Why Do I Write Poems?
A Poem Composed by Sushant Kumar B.K.
My societal norms and values
Take precedence over my poems.
My fear comes before my sense of fairness,
My mind leads before my heart.
If so, why do I write poems?
My poems arise only from what is known,
Yet the unknown celebrates its freedom.
My poems cannot capture the unknown,
So a gap remains within them.
Most of my thoughts are imprisoned
In the cave of civilization.
They are afraid to be expressed in poems,
And my allegories are too complex to grasp.
If so, why do I write poems?
My poems are like paper airplanes—
They offer no safe landing for humanity,
Especially in Afghanistan.
War brings suffering there,
But my verses are filled only with
Screams, wounds, and pain,
Frozen humanity, and death.
And my memory revisits
The Waste Land,
From T.S. Eliot’s page
To my imagination,
Now in present-day Afghanistan.
That gives me more pain inside
If so, why do I write poems?
Somewhere deep within,
In the corner of my heart,
I believe, I sense,
No one can truly convey
The lived experiences of others-
Through pens and poems
If one tries, a large part of it
Will remain untouched.
If so, why do I write poems?
Bio of the Poet: Sushant Kumar B.K. is a Nepali poet, translator, educator, and freelance writer. He is from Gulariya, Bardiya, Nepal. He writes poems in English and Nepali languages. His poems have been featured in national and international anthologies, magazines, newspapers, and online portals. He can be reached at sushantacademia@gmail.com