the Golden Horn Of Istanbul
THE ‘GOLDEN HORN’ OF
ISTANBUL
It is an inlet arm from the Bosphoros Strait,
Which stretches inwards towards the west;
And curves up like a deer’s horn, -
Known to the world as the ‘Golden Horn’!
It separates the old Istanbul’s historic city,
From its modern counterpart in the north;
Forming the world’s longest natural harbor,
A waterway almost 7.5 km long!
The harbor was once the Naval Headquarters
of the Byzantine Empire!
When a heavy chain guarded the inlet’s
entrance;
Stretching across the mouth of the ‘Horn’ entire;
From the Old City to the Galata Tower! *
The old city stands on seven hillocks, once
known as the ‘City of Seven Hills’;
And top of every rise, a temple, or a mosque
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poem by Raj Nandy
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hero And Leander
** HERO AND LEANDER
The Dardanelles is a narrow strait which links, -
The strait of Bosporus with the Aegean Sea;
And also separates the European from the Asian
side of Turkey!
In the ancient days this strait was better known
as Hellespont,
With its narrowest stretch between Sestos and
Abydos!
Hero, the beautiful virgin priestess of Aphrodite*, -
Lived in Sestos on the European side!
Leander a fiery youth from Abydos, lived on
the opposite side of Sestos!
Leander saw Hero at a religious festival at Sestos,
And it was love at first sight we are assured!
Leander wooed Hero with many soft words of
entreaty;
How could Aphrodite the Goddess of Love and
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poem by Raj Nandy
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Laugh With The World But Weep Alone!
LAUGH WITH THE WORLD
BUT WEEP ALONE!
I have come to bear my own cross,
And to weep alone and dry my tears!
For this sad old world have troubles
galore,
With no time to spare for me or despair!
When I laugh the world laughs with me,
And is ever ready to share my happy times;
But in my hour of grief they shrug and say, -
' A friend in grief is no friend of mine! '
Yet our tears get attached to our joys
and mirth,
Happy moments always bring tears to
our eyes!
For my tears celebrate those short-lived
hours,
Since only happines can never be mine!
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poem by Raj Nandy
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quotes From Poets On Poetry
** QUOTES FROM POETS ON
POETRY
The great Shakespeare in his ‘A Midsummer
Night’s Dream’,
Speaks of poetry as ‘forms of things unknown,
The poet’s pen turns them to shape,
And gives to airy nothing a local habitation
and a name’!
John Ashbery had always felt, that ‘poetry
all the time goes on in his head’, -
And ‘occasionally he snips off a length’!
For Coleridge, ‘prose is arrangement of words
in their best order’,
But ‘poetry is the best words in their best order’!
For Paul Engle, poetry is ‘ordinary language
raised to the N-th power’,
While for William Wordsworth it is a continuous
shower, -
And ‘a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings,
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poem by Raj Nandy
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Defining History
DEFINING HISTORY *
History is neither for us nor against us;
It is a record of our accumulating past!
That past which we humans had once made,
And we can learn from our mistakes, it is often
said!
A wit had once put things together, saying; -
'History dose not repeat itself, only historians
repeat each other! ! '
'Civilization is a movement and not a condition,
a voyage, not a harbour, ' said Arnold Toynbee;
'It has the right and the capacity to choose its destiny! '
But many others did not seem to agree!
The early Mayans said that History repeats itself in
every 260 cyclic years,
History is not cyclic said Tonybee, to allay our fears!
The Greek Plato had felt that History was rather cynical;
While Oswald Spengler the German, had similar
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poem by Raj Nandy
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Moon's Enduring Magical Spell!
When Jules Verne wrote, ‘From the Earth To
The Moon’, in eighteen hundred and sixty
five,
Little did he realise that a century later,
His created work of fiction, will get transformed
into reality!
Though his work was praised and eulogized,
As a triumph of his imaginative mind,
And as a great fictional write!
Later, on the twentieth of July,1969, astronauts
Neil Armstrong and Aldrin,
Landed their spacecraft ‘Eagle’, on the barren
lunar surface, -
Which was lifeless and desolate!
Though a technological feat in mankind’s
history,
The conquered moon continues to retain, -
Its pristine magical spell and mystery!
When our poets, the artists and the romantics,
Gaze at the full moon during the night,
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poem by Raj Nandy (20 September 2008, New Delhi)
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The Laughter Therapy
(I)
Every morning the ritual is the same, -
I say my prayers and take His name;
As I settle down to read the papers, –
About our politician’s famous ‘blame game’!
It is then I always hear, loud peals of laughter
from our adjacent park,
A man dedicated to laughter therapy,
With his loud guffaw and reverberating bark!
Trying to resolve this laughing mystery, -
I read several articles about Laughter Therapy!
(II)
Amongst all created things and living beings,
Man alone suffers deeply in his body, mind,
and soul;
With peals of laughter he must suppress his tears,
To balance this life and control!
Yet during those rare and supreme happy moments
of life, -
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poem by Raj Nandy (18 December 2008, New Delhi)
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