VISUAL ARTS, POETRY, COMMUNITY ARTS, MEDIA & ADVERTISING
"My art is my search for the moments beyond the ones of self knowledge. It is the rhythmic fantasy; a restless streak which looks for its own fulfillment! A stillness that moves within! An intense search for my origin and ultimate identity". - Meena
A bright sunshine
smiles
Surfs
the shores of horizon.
A sparkled vacuum glimmers
floats in the morning breeze,
trickles down
in the thin lines of my palm.
Trembling fingers,
reach out
Seeking
a fragrant dawn
concealing a universe
stroking the innermost
mingling with the blood stream
savouring
fullness from my lips.
A twinkling moment
adrift on your body,
a spotless undiluted soul
surfaced
ceased
to be my being
forever. -Meena Chopra (From "Ignited Lines")
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.!
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
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")
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!
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.
"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)
