by Dr. Vidagdha Bennett

On Sunday, July 3rd, 1983, Sri Chinmoy completed the final poem – poem number 10,000 – of his monumental series entitled Ten Thousand Flower-Flames. It is not often that we are given the opportunity to celebrate a poetic “event”. Both as readers and critics, we are seldom in touch with the immediacy of creation and though a poem should become immortal in after-ages, something of that original impact, akin to a new discovery, is lost with the lengthening passage of time.

But if a poet should pour forth his writings from our midst, then we may rise to greet him, wakened by a living impulse. The poet’s creation is imperative, it demands a response, and, rejoicing in the singular freedom of having hearts, minds and souls uncluttered by the accumulated critical views of many years, we may discover within ourselves an answering intensity of experience.

 

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