Smeetha Bhoumik presents four poems

Focus

In the auditorium of the mind,
At times 
A dusky lane descends, 
Amenable to movement 
Towards darkness or light;

External stimuli, of course, 
But mainly inner thoughts, feelings,
Emotions play this shift 
Towards 
Hope or doom.

It can go either way –

The auditorium 
Lights up,
Resplendent with a million 
Stars

Or grows dim,
Darkening into
Abysses 
The mind didn't know
Exist.

In a world often hurtling
Backwards
Through history
Bent on erasures-

Golden moments of 
Hard earned humanity,

A fulcrum of ancient light
centres it.

Magnificent, redolent
Of greened, hearted
Spaces,

This infinite love
The mind
Seeks, 
And strives to remain in its glow. 

Sky

The sky wears a halo
Of my dreams,
Lit up with stars!

Open

                    In the light 
          Of this awakening,
     Strange new pathways
   
Open up,

 I gingerly step into a
    Space 
        Of beginnings 
               And promises

Change

Time was a rattling wagon.

                      Now it whizzes by,
                                    Not 
                          Stopping 
                 Anywhere.

Smeetha Bhoumik is a poet, artist, founding editor - Yugen Quest Review, and founder of the WE literary community (2016). She is Chief Editor of Equiverse Space - A Sound Home in Words (a WE anthology, Notion, 2018). Her art, mainly the 'Universe Series' has shown in exhibitions in India and abroad. Her favourite poetic form is the sestina. She facilitates poetry at #CeWoPoWriMoWE. As Founder – WE, she has helped establish several awards, including the WE Kamala Das Poetry Award. Her poems feature in national/ international journals, anthologies including Oxygen - Parables of the Pandemic 2022, Quesadilla & Other Adventures 2019, Muse India 2017, 2018, Life and Legends 2018, Modern Indian Poetry – Sahitya Akademi, 2019, Unlikely Stories Mark V, Open Your Eyes - A Climate Change Anthology, Freedom Raga, Poetry & Covid project - Universities of Plymouth, and Nottingham Trent, Writing Language, Culture - Asia vs Africa, Mwanaka, among others