National Poetry Month

[brigdh]

After Gujarat - J.P. Das

After Gujarat,
will there be poetry?
Was it possible
to write poetry
after Alexandria was burnt down?
After Auschwitz,
after Hiroshima and Vietnam,
after the Emergency
and Babri Masjid,
after 9/11 and Iraq?

It's not possible
to banish poetry.
Poetry comes back effortless
to Plato's Republic,
to Stalin's Siberia,
to Pokhran and Kalahandi.
Poetry follows
the footprints of violence
as it chronicles
the descent of man.
Like history
poetry has no end.

Poetry is written
despite fatwas and bans.
Poetry laughs at Gulag,
ignores the censor's blue pencil
and the fundamentalist's frown.
Poetry is written
against the backdrop
of bonfire of books.

After Gujarat
there will be poetry
about Gujarat itself.
It will begin
with the shame of Ayodhya,
and track the bloody trail
to Godhra to Gujarat,
on to Mumbai.

When Babri arises again,
poetry will affirm
that temples are built
not with blood-scribed bricks
and stones carved with hatred,
temples are built,
like poetry,
with imagination and faith
in the hearts of men.

After Gujarat,
poems will be written
to affirm the truth
that there is no Ayodhya
outside of the poet's
epic imagination.