Poem-1
THE BLACK MOON IN THE WHITE SKY!
(by Prof Dr. P.K.Palanisamy
pkpalanisamy2001@yahoo.co.in )
1
President Barack Obama took the Oath of Office potent
in his presidential inauguration event
on the same religious Bible
on the same velvet volume known as the Lincoln Bible
on the same magnet Bible with gilded edges fine
that Abraham Lincoln used in 1861
for his grand swearing-in
as he was scrupulously honest
with tender sympathy august
and was holding opinions utterly at variance
with those usually taught in the Church of radiance,
his opinions being neither orthodox
nor ambiguous nor atheistic
but based on the ways elastic
of both God and Humanity
which ever remain a mystery
as a spiritual perception
of unusual depth and vision
which cast his constant anxiety and prayer
that he and his nation dear
should ever be on the Lord’s side–
unlike others who think aside
that God is on their side–
unlike others who invoke His aid
against the others so weak and timid–
unlike others who dare ask a just God’s aid
in wringing their bread
from the sweat of other men’s faces tired!
2
O, the Head of States! You do now aptly trumpet
the biblical message of Lincoln so prompt
by pondering the eternal significance
of the global circumstances–
by profoundly analyzing
the world’s deepest trauma that is swelling
with ignorance and poverty and inequality
and vengeance and terrorism and cruelty–
by thinking as Lincoln did deeply
that the United States only
is the last best Hope of the earth
and its citizens are the chosen people worth
to save the world from the ills and ill-wills
of the human demons and devils!
3
O, Obama the Great! You have not only traced sincere
the train route that Lincoln took so clear
and held a welcome event at the Lincoln Memorial
and displayed his Bible
at the Library of Congress Exhibition
but also have chosen his political route and mission
to practise his “With Malice Toward None” vision.
Let this message of that exhibit
journey in its ambit
not only to five other American cities’ berth
in commemoration of the bicentennial of his birth
but to all the corners of the world
to make a Paradise of Progress multifold
through your direct talks and diplomacy so bold!
4
Let the past guide you
to make the Country’s Prosperity new
and keep Equality and Prosperity in view
among the whites and blacks in the country
by your reforming plans of glory!
5
O, this is high time to look back in memory
of what had happened in the past as fully
as the Muse in me thus sings free:……..
*
6
In many of the European countries,
they that suffered by suppressive measures
desired to get the life of rights
and avowed and went beyond the seas.
7
The wide region of earth called America
gave them the rare place of life;
They felt joy thinking “It is God’s Grace”
and lived there, finding many a source.
8
They felt elated that they got there
the freedom of religion and honourable rights;
The elites were very happy to find them work hard
and make the jungle into a fair Land.
9
They founded great, great farms!
The cotton and sugarcane grew well;
Wealth bulged; Heart also blackened;
Noble conduct disappeared as Time changed
and Wealth begot Arrogance and Pride.
10
The ‘haves’ thought of getting cheap the coolies
to work in the cotton fields;
The wicked who thought of people as animals
caught the people by hunting;
By catching the God-given people
who lived in the land of Africa,
they sold them in the market as slaves!
They had ‘atrocity’
as their profession.
11
As gangs of the black multiplied and multiplied,
the whites became the fanatics there!
The black-men became their slaves!
And their ladies became their objects!
The black-beauties with well-belt bodies
became sugarcane to the lusty men!
What is called Chastity
was to the whites only!
12
The Saviour graced the blacks, the slaves
to massage the hands and legs
to work hard, to behave by obeying,
The God so commended them!!
O, the Animal called Human Shape!
13
The foolish were these Africans!
-thus they said, with excess of arrogance!
The blacks worked hard with their souls tired;
A New Land got all the beauty of earth
where the gold grew in plenty!
14
Making the maidens stand in the front-
‘Look at her well-belt body
Look at her attraction
She is not weak, with tiredness overflowing,
No money heavy
She is the flower of Love, look!’ - they said!
15
‘Do you want even this slave
whose youth overflows
in her physical features!’
-so calling, they would sell her
in the markets!
16
Born somewhere, brought somewhere
but caught by somebody,
they became slaves
their hearts became very wounds,
they worked and worked
and became disfigured.
17
The new priests in the churches
rolled silently
the garlands of beads!
18
‘It is my daughter, O Father!’
-thus yearned a parent!
It was the custom of humans
to call her the daughter of Father.
‘O Beast! It is our object of lust!
What else! Where is right of speech
for a slave?’-thus the lords of arrogance
would roar there.
19
When the wicked committed cruelties,
the blacks there being helpless
felt agonized!
20
‘If dress be worn, the body is hidden;
If the body be hidden
Beauty becomes decreased;
Therefore, O slave, remove your dress!’
If the priests so commanded,
would they that violated it survive!
To escape from this cruelty
the slaves would run
even towards the jungle.
21
The wicked fanatics would employ
the hounds even!
To make dead the slave that was caught,
they would give whips
and even hang them;
There was no way for the Law to interfere!!
O Slave, the Object!
It was the desire of the haves!!
The God won’t question it.
He was in the church.
He that built a church
was the master of slaves!
22
The Dawn came to the view;
The active hero Lincoln
who had the morale in his mind
released the body
by defeating the wicked.
23
Today there is no atrocity
of making a slave;
There is nobody in the market
to hold and sell a slave!
The blacks also are the humans,
but not objects! This is Law!!
24
Though Lincoln
got for them this Law, the heart of ghost
has not left there.
The colour difference
of blacks and whites
became a violent passion
and caused disasters;
And the whites became adamant;
What foolishness!
-thus asked the hero Kennedy
but he was shot dead
by heinous crime of murder!
25
To make his soul get peace,
the government declared
by Law
to give equal rights
to the blacks hereafter.
26
To break the Law
they who were mad after
many cruelties there
committed crimes in cruel ways
What appeared before their eye of mind
was only the lady or maiden as slave
that stood before!
They had resumed their desire
for the old cruelties to come back!
27
They won’t get tamed, if we called it
‘not the fair way’, ‘nor the proper way’.
Therefore the blacks
had started with talent
to show the way
for beat-to-beat, kick-to-kick;
Unrest was set in America!!
Yes, therefore, the Negroes took a vow
to root out Cruelty;
‘Long live the world!’
28
Hence rose to the skies
the arrows of Black Heroes
They surged up like waves
to reach the shore of Freedom
like Washington, Fortune, Barnett
Du Bois, Garvey, Charles Clinton
Bethune, Houston, Staupers
Martin Luther King, Young
Richard Allen, Nat Turner
Langston, Delany, Crummell
and thus the long list grows…….”
*
29
O, the Champion of Leadership!
They all became heroes for us to worship!
Roosevelt gave the blacks the economic relief
Kennedy and Linton B Jonson gave them civil rights
Nelson Mandela showed them liberation and power
And, we hope, your ‘sea-change plans’ will bloom
and drive away all their gloom!
30
O, you’ve proclaimed in your victory speech
in Chicago’s Grant Park to preach
that Change has come to America
and the world expects that such a Change in America
will be to it ambrosia of safety and security
and a death-blow to poverty,
because you have taken to heart
the carnage of wars
and the ravages of terrorists’ jaws–
because you have promised as your vision
that Americans can neither retreat from the world of faction
nor try to bully it into submission–
because, even in your twenties, you had felt
the power of the African-American religious belt
to spur the social changes concrete and ample–
because, we hope, you are the Rock of Hope so stable
with moral strength ample
to lead the world, by deed and by example!
*****

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