I Promise a Sonnet to the Sea

A poignant poem celebrating love and nature, tinged with sadness, by Dr Nandini, exclusively for Different Truths.

Often
I visit you as a tramp
and come back like an empress.
Or maybe, I assume, presume so in delight.

Sometimes you are faceless.
You lack your troposphere,
thus, the grey sundown town
by your shore
dries up one’s heart.
Still, I seek refuge in your familiar world
of off-the-cuff words. Still,
I promise you a sonnet when you ask –  
a sonnet to the sea in some far-reaching twilight!

No matter how it chills or snows or shines,
winter in the seashore
lacks sunshine.
No matter how much pain
one would squeeze in the stomach,
the sea laughs toothless
and looks at me
with transparent glass-like eyes.
Waves glitter like Venus
in the darkness of night.

Last night, the howling clouds.

Wind surfaces on a moonlit night
the moon is massive as a
smoothed golden ring.

I promise you a sonnet, oh sea!
Perhaps you, too, have a secret.
You won’t tell me, just as
I didn’t tell anyone
neither my mother
nor my grey-eyed lover
nor even to the poplars
at the far end of the garden.

Listen to my sonnet,
the song of broken threads
and enhancement,
gather a few drops
of my alphabets in your palm
and sprinkle some on your face!
See how the sea
and the sonnet merge
like melody and dirge.
See how the blazing sun
and the soothing shower fuse;
if possible
see the trajectory to living
through my sonnet to the sea
and through my elegiac, plaintive Muse.

Picture design by Anumita Roy, Different Truths

Prof. Nandini Sahu

Prof. Nandini Sahu, Amazon’s best-selling author in 2022, professor of English and Former Director the School of Foreign Languages, IGNOU, New Delhi, is an established poet, creative writer, and folklorist. She is the author/editor of 17 books. She is the recipient of the Literary Award/Gold Medal from the Vice President of India for her contribution to English Studies. Her areas of research cover New Literatures, Critical Theory, Folklore and Culture Studies, Children’s Literature and American Literature.

See Full Bio