Vivekanand Jha (2012 Poem In Your Pocket)

Orchidland Morning

by Kathy Wines

Sweet-tempered songs and trills of morning avian awaken the forest
Playful sprinkles of rain flit and dart adding a soft percussion rhythm
Gray skies brushed with streaks of pink bring a muted embrace
Brilliant shades of green dance in a profusion of differing tints
Fresh morning
Breathe in
Breathe out
Be attentive
So grateful
A symphony of splendor is at hand

Kathy is a teacher at a charter school in Hilo, Hawaiʻi. She received her B.A. in Linguistics from the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, along with a teaching certificate, and Master of Education. Kathy and her husband enjoyed three years sailing on a 30-foot sailboat, exploring Mexico, French Polynesia, Cook Islands, and New Zealand. When it came time to settle down, the Big Island of Hawaiʻi proved to be the optimum place to swallow the anchor and start life ashore. When Kathy is not celebrating the joy of learning with her fifth graders, she came be found relishing in all that life offers on her island home, along with pursuing her dream of becoming a writer. Living amid an ʻōhiʻa lehua forest on the slopes of a volcano helps to create the perfect spot to let her creativity flow. Kathy can be reached at wines@hawaii.edu.

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Song of Patience

by Vivekanand Jha

Sing a song of glee
Even in the hours of grief
Even iron-tree would turn green
Even stony soul would melt like wax.

Live a life of contentment and peace
Prosperity will knock at your door
Opportunity will peep through your window
Flower and fruit of success
Would bloom even in bald courtyard.

Tread the track of truth
Like soldiers march in step
Follow the sayer of sooth
Like shadow to you
Even from soil of sterile
Sun flower would sprout.

Remember when, how
or what you sweat
that pays prize sooner or late
Your eyes would forget
Last time when they had shed tears,
Sigh would fail to remember
When it breathed a relief out of fears.

Learn the lessons of morals
Forget how to sit on laurels
If such be belief of every individual
There will be none orphan or single.

Kingdom of peace and
empire of tolerance
Would be reinstated
No room would remain
for repulsion and reprisal.

Dr. Vivekanand Jha is a translator, editor, and award winning poet from India. He is a contributing poet to Wavelengths: 2011 Savant Anthology of Poetry which has won first place in the 2011 London Book Festival. He is the author of five books of poetry. He has also authored one critical book on the poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra and edited two critical anthologies on Indian English Novels. He is son of noted professor, poet, and award winning translator Dr. Rajanand Jha.

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