Poetry by Srishti Knoll

RISE

I come and I go I do as I please

I never left your side

And will never leave

I am the ruled and the ruler

I am the alpha and the omega

I am the warrior and the enemy at the gates

I move within you as light and darkness

I lift my legs and the worlds tremble

|I do my dance and the gods plead

I smile and generations collapse in a trance

My beauty is beyond words, I am beauty before there was beauty

I am timeless and boundless

I am infinite

I am dance, I am expression, I am desire

I am the smell of a rose as it blooms

I am divine nectar, love in its purest form

I am Shakti

Rise with me.

ROAR

I dance with darkness

I hunt with lions

For I am a lion

With a roar so deafening

Oceans boil

And surf pours unto the heavens

Worlds collapse

For I am invincible

I am the order and the right

There is no school

There are no exceptions

For I am the rule

I am a warrior, a Pawar

I am queen of the cosmic jungle

I roam free

I fear no one, nothing

For I am power supreme

Slayer of Mahakaal1

And of demons within

I am fearless beyond comprehension

For I am born of divinity

Born of Shiva

I am Kali, Parvati and Adishakti

I am Tara, I am Amba, I am Chamunda

And Bhawani

Fear not for I am the universal mother

But also the destroyer

Of evil in every cosmic permutation

For I am total annihilation

In every variation

My face is the light of Shiva

My eyes come from the light of Agni2

My arms from the light of Vishnu3

My tresses from the light of Yama4

I am pure energy

Of epic scale inconceivable over infinity

Of divine consciousness

Without me, Shiva has no expression

Without me, there is no creation

For I am creation

I am Durgati nashini5 Durga

I am Kaal vinaashini6 Durga

The manifestation of Shakti

Of source, of Prakriti7

Bow to me

Bow to Durga the predator

And roar within.

• 1 Mahakaal – Name of Lord Shiva
• 2 Agni – Lord of Fire
• 3 Vishnu – Lord of Preservation
• 4 Yama – Lord of Death
• 5 Durgati Nashini – the one who eliminates suffering
• 6 Kaal vinaashini – the one who removes unpleasant time
• 7 Prakriti – primal matter whose equilibrium is the basis of all observed empirical reality