Pramod Rastogi

Pramod Rastogi

Pramod Rastogi is an Emeritus Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. He is a Member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences. He is the 2014 recipient of the SPIE Dennis Gabor Award. He was Editor-in-chief of the international journal Optics and Lasers in Engineering (Elsevier, London) between 1999 and 2019. He is also a guest Professor at the IIT Gandhinagar, India.

 
The Undying Fire

An autumnal fire erupts in the sky.
In full blaze is the limpid twilight.
The patches of clouds afloat
In crimson red are in a quagmire.

Sea has spent its all in the fray
And sky colors caress its surface,
Restoring its peaceful attire.

The shoreline is in a state of truce
With waves that have lost
Their surf to the tides of colors
Reflected from the sleepy sea.

Lovers are walking on the beach
Using cameras to capture moments
That will define their togetherness
Even when aging wrinkles might fail
To survive the gaze of fading light.

Clawing its way back slowly, the dusk
Douses the flames of orange and red.
The birds are back in their nests.
The fishing boats are back at the shore,
Offloading the catch of the day.

The lovers are dousing themselves
In drinks and in evening’s revelry,
In the romantic glow of firewood
Lit on the beach, renewing their love
And fanning anew this undying fire.

 
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Poetry in this post: © Pramod Rastogi
Published with the permission of Pramod Rastogi