BEAUTY-FOOL by Navratra

Skin whitening is the use of cosmetic products or services to reduce the amount of melanin, or pigment, in the skin to make it appear lighter. It’s a huge market around the world that exploits women’s insecurities about their appearance, estimated to be worth about $4 billion in India alone! India’s younger generations, however, are starting to fight back with body-positive messages, such as the one delivered in this poem by emerging poet Navratra from Jaipur, India.

Beauty-fool

by Navratra

Rosy lips, dimpled cheeks
your long black hair.
Celestial nose, pretty eyes,
your color is also fair.

Such attributes of beauty:
I am amazed to see such grace!
But more amazed to realize
something missing on your face.

Alas! These features of yours
are not attracting me towards you.
I see beauty in a brown-cheeked lady
sitting just beside you.

What power could this be?
I wonder for a while.
Then discover the miracle
is her alluring smile.

Stuck and confused I thought
while keeping her in my sight,
how beauty’s definition changes
under such brown light.

Finally, I reached my destination
leaving those ladies on the train,
I walked towards my home
with doubts still in my brain.

Morning came and my dilemma left
when mother cleared all my doubts,
she told me that beauty can’t be defined
despite what your thoughts may shout.

Instead, beauty is something
beyond the ways of this world:
it resides in our eyes,
as we see light and dark
in both sunset and sunrise.

Navratra is an emerging poetess (writer), public speaker and artist from Jaipur, India. Her poems and articles have been published in various national and international journals like Sahitya Kunj, Indian Periodical, Ode to a poetess, Spillwords, Setu Magazine, The Criterion, Lekhamanjari, Ink Pantry, The Lake Side Review and elsewhere. Apart from this, she is very interested in the thrilling trips of the country and the world and likes to write spontaneously on various subjects according to her observations.

*For submission guidelines, click here.*

IMAGINE A WOMAN by Patricia Lynn Reilly

This poem invites you to look upon yourself with loving kindness… Gazing at your own true reflection, you will discover that everything you have longed for “out there” is already within you! I invite you to love your creativity fiercely. Faithfully plant seeds, allowing under-the-ground dormant seasons, nurturing your creative garden with love and gratitude. In the fullness of time, the green growing things thrust forth from the ground. It's a faithful, trustworthy process. AND it takes time and patience. Blessed is the fruit of your creative womb! I invite you to trust your vision of the world and express it. With wonder and delight, paint a picture, create a dance, write a book, and make up a song. To give expression to your creative impulses is as natural as your breathing. Create in your own language, imagery, and movement. Follow no script. Do not be limited by the customary way things have been expressed. Your creative intuition is original. Gather

MOTHER WISDOM SPEAKS by Christin Lore Weber

For me the rosary is a holy object that connects me to my origin, and the origin of all creation... We spring from God's womb, the Mother-Womb of the Holy One. In art this divine womb is pictured as the cosmic rose. The rosary, in Western spirituality, is what has survived of our devotion to the motherhood of God. It is the mother-prayer. “As a mother comforts its child, so shall I comfort you: You will see, and your heart will rejoice, and your bones will flourish like living grass.” ~Isaiah 66~ The feminine principle in God has been called by many names: Great Rose, Mother of All, Flower of Venus, Rose of Divine Love. The 'World Tree' of the East was a rose-tree. Barbara Walker tells us this was a female tree of life and immortality and that in Central Asia it was called Woman, the Wellspring. All these images found expression in architecture, especially in the mandala-like rose window of Gothic cathedrals, reflecting the beauty a

IMBOLC by Caroline Mellor

The inspiration for this poem came after I watched a magical winter sunset and full moonrise from the top of Firle Beacon in the South Downs... Unusually for me, I wrote the poem quite quickly and changed it very little before publishing it – perhaps the energies were working through my pen! Imbolc is the mid-point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. It’s a fire festival which I particularly love because of its associations with Brigid, the Celtic Mother Goddess of arts and crafts, clear sight, healing, inspiration and nurturance of creative talents – something which, through my writing, I am always trying to connect with. I also love Imbolc because, with so much darkness and negativity in the world today, it is a time for hope, potential, visioning and initiation. With love and blessings as the light returns. Photography by Chanel Baran Imbolc by Caroline Mellor I am the dream of awakening. I am the returning of the night. I am the tough green s

Journey of the Heart

Search This Blog