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Yet Another Year
The birthday bells reverberate
__Through haunted towns
That lead you to an ancient gate
__Beside which clowns
Laugh aloud and break down in tears;
__They stand and wait,
Resembling dreams of former years
__That’ve died to fate
Or choice or both. The torches shine
__Upon the way
Where phantoms rise and then decline
__To mark this day.
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Satyananda Sarangi is a young civil servant by profession. A graduate in electrical engineering from IGIT Sarang, his works have featured in the Society of Classical Poets, Shot Glass Journal, Snakeskin, WestWard Quarterly, Sparks of Calliope, Page & Spine, Glass: Facets of Poetry, The GreenSilk Journal and elsewhere. Currently, he resides in Odisha, India.
There is a depth to this poem that goes beyond the cursory reading and initial thoughts. “Yet Another Year” tells me that celebrants are reacting to the city bells in different ways with their own joys, fears, or inebriations to mark the new year. The phantoms, almost like the ghosts of Dickens (past, present, and future), rise and fall as torches proceed and are extinguished. I tried to visualize the New Years celebration in India when reading this.
I love the interpretation here. How wonderful it is that the same poem gets interpreted in quite a number of ways! What more does a poet need!
Short, but poignant. It can indeed be a struggle to keep the dreams alive, but what are we without them?
Thanks for the read, Satyananda.
Thanks a ton for reading this. Now, I get drawn to another poem of mine related to what you said about dreams.
This is the poem.
Dreams
(Alexandroid)
Do dreams have hands, and feet and eyes,
a brittle heart
That fail to understand these sighs
in whole or part?
Do dreams befriend, and then betray
the hopeful stance
Of human toil and fade away
without a chance?
Do dreams, disguised as poets, mark
on walls of rhyme
Their grievances, across the dark
expanse of time?
https://www.musepiepress.com/shotglass/satyananda_sarangi1.html
A nice alexandroid, S.S. And the enjambment is just what it should be.
Greetings!
Still learning the art of enjambment from you, CB Sir. Last time, your comment was – “next time, more enjambment”. So that was what I had in my mind somewhere.
This is very carefully crafted, both metrically and syntactically. The first two quatrains and part of the third make up a complete sentence — a very difficult thing to manage! In addition, the sophisticated arrangement of clausal subordination in the following is both elegant English, and somewhat archaic:
“They lead you to an ancient gate / Beside which clowns…”
Sir,
Getting such a compliment from a person whom I’ve looked up to all these years, is a great feeling. The struggle is on but your words on “Dominant Garbage Art” in that interview is one lighthouse for me.
What a splendid poem this is, Satyanada, with such intriguing imagery! That combination of haunted towns, weeping clowns and torches is surreal — especially the phantoms which decline to mark the day. This unique, cryptic yet beautiful birthday poem has left me pondering all that is seen and unseen — the shadows that follow us through our lives. Well done!
Yes, the shadows that follow us. They may stop awhile, then follow again.
Thanks for this lovely comment. Who else could have talked about shadows!
I loved your birthday poem…so intriguing and well written.
Thanks a lot, Allegra for the constant appreciation. Really, you drop by my poem every time and that in itself is so kind of you.
Best wishes.
You are a gift to this world of ours .
Eerie and audacious. The images work against one another, suggesting varied emotions and meaning. “Or choice or both” is a brash challenge to stop and think about what you intend to communicate. Good placement for this expression between the two sentences, and before the final contrasts.
Greetings ma’am,
This interpretation of the poem was what I was going through while writing. The theme was different for me, and it was some task to bring in the conflicting emotions together.
Grateful for this kind comment – it made me feel that I am on track for improvement. Your valuable insights on every occasion has been a key takeaway for me.
Wonderfully mysterious!
Thanks a lot, Cynthia ma’am. Your appreciation means a lot!
Dear Evan,
A token of gratitude to you for accepting this poem. You’ve been very encouraging and supportive from the first day that we’ve known each other.
Best wishes
Satyananda, this smoothly written and hauntingly beautiful poem has a tinge of melancholic wonder about it… I love the musicality of the piece. Especially those reverberating birthday bells in the enticing opening line. I like the intrigue of your poem.
Thank you Susan. Over the years, I had always wished to try my luck with mysterious poetry – much of which I think can be the impact of William Butler Yeats and Walter de La Mare’s “Listeners”. This is perhaps the beginning.
I’m sorry it took me this long to notice your two very fine Alexandroids, but I wanted to add my two cents worth of praise to the many appreciative and well-deserved comments already on display here. Thanks to all those involved!