À l’heure du tout à l’image et du buzz sans suite, «l’express» souhaite faire découvrir la plume de poètes, de chanteurs, d’écrivains et de tous ceux qui jettent leur âme sur le papier, et qui mettent en mots des réflexions profondes.

A stretched out string of human rights espoused

By the nations league some eight decades back,

A wide river of censure has aroused

From rational minds, who brains do not lack.

The words “all men are born free” across lands

And are “equal in dignity and rights”,

Inscribed in shining scripts in books so grand,

Have across time suffered a frightful plight.

Diverse flags flutter at shrines of men’s rights

But more to please and to wheedle the eyes:

Freedoms won long ago through sweat and fight

Seem to have shrivelled in the silent sky.

When wardens of peace are fenced in a ring,

When deprived children with hollow eyes cry,

When pangs of hunger sting and sirens sing,

Pursuit of peace turns to hard whispered lies.

The media recounts diurnal bleeds,

Cruel bombs that wreck and victims that fall,

Borders that are crossed and desperate needs

That on households in sheltered tents befall.

In forums peace is preached with perfumed plea,

Treaties signed amidst blare and blooming grace,

Then weapons of death are traded with spree

As seeds of hatred sprout in time and space.

Perhaps goals of peace and rights were too high,

Perhaps human heart is not ever pure,

As a crystal clear lake eyeing the sky,

To conquer hate, affection to ensure.

Loads of failures that loom, shadows that creep,

Sow the seeds for sane, sensible worry,

Yet despite stark setbacks, time isn`t to sleep,

But pursue peace and build a world that`s free.

Time is to speak the truth, to lend a hand,

To see the worth shining in every soul,

To build a benign bridge across the land

And strive to pursue peace to make us whole.

Bio

Krishnanand Gupta

Former Financial Secretary and Financial Adviser at the Ministry of Finance, he has developed a keen interest for poetry, particularly for philosophical, spiritual, divine, motivational and inspirational poems. He has published several collections of poems, namely “Between Earth and Sky” (1975), “From Humanism to Spirituality” (2021), “Spirituality and Beyond” (2023), and “Sir Anerood Jugnauth – The Life and Legacies of a Great Soul” (2023).