Poems (Vol. 1)

By Anirudh Balkrishna

These forms of poetry are combined with the usual subjects of poems - these being a romance, society, wildlife, nature, history, and life in general. As the title suggests, this collection is an ode to the work of poets who have enriched literature - predominantly English literature - with their effervescent and enthralling writing. Therefore, the likes of William Shakespeare, John Keats, William Wordsworth, T.S. Eliot, Wilfred Owen, and the peerless Gulzar are the inspirations behind this work. The fifteen poems herein are written expressly for the lovers of poetry to sink their teeth into. This book, therefore, offers a lot to literary purists while also being engaging and interesting for casual readers with different, varied tastes; in essence, a happy introduction for beginners, and a form of reverence for those initiated into the canon.​

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Point Six Technologies Pvt Ltd
• Release date: Jan 6, 2021
• ISBN: 9789390543649

Anirudh Balkrishna

​Poems (Vol. 1): An Ode to Poetry is a collection of fifteen poems including a dramatic monologue, an ode, a haiku, some narrative poems, and a ballad. These forms of poetry are combined with the usual subjects of poems - these being a romance, society, wildlife, nature, history, and life in general. As the title suggests, this collection is an ode to the work of poets who have enriched literature - predominantly English literature - with their effervescent and enthralling writing. Therefore, the likes of William Shakespeare, John Keats, William Wordsworth, T.S. Eliot, Wilfred Owen, and the peerless Gulzar are the inspirations behind this work. The fifteen poems herein are written expressly for the lovers of poetry to sink their teeth into. This book, therefore, offers a lot to literary purists while also being engaging and interesting for casual readers with different, varied tastes; in essence, a happy introduction for beginners, and a form of reverence for those initiated into the canon.​

Book preview

A COUNTRY IN PERIL

Be careful of apotheosis… there is divinity in no man.

Everybody here is to obey the lawlessness of the land.

Yet, here lie heroes and Gods immortalised by us all;

No matter how much of the fruit they devour, these

Gods will never fall.

The futurists living by the past, the past stained by

slavery;

A good tomorrow promised, challenged, and fated to

revel in knavery.

The knocks on the door are too few to rattle those who

aren’t even listening.

Everyday they cower under the threat of riot by a new

christening.

They can see on their nation the imprint of

businessmen’s fingers,

And yet, they find that the money always in downfall

lingers.

The intelligentsia dismissed as too ignoble, scandalous,

too free.

But what more can you expect from where they kill

animals for having too much liberty?

So here’s a question for patriots, and jingoists too:

Should you never ask what the country can do for you?

Do you stand up even while relieving yourself when

they sing a song?

While somehow they never seem to stand up and take

blame for a wrong.

Maybe the people are, after all, to be blamed.

They were silently complicit when the raped was

paraded and the rapist never shamed.

A promise of a new dawn every day, and the blacker

really is the night.

If this is what they’re doing, how different are they from

the whites?

The country is in peril… every country on this earth so

rotten.

Mine doubled with yours and theirs to be told, lest it be

forgotten.

A shameful togetherness - only a shift of blame it

provides.

A country is in peril, you know, when even a symbol of

unity divides.

BAADSHAH OF BAADSHAHPUR

Napoleon, Alexander, William - what do they

Have in common? They’re kings; Kings of

Uncertain times, untameable lands, and

Unfortunate populations. They’re also heroes

Who left the world before it could leave them.

What happens, then, to a living embodiment

Of the Oedipus riddle? When a King is no

Longer a symbol of strength, but a lamentation

Of weakness? Why is he still called a King when he

Bows perpetually to the nothingness in front of him?

The Baadshah of Baadshahpur was born with

Two silver spoons in his mouth. He was the

Recipient of salutes before he learnt to walk.

He was an heir - a perverse reminder of his father’s

Death, begotten by the then-King himself.

He asked for himself another kingdom, for that

Which his father left was too small for him.

With an ambition that ran faster than his cavalry

And greedier than corpulence, he laid his soldiers

At the altar of sacrifice to resurrect his realm anew.

Baadshahpur he called it - a city of the King,

Unmistakably, for it bore the name of its ruler

And garbed itself in decadence. His court was kept

Pure where no tales of woe and toil reached the

Throne from the wailing throes of the illiterate poor.

He wedded five women; one for every blemish on

His perfect face. No one could doubt his beauty.

He bore fifteen children and saw not one heir

Among them, because none of them were as

Majestic as he was, and certainly not as kingly.

The Baadshah was above all weakness of

Attachment. He was smarter than wisdom, fuller

Than