Cosmic Muse
Pravat Kumar Padhy
Japanese short-form of poetry is a gift to the world of literature. It embodies a wide spectrum of entities comprising the beautiful nature, human behaviour, diverse cultural and ethical values and zen feeling. Deeper in haiku writing and its evaluation speak about the sublime physics of light and sound, chemistry of colour and geological expression of the landscape by encapsulating the science in beautiful nature (kocho-fuei). Poetry creates a fabric of resonance to transmit the human essence into our surroundings and further into the greater space.
Poet Federico Garcia Lorca could come to know about haiku in early 1920 and when he was a student in Madrid he aptly visualises and writes:
Some day…
You will leap from one star
to another.
During the early seventies, I had composed a poem, “Saptarshi ra Satabdhi Prasna” (One Hundred Questions of the Seven Stars) portraying time, space, and the celestial mystery. I thought of an idea of “Astro-Poetry” by assimilating the essence of celestial scientific entities in literature. Man’s perennial search for life in other celestial body and in aother solar system analogous to ours has been a milestone in space technology.
In 1978 a few of my haiku-like stanzas written in “Odia” appeared in the Deepti magazine, under the short- verse sequences “Satyameba” (Truth Alone). The translation of one of the poems, Jibanata (Life) is as follows:
half-moon in the sky
her body veiled in mixed
colours of clouds
Deepti, Vol.8, Issue III, Oct-Dec 1978
We can extend the art of poetry through time and space and glance them with the lens of imagination for the science and technology to translate. I tried to correlate the essence of celestial emblem through some of my haiku poems enumerated below:
half-moon—
the child wonders
the rest
Mainichi Daily News, 3rd Nov 2010 (featured on the HSA "Haiku Wall" exhibited in the historic Liberty Theatre Gallery, Oregon on June 3-5, 2011).
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blue earth--
lone robot on
the moon
Simply Haiku, Vol.10 No.1, Summer 2012
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deep silence--
planets move around
without noise
The Mainichi Daily News, March 20, 2013
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deep dark space
many cosmic townships
with their own light
The Mainichi Daily News, March 23, 2012
Freezing the Moment:A Celebration of Haiku by Poets from India ,Scroll.in April 8, 2018
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black hole--
mystery of the universe
gathers light
NaHaiWriMo, February 17, 2013
Haikuuniverse 11 .3.2018
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early dawn--
millions of stars
in dark
EarthRise 2015: Years of Light, Haiku Foundation
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milky way –
lightning splits
the darkness
Best of Issue (Second Choice), Haiku Reality, Vol. 12, No 20, Summer 2015
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The art of human philosophy, largely imaged, in the cognitive sphere, with thinkers and poet, in particular, is boundless. We dream the serene nature to create images that offer solace to all and create literary insight by amalgamating human feelings with scientific and celestial juxtaposition.
firecrackers—
a snapshot of
big-bang
NaHaiWriMo, 4.3.2013 # Fire
Culture Haiku Magazine, World Kigo Database, November 2013
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counting stars
I move around
the galaxy
The Mainichi Daily News, May 25, 2011
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End of year
celebrating the journey
around the sun
Asahi Shimbun, December 16, 2011
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Neil Armstrong--
baby’s maiden walk
on bright moon day
The Kloštar Ivanić International Haiku Competition, 2014 (Award Winning Haiku)
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long walk--
the slum boys stare at
the distant stars
The Heron’s Nest, March 2014
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cream coffee
a close encounter
with the milky way
ephemerae, Inaugural Issue, April 2018
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celestial thought
the moonflower on her
braided hair
Chrysanthemum 23 Spring Issue 2018
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countless stars
my folded hand
holds a few
Stardust Haiku, Issue 17, May 2018
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moonrise the sky from the oncology wing
Presence # 61, 2018
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painting contest
the child puts a drop of water
on the Mars surface
Poetry Corner, CB.net, 29.8.2018
I wish a sacred scientific endeavour for mankind to build another dream home on the moon and beyond.
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The essay was published in Haiku University, Vol.4, 2018
A thematically significant and environmentally conscious haiku that offers an incisive glimpse into the coalfield/fire.