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Poem

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Anthem for doomed youth
Wilfred Owen

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries for them from prayers or bells,
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
 
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall ;
Their flowers the tenderness of silent minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Among the stars this evening
Dr Muhammed Idris Bhuiyan

My brain, the maker of words
visual artist of perception, proclaimed:
Who am I to question the throbbing heart
its mysterious  dealings ? Seriously.

Sunflowers wild dance in breeze
silence of dark night
Singsong of mountains
resounding  of flute.
Bliss of meditation
melancholy shadow of thoughts
Sleepy eyes of child
warmth of an embrace.
Loving for  one who never is
to  be one with self.

My heart  and I both today  matured,
Love is the madness of feeling delight
like a gentle breeze.
Twining the vines of a soul
with fragrance of flower clusters
of wild rose,
To love -is to love  softly,
wild and  awkward.
Never to be complete, never once
Death is love  but I  ?

Blue sky seemed bluer
manicured flowerbeds seemed
more colours than usual.
If I could  save time in bottle…
if I had  a  box for wishes and dreams
that had never come true
The box would be empty
except for the memory
how it was answered by  you
but there never seems to be enough time.

To do the things you want to do
once you find them
Love should not be
an accidental after thought.

Did you enjoy  the journey
among the stars this evening ?
Indeed , it is  not the heart
but my analytical mind,
albeit the brain's circuits,
that interpret what I selectively choose,
as pleasure and weeds out hurt
mixing and matching images and words,
    finally creating for me a coherent whole---
as meaningful script.

As my brain contrives  explanation.
so changes my mind.
Such was the premises when I extracted
the abstract reasoning about love.

(Dr.Idris teaches Business Laws at City University, Banani, Dhaka)

Undying utterances
Rafiq Hasan

From the undying realm comes this utterance, folks
Numbered are your quickly dissipating days.
Bells have tolled the hour of your departure.

Many years ago, on this earth-
Green and grassy and soft, sprang forth life
Once full of grains and fruits and flowers all over,
Now lies shattered-ruined by a monstrous biped.

Soon will you hear the claps of thunder,
The terrifying hiss from the horns of Israfil;
A tumult to burst the seas and skies,
The stars to split asunder like popcorn.
 
The earth will abort all her treasures from her bowels
Lofty hills will flow through the air like cotton whiffs,
Shattered and shattered again, this earth will fall
Down to a heap of dust.

Children of Adam, have you not warned afore?
Hadn't Abraham told you of the undying realm?
Hadn't Jesus, Moses and the last Messenger?
Hadn't the sages and poets shown you how
You could build heaven on the dusts of the earth?
Deaf were your ears to the eternal voice
As you heaped your montane sins on pristine earth.

Protect you did not women's dignity, trades you did
Like ordinary goods of the market for flesh;
Feeding wines and meat to the bodies,
Naught were your quest for the soul.

(Translation: Dr. Osman Gani)