Poems old and new

The Strong Willed

The Strong Willed


Dancing was her first love,
the only reason for which
she was ready to stake her
life at the feet of God

and the learned in the divine art.
Parents’ opposition and money
constraints failed in stopping her
from going after the goal she set.

When the jealous stepmother
punished her by scalding her
fair feet of nimble footwork,
and her father stood by helpless,

she snapped her links with them,
and the village that knows but did
nothing to help her realize her noble
dream, gazelle-like she had flown

the hostile nest to find freedom in a land
far away where she made a new beginning.
By a chance encounter with a kindly lady
she joined a school of art where she earned

her keep teaching music for the lower grades,
learned dancing in an Academy of performing
arts, proving thus, God helps those who help
themselves. Her determination to win the odds,

her will power in standing firm facing
the ups and downs in this mundane world,
her dedication to her vocation propelling
her to scale the highest peak in the graceful

art, brought laurels from unexpected
quarters from home and abroad, thus
paying her patience with a blessed life,
at once exemplary and ideal.


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