Swayam Prashant (pen-name of Dr. Prashanta Kumar Sahoo) was born in the undivided Cuttack district, Odisha. He was formerly an Associate Professor of English at Sarupathar College, Assam, India. He has written six books and two booklets. They are : Evaluation of Textbooks in the Teaching of English (based on his Ph.D. thesis); Values in Life (based on a research project on Vedic and Upanishadic writings); Knowledge Tree (miscellaneous prose writings); Haiku from the Garden of My Own (poetry); Live Like a Man (poetry); Premras Amrit (poetry in Assamese); Virgin Land Impregnated (a thematic study of Canadian folk songs); and    Joy of Love (a unique booklet of love poems).

SMILING  THE  WORLD  ANEW

Once a sweet little child asked me how
I make poetry. I told her, if
a cupful of her  innocent smile
was added to two spoonfuls
of red rose petals they
lively brought out my beloved's lips and if
a pillow was carved out of her smile and
a brown falling leaf laid on it
they made my grandma's agonies visible.
But, above all, if she and I could smile together
it created a world anew.

HOUSE  ON  THE  SUN*

I am no Icarus to fly to the sun
with wings of wax given to me by my father
but I dreamt of building a house on the sun
where I saw others had built theirs
the walls of which were made of unbreakable stone
studded with glittering jewels, crystals, pearls and diamonds.
Whoever passed by had high praise for them;
with wide eyes and mouth agape they ogled
and as I envied them I thought
I would build my house more dazzlingly bright
so that onlookers would remain transfixed forever
but I only dreamt and dreamt; could never build
and when I woke up from the  reverie
I found my house was not on the sun
but on the sweet-smelling  green earth  ?


*the sun of fame