Friday, October 05, 2007

Mystic Rose "Petals of Her Poetry"


She is a Mystic Rose, each petal is poetry that LIP could not resist but wanting to peel to find her depth yet not to discard the petals. So the only way is to sink within her soul and here just bits of her poetic petals:

How did you become a voice of mystic rose?

I chose the name based on a experience I had in my meditation when I was in my teens. I had just started on the spiritual path that I am now currently on .. since then the rose has been my favorite flower and fragrance. One evening I was meditating and I felt this profound closeness to my guru, and this fragrance of rose filled the air around me. Over the days it got deeper and whenever I would try to follow it with my attention it would recede, but when I gave up and just meditated, it would come back and one day it was so strong and I realised that it was coming from my heart..every time I would breathe out, it seemed to rise within me and fill my senses, there was a certain 'coolness' about it, like a slight breeze. Since then the rose has been my favorite flower and equated with spirituality. Also in Sufism, the divine is referred to as a Rose, symbolically.

Actually I must say that when I say mystic rose, I am not referring to myself though that has now become a pseudonym. I am referring to the divine.. and the blog was to be my expression of seeking it. SO is the address. - light of rose - meaning the divine. But unfortunately it turned around and i became mystic rose.. In retrospect I should have termed it Seeking the Rose perhaps!!


Why did you choose to write under pen name?

As I said, I chose the name with the clear intent being "this is what I seek".. but I did not use my name to sign my posts, perhaps because this 'i' is insignificant.. and also, it afforded me anonymity and I could write something personal in a way that I would not otherwise have done.


Your poetic voice has so much femininity, lavished with ample romance? How do you define your poetry? Your poetic style has it been influenced with certain poet and certain poetry style (can you tell us more about it)

Its difficult to define myself even to myself, and no I don't have any particular style that I know of. I use a lot of visual images in my writing, and try to catch the ephemeral, the magic in the ordinary. I've never studied poetry, prose is my preferred medium actually. Its only lately that I have come to read here and there. I like Rumi and Wordsworth. And lately blogger friends have been introducing me to a variety of poets. I so enjoy that! To read their favorite poems and see how much I like them myself. If anyone has influenced me it is probably Rumi and Khalil Gibran. I wish I could read Rumi in Persian.

I prefer poems by mystics, saints. And as for romance and femininity, I am a woman of course! and romance is a part of life to me. But it isn't a conscious effort on my part to be feminine or romantic in my writing.

Mystic Rose, where would like to go and reach with your poetic voice???

When i first started writing it was with a hunger to share what I felt within.


I would like to be able to reach my friends, other women, well anyone and everyone who would be open to being reached actually . I would like to be able to soothe people, draw them into the magic of those moments that I have experienced. I wish I could make people connect to that inner thing, the beauty that is within them that allows them to experience everything in that beauty.. That is why i use a lot of visual images, if a person will allow herself to be drawn into those images, I feel like my work is done. But most often I end up feeling inadequate with my words.

Your love for music is so apparent, do you find there is a line where music and poetry blend?

I think music is very profound, it is such a pure expression of our creativity. Music is fluid in structure, it flows like a river, widening and narrowing, transforming our moods and it leads us to a kind of awareness of our souls. Music IS poetry in pure sound, and at their highest both are born of the deepest wellsprings of human feelings, and that is why they have the ability to reach into us even hundreds of years later.

I listen to all kinds of music and choose from a variety depending on my mood, and generally use it to balance me.


In your own words, what makes a poet or a writer a serious writer or poet?


Anyone who writes, looks forward to writing every day, cant do without it, knows how much it means to them. Studies, not just reads, the masters. Writes, pours their heart and soul into it.

I understand you are based in India, how is the scene of poetry in India? (India had couple of Authors who are best sellers, does poetry have share in this?)

Poetry has always been a part of Indian culture, the ancient texts are poems thousands of lines long and they can be sung. In fact poetry in India is very rich, the language used is itself highly musical and rhythmic in sound. Poetry was made popular by bhakti movement.. the devotional spiritual movement.
Rabindranath Tagore won the Nobel Prize for his book of poems, Gitanjali. There are and were wonderful poets but probably not well known outside of India because their medium is not English.
some of the other well known poets are Vikram Seth, Jayanta Mahapatra, Eunice de Souza, there's quite a few actually.. and sad to say I haven't read them yet.

Which one of your poems that lingers with you and it’s a poem you would not forget?

Something I had written in my late teens. One of the very first ones I wrote shortly after I had that experience during my meditation. Just before I started on this path and met my guru, my life was going through a turmoil. I have never before published that poem on my blog. Here it is:

My life was like a parched land
Thirsting for your touch
I knew not what I had lost
But I knew despair
Waiting for the beauty,
the innocence and the joy of life
The cracks went deep
My heart was dry

And then-
And then you came
A shower of gentle rain
I eagerly quenched my thirst
and yearned for more
Sometimes a misty presence
cool and teasing
sometimes stormy
with thunder and lightning
Beautiful and awesome

From the parched land
This flower has risen
From the fresh smell of the earth
It's fragrance comes
My Mother,
you have touched this flower and
shaped its petals
your fingers have played on it
bless me-
that I may now lie at Your Feet


How does the seed of poetry begin for you, where do you get your inspiration???

Most, not all, of my poems are spiritual in nature, my quest, experiences, some of them are inspired by nature, some perhaps by everyday life experiences, from meeting other people. So, just from life, I guess.

~DAWN ~

Through those depths of vast emptiness
the earth whirling in star sprinkled sleep
the asleep consciousness in a land of illusions

Far off the first miracle streaking the edges of heaven
drawing lover's fingers through fields of black
the first pale light grazing the prostrate terrain

The deep blush of your cheeks stained the skies
the Sun rose, a brilliant red God on your vast forehead
The ambrosial breath in the kiss of your lips

A spiritual vision, illumining the dark corners of matter
sacred moments of ardent unveiling fill the soul
and kindle the mystic fire of idealism.

Early beginnings of a new day,
the awakening to the morning's glow
sun kissed world, of rosy hues
and dissipating mists of moonlight.

Have you ever published a book or are thinking to be published? DO you think being a published poet can be determine our success of being renowned poets?

Of course, I think only the best are published, so if ever I were to be published I think I would be ecstatic, but, no I am not looking for my poetry to be published.

Where can we find your writing and poetry?

On my blogs.. http://lightofrose.blogspot.com/

For those of us who would like to engross our soul in to writing, could you advice us to where to begin?


Find your style, start with the books that you most like to read..poetry or prose. study the masters. Read and write with all your heart and soul, explore, introspect, observe. Since i just started myself, I cannot really give more advice than that. :)

Mystic Rose, you left us speechless with your photo poetry. As I end here, your poetry sets out of my ears but I look forward to hear your words reciting within as like the sun when its set away from our eyes, we await for the sunlight again...


All photo poetry in here is the work of Mystic Rose ..for more you can visit her personal website http://lightofrose.blogspot.com/

 

 
 
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