INTERNATIONAL POETRY FESTIVAL 2019 - ITALY

INDIA: Poetas del Mundo (ppdm ) is an international organization of poets  . Poets from 137 countries  numbering more than 9000 poets  are members of this prestigious organization .World renowned poet from Chile,Poet  Luis Arias Manzo  is the founder of PPDM . Main objective of PPDM is promote humanism through the medium of poetry . Every alternate year PPDM holds International Poetry Festival at different parts of the world . Poets from every member country is invited to participate in these poetry festival. Every  member country has a designated poet Ambassador , who represents his country at these poetry festival. Poet Sujit Mukherjee is the Poet Ambassador for India.

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This year( 2019 ) I represented  India  in the International Poetry Festival being held in Italy from 6 th to 15 th September . As per norm of PPDM  poetry festival , festival is arranged in different cities in the host countries so that maximum number of local people and poets can participate  and listen to the poetry recitation of poets from different countries . Apex body of poets in the host country make all arrangements . This year s festival was held at Florence, Verona, Venice, Rovigo andFerrara cities withactive participation from local poets . All these cities are located in the northern parts of Italy .

In place like Verona , which is believed to the home town of Juliet (  of Romeo Juliet fame ), poetry reading was organized to commemorateJuliet s sacrifice in the alter of love. Similarly at Venice , poetry was read near a ocean going boat which rescued drowning refugees from Syria , to respect the souls those unfortunate refugees whoperished during their voyagefrom Syria.

Best part of these international poetry festival s held in different countries is that all the foreign poets travel by road to one city to other where such events arranged so that poets are exposed to the culture ,food  , history and geography of the host country. This experience provides inputs for fresh poetry on cities we travelled . Some of the poems that I composed in Italy is provided below. Besides poetry , information about Italy and  places  we visited and our first hand experience are invaluable , which cannot be found in tourism books

Part 2: Visual Description of the society and places visited during the festiva

lItaly is a small country in Europe with thousands of years of history . It wastheseat of Roman Empire( Roman Italy was founded in BC 272 )and Rome was considered as the capital of Europe . Before the Roman s , the Greeks had their presence there . Civilizations after civilizations have left their foot print in Italy.

After the collapse of Roman Empire , fragmented Italy was ruled by Citi States ( like Raja and Maharaja s in India ) Today Italy is one of the most modern nations in Europe .Italian s are considered as most advanced in art, literature, music, fashion, poetry , architecture  and science and technology. Population of Italy is 60 million ( similar to Indian state of Gujarat), its GDP ( gross national income ) is over 2 trillion US $( India2.6 trillion) and per capita income isU$ 33,353( compared to U$ 8000 for India ). Modern Italy stands tall amidst architectural ruins of its past , country is likealive museum , where thousands of year old small town s  like Florence , Rome , Ferrara, Verona etc are still inhabited and these towns coexist with their modern townships . No where  in the world one sees such perfect blending of old and new . Italy has world s largest  UNESCO  designated  world heritage sites .No wonder , Italy receives largest numberof tourists  each year ( 115 million  -India 10 million )) . Due to its unique geographical location e.g snow capAlpmountains in the north west , oceans in east , west and south , there are three distinct climatic zones , cuisines and sub cultures in Italy .Italian food is world famous for its taste and regional variation.It has most modern infrastructure of roads, railway andairlines . Fastest trains in Italy travels at a speed of 400 km/hr.Country has more than a dozen international airports .

As mentioned above , the International Poetry Festival was held at different cities in Italy namely  . Florence, Ferrara, Venice, Verona and Rovigo in the northern part of Italy . From Delhi , we arrived at Rome . From Rome we travelled to Ferrara by high speed train ( 2 ½ hours ).  We stayed 3 nights in Ferrara.  From Ferrara we traveled to all cities where poetry festival is held by road.  We also stayed overnight at Florence and Venice.  During these road journeys we had excellent experience of viewing the picturesque country side of northern Italy.   This experience is not possible if we visit only the historical places in Italy.  Highlights above places, based on my experience and available informationis described below.

Ferrara Ferrara in Italyis a classic example of ancient living town. Ferrara is a UNESCO world heritage townwith population of 132000.Its origin could be traced back to nearly 1100 years , yet the Ferrara Cathedral , Clock Tower , Castle of the king , old market place ,Food street , Town Hall etcare well preserved and has the aura of Antiquity with modernity .Old city is clustered around above places.Currently it is famous university town. Ferrara is also few large industries . Founder of world famous Ferrari  car Mr Enzo Ferrari was from Ferrara town , Ferrari car is produced at Maranello , 90 km from Ferrara . Lamborghini  car was named after Mr Ferrari  s  son .Poetry Festival was held at the garden of the city s  1000 year old  town hall . This town hall has a functioning  library, museum and auditorium .

Part 3: Poems composed in Italy during the festival

Florence

Florence is the capital of Tuscany region of Italy .Florence was established bythe roman emperor JuliusCesar in 59 BC .It is one of most ancient cities in world .It is UNESCO designated world heritage site . Florence is known to the world for the Florence Cathedral and its red tiled dome , colored marble façade and elegant Giotto tower . Popularly known as Duomo Florence . Cathedral  was built during  the year 1296-1436 . Design of similar red colored dome is now found inmanyEuropean towns  .Medici kings who ruled Florence had commissioned  famous Italian artists and sculptors  Michelangelo , Leaonardo Vinchi and Botticellito beautify this cathedral . Michelangelo sculpted the famous statue of David ( figure of perfect man ) in Florence . Millions of tourists visits Florence every year . Florence is connected with all cities of Italy by road , high speed train and air . All tourist centers in Italy have International Airports .Modern city of Florence which is the provincial head quarter is a thriving city built several kilometer south of Florence Cathedral .Poetry Association of Italy is head quartered at Florence . Poetry Festival was held inside an old library building near Florence Cathedral . It was very well attended by public as well as Italian poets and authors .

Part 3: Poems composed in Italy during the festival

ROME
Mystifying , ageless and timeless
You witnessed the march of civilization s
Great Emperors and Monarchs fought for you
Builders , archetects , authors , artists flourished  in your soil
Epics were written about you
In your air , melodies of your music wafts
Merchants of the world traded in your ports
love was immortalied by Romeo s sacrifice for his reloved
Gladiator s  died in hordes to entertain
Colosum stands testimony for their sacrifice
Cleopatra visited you in search of love
There is no place in earth where civilisation thrived from time immemorial to present day
You witnessed it all
Every time I visit you  , I fall in love with you
You smiled at me saying  keep visiting me
To discover my secrets ....

GONDOLA
I wonder who invented  you
You are a boat only found in the water ways of Venice
You are a boat but not a ordinary boat
You are a gondola of love
love abounds in a gondola
lovers  float s in Gondola in the ocean of love
They swing and roll  in joy while sailing in a gondola
love is incomplete without a gondola ride
Watching Sunset and Sunrise from a gondola
A mesmering experience
A romantic experience
Modern age sail boats motor boats could not
snatch the lovers from you
lagoon of Venice itself is such a romantic paradise
Rocking and rolling lovely gondolas
Make Venice a tempting destination ....
 

VERONA
Nesteled  within hills and meadows in Italy
A cute medieval town of Verona
Calls for our attention
An ancient Roman amphitheatre
Still holds theatre and music festival
City centre comes to life every evening with music and cultural events
Shakespeare discoverd the story of Romeo and Juliet in Verona
He immortalied Verona as city of love
Romeo and Juliet were matyred in the alter of love
Verona stand testimony of impershability of love
Saga of Romeo and Juliet continues  everywhere  in our daily life ...

Part 4: Poems of Sujit Mukherjee composed for the festival

POEMS OF NATURE                                                                                         

  

My search for poems ends

 Every time I am in the midst of nature

 Poems in myriad colors and shape

 Blooms like flower

 Seasons paints them in seasonal colors

 Wind spreads their fragrance

 Like vibrating leafs , poems flutter in the wind

 Like flowers  my poems too blooms and fades

 Leaving its imprint in my heart

 I print them with words for you …

 

WHEN WE MEET AGAIN                                                                             

  

 I had so much to tell you

 You had so much to tell me

 We had so much to do together

 So much remained unsaid and undone

 Candle of our life is melting

 Its flickering light will extinct some day

 Never mind

 Lets meet again in our next life

 When we meet again

 Come to me bubbling with your enchanting smile and unbridled passion

 Let us seat together each evening

 Under the dome of the sky  and

 Listen to each other

 I will read my poems to you

 Stars in the sky will join us

 Water from the stars will water  your eyes

 When I hold you in my bosom

 You will hear all my unsung songs

 Poems from your heart will drip as eye drops

 Never mind

 We will meet again and again

 Life after life  ……

NOTHING IS MINE                                                                                                         

 

I am only playing with toys

 Afraid to break it

 Whatever I  call mine

 Will remain scattered and abandoned

 Nothing is mine

 Am trapped in the illusion of permanent joy

 Not interested to break free

 I  have to leave one day

 Who will go with me when I  depart

 My beautiful body

 Will turn into ash when consigned to flames

 I   live in the heart and mind  of

 The people I  love and serve selflessly ….

 

NATURE BEACONS                                                                                        

  

 I hear the song of mother nature

 I hear her voice from

 Gurgling of the mountain stream

 Humming of the bees

 Cuckoos   coos

 Murmurings of the winds

 Chant of the river

 Once in a while I detach  myself from my worldly prison

 And seat near a flowing river

 Dip my bare feat in the crystal clear water

 And allow the water to wash my impurities

 Mother nature makes me complete and sacred

 Melody of the mother nature s song

 Wafts through me all the time …

 

COSMIC VIBRATION                                                                                                     

  

 A rhyme knocked at my heart

 I asked

 Who are you

 You said

 I  am a poem

 I am a primal voice

 I am a cosmic vibration

 I am eternal , ever present

 I am flowing like a river all the time

 I live in the heart of the poet

 You said

 You are a poet

 A blessed  soul

 You receive my vibrations in your heart

 You decode these vibrations

 You transcribe them in words

 You enrich and ornament the words

 You rhyme the stanzas

 You create the verse

 You said

 I reveal myself in your verse

 Your verse is my echo…

 

I DO NOT KNOW                                                                                                                           

  

 What is inside my body

 I do not know

 What is outside   within the air and space

 I do not know

 What I read is secondhand information

 I do not know its source

 What I see is interpreted by my mind

 I do not know what is inside my mind

 Still I cling to my false sense of knowledge …

SKY                                                                                                                                                                     

 

 I don’t get wet with rain

 I don’t get dispersed with cloud

 I don’t get excited with rainbow

 Yet

 I am an umbrella over your head

 I am a canvas on which clouds compose their verse

 I am changeless within my ever changing surface 

 Be like me

 Remain undisturbed

  

Be a umbrella for your family, friends and loved ones …

NOTHING IS MINE                                                                                                         

 

 My belongings belong to earth

 My memories belong to time

 My talents belong to circumstances

 My family and friends belong to the path I have travelled

 My beloved people belong to my heart

 My body belongs to dust

 My soul belongs to God

 Nothing is mine  ….

REFLECTIONS                                                                                                  

 

 I am a thousand winds that blow

 I am the diamond glints on snow

 I am the sunlight on ripened grain

 I am the gentle autumn rain

 I am twinkling star that shine in the night

 I was there in the past

 I am present now

 I will be there in the future

 I am not the body that perishes

 I am a traveler passing through time span called life

 Find me

 In my deeds

 In the sparkling dewdrops

 In the fragrance of the flower

 Find me in my verse ….

 

BENEDICTION  

 

 When I met you

 I was not sure whether I should align with you

 I asked myself

 Are you here for me for a reason, season or life time

 Will you help me   selflessly when I am in trouble

 Will you go through life together with me

 Time proved

 You are a benediction for me

 You are always there for me

 You are physically, emotionally and spiritually  connected with me

 You are my true friend

 You are my lifeline  ….

 

BOOK                                                                                                                                 

 

 I am a book

 I remain silent

 Yet say everything

 I am a book

 You are my author

 I am known by you

 I am a book

 You bring to life

 Your imagination in my pages

 I am a book

 I am inert like a stone

 Yet like a seed

 I sprout like a plant

 In page after page

 I am a book

 Don’t ignore me

 Don’t ignore my silence …

I  AM YOUR  POEM 

 

 In the blue canvass of sky

 I am the rainbow you choose to paint

 I am the flowing torrents of words in your verse

 I am the raindrops

 You watch during rains

 I am the gurgling mountain brook

 You stop and watch

 I am a full moon

 You are my light

 I am born in your hand

 My poet

 You bring me to life …

 

TEAR DROPS   

Lips cannot  express  pains and sorrows

Heart   speaks in the language of teardrops

Teardrops glistens  in the eyes

Joys and sorrows glistens as teardrops

Teardrops from the heart comes unannounced 

Tear drops in your eyes brings tears in my eyes

I cry and teardrops wash my soul...

MEET ME IN MY VERSE                                                               

 

We both live together

In our soul

In love and in loss

We are both far yet close

We are united yet separated

I weave my longing for

You in my verse

I conceal your beauty

Within the wefts of my soul

My night dies in memory

My days   live in waiting 

I go back to my verse

To find you

You too will find me my poems..

 

HOW OFTEN I  GET LOST                                                                                   

 

How often I get lost

In the unending alleys   of uncertainty

I search for clues to return

Every time I think of    you

Mists of ignorance, uncertainty, confusion recedes

And I find my way back home

Like a light house 

You bring me back to the shore ... 

 

OLD DELHI                                                                                                                       

 

I enjoy losing myself in the rhythm s of   old Delhi

A city layered with thousands of years of history

Where  Pandavas once lived

Where emperor Auranazeb   beheaded his   elder brother

Where last Moghol Emperor lost his honor

Where poet  Mirja Ghalib framed his immortal verses

Where love still flourish in its lanes and by lanes

Where believer s in thousands pray at the magnificent Jama Masjid

A city cocooned in antiquity, resisting   the march of modernity at its gate

A city fights modernity with conservatism every day

Shrinking timeless oasis

Against marauding sands of time

An oasis tucked within

Mega city of New Delhi

I long to visit the eternal city of old Delhi ….

WAVE AND SHORE                                                                                     

 

 I am the shore

 ou are the wave

 Like the waves

 You danced upon my shore

 Like the waves

 You  once passionately kissed my shore

 Like the waves

 You silently retreated  saying goodbye to the shore

 Now it is all calm and quiet

 Shore thymes the songs of the waves that it absorbed

 I am the shore

 You are the wave  …

WHY DOES MY MIND CRIES                                                                     

 

 When my dreams leaves

 When my dear ones leaves

 When my poems leaves

 My mind cries so often

 I cajole my mind

 I pamper my mind

 I entertain my mind

 Till my mind stops crying

 Mind starts recovering

 When my poems returns

 Teardrops of my mind recedes

 And

 Dewdrops of joy fills my mind …

  

Let  the thunder wake you up

 Let  the wind  murmur  my  advancing  footsteps 

 Let  the clouds  carry  me towards you

 Let me rain  my love on you

 Let  me recite my poems in the language of rain

 Dance and sway with the rhythm of my love  

 Find   me in your arms  in rain  ...

 

I HEAR YOUR WHISPERS                                                                                     

 

 Years passed till we met last

 Now and then

 I hear your whispers

 *I am near you

  I am near you *

 Mesmerized I looked for you far and near

 I find you in

 Mother’s enchantment with her child

 Cool breeze in summer

 Fragrance of flowers

 Cuckoos song

 Sounds of laughter

 With you near me

 I fear not losing you

 I fear not even losing my life

 Be near me, my beloved

 Never leave me alone …

LIFE IS A MIRROR                                                                                          

 

 Smile and it will smile back

 Every action there is an opposite and equal reaction

 With action only reaction happens

 Aura of our body’s subtle magnetic field

 absorbs all external vibrations

 Reflectance is natural and entirely automatic

 All actions are driven by 

 The power within us …

POEM IN YOUR HEART                                                                                   

 

 There is a poem in your heart

 There is a poet in your heart

 There is a prophet in your heart

 In your heart there is a prophesy

 There is voice in your heart

 In your heart there is silence

 There is a mind in your heart

 In your heart mind is calm

 There is a question in your heart

 Your heart answers as a poem ……

 

 

 

Nacionalidad: India

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