waking up
to birdsong
the motel
Bidyut Prabha Gantayat
After a long drive by car I check into a roadside motel. The ambience is of a perfect desolate landscape, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. In my evening stroll I see a distant sunset, on a mountain, a deep backyard forest, and the waxing moon, amid sprouting stars. Oh, how I wish to have a sound sleep in my cosy bed tonight!
At around midnight a soloist tunes up from nowhere and wakes me up. Where is this from, I wondered and wondered. No ballroom music, no recital around, no birdsong. What is it?
Pondering I slowly immerse into its lingering vibrato of a strange melody and take out my notebook.
My favourite haiku poet and his poem:
first rain
the paper boat carries
my childhood
Pravat Kumar Padhy
Asahi Haikuist Network (Japan, 2013)
Why I like this poem:
Pravat Kumar Padhy has been writing haiku poetry and allied genres for more than a decade.
He gives a subtle gesture looking around nature, and typically picks up very common imagery to mould into a revealing three line poem by mood, and word by word.
In this poem I see the outburst of his treasured nostalgia flawlessly transcending into the reader's mind.
The quotes
From: Waiting for Godot
"Tomorrow when I wake,or think I do , what shall I say of today?"
From: Withnail and I
Peter Marwood (" I ") :
"Even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day"
