A magnificent sunset (c) satisshroff, freiburg 2007How silver-sweet sound lovers’ tongues by night,
Like softest music to attending ears. (Romeo and Julia: Shakespeare)
THE FLAW (Satis Shroff)
I constantly live in angst.
Angst to be unmasked.
My spouse knows it.
My daughter knows it.
But no one else does.
I feel like a failure in life,
Because I have this flaw.
My parents had no time.
They worked and slaved
To earn our daily bread.
Father came often with a bad breath
From the taverns and inns.
He beat us and mother.
My teacher thrashed me too.
I had concentration problems.
As a child I had to work
With a wooden hoe and a bull,
For terraced farming wasn’t easy,
And my father was a farmer.
I felt ignored by my parents.
My mother would have helped me
Were she not perpetually tired
And at her wits’ end.
I cheated at school
But didn’t pass the school exam.
I grew up as a man
Without reading
Without writing.
I had the gift of the gab though
Throughout my life,
And even bluffed some
Quite a few sometimes.
----------------------------------
ABOUT YOU (Satis Shroff)
To think about you
To long for you
To see you and to love you,
The way you are.
A beautiful blonde face
With well-chiselled Allemanic features
Eyes as blue as the sky,
That look at me
And smile
That disarming
Sympathetic smile.
The closeness that I have felt
The wonderful children we have,
Each with its own character and personality
As they fill the rooms of our home
And our lives
With music from flutes, violins,
Piano and kids’ laptops.
Laughter and tears,
Screams and hurrahs.
Oh, I miss everything
When you are not here.
-----------------
SEPARATION Satis Shroff)
The first day was cumbersome
For it was fresh in my memory.
The second day Florentin asked:
‘Papa, where is Mama?’
I was at a loss.
How was I to explain
A two-year old,
Where Mama was?
The third day we were relieved
To get cards and descriptions:
Of cows, sheep, horses grazing
In the Norderheide meadows.
Of windmills and the howling
North Sea breeze.
Of a fishing trip in a trawler,
With North Sea fishermen,
Who spoke East Friesian dialect.
Of Husum’s colourful harbour
With Yachts and fisher boats
And a Schifffahrtsmuseum.
Whitewashed houses with red rooftops
Endless blue skies over the horizon,
Interspersed with fluffy clouds.
---------------------------------------------------
Writer & poet: Satis Shroff is a writer and poet based in Freiburg (poems, fiction, non-fiction). He has studied Zoology and Botany in Nepal, Medicine and Social Science in Germany and Creative Writing in Freiburg and Manchester. He describes himself as a mediator between western and eastern cultures and sees his future as a writer and poet. Satis Shroff was awarded the German Academic Exchange Prize.
Writing experience: Satis Shroff write regularly for http://www.americanchronicle.com/ and its 21 affiliated newspapers in the USA. He has written two language books on the Nepali language for DSE (Deutsche Stiftung für Entwicklungsdienst) & Horlemannverlag. He has written three feature articles in the Munich-based Nelles Verlag’s ‘Nepal’ on the Himalayan Kingdom’s Gurkhas, sacred mountains and Nepalese symbols and on Hinduism in ‘Nepal: Myths & Realities (Book Faith India) and his poem ‘Mental Molotovs’ was published in epd-Entwicklungsdienst (Frankfurt). He has written many articles in The Rising Nepal, The Christian Science Monitor, the Independent, the Fryburger, Swatantra Biswa (USIS publication, Himal Asia, 3Journal Freiburg, top ten rated poems in http://www.nepalforum.com/ (I dream, Oleron, an Unforgettable Isle, A Flight to the Himalayas, Which Witch in Germany?, Fatal Decision, Santa Fe, Nirmala, Between Terror and Ecstasy, The Broken Poet, Himalaya: Menschen und Mythen, A Gurkha Mother, Kathmandu is Nepal, My Nepal, Quo vadis?). Articles, book-reviews and poems in: http://www.isj.com/, http://www.inso.org/. See also http://www.google/ & http://www.yahoo/ under search: Satis Shroff.
What others have said about the author:
‘Satis Shroff writes political poetry—about the war in Nepal, the sad fate of the Nepalese people, the emergence of neo-fascism in Germany. His bicultural perspective makes his poems rich, full of awe and at the same time heartbreakingly sad. I writing ‘home,’ he not only returns to his country of origin time and again, he also carries the fate of his people to readers in the West, and his task of writing thus is also a very important one in political terms. His true gift is to invent Nepalese metaphors and make them accessible to the West through his poetry.’
(Sandra Sigel, Poetess, Germany).
Satis Shroff writes with intelligence, wit and grace.
(Bruce Dobler, Senior Fulbright Professor in Creative Writing, University of Pittsburgh).
Wonderful clarity and good details.
(Sharon Mc Cartney, Fiddlehead Poetry Journal)
satisshroff@googlemail.com
