Palinode
A poet’s journey as goes on
An ever-winding road
That has many ups and downs known,
And as roads take new mode
He’s apt to see dusk where was dawn,
To pen a palinode.
Comes old age carrying child’s mirth,
He matures like fine wine,
The old age takes when a new birth
To acquire tastes nigh fine,
And life seems to look well its worth,
And lighter his pen’s line…
On themes that may not for long wait—
On what he thought and saw
And may have fancied at that date,
Now ripened what was raw,
That much sooner and seldom late,
No more the poet awe.
What was said ere— product of heart,
Gets vetted by the head,
Newly framed as poetic art
As the time moves ahead,
All of it or in tiny part,
For, what gets stuck is dead.
Show me a pen, sans change of mind,
No pen writes on a stone,
That never does need for change find,
Brain’s no ossified bone,
Poets therefore are more inclined
To alter their pen’s tone.
And when at late last they do so
On their journey’s crossroad
At the end of long go-no-go,
Is what pundits call Palinode,
Without a doubt nor a shadow,
Be it sonnet or ode.
_________________________________
Musings |02.05.2024| change
Poet’s note: A Palinode is a poem recanting or retracting on something said earlier (Greek: palinoidia= back/again, and aeidein= to sing). It was Ogden Nash who once wrote, Candy/Is dandy, /But liquor/Is quicker.
But he later added in what can be called a Palinode: But makes me sicker.
Copyright ©
Aniruddha Pathak
|