Never to lose - Renia Piskozub

Yearning for the ripple, praying it’s you
when I jolt with a start which quickens my heart 
‘open message’ I choose
in tiny blank print to a delicious exchange 
‘you’re my life’s breath, never to lose’
I smile and quieten holding close to my skin, 
‘save message’ to relish and over again

Renia Piskozub
2 February 2010

Some were - Renia

કમ્પ્યુટર પર રચાયેલી કવિતાઓની શ્રેણીમાં ઈન્ટરનેટ પ્રેમપાત્રની ઝંઝાળ વિષે એક હળવી શૈલીમાં લખાયેલી કૃતિ શબ્દશ: .... 

Some were tall ones some were small ones

Some were thin ones and some were not

Some were dark and some were fair

Some with a shock of red hair

Some were late and some were lost

Some were funny and some were cross

Some were shy and stuttered a bit

Some were quiet with little wit

Some were smellie and very unkempt

Some were smart and well dressed gents

Some didn’t turn up…..

Some offered to pay for the meal that was had

Some took a split with a small tip to add

Some didn’t eat, for their weight they did watch

Some couldn’t speak for their food to despatch

Some had a lovely time and ‘shall we meet again?’

Some scarpered so quick their excuses so lame

Some politely refused to hand over a number

Some were blown away and ready to surrender

Some will internet date and some will not

Life’s a lucky dip so put your hand in the pot

If you don’t see your date in what’s been described

Beware, you could be the one of whom I have scribed

Renia Piskozub

Grace

રેનિયા - Renia- નું આ કાવ્ય ઉત્તર ઇંગ્લેન્ડ નાં પૂર્વીય કિનારે એક દિવાદાંડીના સંચાલક ની યુવાન દીકરીની શોર્યગાથા વર્ણે છે, લગાર 'ચારણ કન્યા'  જેમ. પોતાના ઘરમાંથી દરિયાઈ તોફાન માં સપડાયેલ એક નૌકાને જોઈ તે પછી  Grace  પોતાના પિતા સાથે જાતે હલેસા મારી એક હોડીમાં તૂટેલી નૌકાના પ્રવાસીઓ ને બચાવવા જીવનું જોખમ વહોરી લે છે એ સત્ય ઘટના પર આધારિત આ કાવ્ય માણવા જેવું છે, એમાં ડૂબવા આરે પહોંચેલી નૌકાના પ્રવાસીઓનું આક્રંદ, નિશ્ચેત માનવ દેહોની દરિદ્રતા, છીનવાયેલા - વિછુટેલા સાથીઓનું કારુણ્ય, આજીજી - હતાશા હુબહુ આલેખાયેલી છે. એમાં નવોદિત પ્રતિભા છે એ જરૂર વર્તાશે. ગયા મહીને એ ગ્રેસની જન્મતિથી હતી એ કદાચ કવિયત્રી માટે સ્ફૂરણા હશે?

Grace

A raging storm fires all her might and bounces from the rocks

A ship with all souls; bubbling and frothing; creaking and failing

The sea showed no calm or mercy for those clinging to out crops

Bodies float by, some caught in ship’s rigging and were eerily flaying

Cold, dark, menacing, raging torrents of water slam down and again

Relentless desperate cries of terror and foreboding are snatched in pain

The sea boils and leaps into gaping mouths, lungs froth and blood oozes

Into the water, into their eyes, onto each other among cuts and bruises

Hands aching; loosening grips; fingers being unpeeled by freezing brine

Ready to die - to sleep now in the darkest depths, release with a sigh

No longer frozen, no longer afraid,

Not hearing the thunder and ready to cave

A last breath taken; a last tear shed

‘Please forgive me’ as a last prayer said

Dawn began to show herself and what chaos the storm had craft

And in dawn’s shafts a girl rowed out pulling hard on oars in the aft

Seeing the nine still clung to rocks, she grimaced and fought to reach them

And strained to move the wooden bulk spurred on by skeletal seamen

Her father leapt across the rocks still hammered by the raging wind

Which tried in vain to send him down battered, bleeding and skinned

Grace kept the vessel all alone, safe from the spiking prongs

Off rocks which beckoned closer still but she kept it true and strong

November 24 1815 a heroine was born in the North West

She helped save the lives of nine of England’s best

Alas, aged 26 Grace died in the arms of her father

Lost to him, and the sea and her people at Bamburgh

Renia Piskozub

20 November 2009 

Side by side - Renia

Side by Side

A boy of 17 marching in step,

His pals to the front and rear,

Cheering, waving crowds and brass bands played

As his mother crumpled with tears

Excited and so brave and with new friends he’d made

Uniforms all donned; to a foreign field they sailed

All was quiet, still and eerie save the squeak of the rat

They stood in rancid water as their feet did silently rot

They ate and slept and cried and bled in a pit side by side

One by one the pals were lost, to a sniper, to the gas, to the flies

Then the day the order came, ‘o’er the top lads, don’t be afraid’

Suddenly his heart lurched and went home, the place he truly craved

A man now at 17 - a deep breath he took,

He saw his home, his mother and shook

But didn’t cry as he folded and crumpled

To the ground with his pals side by side.

Renia Piskozub 19.10.09