Preface Dear Family and Friends, Our theme for this month of November is Thankfulness and Gratitude. i Offered Thanks I awakened this morning, and i offered a prayer of gratitude to the Progenitor of my life, . . . my God. There are many things to be thankful for. They can be found in the Good and that which is perceived as Evil, the Light and the Dark. I offered thanks for all the Woe in my life, for through it i learned that i had the gift of Endurance and Temperance. I offered thanks for all those who have left my life through Death, Moving Away, Growing Up and the ending of Relationships, for it has taught me to appreciate those who are in my life NOW, as well as how to truly cherish the memories of the blessings of their presence i once enjoyed. I offered thanks for all the Dark Days ... yes, for the dark days brought to me an understanding of how i could truly employ, not only the light of those found in the not so dark days, but how to utilize to the best of my own abilities, and that small light of my own that resides within me. I offered thanks for all the Anger i suffered through . . . that of my own and that of others. Through my anger i have come to know the true meaning of humility. This gift was imparted to me in being chastised and scolded by others, and in having to be the one who must later apologize for their errancies of character, attitude and expression. I offered thanks for all the times when i was down on my luck. It was, and is those times i realize that luck and being down, was my own choosing, and that i had the power to alter my perspectives of how i viewed my life. Should i go forth with disdain for the hand that life has dealt me or should i cling to such powerful forces of hope and faith? These powers do have a transformative ability to change my energy to something magnificent and grand. I offered thanks for all the Tears i have cried . . . for whatever reasons. Tears truly have a deep cleansing ability to alleviate my soul of the angst i have collected through many of life's circumstances. I offered thanks for all the "NOs" i have heard, given me by life when i so wanted to hear a "Yes". Yes, in reflection, many times those "Yes's" i wished for would have been detrimental to my higher good. I did not always understand this, nor did i care at that moment, for i was blinded by my own "Self Oriented" desires and my finite and limited perspectives on the whole of what may "Be" or "Become". I have grown tremendously because of each and every one of those "NOs" . . . and again i must say . . . I am Thankful. As you read this, you may say to your self, to be thankful is a good thing . . .or not. But to be thankful, i have found to be personally empowering on so many "Life Levels". It has added unto my abilities to make it through many other circumstances i could not have navigated early on in my life. It was all the setbacks that taught me how to garner my fortitude to press on. It is all those disappointments that taught me Tolerance, Acceptance and Patience. It has taught me some wonderful things about my own abilities. This does not mean that i did not want things . . . i did, and i do! This does not mean i gave up on life . . . NO . . i live to the fullest i can . . .when i remember who i am and have the mind-set to do so. Simply put, through the Storms "Life" has so mercifully sent my way, i have come realize a greater expanse of my own abilities. I have come to know the meaning of peace found in the "Eye of the Storm". I have discovered that i am so much more than i believed and so much more than what i have been Taught and Told . . . as are you!
About the Author: Foreword Feelings need poets to get their portraits painted. Besides every work of poetry, transports the reader into an alternate realm, where imagination turns into reality and the insane becomes the do-able. There's this poem, "The Voice of the Rain", the poem explains water cycle in the most creative way possible and it's a matter of utmost stupefaction that the poetry accounts for such process in the nature which wasn't discovered until later by the scientists. In a way, poets give a way to mankind to comprehend even on the most unbelievable fantasies. They direct minds and I believe that literature is the most logical of all subjects. Poems enables us to see things in ways they have never seen before. And the poet's job, you see, is not to give us straight, encyclopaedic fact but to tell us something new or to tell us something old in a new way- to give us fresh images. In this issue of YOTP, the theme lies 'Thanksgiving'. What can be more beautiful than thanking poets and their children -poetry, which helps this world shape from beautiful manifestation into a heavenly reality. May the light of education keep on lighting stronger every single day and minds be delighted by the magic of verses. Bismay Mohanty