SARBESWAR SAMAL
We still suffer
from platonic jaundice
when treating a Sakarov
or Solzhonytsin
as traitor to our
ideal prison.
but he is Promotheus
unbound with a vital sword
and creative flame
to forge an image
of new Humanism
from the debris of a
dirty social order.
Art may flourish
under favour and
patronage
but it never dies
under any law or regimentation
only suffers a change
like the characters in “The Tempest”
or passes a purgatory
like a Lear or Saint Joan
before its rehabilitation
and redefinition.
the artist too is not
a nihilist making
bombs for the generation
nor an anti-Christ
to crucify humanity
but a saviour and
Santa Claus
to appear in its dream.
he revels in life
and its manifold mysteries
makes monuments of beauty
and silhouetes of
symbols
on sands of time
a creator chiefly
whose delight is to create
and dissolve in it.
he speaks nothing
but the truth
as the Muse urges and dictates him
or the Demon goads and guides him.
just a medium, to receive and reflect
like a shell warbling
as the wind blows over it.