What was It?

Drawing by Meena

Graying evening.

Shades of black fading. 

Starkness of night! 

Neutrality spread

All over our faces.

Unrecognizable.

What was it?

You recognized

I did not?

Was my vision hazy?

Or I looked at the haze?

Perhaps

We are beginning

a new end.

(from IGNITED LINES)

Entranced!

Drawing by Meena

A sketch on my body and flesh

rhymed an oceanic silence.

Entwined in one breath

Spaces fell out

Entranced!!

Instant In Motion

Drawing by Meena
(Pastels on paper)

 Trimmings 

old and torn

change in

the flowing stress,

a garb,

hard cover,

hiding an instant

to be touched

to be in motion.

(From "Ignited Lines"}

Centre-Point

Penetrating

mute stones

frozen hearts

leave impressions

expressed

in the arena

a lifetime

searching a stir

a centre-point

from where

it all began.

(From collection

"IGNITED LINES")

Pyre ?

Vanishing traces

of burnt desires

shred a turning point. 

The ruins of despair

remain.

A thread, a smoke,

breaks the intimacy

with the scotched fire,

rises,

seeks the evening breeze,

an echoing silence.

Invisibility

disappears in the furore--

Is it my pyre ?

Ignited Lines

Ignited Lines

Sensitive fingers

touched the soft mud

igniting the lines

in my palm.

Sun's brittle brightness falls,

earth evaporates

in a thin layer,

glazing a clear sky.



Aghast 1 am !

My flesh tingles.

A restlessness

empowers me

wanting the mud

once again

in a tight grip.



My fingers tremble

drinking the soothing vapours

emitted from the impressions

carved on my hands.

(From collection
"Ignited Lines")

White Canvas

Your vivid stroke


etched in my memory

bestirred my stark white canvas.

A passing night clasped me

replete with colours.

Raw impulses wide awake

splashed shades

tinting the sheet

toning the moods.



A splendor bedded

with me all night.



A river

oozed out in heat.

My opaque vision.

grasped the forthcoming dawn.

A fatigue

tarried within me

throughout the day.

(From collection
"Ignited Lines")

The Dewdrop

The dewdrop
Submerged the universe.
departed
the misty
damp old nights
Hugged
A fresh and short lived leaf.
Clung to the suspended branch,
A life span.

What is the chance ?
Will it last?
If it falls
on the grounded dust
in a final thrust.
Vanishing ever.

Yet it yearns,
Stilling the beats
Ceasing -
As it never did.!

- Meena Chopra
(Transcreation from Hindi Poem)

Flicker

Flicker
Particles of a shivering flicker--
a tangible smoothness
tries getting into
the essentials.
An inactive gravity
stops suddenly
hesitating perhaps
unaware of the potentialities
it has to light the warmth,
a summer in the passing phase
of severe winter.
-Meena Chopra

Co-travelling with a Poem



Oil on Canvas by Meena from "Adrift" series

I penned down the sun shine
You!
in an instance
Inscriptions settled down in a hub
Structuring words
into seething sentences,
Spread and Smoothened
with the finger tips,
Surfaced ,
A spectacular,
ever changing landscape,
Spelled a lifetime,
Blending a new language,
A simmering new journey
Co-travelling perpetuity.

-Meena Chopra

(I have trans-created this poem from my earlier poem in Hindi called "KAVITA")

A Loving Note - Ishq - इश्क़!

A Loving Note

Draped in the shroud
Of the wet clouds
Hidden and confined
in the dark cold coffins.
Sunshine sulked
throughout the winter.
The blazing skyline
continued to burn till it set
in spring.

Who was that?
kept gazing!
From the edge of my eyelids
till the shroud slit
coffin ripped and flew.
grave dawned in the space.
Was that a broken bit
of a loving tearlet?
A vast ocean
or a missed note.
an ongoing symphony
Streaming in time
- Meena

(Transcreated from my poem below)


इश्क़!

कफन में लिपटा बादलों के
छुपता सूरज
अँधेरी क़ब्र में सो चुका था
न जाने कब से
अपने आप से रूठा सूरज

एक आग के दरिया में
बहते किनारे उफ़क के
न जाने जलते रहे किसके लिए
दिन के ढल जाने तक

कौन था यह?
न जाने कबसे
खड़ा था जो सामने बाहें पसारे
पौ के फटने और भोर के हो जाने तक!
कब्र के फटने और कफ़न के उड़ जाने तक!

ओस की बूँद में बैठा छिपकर साँसे लेता
इश्क का कोई टूटा हुआ
टुकड़ा है शायद
किसी बिसरे हुए गीत का
कोई भटका हुआ
मुखड़ा है शायद!

- मीना
kafan me lipata badlon ke
chhupata suraj
andheri kabr me
so chuka tha
na jaane kab se
apne aap se rootha suraj
ek aag ke dariya me
bahte kinare ufak ke
na jaane jalte rahe
kiske liyedin ke dhal jaane tak
kaun tha wah?
na jaane kab se
khada tha jo samne haath pasare
pau ke phatne
aur bhor ke ho jane tak
kabr ke phatne
aur kafan ke ud jane tak.
Os ki boond me betha
chhipkar sanse leta
ishq ka koi tuta hua
tukada hai shayad
kisi bisare hue geet ka koi
bhataka hua
mukhada hai shayad
-© Meena Chopra (above drawing is by Meena Chopra)
- From upcoming collection 'Subeh ka Suraj ab Mera Nahin Hai'.

White Canvas



Ignited Lines II Edition

 Your vivid stroke
etched in my memory
bestirred my stark white canvas.
A passing night clasped me
replete with colours.
Raw impulses wide awake
splashed shades
tinting the sheet
toning the moods.

A splendor bedded

with me all night

A river

oozed out in heat.

My opaque vision.

grasped the forthcoming dawn.

A fatigue

tarried within me

throughout the day.

BUY MY POETRY BOOKS ALONG WITH THE REPRODUCTION OF MY DRAWINGS HERE

सुबह का सूरज अब मेरा नहीं है  HINDI - $12.99 USD
Publisher: HINDI WRITER'S GUILD
Author: MEENA CHOPRA
ISBN: 978-0-9813562-2-8

-----------------------------------

subah kaa suuraj ab mera nahin hai.
सुबह का सूरज अब मेरा नहीं है with Roman Script - $15.99 USD
Publisher: HINDI WRITER'S GUILD
Author: MEENA CHOPA
ISBN: 978-0-9813562-3-5

---------------------------------

صبح کا سورج اب میرا نہیں ہے -  URDU  $12.99
Publisher: HINDI WRITER'S GUILD
Author: MEENA CHOPA
ISBN: 978-0-9813562-5-9

---------------------------------

IGNITED LINES - $ 12.99 USD
Publishers: STARBUZZ MEDIA CANADA & HINDI WRITER'S GUILD
Author: MEENA CHOPA
ISBN: 978-09813562-4-2

Some Links

Setting sun inspires Mississauga poet and artist - TORONTO STAR

by Jim Wilkes

Hindi poet connects cultures - Mississauga News

by J.P. Antonacci

IGNITED LINES by Meena Chopra - The Pioneer

-Review by Gautam Siddharth

Some Comments:

"कविता की भाषा में उनके संग्रह की असंलक्ष्य क्रम व्यंग्यध्वनि पढ़ने वाले को, अगर सचमुच वह सहृदय भावुक है, तो उसे एकाएक कौंधेगा कि यह कवयित्री व्यंजना के सहारे कितनी मार्मिक बात कह रही है और उसके भीतर की करुणा का आकाश कितनी दूर तक भासमान है। असल में आँखों से दीख पड़ने वाले आकाश से कहीं बड़ा और अपरिमेय है बंद आँखों का आकाश।”
-डॉ.कैलाश वाजपेयी

"Painting and poems go very well together. There is vitality in the forms, colours and the words chosen by Meena Chopra. Here is a charming feast of lyricism in paintings and poems".
- Dr. L.M. Singhvi

"उनकी कविताएं परिपक्व कविता का ठोस नमूना हैं जो जीवन में संबन्धों को नई व्याख्या देती हैं। विदेशों में रची जा रही कविताओं में मीना चोपड़ा की कविताओं का स्थान विशिष्ट माना जाएगा।"
- तेजेन्द्र शर्मा

"Your work expresses a dynamic of power, emotions, and fear. Only a great mind and a multi layered individual could construe the creations that you have set forth. I know I don't know you but through your work, I feel that I do. Your work portrays something more than the picture. It conjures up raw emotion"
-Vique Mora, USA

“A characteristic of her style is that physical sensations beautifully blend with abstract thought. Yearning for fulfillment is attended upon by consciousness of fragmentation.”
-Dr. Shalini Sikka, The Quest, (India) 1996

"She unveils shimmering facets of love, possession, mind and self with sensitivity. She is delicate but strong, gentle yet sharp, vulnerable yet proud. Self-actualization is more a matter of routine than effort; it is the moment beyond the ones of self knowledge that she wants to live up to, and become, not a mere rhapsody in search of life but a rhapsody in search of the deeper self. In this sense she is her own Sun…”
- Gautam Siddharth The Pioneer (Book reviews), (India) 28.9.1996

“Accompanying the cluster of these lovely oil pastels worked out like ’two inches of ivory’ are her versus. The words and the visuals support each other and the viewer is taken on to a journey to the end of the clouds. Look at her art or read her poetry there is a feeling of scaling heights, going to the mist of the mountains and scenting the fragrant pines.”
-Nirupama Dutt, Indian Express (India), August 22 1999

"The embryonic bond that she shares with nature forms the keynote of her work. Words freeze the impalpable fears finding their refuge in the womb of earth”.
- First City Delhi India 1999

"Meena Chopra’s poetry mirrors her acute sensibilities which, in turn, enmesh with her deft strokes on canvas.”
- S. Rajoo, The Times of India, Delhi, 23. 7. 1996

“مینا کے رنگ کینو س پر بکھر تے ہیں تو شا عری کر تے ہیں اور جب وہ شا عری کر تی ہے تو دھنک کے رنگ اس کی شا عری کے کینوس پر بکھر جا تے ہیں- مینا کی رو ح فطر ت کے حسن سے جڑی ہو ئ ہے اور جب اسکا حسا س دل اور سو چتی آ نکھیں ان منا ظر سے گزر تے ہیں تو عشق کے آ وے پر ا حسا س کی مور تیا ں ڈ ھا لتے ہا تھ جلتے ہو ئے چر ا غو ں جیسی نظمیں قطا ر در قطا ر سجا تے چلے جا تے ہیں"
-Nasim Syed

(Meena Chopra ek shaiira he nahen artist bhe hy iis leye shayad jb iis ky rang canvas per bikharte hen to rang shaiire kerte hen aur jab woh shaiire ker te hy to dhanak ke rang us ke shaiire ky canvas per bikhar jate heN. Meena ki rooh fitrat ky husn sy juree hoE hy aur jab eska hassas dil aur soochte ankheen iin manazir sy guzar te heN to ishq ke aaway per ehssas ke morteyaN dhaltee hath jalty hoE charagon jise nazmeen qatar der qatar sajate chalee jate heN....Nasim Syed)

STILLNESS MOVES (Reading at Living Arts Centre - Mississauga during literary festival - 13th September 2009)

Distances fade,

a feeling

as if I touched

the limitless remains.

Quivering fingers

grasp the floating clouds,

they merge in me

as I in you.

The hues of blue

disappear in each other,

when the sky re-emerges,

beneath to above

getting wet by the fresh rain.

My feet soaked

embedded in sand

leave impressions

strong enough

wiping off the tidal waves

that strike

the climax within.

Sand slips away

under my feet.

A Stillness moves inside me.

Duality will remain

I know,

separating me from you,

yet a dream is instilled,

I pulsate

yearn--

to be fecundated

by the distant you.

© Meena Chopra

(From collection"Ignited Lines". This poem had received Honourable Mention from Mississiauga Library System.)

बारिश के खिलोने, Vanishing Point

दौड़ती नज़रें जब
गुज़रे समय की सड़क पर
देखतीं हैं वापस मुड़कर
तो दिखाई देते हैं
दूर छोर पर खड़े
कुछ बारिश के खिलोने
और धूप की नर्मी में भीगे पुराने रिश्ते

और कुछ --
वक्त की धुन्ध में मिटते
पाओं के निशान।

-मीना चोपड़ा


Blank eyes see
the vanishing point
on the skyline of the past
I capture the falling toys of rainfall
A soothing touch of the by gone sunshine
wet with the kisses of a rainbow.
Footsteps fade in the misty madness of time.

-Meena Chopra

Aur Ek Antim Rachana! - A Stilled Sonata - और एक अंतिम रचना!

वह सभी क्षण

जो मुझमें बसते थे

उड़कर आकाश गंगा

में बह गए।

और तब आदि ने

अनादि की गोद से उठकर

इन बहते पलों को

अपनी अंजली में भरकर

मेरी कोख में उतार दिया।

मैं एक छोर रहित गहरे कुएँ में

इन संवेदनाओं की गूँज सुनती रही।

एक बुझती हुई याद की

अंतहीन दौड़!

एक उम्मीद!

एक संपूर्ण स्पर्श!

और एक अंतिम रचना
-मीना चोपडा

Wah sabhi Kshna

jo mujh mein

baste the ud kar

aakash ganga mein bah gaye.
aur tab

aadi ne anaadi ki god se uthkar

in bahte huae palon ko

apni anjali mein bharakar

meri god mein utaar diya.
mein ek chhor rahit kuen mein

in sanvednaaon ki goonj sunti rahi.
ek bujhati hui yaad ki antahin dod!

ek ummid!

ek sampoorN sparsh!

Aur ek antim rachna.

-Meena Chopra

I soared the heights

in the Milky Way

sailing a vast panoramic emptiness.
The finite dispensed

the infinite.

Time trickled down in

the circled core.
a schismatic,

dry and dark Bottom less pit

listened to the echoes,

The looped moments,

my sensibilities,

in the chasm of life,
Eternally at run,

dying reminiscences

Aspired,

a touch

a final composition

tuned in a stilled sonata.
-Meena Chopra

(Painting above is Oil on Canvas by meena Chopra)