Waheeda Khan is a English literature – Teaching Assistant at the Karnayak university P.G. Centre in Karwar, Karnataka. She has been publishing her poems and essay in the Ashwamegh journal since the past year and is also a part of the What’s app literary group. Earlier she was an active member at the various poetry sites like Poemhunter.com, All Poetry etc. She usually publishes with the pen name Soulful heart. Waheeda has published a book of poems titled ‘ Frozen smoulders’, thankfully also reviewed by Mr. Alok Mishra. Her poems have been shortlisted and published in the annual journal of The Poetry Society ( India), New Delhi 2015 and 2016 consecutively.
Essential Compound
Oh water! What art thou?
Being colourless, odourless, shapeless
Yet you are – mirror, murk, mass.
Oh! What is thy abode?
In blood, cloud, ocean
Yet you- clot, bolt, drown.
Oh! Is thy presence a bliss?
As you nurture, quench, replenish
Yet you — choke, devour, bloat.
Oh! Art thou benevolent ?
Evoking breathing air, life, beauty
Yet cause- icy chill, disease, slimy moss.
Oh! Lest you hold thy fury!
As floods, tsunami, hurricane
Yet thou calmly splash, ebb, subside.
Oh! If thou wert not invoked
There be no earth, rivers, cells
Yet exist binding, flowing, cleaving.
Silence
The noiseless entity of realms
A lil eerie, a little contemplative,
As silence transcends better than words.
Can you perceive —-
A silent sound that evokes a soul?
A silent void that fills a stunned mind?
A silent scream that echoes some anguish?
A silent smile that glows compassion?
A silent breeze that soothes harassed being?
A silent joy that flows in impulsive tears?
A silent heart beat that stops a life?
A silent breath that differs from death?
A silent idea that heralds revolution?
A silent prayer that invokes Almighty?
A silent wish that leads great achieves?
A silent curse that poisons peace?
A silent love that becomes immortal?
A silent look that shatters pride?
A silent beacon that guides the stray?
A silent word that grows into a song?
A silent universe that bounds every entity?
A silent roar that burns a distant star?
A silent world that hides vast complexities..???
Do you know,
The boundless power of silence, like — The eloquent silence
The hermit’s silence
The humiliating silence
The fuming silence
The graceful silence
The bleeding silence
The wisely silence
The coward’s silence
The deathly silence
The reviving silence?????
Yet silence is the universal language,
That traverses heaven and earth;
That transcends cosmic orbits;
And culminates the quintessence
Of this infinitely temporary existence.