Sundar Kanta Walker
POEMS
All stories and poems © S.K.Walker - no unauthorised use permitted
New Book: Shantanu Keeper
of My Love
and other Poems
is a collection of 25 poems from the anthology below, illustrated
by 14 of Sundar's paintings.
It is available at £5.95. Please email to order.
'Sundar Kanta's poems are powerful
songs of love and praise to the spirit
that sustains. Vivid imagery captures
the passion of her spiritual life, and her
paintings compliment the poetry and
sweep us into her world of joyous faith.'
- Maggie Norton, Poet and Novelist
South Cumbria Poet Laureate, 2007
Introduction to the Shantanu Anthology
|
These poems are written in the form of Bhakti Poems in
the ancient romantic Indian tradition. The 17th Century Metaphysical
Poet, Meera Bai who is also well known to many in the West, wrote ardent
poems addressed to Lord Krishna. The identification with her God merged
with her own self until there was no differentiation between her and
Krishna. The anthology has 72 poems. Kanta Walker January 2009. |
SHANTANU ANTHOLOGY
- 1 -
The Vision
I have the belief Sometimes on a seesaw of emotions On perpetual winter But today, today I am beginning |
- 2 -
The Arrival
My love, my love, my love This has been an eternal winter I have arrived at long last You are my soul In Summer In the heat of the Sun In the Autumn Winter saw my death Nothingness Then something magical moved My love, my love I am beginning to behold My love, my heart My love, my love |
- 3 -
Lord of my love I know I kept you awake Her bruised wrinkled face, The storm of rage Rage screamed of revenge, |
- 4 -
Shantanu - my love |
- 5 -
My only love Yesterday,I stood With the maker's hands I saw such vision of terror too I roamed then |
- 6 -
Lord of my life It has been a long. . . In my self-involved youth Then I became a mother Now in my middle years I truly love you |
- 7 -
Lord of my love Here I recall the summer You were my You were also Where did you hide? That was a long painful journey In each brush stroke Now you're here, My Love The earth will spin |
- 8 -
My great eternal lover The crystal clear of my eyes The tall trees If you be footsore and weary I'd cook nettle soup for you Daily will I feed you |
-9 -
My lord, my love Tell them that we the people There is room enough Loving, sharing and caring You're a free spirit You have taught me to reclaim |
- 10 -
Light of my life Changes are writ There are some mornings Your sacred protection Yesterday was difficult With your help I fed 108 hungry - |
- 11 -
Lord of love You noticed Krishna Driving home on How fortunate my lord |
- 12 -
Lord of love Shut in a deep, dark tunnel No room to breathe Where have you fled to Little did I realise You were right |
- 13 -
What vistas lay This ocean lifts a purple Swooping like a condor Now I see the golden sands Soon I feel your warmth The evening has spread In the stillness |
- 14 -
Years have come Today, in the shelter of I cannot measure my love I behold your calm presence From the aquamarine minarets You have blessed this |
- 15 -
Lord of my love I tried to get up So, I stayed put It is only half a circle You gave me sustenance It is a blessing indeed |
- 16 -
Shantanu my love You are my Sun healer It was only yesterday You are the balm to me Today, I truly feel In your grace |
- 17 -
In the vast blueness In the still, deep In the azure, clear when I stopped still and searched In the valleys In this dark night of despair Then I heard you Having found you You are me, my spirit Lord of darkness |
- 18 -
Lord of love It takes a cactus in the desert A small gesture In my knowing I know |
- 19 -
Fountain of love In the pink haze You are my sacred mantra In each minaret |
- 20 -
I am enchanted indeed The opulence of Each surprise surpasses, Everything is precious You are the Sun God |
- 21 -
Lord of my fading beauty Does it matter In your silence deep Language has but Words are so feeble |
- 22 -
Keeper of my love You give me unconditional love You are the stillness You are the Moon You are the eternal dance Stop me from going |
- 23 -
My eternal lover Today, I feel lost Why have you After showing me In my loyalty to you There must be a reason In my dark dismay I have become weary, so weary |
- 24 -
O joy my love - my only one When the seed of When the Chirimoya When we saw the We saw the Sea Seed I look and discover You show me the elephants Having you with me |
- Kanta Walker
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WRITINGS FROM VISITS TO HOLOCAUST SITES
Thoughts and Feelings
Words are powerless to describe what I have seen yesterday and today in Auschwitz and Birkenau. The immensity of the human suffering chokes me, and the depravity of the captors too, is beyond words. What does one do to process such an experience - it is the journey of a lifetime. Above all are the innocent faces of men, women and children indelibly etched in my heart!
Such wide-eyed innocence of the children, such elegance and the femininity of the women along with the fear of the unknown is all pervasive. Lines and lines of men's faces staring in disbelief at what was happening and the fear of the hellish unknown is writ large in their eyes.
Then there are the mounds of mountains of human hair, clothes, shawls, combs, brushes, mountainous piles of shoes off all varieties and modes. I still envision a little pair of a child's red shoes, still soft and rounded with the imprint of a chubby, unsteady foot with the faded bows - so moving. Tears wash my face.
A house full of empty suitcases with addresses, names painstakingly printed with steady hands and embellished are now an abandoned graveyard. All these journeys people undertook with hope ended in torture, treachery and death. All this ephemera of these still unlived lives - pots, pans and kettles weep in dust.
What virulent and macabre sickness their perpetrators must have contracted that all traces of humanity left them? I carry so many visual images in my head, they overlap, crowd and jostle for attention.
Repeatedly, I see a face that pops into my consciousness it is of a sophisticated, well groomed, cultured beautiful woman. She wears a hat slightly tilted to one side. She carried her leopard skin coat on her arm showing her wealthy origins. Surrounding her are her two children, equally self possessed, well turned out and self assured. Little did this family know that their descent into hell had just begun. So trusting the trio looked as they stepped out of the train carriage! Little did they know that their robotic captors, these human automatons would willingly push them into gas chambers to writhe, suffer and die a slow death minus their possessions and dignity.
I would need to express it all later when my mind is still and I can grasp it better. At present I don't understand fully the enormity of it all. It is on such a vast scale all around me, enveloping me and saturating me.
The images of pain, anguish and starvation are writ large of this vast landscape of the two sites. The priest Kolbe who saved someone's life and took his place in the line of execution and then was systematically starved and then given a phenol injection in his heart. His starved face is resolute and calm and looks through the aggressor with compassion in his eyes, Christ like. These stories are repeated many times when brave Polish men stood up for others' right to live. Father Koble was a scholarly priest who had spent time in Japan doing his work and spoke fluent Japanese.
The narrow cells where the men were shut in and punished for days to break their spirits. With little room to move they stood in the darkness for days and yet their spirit could not be broken and they had to be shot and hung in the bleak court yard. The way the poor Polish, Jewish and Gipsy people lived their last days, months and years of their lives is beyond imagination. Their tragedy is too large to take in. It all happened and I saw the remains of it! The Gas Chambers, the Chimneys, the incinerators, the ponds in which their ashes were dumped are all there as a final testimony to this fiendish carnage. Above all are the rows and rows of faces and their uniforms and the ephemera of their lives that would never let me forget them.
The medical wings in which the innocent children were experimented on, cut up, brutally tortured and murdered when they were no further use are a living testimony to the fact that when human beings are devoid of their feelings they are no longer human. That is what the Nazi ideology did.
And yet amidst all this pain, extreme suffering and death I have felt optimistic that somehow all these millions did not suffer in vain, and this extreme suffering sanctified this place and made it like a temple. I have gone into these vast mortuaries and torture chambers my heart much humbled and full of prayer for the victims who suffered. I am equally sad and full of compassion and pity for the aggressors too.
Had they come from my background of beliefs in reincarnation they would know that they would have lost the right to being born as humans again and that they would go through a tortuous process of experiencing and re-experiencing the suffering they inflicted on others.On the way out of Birkenau I could still hear the frogs croaking blatantly in the ash filled ponds and I smiled to myself ruefully thinking they were perhaps the Nazi guards and other perpetrators reincarnated into an over infestation of frogs. They were perhaps in this life feeding on each other, biting and devouring each other and then spewing out parts in these ash-laden holes. What a vision!
Sundar
7th, and 8th May 2009
To an Unknown Woman in Auschwitz.
You stand there, still, solemn and expectant
From the train as if for a Valet
To step forward to take your valice.You are young
No more than thirty, I guess
The elegant beret you support
Frames your face to perfection.Your leopard skin coat is
Slung lightly over your arm
You show breeding, show class
Your grooming tells me -
You are well connected.Two children may be six and eight
Stand by your side looking up
Waiting for mama to say 'let us go'
Rest now in soft beds and repose!Yet, mama is still waiting
In a slim sleek outfit
With her leopard fur coat held lightly
In a casual way.
I would like to write your stoy -
Your husband steps forward
Kisses you ardently - bends down
And hugs the children
In a warm embraceThe children sing and shout
'Hurray' for papa returned
as a conqueror with lots of gifts
Presents for all!
Sadly - this is not so.
History tells me
That your watch, your rings
Your necklace were removed
Your fur coat and your valice
Taken away for safe keeping!You were ordered to walk
Along a much trodden road
Were ordered to undress your children
And remove your clothes
Only to be cleaned and disinfected
After the long journey with others.
Then you will rest have hot borscht
And a clean bed to sleep in!What lies and what deceit!
I am told that you struggled
You writhed and screamed
Holding your children you choked
Coughed and suffocated
Each breath was painful
Your chest tightened you vomited.
Then died - you and the children
Were dragged thrown in a pile
And incinerated.
That same night
Muller took his sweetheart to dine
At an expensive restaurant
In Krakow and presented her
With the Leopard Skin coat
'A gift from a satisfied boss'
he added. 'You will receive
many more' he said kissing her lips
and promised her a good night!Sundar
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Suitcases
I am packing my 'Eminent' suitcase
Getting ready for my journey
A tremor of excitement
Mixed with apprehension
Follows my footsteps!First I open my chest drawers
Pause and take a long look
Then I take my black underwear out
And lay it on my bed -
5 pairs of nicks, 3 vests an under slip
You can't have enough of them
I say to myself.4 pairs of socks 1 pair of tights
4 sets of trousers and T shirts
and a dress for a party or evening wear.
I select my toiletries, shower gel
Facial wash, flannel, tooth paste
Tooth brush, face creams
For nights and days and
A night dress, pyjamas
A dressing gown neatly laid out.Then there is my make up
My camera, my jewellery - these
I carefully pack in separate
Velvet lined boxes.
I have deliberated taken my time
Went back and forth
To select pieces that match
My clothes and enhance my beauty.I pack hoop earrings, drop earrings
Stud earrings, chockers, necklaces,
Pendants, rings inlaid with different
Gems and semi-precious stones.
I select amber, amethyst, coral my favourite
And deep blue lapis set in silver.It has taken me most of the day
But now all is packed in
My 'eminent' bag with my name tag.Not too long ago I saw a mountain
Of suitcases with names of owners
Carefully scribed on them
With neat bold hands -
Some in Latin scripts some in
Roman Numerals, some in Hebrew
Each letter carefully formed and drawnSome had even additional artwork
In colours and symbols -
Affectionate adornments full of feeling
Signifying ownership - wearing its owner's
Designer stamp and mark
Now dusty, abandoned empty
And forlorn they waited in the passage
Of history with a grim message!All these objects we collect
All these things that are mine
All the ephemera I carry - has
No meaning, no purpose
Can be a dead weight - a burden
And yet it tells my story
An essential part of my life
My biography - my history - just as
Their snatched away emptied suitcases
Their awesome History!Sundar
12th May 2009
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Two Gipsy Children
Two Gypsy children with
Mischievous grins
Do acrobatics, somersaults
Head stands, cartwheels
And speedy spins.They giggle and laugh
Run and cavort
Splash in muddy water
Blow bubbles and snort
Enjoy life to the brim.Their ragged clothes
I barely notice
They bear no shoes
They wiggle their toes
Make merry and sing.
Their sparkling eyes
And ready wit
I am enchanted for a while
And return their wink
With a grin and a smile.My mind recalls that sepia picture
Of two gypsy children
Who played and smiled
With million others they died
And no one saw them, no one cried!
In Auscwitz ghosts of little faces
Scream with rage and ask
This question - why, why, why?
Why did you let this tragedy happen?All those happy angel children burnt
To cinders by heartless monsters?
Sundar
14th May 2009
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