Poetry 2017 Longlist Nilesh Kanwar

The Green and Wise Tree

I saw a tree
with all same colored flowers
beautifully glittering,
when the sunrays falling
on the surface of green leaves,
each branch supporting the other
and thus maintain the greenery.
Its root, a crucial thing
spreads itself
into the heart or the earth
and to its branches
providing a spirit of life
like the path to heaven.
The flowers spread
their brilliant fragrance
even to the dead ones
who died of suffocation of smoke
and poisonous pollution.
When the fragrance touches
the dead come alive
with a new hope of life.
Why don’t we try change this world
like the tree I saw
every being helping another,
all beings same like the flowers.
Let we ourselves
be the the root of the earth
saving it from every danger
to make it immortal.
Let together make a formula
for the same immortal fragrance
share it to those ,
who very carelessly but with care
have sacrificed their precious lives
even for the people
they never knew
and pull them out from
the sleep of death.
Come and gather together
for a noble deed,
with no difference in color,
patriot of a single country
and be like the wise tree
which that day I did see.