Poetic Delicacies from Mauritius

Anoucheka Gangabissoon

Demain,
Mon île, tu te réveilleras
Sous une nouvelle aube qui te chantera
De la nécessité
De trouver le bonheur dans la simplicité
Que notre monde nous offre !

Demain,
Mon île, tu inspireras
Les terres en conflit avec elles-mêmes
Du besoin d’être reconnaissant
Pour toutes ces choses que nous
Prenons pour acquis
Mais qui peuvent briser notre forteresse
En quelques secondes si on nous les arrache !

Demain, mon île,
Demain,
Ton peuple allumera ses bougies intérieures
Et chantera à la gloire de ton passé, de ton mystère,
De ton avenir
Et de ton combat
Simplement pour te construire et te façonner
En une immense forêt tropicale,
Capable de résister aux tempêtes et aux tsunamis,
Car ses racines seront bien ancrées dans le sol
Et son tronc sera solide en lui-même
Alors que ses branches et ses feuilles abriteront
Ceux qui en ont besoin !

Anoucheka Gangabissoon is a Primary School Educator in Mauritius. She writes poetry and short stories as hobby. Her writings have been acclaimed at both the national and the international level.

by

Pushmaotee Subrun

She was aborted a million times when she was an embryo,

She was widowed even before knowing she married,

She wore the grey nun’s garment before she understood why,

She was raped when she was a baby of six months old,

She was not spared either at eighteen,

Or at the age of eighty,

She was mutilated and deprived

Of the God given seat of pleasure on reaching puberty,

She was stoned to death in the name of honour killings.

She was given capacity to love but not allowed to love…

She became the wife with stars in her eyes but soon disillusioned,

She was used as a machine to procreate,

She was abused, beaten black and blue and used again,

Where is equality, justice and human dignity?

Why talk of a just world when so much has still to be realized?

Why so much of yearly publicity on Women’s Day

Rabindranath Tagore rightly said,

The clear stream of reason has lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit.

Pushmaotee Subrun is the author of: ‘Ella’, ‘Who is Your Best Friend?’, ‘Short Stories and Fables’, ‘A lyrical bouquet of Soulful Poems’, ‘Dreams to Reality’ and ‘Ripples of Elevated Verses’. Her poems feature in several anthologies and prestigious online magazines. She was selected by ‘Destiny Poets’ as Poet of the Year – ICOP Awards 2019. She was honoured by Gujarat Sahitya Academy in 2020 and 2021. She was Poet of the Year 2022 in ‘Inkdew Indew’. In 2023, she was among the most favourite 3 World Gogyoshi organised by founder of World Gogyoshi, Taro Aizu.

by

Aneeza Soobadar

Every time she glimpses at her reflection

She wants to break the mirror into smithereens

The lies and deceits that have spiralled her into oblivion

Are dousing her into flames, as she is careening

Through her senseless life in quest of salvation

And breaking free from the shackles of people, oh so mean

Broken promises, truths clothed with parodies

As she watches her life becoming a caricature

As she gazes at her pregnant belly and still feels no empathy

For the little being soon ending its womb tenure

An innocent little one, who has been lodged with force in all agony

In the complete absence of love as ordained by a most ballistic nature

Shame and pain, pain and shame

She cannot unwind, she will never abandon

Yet the child will be a constant reminder of acts so insane

She has been through, when it ought to have been a cushion

That paves the way to an immense joy, which is that of motherhood

Alas! Alone she will have to raise, alone she will have to face

It will be a long way before she will be out of the woods

But what can she do if that’s her fate

The fate of a woman who has seen her world robbed before it even started

While still in her teething years of adulthood

The fate of a woman who has no say at all

And yet she is standing and facing them all

Aneeza Soobadar holds a Doctorate in ‘Science Agronomiques” from France and an MBA in Leadership and Innovation, Mauritius. She enjoys reading and writing having dabbled into writing short stories and poems during her teenage years. She is currently Research Manager at the Mauritius Cane Industry Institute.

by

Anoucheka Gangabissoon

I am woman
Made of flames and fire
Of softness and sensuality
Of gullibility and guts
Of intuition and instinct
Of creation and cosmic power
Of dew droplets and desirous fluids!

I am woman
I have in me
Rights imprinted on my flag
Laws carved out on my soul
And respect brandished on my banner!

I am woman
Made of beauty and brains
Of cyclones and summers
Of chills and winters
I am woman,
My body is my temple
Created by a power over which
I have no hold
Meant to be used as a tool of seduction
To entice the other part of my soul
The only one to whom
I give the sacred permission
To play me
As if,
I were the keys of a piano
Or the strings of a guitar!

Why,
I am woman
My essence
Curvy and swaying
Is held in an invisible cage
Held tight by a padlock
A padlock ignited by the rules of moral principles
As have been decried
By those higher powers watching over me from afar!

I am woman
I seek not power
I seek,
Rather,
Respect!

Bestow it upon me
And I shall give you
Ripe fruits
Red and juicy
From the orchard of my abilities
As have been deemed to be my duty’s lot
Before I even took birth!

Anoucheka Gangabissoon is a Primary School Educator in Mauritius. She writes poetry and short stories as hobby. Her writings have been acclaimed at both national and international level.

THE SUPREME SHADE OF GREEN

Composed by: Dr. Raja Rajeswari Seetha Raman, Malaysia

A green forest
A green paddy field
A green grasshopper
an evidence of HIS existence.

Green denotes a paramount shift
a break of pattern
a swing of conversation
from a wet blanket
from a negative nelly
to a zap of sunshine.

Green is a supreme shade
it breaks the pessimistic talk
it lightens the mood
it soothes the soul
and sow seeds of promise and peace.

Stay steer clear of transforming
the green of the natural world
to a red herring
or give an evil black look
You will fail and fall
The universe will show a clean sweep.

The splendid color of green
is the ultimate truth of HIS existence
in this universe.

Dr.Raja Rajeswari Seetha Raman earned her PhD in Malay Literature from University of Malaya. A freelance lecturer, bilingual author, poet, researcher, certified translator, literary critic and essayist. Recipient of 16 literary prizes and awards at the state, national and international levels. Her poems have been translated into 40 world languages. Four of her poems are Malay songs. Her excellent contribution in the field of Malay Literature was made into a documentary by The National Film Department of Malaysia and broadcast twice on TV1 in 2009 and 2012. In 2014, she was honored as the Icon of National Language Month and in 2020, she was recognized as the Women of the Year by MWAW (Malaysian Women at Work). A panel member of National Literary Policy and National Culture Policy for Malaysian Government.

Dinesh Bachoo

Les murmures d’un monde parallèle
Ou le temps recalqué sur la voyance
Un heur de voir les mystères de la vie
En me mirant dans un miroir magique
Je feins de trouver un chaman sorcier

Mais la magie rouge au rendez-vous
Je ne peux que rêver d’un simple rêve
Le ceignant ainsi d’un Mur des Je t’aime
Je dessine une étoile filante intérieure
Sujet à exaucer mes vœux sans limite

Avec l’esprit transcendant de mon âme
Je m’élance vers le Pays du Soleil-Levant
Une idée fantasque une affaire de cœur
Du romantisme si doux autour un passé
Elle c’est mon noème ma muse adorée
07.02.24.
DINESH BACHOO ©

Deputy Headmaster aged 56. He really started writing in 1983 and he hasn’t stopped writing ever since. He has a collection of poetry in Kreol Morisien published in 2020. His next publication will be in French and will be published this year.

By

Anoucheka Gangabissoon

I seek the silence of dark voids,
The stillness of deep ponds,
I yearn to see clocks stand still,
To stop hearing the echo of time
As it laughs at its passage on us
I wish to stop in my stride
And to glance up at the skies
Fully aware that the clouds
Will seep in my gloomy whims!

I seek the grand show of fairies’ dance,
The feel of vibrating crystals,
The thrill of resonating tibetan singing bowls
I live for the magnetic bond created by meditative practices,
For the silence engulfing the echo of my secret wishes
As these fly from my heart
All the way up to the origin of all!

I desire to feel my feet rooting with earth
Whilst at the same time, being able to open up my wings
And to sail upon celestial waves,
All set for the promised land!

by

Adubi Black

I knew every woman deserves more than roses

                Dreadful is unrequited love than a covenant

     I knew, right now , your heart is a Gazar of Chaos

       …but pains are substitutes of desires unfulfilled

     No night though ever passed without a reflection

             …my lips still behold the taste of our kisses.

               The  erotic touches on the balcony couches

                               … I knew of the love you defined

                                    I chose but to pay the cost

               As a sacrifice to abort the further lost.

                I succumb my corpse to the summer hawks

            Tell the Winter,  I am not buried in a cemetery

                            Of what pleasure is  to be loved

                   As you missed the last train of the return.

             Dear Ugochi don’t hopefully await my arrival.

                                  She also missed the last  train.

                 …and I remained the stitches of the scars.

6th Feb. 2024

Adubi Black

6th Feb. 2024
Adubi Black

Adubi Black as he is well known with is a Nigerian writer, he writes in philosophy to portrait his societal contents in his poems to his audience. His prowess in the creation of mental imagery has made him exceptional to be an international writer whose poems had being published globally. Adubi Black writes on nature and he strongly believes in the therapeutic functions of Poetry as a genry.
Adubi Black is a peaceful revolutionist and the founder of Nibstears Poetry Cave; a Nigeria ever known literary organisation.

Contacts
adubiblack@gmail.com

to Rebecca Horn

by

Lidia Chiarelli, Italy

And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand

They danced by the light of the moon Edward Lear

Torino, Monte dei Cappuccini, January 2019

Keeper of ancient memories

the river flows silently

from large strips of dark

light layers of fog arise

white impalpable veils

that hug the mountain

in a cold embrace.

Muffled comes

the rhythmic breath of the city

still alive and beating

in the distance.

A light of blue

slowly dissolves

in the esoteric sky

of this strange night

myriad luminous rings project

suffused opalescent reflections.

Little Blue Spirits

evoked by a kind mind

from glimpses of black

suddenly come alive

magical suspended symbols

of a new and surreal

urban mythology.

(Tribute to Piccoli Spiriti Blu, installation by Rebecca Horn)

Lidia Chiarelli is one of the Charter Members of Immagine & Poesia, the art-literary Movement founded in Italy in 2007 with Aeronwy Thomas.

Installation artist and collagist. Coordinator of #DylanDay in Italy.

Award-winning poet since 2011.

Her writing has been published in more than 150 International Poetry magazines and web-sites. https://lidiachiarelli.jimdofree.com/