Have spread their fronds

Between the grills

To shake your hands

Or hold your fingers,

Don’t cut those fronds

Those are the palms which will silently bleed

But make no groaning sound,

Their compassionate fingers

Will re-enter your portal

Holding peace with your temper

Lips shut tight

Like the wise man’s.

Look at the Earth, the hills, dales, rivers

Silently they absorb the human greed, violence

See how the sun, moon, and the stars saunter around you

In harmony along the silent sky.”

An appeal echoed inside me

“Don’t slash this benign silence, man;

With the cudgel of your vanity and greed

Don’t slay the frogs and fishes, children,

With the swords of your violent streak,

Can’t you hear their silent groan?

That mocks our foolish wars of words.”

I made a promise to myself,

“In benign silence, shall I live?

Repair, recuperate and reform

What the others cut and clip,

So forgive me dear, my moronic silence

Peace and harmony is my mission,

Though foolish or dumb I may seem.”

Forgive Me Lord

Forgive me Lord

For sheltering my soul

On the anchor of greed

And sailing like a crazy mariner

Or a supercilious pirate

On the sacred ocean of this life.

Forgive me Lord

For wandering shamelessly

In the puzzling woods of fancy

Weaving webs of fantasy

With foppish images and fabricated tales

To express morbid emotions hidden or forbidden.

Forgive me Lord

For listening helplessly

To the litany of provocation

And yielding to intoxication

Drinking from the bottles of lust

And sleeping on the cushion of passion.

Forgive me Lord

For selling the wares of love

In the fallen Eden of this mall market

And pursue the phantoms of wealth and Adam

In the hope of playing glamour and game

And living like a dreadful apparition in Eve’s name.

Forgive me Lord

For dissenting your will

And questioning your existence

In hours of deflated ego and anguish

Like an agnostic hung on the poles of doubt

And for forgetting the wisdom of sacred texts

And the forbearance of the great sages like Job.

But forget me not, my Lord, My father

To protect me from the monsters of desire

To support me in the combat for faith

To lead me kindly on the path of truth

And forgive me when I blunder in wrath.

Copy right:

 SUMITRA MISHRA

DR.MRS. SUMITRA MISHRA: Researcher, scholar, writer Dr. Sumitra Mishra is a retired English Professor from Odisha, India. She taught English language and literature to postgraduate students in different colleges and universities in Odisha, India.  She has three published anthologies of English poetry titled “Penelope’s Web”, “Flames of Silence” and “The Soul of Fire”, two volumes of Odia poems and two volumes of Odia short stories to her credit.