poetry – Page 4 – amaryllis

Hymn to the Empress of Kings by Téa Nicolae

September 29, 2022December 17, 2024 Téa NicolaeLeave a comment

Praise be to The Empress of Kings
seated on the throne of five corpses in the palace of ruby.

Her blinking eyes birth and collapse the cosmos,
and her crown is the lunar half-moon.

She whose reddened eyes roll ecstatically,
She is Mahātripurasundarī,
The Great Beauty of the Triads.

Praise be to Parā Aṃbikā,
of allure so exquisite that, enchanted,
Śiva grew his third eye just to worship her beauty.

Her body is anointed with sandalwood,
and her fragrance bathes and deludes the three worlds.

She is Śrīmātā,
The Auspicious Mother.

Praise be to Lalitā Aṃbikā,
The One Who Plays,
whose girdle of tinkling bells stirs creation into being.

She who gifts the sun his effulgence,
Her toenail holds the universes,
and Her auspicious thighs are known only by the fortunate Kāmeśvara.

She is Kāmākṣī,
She whose eyes are desire.

Bhavānī,
you are the nectar of the ocean of compassion:
grace this songstress to only sing of your praises.

🌺 “Hymn to the Empress of Kings”, one of my poems offered to Devī at the magnificent Siri Jyoti Pūjā in Seattle. inspired by the verses of the Lalitāsahasranāma which extoll Lalitā’s rapturous beauty. Śrī Mātre Namaḥ. Happy Navarātra!

Warwick Anthology and Re-introduction

May 31, 2022December 17, 2024 Téa NicolaeLeave a comment

#Repost @thewarwickanthology with @make_repost
・・・
Introducing the Team of Warwick Anthology 2022: Florilegium!

Meet Téa Nicolae! Téa is a marketing co-head and an editor of this year’s anthology. She joined the Warwick Writing Programme to delve deeper into poetry and literary translation.

Téa is a poetess and a scholar-practitioner. She writes devotional (bhakti) poetry and her research interests are Śāktism, Mahābhārata and non-dual philosophy.

Téa holds a BA in Film and Creative Writing and an MA in Philosophy and Religious Studies from Lancaster University. She is studying oral-practice traditions enrich her writings with the insights, delight and fervour unearthed only through practice.

Yajñasenī by Téa Nicolae

May 14, 2022June 18, 2022 Téa NicolaeLeave a comment

she who was born of fire

she whose beauty enticed even the sun

i garland thee

she whose blood spilled on royal floors of marble

she whose woe scorched the Kurus

i weep with thee

she who was touched yet remained stainless

she whose dishevelled hair holds the griefs of woman

i pray with thee

Draupadī,

she who cried the tears of the women who walked this earth

i am thee.

*poem published in Śabda Magazine, vol. II.

*collage i made of pooja sharma as the beloved empress. her performance is etched to my heart!*

pūrṇam | wholeness

January 31, 2022January 31, 2022 Téa NicolaeLeave a comment

yesterday, we concluded three weeks of intense study at Śabda Institute. my beloved teacher, Amma (Dr. Kavitha Chinnaiyan), and her beloved teacher, Sumitji (Dr. Sumit Kesarkar), helped decode the esoteric meaning veiled within the magnificent Īśopaniṣad, and, with great expertise, made its heavy and charged verses applicable for us – as both householders and as practitioners. i was most touched by the chant’s invocation & by its teaching of wholeness, which inspired me to write a poem that i was greatly honoured to read at the beginning of our fifth class. 🧡

oṃ | pūrṇamadaḥ pūrṇamidaṃ pūrṇātpūrṇamudacyate |

pūrṇasya pūrṇamādāya pūrṇamevāvaśiṣyate ||

Oṃ is the entirety from which everything we see as parts has emerged. The whole remains whole even when a part is taken from it. The whole was born out of the whole. What appears as a part is the whole, and the leftover is whole. The whole cannot be split even when it appears so.
(translation by Sumitji).

☀️ my poem (written as a ghazal):

pūrṇam | wholeness

you were always whole
the grief on your tongue was whole

when longing cut like a knife
the woe stuck to your eyelids was whole

when anger brimmed in your belly
the burn of your cruelty was whole

when the sun washed your cheeks
the glee warming your fingertips was whole

when your heart cracked open
the light trickling through was whole

my parents named me ‘Gift of God’
what gifts are there when all’s already whole?

☀️ praṇām to our two illustrious teachers & to the vidyā they graciously transmitted to us in these three weeks. 🧡 the wonders of Śabda Institute 😊

“defeat me” – poem, prayer for Naraka Caturdaśī

November 3, 2021 Téa NicolaeLeave a comment

defeat me,
monsoon one.
pierce through the weaponry of the self
until my armour plate breaks in two,
and i crumble at your feet
the way Naraka fell before you and Satyā.

show me mercy,
monsoon one.
before your sudarśana delivers my final blow,
hold me as one’s beloved would.
cradle me
the way you embraced your gopis
when swaying with the woods of Vṛndā.

dance me,
monsoon one,
to your flute’s tune
show me the hills
where the milkmaids bathed your feet with their tears.

let our waltz come to end
when my hand slips from yours…
then claim your victory over me,
Hari.
unchain me from my bonds of delusion
burn the bitterness weighing my heart
so we meld as one.
free me into union with you,
lover of Rādhā,
the way you wedded Naraka’s imprisoned women.

purifier of the fallen,
defeat me
and
allow me
rest
within you.

“defeat me”, poem / prayer for Naraka Caturdaśī… wishing a blessed Dīpāvali to all! may our ignorance dissolve into the light of consciousness as the asuras were absorbed into the devatās.

credit for the second, beautiful image: Madhav, unsplash.

tiny personal note: this is the first Dīpāvali i am spending in a place of my own, and it has been so precious to decorate my apartment (and even my rabbit’s hutch!) for the festival of lights.

grateful!

the tapestry behind me: the feet of Hari & Rādhārāṇī, by Harsh Malik.

thirst, bhakti poetry

October 14, 2021October 15, 2021 Téa NicolaeLeave a comment

happy Vijayadaśamī! from this month’s newsletter of Śabda Institute. honoured that my poem accompanies the announcement of such an exquisite offering in this highly auspicious time, may our longing fuel our sādhanā, and may our devotion sweeten its unfolding.

Dear One,

The Śabda Saṅgha is continuing its study of the Bhagavad Gītā with a new theme – that of Bhakti Yoga. In honour of this new cycle of study, we are pleased to share a beautiful poem of longing and devotion by one of Kavithaji’s students, Téa Nicolae.

thirst
infused with devotion
my days unfurl tenderly
chinks fissure the armour plate of the self
and life dances through the cracks
madly enamoured
i long for the Beloved’s caress
my throat, so swollen
my mouth, so parched
my Beloved quenches the thirst:
grace pours down in ripples
i drink hastily

Navarātri beginnings…

October 9, 2021October 15, 2021 Téa Nicolae2 Comments

this week is one of beginnings for me, and i am delighted that it coincides with the auspicious time of Navarātri… overjoyed to share that i am joining the Warwick Writing Programme to complete my second master’s degree in poetry & literary translation, as well as commencing my study of Sanskrit at the Oxford Centre of Hindu Studies and, this week i’m beginning my new job as a transcriber-translator! in typical fashion, i will turn this around to the Mahābhārata, and hope that this paves the way to translating some of its most beautiful ślokas… sometime in the far future