Course of Courage, A poem by the Himalayan poet Yuyutsu Sharma

Course of Courage 

For Nepal lovers of the world 

 

 

Steamy sighs 

of civilians enamored 

by the shimmer of snow peaks, 

tears from across 

the Seven Seas that dried up

before they could leap over

and reach the grand  

canyons of endless grief,

nimble fingers that 

became invisible

before they could touch

the pool of blood 

beneath shaking glaciers, 

lips that crusted 

and cracked before

they could lick clean

the bleeding eyes 

in the crumbling pagodas 

held upright 

by the frail pillars of human support, 

Wooden beams raised 

up against porous walls 

erected before

mega quakes of history, 

buildings about to tumble 

Into the grand jaw of Time, 

and houses in whose 

peacock windows 

kohl-eyed grandmas 

squat like fearless goddesses 

in their astral caskets, 

their wrinkled eyes 

watching life’s wheel

roll on the cobblestone streets, 

waiting in an eerie 

radio silence 

for life to bounce back 

and resume its usual 

course of courage… 

 

From Quaking Cantos : Nepal Earthquake Poems by Yuyutsu Sharma

 

Bio of the poet: Yuyutsu Sharma – Wikipedia

Yuyutsu Sharma is the world renowned Himalayan Poet. His recent published poetry book is “Lost Horoscope.” These are his published poetry books:

 

• The Second Buddha Walk: Inspired by the Second Buddha: Master of Time Exhibit at Rubin Museum, New York , Nirala, New Delhi, 2018
• Quaking Cantos: Nepal Earthquake Poems , Nirala, New Delhi, 2016
• A Blizzard in my Bones: New York Poems, Nirala, New Delhi, 2016
• Nine New York Poems: A Prelude to‘A Blizzard in my Bones: New York Poems’, Nirala, New Delhi, 2014
• Milarepa’s Bones, Helambu:33 New Poems, Nirala, New Delhi, 2012
• The Nepal Trilogy I-III Photographs and Poetry about the Nepal areas of Annapurna, Everest, Helambu & Langtang, www.Nepal-Trilogy.de,·www.Nepal-Trilogie.de) (english-deutsch, Epsilonmedia, Karlsruhe Germany, 2010
• www.AroundAnnapurna.de: A photographic and Poetic Journey around Annapurnas, Nepal, Epsilonmedia, Karlsruhe Germany
• www.WayToEverest.de:A photographic and Poetic Journey to the Foot of Everest, Epsilonmedia, Karlsruhe Germany, 2006
• Annapurna Poems, Nirala, New Delhi, 2008
• Everest Failures, White Lotus Book Shop, Kathmandu 2008
• Space Cake Amsterdam and other Poems from Europe and America, Howling Dog Press, Colorado, 2009
• The Lake Fewa and a Horse, Poems New, Nirala, New Delhi, 2005, 2009
• Poèmes de l’Himalaya, trans. by Nicole Barrière and Camille Bloomfield, L’Harmattan, Paris, 2009
• Poemas De Los Himalayas: Bilingual Spanish/English Poetry Collection, Translated into Spanish with an Introduction by Veronica Aranda, 2010, Cosmopoeticia, Cordoba, Spain
• Some Female Yeti & other Poems, Nirala, New Delhi, 1995
• Hunger of our Huddled Huts & other Poems, Nirala, New Delhi, 1989, 2011
• A Prayer in Daylight, Poems, Nirala, Jaipur, 1984