POEM BY SUNIL SHARMA
Sunil Sharma loves to listen to the symphonies of the birds, winds, oceans, rivers and watch the sky and stars for their ethereal beauty.
A humble word-worshipper: catcher of elusive sounds, meanings and images Currently based in Toronto, Canada, he has published 27 creative and critical books so far – joint and solo.
A winner of, among others, the Golden Globe Award-2023, and, Nissim Award for Excellence for Prose, 2022, for the political novel Minotaur.
His poems were included in the prestigious UN project: Happiness: The Delight-Tree: An Anthology of Contemporary International Poetry, 2015.
Editor of the monthly SETU JOURNAL (English)
THEATRE
The immensity of sky!
A view unhindered by the lack of the clusters of high-rises
that are standard in mega cities.
Here, suburban Toronto, the sky
is infinite, real-time.
Overawed!
This late-December morning,
it is full of clouds,
each hurtling down,
masses of dark grey and light grey
against a stunning blue.
You feel part of a cosmic show!
FLIGHTS OF GEESE
Against a soft evening, dark-faced, while
flurries dance in slow motion,
a woman, laded with two bags of groceries,
down the Gore Drive, stops mid-way
and gawks at the flights of geese
blobs of dark brown, moving in
perfect sync, in big formations,
mesmerized like a kid, at this divine sight!
THE CHILD
He saw the child walking down the street
on a lonely night
the traffic was fast
the houses well-lit
in little communities
on the Cottrell Boulevard
a wind rises up suddenly, as the
light darkness thickens
and the child looks back
at the old man, away from
Delhi home
startling him by this sudden
appearance on that long walkway!
He finds his younger self
walking there, in an alien
corner of the earth.
NIGHTS
Nights have got many
tongues, they bring their own
script and speech patterns.
Each night speaks its own
syllables, tones and songs
distinctly individual,
many shades;
they get
heard by a soul
that goes in rapture
by the
intense music and harmony
of each natural sonata
of many scales.
SIREN
The siren heard loud
and clear.
Then a squad car rushes on the distant
highway.
Somebody vulnerable
in need
unsettling audio, on a snowy evening,
desolate street!
MARKET
The writer wants to sell their products
in the North American market,
unsure of the tone, accent, texture,
voice and colours.
But
bold enough
or naive to
try
a saturated market
occasionally looking for
variety and
diversity in an
all-encompassing whiteness,
a monochromatic space with
its attendant familiar tropes and
comfort for the reified literary agents
and merged houses of publications,
all ready for newer fantasies
and dystopian visions,
projects having potential as to be
the future best-sellers
But occasionally
allowing a minor disruption by
a lone signature promising return
in the segment
patronized by people-of-colour;
Real pain and trauma and hope of
history, culture and
civilization
locked inside newer texts, polyphonic
pushed to the margins of commerce;
these verbal constructs
wait patiently to be found
and released
by a sympathetic risk-taker
among the conformists of media
and markets.
NORTHERN CARDINAL
The tiny visitor is a delight!
the red-scarlet streak
stark
against the snow-white of the
cold backyard!
Such a stunning contrast!
A palette of colours
unfolds
brings instant relief
from the snow that dazzles the eye.
The cardinal flits
fence-to-fence,
a fast blur
like a tiny ballerina
out on a public stage,
executing a series of
unique steps in the flurries.
AN IMMIGRANT DREAMS
the young student from Punjab,
or, for that matter any
other aspiring state
of India
dreams of one day owning
and running an outlet of
Tim Horton
Starbucks,
while serving the disparate clientele
face mask on,
observing social safety norms,
during Covid-induced restrictions
in Brampton.
Low wages
40 hours
a mere badge, among
other badges.
SOUND HERSH!
On this late-December
morning,
snow falls in fine cottony pieces
on the woodlands and cityscapes
jagged skylines, it
paints everything in pure white,
muffles every sound.
Except
the sounds of the traffic on the unstoppable
highway, like the discordant notes,
off key,
in an otherwise melodious harmony!
Prepared Angela Kosta Academic writer, poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, translator, journalist
