A Rain Of Rites By Jayanta Mahapatra- Ii Poem by Bijay Kant Dubey

A Rain of Rites by J.M.
Brought out from
The University of Georgia Press, Athens,
USA
In 1976
Is a collection
Of Dawn, Dawn at Puri,
Hunger, The Whorehouse in a Calcutta Street,
A Missing Person,
The Exile,
Listening to a Prayer
And so on.

A Rain of Rites is not about
The rains and raining,
But the rites and traditions,
Stone cutting deep
Into the psyche,
A scenery of the sun-burnt village homes
Of the country
And the summer
Of intensive heat,
Passed under the shade
Of the mango grove
Or the peepul tree.

A Rain of Rites is of the Siva lingas,
The blackly phallic stones,
The Daya river reminding us
Of the bloodsbath,
The defeat of Kalinga,
The making of the Konark Sun-temple,
The sea beach
By the Jagannath temple,
The recitation of the Vedic hymns
Late into the day
Oblivious of heat and scorching sun
Of the day-time.