In this section:
Destination Moon – With Joyce Brinkman
On The Wings of Poetry
Two Special Editions of Yugen Quest Review featuring diverse, gifted, beautiful poets, languages & themes:
Poetry
Two poems – Urgent and In Love’s Name by Basudhara Roy Chatterjee
Lifeboat to the Moon – Baisali Chatterjee Dutt #CeWoPoWriMoWE prompt (prompt -Smeetha)
Lifeboat to the Moon – Smeetha Bhoumik #CeWoPoWriMoWE prompt (prompt – Smeetha)
Light & Shadows – Sangita Kalarickal #CeWoPoWriMoWE prompt (prompt – Maya Sharma Sriram)
Poem – Sea-facing Flat by Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca
Note of Thanks to WE Judges Panel
5 Note of thanks with love and gratitude to our WE Poetry Judges Panel – Dr. Nishat Haider, Dr. Taseer Gujral, Dr. Somrita Urni Ganguly, Smeetha Bhoumik.
Interview
An Interview with Kalpna Singh Chitnis that is treasured
Three Curated Sections of this Special Edition
Embodied curated by Dr.Sonali Pattnaik,
For Women Who Make Mistakes curated by Dr. Somrita Urni Ganguly
Flying to the Moon by Smeetha Bhoumik
Destination Moon – A Chat with Joyce Brinkman
Warm welcome Joyce. Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts with us at Yugen Quest Review. What is your most special moment as Lead Editor - The Polaris Trilogy ? Joyce - There were a lot of great moments. I enjoyed corresponding with the anthology poets about their poems. I appreciated how helpful some of them were in spreading the word about the project to others who might also submit. However. if I had to pick one moment that was the highlight of the whole experience it would have to be when the package came containing the first book published. In that moment seeing how beautiful the book looked with the different poetry forms and shapes scattered throughout in that grand display of Earth's languages conveyed an extreme level of awe over poetry's power to infuse the world with luminosity. A poem is a package to be unwrapped and the diversity displayed in the packaging of these poems heightens the eagerness to open them. What has been the biggest challenge and the easiest part of bringing together poets from all over the world in this anthology? Joyce - The biggest challenge was reaching the poets with the call to submit. There is no global system that everyone can find. Finding poets in all the countries we did was a real challenge. That does not mean that there aren't fine poets in places we didn't reach. They just didn't see the call. The easiest part was reading the poems that were submitted. Each poem was a little package for me to open. For me it was like having poets from all over the world sending me a present. What is it about the moon that so enchants us, and are you in love too...? Joyce - Of course, there have been other heavenly objects that humans have studied and worshiped over the ages but I'm not sure any one of them has been worshiped anymore than the Moon. It is, of course, our closest heavenly neighbor and the theory is that it was once part of the Earth. It pulls the tides of our oceans so there is a strong connection. I'm particularly fond of Asian poetry that uses Moon imagery. It's interesting how many of the Moon legends are similar in different parts of the world. So, yes, I am a lover of the Moon. I'm not sure there would have been another object, in the heavens or on Earth, that could have pulled me into undertaking this enormous project. I guess we would have to say that the Moon has a pull on me. Warm regards to you Smeetha... Many thanks Joyce for doing this. Looking forward to our lunar expedition, Good wishes, Adventure & excitement From all @ YQR
Poetry
Warmth & Verse
This YQR issue features in CLMP’s Women’s History Month Roundup March, 2023
In Search of New Worlds
Dec ’22 – Feb ’23 New Year issue
Two Poems by Basudhara Roy Chatterjee
Urgent.
In Love’s Name
Urgent
He’ll be late tonight, he says. As usual, it’s something ‘urgent’. By now, one has heard that word often enough and each time, from him. I gingerly roll it across my tongue. Ere gent. Before man? Some unarguable logic must preside herein, I shrug, for in my world no one thing is urgent. Not a bit, however, can be ignored. There's everything calling me at once -- dream, dishwasher, book, bread, love, laundry, classroom, closet, wars, windows, pudding, poetry. How I wish that early in history some woman had bought /ˈɜː.dʒənt/ from the lexicon as a threat against other imposed tasks till one arrived at them on one’s own. In my non-urgency, however, I smile, deeply partial to the French knot of my life over the running stitch of his, sanguine that in dance, grace alone matters and return to origin is always a privilege.
In Love’s Name
a land marauded a language left fallow a state scissored to slivers dignity retracted letters re-directed maps contoured to opportunity the fish-body slit open each time at that one place near the heart to coax what is inside and each time the same unceremonious declaration that it was not worth it *** In love’s name he asks for a body, a deed, a gate, a title, a password, a date. He is pleased that I agree, not realizing these matter little to me. In the bazaars of history they have asked for greater things in love – a revenge, a thumb, a trial by fire, a kingdom. Where I come from, love is a shock of red on the krishnachura bark, plentiful and unasked. Where I come from, love is not wise. It will barter all for peace no matter the price.
Basudhara Roy teaches English at Karim City College, Kolhan University, Chaibasa. Author of three collections of poems, the latest being Inhabiting, she writes because she must test words on her tongue, pulse, moods, agitation, abstraction and satire. Her recent poetry is featured in the Usawa Literary Review, EPW, Outlook, Madras Courier and The Dhakha Tribune among others. She loves, rebels, overthinks and reviews from Jamshedpur, Jharkhand.
A Treasured Interview with Kalpna Singh-Chitnis
YQR May 2022 Edition
Note of thanks to our WE Poetry Awards Judges for their contribution and solidarity
Dr. Nishat Haider, Dr. Taseer Gujral, Dr.Somrita Urni Ganguly are WE Green Hearts and wonderful judges, who have devoted their time, attention and energy towards building up the WE Literary Community. Our immense gratitude and love to them.
About the Editor
Smeetha Bhoumik is an artist, editor, poet, founder – Women Empowered-India (WE) Literary Community, 2016 and founding editor Yugen Quest Review, 2021. She is the author of poetry collections – Where I Belong -Moments, Mist & Song (2019), Return to Love – The Point of Poetry (2021), and Chief Editor of Equiverse Space -A Sound Home In Words (2018). Her poems feature in national and international journals and anthologies. In art, her favourite theme is The Universe Series in oils depicting galaxies, star forming regions, mysterious energies of the universe. Her work has exhibited in India and abroad, notably at the Red Dot Miami, 2015, Oxford International Art Fair 2014, 2015, Parallax, London, 2013, Jehangir Art Gallery 2010, Academy of Fine Art, Kolkata 2011, 2012, Barcelona International Art Fair, 2014, in ten solo and forty five group shows. Smeetha believes in creativity, equality and endorses a spirit of collaboration.
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