Three Poems on John Keats by Sultana Raza

Ephemeral Constant

With hued music, beautified page.
His spheres were thinner than gossamer,
Only to beauty, did Keats defer.
Was omni-sensory, ahead of his age,

Gifted synesthete; few could gauge.
Lines between realities could he blur,
With Psyche, or nightingale easily confer.
Complex were stanzas, of youthful sage.

‘Cockney’ image chose not to whitewash,
Malicious opponents, he couldn’t squash.
In stanzas and metre, he tossed and turned,
Scansion and rhyme by himself learned.
As he blew bubbles more fragile than glass,
His mind soared high, over gravity or mass.

Carved Consonants

Would last tiny tracks of his race insane?
Glyphs on papyrus, tenacious marks,
Would fold in grooves of globe’s crusty brain?
In minds would any inspiration spark,

Though could only play a quarter of his flute?
Would humans ever hum with nature apace?
Would man raise his head from steel’s pursuit?
Stop distorting earth’s ever-green face?

Would they forget all thoughts, or desires felt?
Expand their consciousness, touch the sky;
Connect with their core, in cosmos melt,
Just become one with earth’s nuclei.
Perhaps just a few would hear his refrain,
Perhaps one or two would eternity attain.

Epitaph

Juggling germs, compassion’s lack,
Osmosis of senses with mind, had a knack.
Had to over-write hard glass of sand,
Navigate blockades by the Moirae planned.

Knocked by blows from critics and kin,
Eagerly, ardently, with purse thin,
Against dark vortexes, managed to strive,
To make Hellas sing, old urns come alive.

Survived crushing blows, in blacks and blues,
Lived on scraps, though had rich muse.
Interred under odds that proved too great,
Visions helped stave sick misery’s weight.

Elegant verses spiralled off page,
Sonnets, odes cryptic; can’t fully gauge.

Of Indian origin, Sultana Raza has an M.A. in English Literature. Her articles and fiction have appeared in numerous publications in English and French. Sultana Raza’s poems have been published in many journals, including London Grip (UK), Literary Gazette(USA), Caduceus (Ed. Yale University, USA), , the Peter Roe Series, (Tolkien Society UK), Muse India, andThe New Verse News, Catch and Release (Columbia’s online Journal), and Indiana Voices Journal. Her fiction has received an Honorable Mention in Glimmer Train. More at https://sultanaraza.com/about/