- S.A. Hamid
- Feb 26
- 1 min read
Updated: Mar 1
In this digital era
the digitalized emotions
change with the hands
running on the keyboard.
Emojis, often in a row, that defy
the science of hermeneutics
Abbreviated messages
that are as short
as the short-lived feelings
they intend to convey.
The pictures on the screen
upload desire, which
the inbox messages multiply
Sometimes she may bare her soul
along with her body
Who can dispute Donne
that ‘pure lovers’ souls descend
to the senses else ‘a great prince in prison lies’?
The neighbor next door
keeps himself updated about me
from my posts on Facebook
and dismisses my presence on the street
with the mandatory salutation
later’ liking’ my post in acknowledgement.
But when darkness descends on the mind
when likes, reels, shares don’t matter anymore
when existential crisis, loneliness
saps the body, knocks at the soul,
the digital beings recall
some quote of Kafka
or Camus’ essay about Sisyphus
with the boulder on his back
climbing the mountain eternally.
But these unbearable thoughts are brushed aside
because the escape route lies
beside them on the bed
whose one click makes them
digital again.
S. A. Hamid (retired Professor of English, Kumaun University Campus, Almora, Uttarakhand) has published five books of poems, the latest being The Alchemy of Ageing (New Delhi: Authorspress, 2021). He is currently trying his hand at writing short stories. He can be reached at syedali.hamid2@gmail.com
- Mitali Chaktavarty.
- Feb 26
- 1 min read
Updated: Mar 1
Where memories
do not keep, where
tunes are confused,
how do you serenade
your beloved?
How do you sing
open skies and
soaring wings,
when all you see
are walls?
The walls grow
in your cells,
till blinkered,
you trot on
the straight and narrow.
The tonga driver raises
his whip and lashes.
The horse neighs
in pain
but still obeys.
Mitali Chakravarty has three books of poems: Flight of the Angsana Oriole (Hawakal, India, 2023) and Cities, Nomads and Rocks (Gibbon Moon, UK, 2024) and From Calcutta to Kolkata: A City of Dreams (Hawakal, India, 2025). She has edited two anthologies, Monalisa No Longer Smiles: An Anthology of Writings from Across the World (Om Books, India, 2022) and Our Stories, Our Struggles: Violence and The Lives of Women (Speaking Tiger Books, India, 2024).
- Gopikrishnan Kottoor
- Feb 26
- 1 min read
She’s beautiful.
But he hasn’t seen her beauty.
He never will.
She sings well.
And that he hears.
The heavy monsoon rain has soaked their clothes.
They are together
begging on the train.
She’s singing a song
He’s playing refrain.
Some things are hard.
Some things as togetherness as here
beyond momentary ecstasy
that the sighted keep looking for everywhere.
their entire life and never find,
all that beauty is here,
where the quiet finger-birds
in the nest of
their closely held hands
nudge closer, warm
Gopikrishnan Kottoor's latest collection of poems ' This Small Town' is available on Amazon. His recent poetry books include ' Poems From America', and ' A Land in the Sun.' He's working on a travel book ' The Golden Lane, Travels Across Europe.'
His email id is gopikottoor@gmail.com