Biography and poetry by Lalit Mohan Sharma
Moderator 
LALIT MOHAN SHARMA
Dr Lalit Mohan Sharma, born in 1952, has published ten books of English poetry which include 'Man with A Horn', 'Eyes of Silence' and 'There's No Death'. His book, A Three- Step Journey, is English translation of Zahid's Urdu poems. 'A Little Fire' and 'पटल से प्रांगण तक' came out in the year 2023, and 'Imaginary Knots' is the latest , and 'Icicles of Time', another book of poems, will shortly be out.
Sharma was conferred with 'Master of Creative Impulse' at World Poetry Conference in 2019. Galaxy Foundation honoured him with ' A Connoisseur of Creative Arts' Award.
He has been anthologised in several books of poetry, stories and of academic interest.
WRITING
Assaying a role larger than
Were existentially possible,
Since unaware of the past,
In its entire range of flaws,
The secret gamut of gifts,
And future possibilities--
Aware of the lengthening,
A still expanding tradition,
You brood over what to write,
Self-conscious the pen moves
Guards against cliches and
Even demolishing structures,
To building the outer edifice,
The inner in rare convulsions
Not to repeat the repetitions
To pause before you star
And stop before you must;
To read not as yours, but of
One seeks in you a mentor!
Never so easy to fall in love
That it turns into obsession,
Losing sight of history and
Swing back with pendulum!
Let the unrest settle down
For the rest then is silence.
THE HAPPY CITIZENS
I do pay tax on the pension
Before it gets into my bank.
I also pay tax on the interest
My bank pays on my money.
I pay taxes on the goods and
Services I enjoy as a citizen.
I learn of the tax exemptions
The corporate enjoy in lakhs,
Millions in bad loans to them
Are exempted anonymously!
As I visit an OPD
Of a civil hospital,
It looks more like
Railway platform
Bustling at a time
As when the train arrives
Late by a couple of hours.
Education is free
Not so when it is
Run by private agencies
Higher the class
Bigger the crowds when
You aren't having it free!
Donations aplenty
When it is private-owned!
Men and women who spend hours
To get a free medical consultation,
Cannot dream-spend on their child
Study at famous schools of business
Or engineer a hotel management seat.
The rich citizens don't need a ruler
To tell them how acquire prosperity.
The poor are told by the powers that be
That they are always the happy citizens
AS IF THE ABYSS
Don't let a comfortable living
Douse the existential angst!
Let it not coax
The very sense of well-being
To accept it as just inevitable,
The tough mantle of tradition
Overwhelm the creative urge,
Visit Nietzsche
Like seasonal flowers bloom
And to forget the rest of year!
II
Investing the lifetime to know
What is known,
And not to worry about what
Is yet unknown!
The unknown too is a part of
What is known.
Each new look as time moves
New forms unseen before do
Appear and sti
Unknown queries to revalue
Our old values,
Review our views, to revision
The beautiful, so too
The prevailing good!
Can the mind mirror
The whole mankind,
And all the men and
Women to reflect in
Every human mind!
III
We are fond of calling it a void when
Love-bird is foiled in finding its mate;
Spurned in our deep urge for meaning,
The abyss as if begins to stare at us.
Conscious of a weakness for the words,
Shall we one day realise how our words
Are like photos whose originals could
Haunt us alive and throbbing like the body
Of a bird hurt and gasping for its very life?
………………………………………………
Prepared Angela Kosta
