Creation and Criticism

Dr Katta Rajamouly, Professor and Head, Department of English (S.H), Ganapathy Engineering College, Warangal has to his credit: The Poetry of Philip Larkin: a Critical Study, Learn English through Conversation, Grammar and Dictionary of Grammatical and Literary Terms. As a poet, he published 1080 poems in his poetry collections, Beauty in Variety, Cherished Cherries, Petals of Insight, Voices and Silences and Kavitanjali. He has short story collections: Post Gandhian Days, Thorns in the Path, Shadows of Realities and Naked Truths; and novels Rajarishi in Quest of Peace, Man-for Man, a Quest, Smart Child, and Troubles and Tribals. He can be contacted at rajamoulykatta@gmail.com.

1. Feel Pride

You are able to kiss the stars

From your sky-touching mansion

You earned money in all means

You are so rich and able

Kubera is jealous of your progress

You feel pride for the stature

You are able to win the election

It is a sweep, unrivalled victory

You cast notes to capture votes

You let the voters drink to the brink

The voters dance in intoxication

Until the indelible ink dries

You win a berth in the cabinet

For your hat-trick, trickery

As the dear and dear, the right hand

To the high command

All hear your name in other states

You see mansions made of gold bricks

Your powers excelling others

Man strength, money, all towers

Super man's super powers

For your vested interests as wholes

For your selfish goals

You feel pride for the trifles

You are primarily a citizen,

The citizen made leader

To turn this earthly hell earthly heaven

With peace and nonviolence

Equality, liberty and fraternity

Then our nation feels pride

2. Time's Traverse

Time is a chain flow

Witnessed in the present

Emerging from the fountain of future,

With its glittering colors,

The stream of dreams,

The harbinger of good fortunes,

Filled with high expectations

Of the sown seeds

To give high yielding to the farmer,

Of the efforts made

To result in fruitful results

In the present, once the future,

All seem empty, dry and mundane

Especially in this hostile world

To see the crops

Dried, or washed away in floods,

To reap the dreamed fruits

The gusty wind; its rage is furious

Made them fall into the dust,

The glow in the face

Appears in woes and throes

In faded hues

All bitter experiences

All stark realities

To merge and store in the past

They are in mind, though in love or not

The past is the ocean of the past,

Merged it in flow, the river of the present,

The ocean-past recurs as the clouds of the future.

3. Transient but Excellent

Excellent is the transient stage

A thousand cuckoos sing in bliss

A hundred peacocks dance in joy

It is spring for all not to miss.

Glow in the beauty of flowers

Honey is in store in their hearts

Love to the core of all treasures

Bliss is full on the lovers' parts.

It is the flower to spread grace

It is the fruit for palatal delight

It is the seed to perpetuate race

It is the stage to excel by light

The book of life, the best page

For a reader to read in interest

The album to arrest all the age

Memoirs to recall at the behest

It is the welcome stage majestic

With robust strength in affluence

Feelings in the age are romantic

The cud to recall its experience

In Time's flow, it turns transient

From stage to stage to this stage

The choicest to rejoice excellent

It is youth, life's loveliest image.

4. Gandhiji's Message

As a surprise to our surmise

We happen to see the idols of monkeys

With three different postures

For they wish to put the full-stop to the evils

Not to tell the evil, the first shuts the mouth

Not to see the evil, the second hides the eyes

Not to hear the evil, the third closes the ears

The people appear the true followers

Of Gandhiji's message

They never talk of the evil

As their near and dear are evil doers

They never see the evil

As their close associates are criminals

They never listen to the evil

As their close friends are law-breakers

We are silent to their acts

It means we are indirectly their supporters

Evildoers are on the rise like the weeds

To outgrow the plants to grow for lives

To find the gardener indifferent

We are silent to the violent,

Closing our mouths, eyes and ears

As we are the true followers

Of Gandhiji, the Father of the Nation

The leaders also know the fact

They are also like us

Of course, they make mere speeches

In support of Gandhiji for sheer eyewash

We too keep quiet, as we are the poor

Our anger hurts our own lips.

5. Strides of Tides

The earth is the proper place,

The venue abounds in mirth,

For every one it is the sole base,

The sacred soil of my birth,

I can take a plunge -- big or small

I can have a flight-- high or low

I bounce back to the earth after all

Knowing my pace-- fast or slow,

The apple that falls to the ground

Reflects the gravitational force

Birds after their flight of a round

Come back to the living source.

The earth is for the wonder-display

For the mystery-unraveling

For the most spectacular play

Of my innate talents long lasting

Amid a song to go on the stage

I can dance in rhythmic postures

In full reflection on my eye-page

I can express myriad gestures

I can build up my stature

Breaking shackles and manacles

Overcoming every barrier

In my path, crossing obstacles

I am the perfume of a flower

Short but its service is admirable

I am the tree with its cool bower

Motherly love unchangeable

I ride on the strides of tides

In the life-ocean for the aimed shore

By means of my relentless life-rides

For tidings of victory at my door.