Jayanta Mahapatra's Relationship

With a quote from Walt Whitman's Song of Myself, Jayanta Mahapatra Starts the poem Realtionship With his mythical stride and visionary glide Clutching it all Oriya topography and mapping, Cartography and demography. A poet of Orissa and Orissaan landscapes, Myth and mysticism, History, art and culture, Populace and natural habitats, Lakes, rivers and hills, The rock-built temples And their sculptures Inscribed upon. It is difficult to analyze And annotate What he takes up, But the myths and motifs All-encompassing, Inclusive of it all, Dream, allegory and imagination, Imagery and reverie. With the phallic stone and the vulture The poem starts And takes to The mythical scapes, The rivers and lakes As he does so often To impart an Oriya fervour To his reflection. A poet of the lingam-yoni motif, How would he hold the linga in the eye, The Konark Sun-temple, The dark daughters, What to say, Say about his poetry Kaleidoscopic, Just turn over the pages, Ask you not for their meaning.