![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thenortherngazette.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/jauljibi1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nPoems of Loss<\/p>\n
By Rashme Sehgal<\/p>\n
The Crying Himalayas -Can you Feel Their Pain?<\/p>\n
I want to speak to you about our mountains<\/p>\n
Are you listening?<\/p>\n
The snows that shone so brightly<\/p>\n
Under the still, starry nights<\/p>\n
Have melted,<\/p>\n
Can you see this, are you listening?<\/p>\n
The bare rocks stand tall and naked<\/p>\n
Like the shrunken visage of a dead tree,<\/p>\n
You can see their veins,<\/p>\n
And feel their pain,<\/p>\n
Echoing through the night sky,<\/p>\n
A dark sky aflame with stars,<\/p>\n
Are you listening<\/p>\n
Can you feel their pain?<\/p>\n
The light from the sky is no longer reflected<\/p>\n
On snow- covered flanks,<\/p>\n
The valleys stand treeless,<\/p>\n
Rich wates, once home to fish and fowl,<\/p>\n
No longer race through the ravines<\/p>\n
Their beds have gone dry.<\/p>\n
The mountains no longer echo the song of the soul,<\/p>\n
A song of solitude, a song of wisdom,<\/p>\n
Are you listening,<\/p>\n
Can you feel their pain?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
**<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Forests Are On Fire<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The forests are on fire<\/p>\n
See the flames rise<\/p>\n
To touch the skies<\/p>\n
Cover the crests of mountains<\/p>\n
Melt these everlasting snows into ash.<\/p>\n
**<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Our Shrunken Glaciers<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The contours of the mountains have changed<\/p>\n
Their majestic forms have shrunk<\/p>\n
As have the snows, sadly all melted,<\/p>\n
Leaving a shrunken glacier behind,<\/p>\n
Wrapped in an inner turbulence<\/p>\n
Of destitution and hate.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
**<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A Leitmotif of our Times<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Will these contours of inner light<\/p>\n
Remove this all- pervasive darkness<\/p>\n
A leitmotif of our times<\/p>\n
Water for water<\/p>\n
Stone for stone<\/p>\n
Tree for flame<\/p>\n
Extinguishing the bright passage of our days<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Engulfing us into a whirlpool of burning fire.<\/p>\n
**<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Disappearing Forests<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sentinels of green<\/p>\n
Dappled in beauty<\/p>\n
Will the red crested bulbul<\/p>\n
Warbling through this architecture of green<\/p>\n
Lose its song?<\/p>\n
Its home destroyed,<\/p>\n
Axed, rendered limbless,<\/p>\n
Will the wind no longer carry<\/p>\n
This soft timbre<\/p>\n
Will its song no longer resound through the hills<\/p>\n
Echoing the music of our dreams.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
**<\/p>\n
Trampled Dreams<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Let our songs reflect our tears<\/p>\n
Our inner anguish<\/p>\n
Our trampled dreams,<\/p>\n
One day this song will reach the sky,<\/p>\n
This mantle of blue<\/p>\n
Will capture its music<\/p>\n
Adorn its firmament<\/p>\n
With the sound of our heartbeats.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
**<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thenortherngazette.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/sinlapass2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Allow These Bodies\u2026<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Allow these bodies to pile one upon another,<\/p>\n
Press hard in all their dimensions<\/p>\n
Will these strange creatures<\/p>\n
Draw comfort from one another<\/p>\n
Or will their blood flow and intertwine<\/p>\n
To start a new cleansing,<\/p>\n
Always, this hate-filled warfare will continue,<\/p>\n
The vacillating heart will stop beating<\/p>\n
And the bodies will keep piling<\/p>\n
Through these deep nights,<\/p>\n
Overwhelmed by impalpable winds<\/p>\n
And the destitution of our wrecked spirits.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
Silences<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The deep silence of the hills<\/p>\n
Has been destroyed<\/p>\n
Lost in a dance of never- ending greed<\/p>\n
Where are the Siddhas<\/p>\n
The compassionate ones<\/p>\n
The strength of their meditation<\/p>\n
Alone can reverse this tide of desolation<\/p>\n
Mountains blown apart like sawdust<\/p>\n
Rivers losing their inner strength<\/p>\n
The dominion of our trees<\/p>\n
No longer breathe with the empire of the sunlight<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Blow by blow<\/p>\n
We are being ground into a wasteland of desolation<\/p>\n
Bring us back O mighty spirit<\/p>\n
To a land of unceasing light.<\/p>\n
**<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ganeshpuri<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I know you Ganeshpuri<\/p>\n
I know you only too well<\/p>\n
With your decapitated mountains<\/p>\n
Your fast disappearing forests,<\/p>\n
The Tansa river is all I have left to hold on to,<\/p>\n
Not the temples,<\/p>\n
Not Bhadrakali,<\/p>\n
Not the flower seller or the sulphur springs,<\/p>\n
I need those sparkling waters,<\/p>\n
They remain my only hope,<\/p>\n
Those mighty waters will alone<\/p>\n
Bring back those dense forests<\/p>\n
Through which once tigers roamed,<\/p>\n
Drawn by the destiny of the river<\/p>\n
The cry of the wild pheasant will resound again,<\/p>\n
Tall grasses will grow along its edges<\/p>\n
The rustling of these leaves<\/p>\n
Will echo through the day<\/p>\n
As will the cry of the birds<\/p>\n
Stalking for fish along these moving waters.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
**<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Political Bandwagon<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A bag of grain<\/p>\n
Dispatched every week<\/p>\n
Into these countless hovels<\/p>\n
Allows me to assert my suzerainty<\/p>\n
Unto death<\/p>\n
The perils of having lost our future<\/p>\n
For a fistful of grain,<\/p>\n
Forgetting all the while,<\/p>\n
A fistful of salt gave us our freedom,<\/p>\n
This one bag of grain<\/p>\n
Has allowed us to become enslaved again?<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
A sword has been unsheathed<\/p>\n
The dogs of war let loose,<\/p>\n
Where will you carry this loot<\/p>\n
Which palace is there left to embellish?<\/p>\n
The nation has been taken to the gallows<\/p>\n
Where every day,<\/p>\n
The air is embellished with a fresh poison.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
**<\/p>\n
This path leads us upwards<\/p>\n
To a marble pedestal<\/p>\n
On which the mighty leader stands<\/p>\n
When he speaks,<\/p>\n
The earth trembles,<\/p>\n
No wonder our mountains are disintegrating,<\/p>\n
Stone for stone<\/p>\n
Mud for mud<\/p>\n
Hovel for one more hovel.<\/p>\n
**<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I revere the forests<\/p>\n That came up to our doorsteps<\/p>\n These have long disappeared<\/p>\n As have the grasslands,<\/p>\n The lotus ponds have dried up,<\/p>\n The hunters with their bows and arrows<\/p>\n No longer criss-cross these grasslands<\/p>\n Befriend the desert<\/p>\n Our new home<\/p>\n This is the legacy<\/p>\n We will bequeath to our children.<\/p>\n **<\/p>\n ( Rashme Sehgal is aa senior journalist, author and poetess.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Poems of Loss By Rashme Sehgal The Crying Himalayas -Can you Feel Their Pain? I want to speak to you about our mountains Are you listening? The snows that shone so brightly Under the still, starry nights Have melted, Can you see this, are you listening? The bare rocks stand tall and naked Like the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78,92,3201,33,1284,3200,91,59],"tags":[3562,110,1641,109,3563],"class_list":["post-7536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","category-featured","category-himachal-pradesh","category-international","category-international-political-national","category-jammu-kashmir","category-national","category-uttarakhand","tag-disasters-in-himalayas","tag-environment","tag-fragile-himalayas","tag-himalayas","tag-man-made-destruction-of-himalayas"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thenortherngazette.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/plastic-wastedumping.jpg\")