By: Shinjini Singh
Verdant was your liquid Grace
that shadows wouldn’t dare stain.
That arch,
now your spine
no! your waist…
here your heel.
And these, your brows
But perhaps your fingers
yes, your fingers!
Those suncircled bangles
…your green form ablaze.
And I raced,
from far above
no, I chased
never losing sight of
that wild, dancing froth hair
fair, fair, fair…
Flinging itself carelessly
to the blue cheeks that
visibly adored,
so adored, this play.
While you continued,
oblivious
ageless
stirring;
Molding stone skulls
a smooth satin gray,
narrowing your expanse
through mountain hearts
long-since pierced,
and happily encircled by these,
your giddy emerald orbits.
And I knew then,
that those you touched
with your spright shoulders;
those that lived
on your banks
were pure,
froth-filled and free
so free…
Chamba was my Tintern,
and you, my Wye.
So often I return
but only to the memory
of your
Abundance,
and endless young shimmer
… that scattering gaze
Withal–
you peered into my soul
Raavi,
And you stayed.
Note from the Poetess:
This poem was composed while I was studying Wordsworth’s ‘Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey’. I tried to recall a time that waters touched me the way they did Wordsworth, for rejuvenation and such… All I could remember was that drive along the mountain pass in Chamba, I was at the time a school girl in Sacred Heart Dalhousie. I was 12 years old at the time and I can never forget the beautiful green coloured Raavi that flowed below and a bridge that joined the two mountains across it, yet somehow, I don’t remember a shadow from the bridge on the green waters.
I remember the scene often and living in Lucknow, with it’s polluted Gomti river which I cross daily to go to my University/work, I have often thought of the purity of the Raavi and how it reflected the pure and simple natures of the fresh and kind mountain people who live in Chamba. And I came to the conclusion that rivers reflect the deeper nature of people who live by their banks.
The Raavi is certainly my Wye the English river which William Wordworth found inspiration from whenever he needed it.
To read more of Shinjinis poems click here . Missy Baba’s Blog.
