Winner: Dr. Naina
Dey, Assistant Professor (Dept. of English) at Maharaja Manindra Chandra
College, Kolkata under the University of Calcutta. She is a critic,
translator, reviewer and creative writer and her works appear in esteemed newspapers,
books and academic journals. She has authored books
of critical essays on Shakespeare’s Macbeth
and Christopher Marlowe’s Edward the
Second, and has edited Virginia Woolf’s A
Room of One’s Own (published by The Book World, Kolkata). She
regularly writes for The Statesman. She was awarded the “Excellence in
World Poetry Award, 2009” by the International Poets Academy, Chennai in 2009.
She was invited to be a member of a team of Indian writers (below 45) to be
felicitated jointly by Sahitya Akademi and Visva-Bharati University on the
occasion of the 150th birth centenary of Rabindranath Tagore in
December, 2010. She has been anthologized in Roots and Wings : An Anthology of Indian Women Writing in English,
Kerala.
Solitude
There was a time when birds had tongues
A time of singing brooks and whistling
trees
Those were my dragon days.
As I sat misty-eyed on the edge of my
Peter-Pan dreams
I felt the first prick of desire the
harbinger of mortality
Bringing with it my monthly pains
Pains that grew tentacles
Climbing uterine walls, perforating the
heart
With fears and grievances
Blind suckers deaf to my whimpers
As I hung suspended in the well of death.
It has taken days, months, years
For my desires to become opaque, immovable
A burden to be carried to a distant oasis
Save for a momentary shower, a flash of
some miracle happening in another world
A perennial slogging, a perennial wait
A perennial solitude till the last breath.
Honourable Mention: Mr. Glenn Andrew Barr, United Kingdom.
He recently attained a Merit
for his Masters Degree in Creative Writing at the University of Portsmouth,
England.
Blood-Sitter
Every
day I sit in blood,
Awaiting
that eternal thud.
Skin-suit
burns so deeply strong,
Silky
fear and deathly song.
Tried
in vain to leave this place,
Bodies
scream and tear at space.
People
I have seen before,
Show
me life I can’t ignore.
Soul
echoes born within a storm.
I
hear their fear,
I
can’t get near.
Would
I want to?
Get
away from me.
Blood
soaks a hidden glove,
Fear
the other me!
Nothing
here is born of love.
Hate
from now will help me learn,
Just
how much a heart can burn.
Honourable Mention: Ms. Minu Varghese, Lecturer in English, College of Applied Sciences, Dhanuvachapuram. She
is a bilingual writer and translator. Her poetry has appeared in
journals and anthologies, and her translation of a Finnish children's
book (from English to Malayalam) is scheduled to be published in early 2013.
Angst
Chaos and
confusion.
Muffled
groans deafening.
Sighs and
screams mingle.
Fire and
fumes subside.
Foul
smell and ashes remain.
Soul
captures the fire and immolates the self.
The
inflamed spirit crushes up the body;
unbearable
pain and angst,
endurance
becomes impossible.
Pride
melts, ego shatters,
pains
reveal their horrid countenances,
helplessness
team up with vulnerability,
strength
and determination give way
to
inertia and incapacitation.
Honourable Mention: Mr. Mohammad Zahid
comes from a small but beautiful town, Anantnag in Kashmir. He is a Banker by
profession and has been writing poetry since last fifteen years. His poems,
‘The Addict’s Lament’, ‘Posterity Prays’, ‘Panacea’ and ‘The Crimson Dusk’ have
been selected as Editor’s Favourite Poems in International Library of Poetry
Florida USA. He has also been published by Jammu & Kashmir Academy of Art
Culture & Languages. His poetry also
features on the poetry website Muse India where his work has been richly
reviewed by the fellow poets. His poem 'Amante Egare' has been awarded Special
Mention Prize in the Unison Publications-Reliance Time Out Poetry Awards in
Bangalore in 2011. The poet also features in TIMESCAPES a collection of poems
by 33 Indian poets released by Unisun Publications and Reliance Timeout.
The Voice of Silence
There are moments when I hear
An inaudible silence in its aphonic tone
When someone speaks to me
And there is none around save me.
The words are harsh, sarcastic
Which purge me down to my soul
And lay me bare before some unseen mirror
Where I see my infirmities, naked,
Like scars scathing and raw
And my nostrils fill with a stench
Whilst some secret scalpel dissects me
I gasp for breath
As this asphyxiation pulls me out of the
reverie
…….am I my own foe?
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