Humanitarian Poetry Quotes

“Qatar & The West (The Sonnet)

All of a sudden the entire west is peeved at Qatar,
Because only the west has exclusive rights to exposure.
All of a sudden we care about the migrant workers,
The Afghans, Palestinians and Kashmiris no longer matter.
Human rights issue here is, we don't care about human rights,
We only care about filling the air with hypocrisy and mania.
Our poster boy just dumped half his new workforce as garbage,
We buy Oscar, ditch Batgirl, and we diss Qatar for buying FIFA!
We are just peeved that the Arabs are showing off for a change,
Sure it's unacceptable, since showing off is a western tradition.
Yes, it's true that the Middle East reeks with human rights issues,
But it is also teeming with passion beyond western comprehension.
If you really care about human rights stick to a cause for more than a fortnight.
Otherwise keep your trap shut, lest you open and be proved a privileged white.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Himalayan Sonneteer: 100 Sonnets of Unsubmission

“Some are mental por dinero,
Some are loco por la ropa.
Let them be as they please,
Estoy loco por la humanidad.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Mukemmel Musalman: Kafir Biraz, Peygamber Biraz

“Naskar and Abi (The Sonnet)

Ask me about the strangest secrets of human behavior,
I would ramble on and on without stopping for hours.
But try to make small talk with me as a cold stranger,
And I would struggle to put a single thought in words.
Only force that breaks my autistic barrier is attachment,
I only remember of one person with whom I could be me.
When she left I let the God complex blow at full throttle,
So that Naskar survives even if nobody gets to see Abi.
Perhaps that is why without even knowing I invented Abi,
So that the real Abi finds expression, at least in fiction.
Thus, if and when the strain gets too heavy I could escape,
The vastness of Naskar, without escaping the conviction.
There is no rock of ages without some everyday weakness.
It is the weakness that keeps us grounded as sapiens.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Esperanza Impossible: 100 Sonnets of Ethics, Engineering & Existence

“People are the truth of life,
Not some beliefs and biases.
People are the magic of my words,
People are the center of my poetries.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Himalayan Sonneteer: 100 Sonnets of Unsubmission

“Love-Abiding Law (The Sonnet)

Love is the master-key to social troubles,
Law is but an inferior and cheaper stand-in.
Instead of obsessing over cooking up more law,
Let's shift the focus on loving and caring.
Do you think love is nothing but a commercial object,
With your olympian authority which you can legalize!
Who do you think you are that you'll legalize order!
You can legalize toys, telephones, not love and light.
Know your place, o puny apes, on a puny little blue dot,
Before standing as authority bearing your badge of law.
There are more things in the vastness of time and space,
Than dreamt up in your paleolithic construct of law.
An ounce of love brings more change than a 100 pounds of law.
What we need is not law-abiding love, but love-abiding law.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Esperanza Impossible: 100 Sonnets of Ethics, Engineering & Existence

“Neighborhood Humanitarian (The Sonnet)

They ask me, why do I never run out of ideas!
It is because I never dwell in one culture.
Sometimes I'm North American, sometimes Latino,
Sometimes I'm South Indian, sometimes I am Turk.
When I run low on charge, I listen to Español,
When my sight gets foggy, I watch Cary Grant.
Whenever I feel homesick, I listen to some Telugu,
Whenever my heart bleeds, I run straight to Turkey.
It is sort of a perpetual motion engine,
I empower the cultures, the cultures empower me.
If I am the world's not-so-secret hometown human,
The world is my secret to my infinite electricity.
How, do you think, I became the neighborhood
humanitarian to every single person on earth!
It's because I never glorified one culture over another.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Himalayan Sonneteer: 100 Sonnets of Unsubmission

“I ask you not to chant my name,
Be free from all such ritual lame.
Hold my hand and come with me,
Together we'll be a timeless flame.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Himalayan Sonneteer: 100 Sonnets of Unsubmission

“The universal reason is love,
The universal faith is love.
All else is but a faint echo,
Driving us away from love.

Taking the echo for the source,
the living heart turns bitter stone.
The sky above knows no east and west,
only the bugs beneath insist on separation.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Yarasistan: My Wounds, My Crown

“Politicians have thrown people out of government,
Philosophers have thrown humanity out of philosophy.
Scientists have thrown the society out of science,
Preachers have thrown plain goodness out of divinity.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Yarasistan: My Wounds, My Crown

“Sacrifice is my illumination,
Servanthood is my sultanet.
People are the reason of my life,
I got too much electricity to sit and wait.”
― Abhijit Naskar

“What is existence? Selflessness.
What is life? Selflessness.
What is civilization? Selflessness.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Mücadele Muhabbet: Gospel of An Unarmed Soldier

“Sonnet 1008

Helping a human is worth a hundred pilgrimages,
Conquer the heart, you'll conquer the world.
More glorious than trekking a thousand mountains,
Is to trudge the distance from heart to heart.
You don't conquer heart by acting on assumption,
You don't conquer division by acting on ideology.
You don't conquer hate by means of intellectualism,
You don't conquer war by deploying more military.
Peace doesn't happen by conference of ideology,
Peace happens through the confluence of sentience.
Integration doesn't happen by boasting your culture,
But when you overlook yours to learn another's ways.
Bury the dead along with all their artifacts of living.
Better a traitor to the dead than a traitor to the living.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Centurion Sermon: Mental Por El Mundo

“Human Not Hyena (Sonnet 1012)

When all are charmed
by the comfort of dusk,
Rise up and write the dawn.
When savages find honor
in celebration of death,
Rise up and mow the lawn.
When baboons try to show strength
by filling up the graveyard,
Rise up and rob the hate.
When clowns behave like it is 2020 BC,
Rise up and write the world's fate.
When hyenas commit cannibalism
in the name of national security,
Stand up as human and practice humanity.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The Centurion Sermon: Mental Por El Mundo

“Still Mi Heart is Earthistani
(Sonnet 1009)

All say, what religion is Naskar!
Naskar says, what religion is the sun!
Some name it alshams, bazıları güneş, algunos sol,
All bask in the same light, varied though the tongue.
The seas are torn apart, continents broken to pieces,
All are still hypnotized by the war-cry of yesterday.
Castrated by ritual the mind has evaporate long enough,
Invigorate the mind now, let the rituals evaporate instead.
Belief and disbelief all are but creeds of kindergarten,
At the university of life, life is but life's religion.
Strike your heart well, strike it well against itself,
Strike it till all the rust and dead skin have fallen off.
Stick your tribal labels of culture all you want on me.
Fact of the matter is, still mi heart is earthistani.”
― Abhijit Naskar

“Giants in Jeans Sonnet 15

I am the craftsman,
I am the craft.
I am the artist,
I am the art.
I am the infinity,
I am absolution.
I am impossibility,
I am the solution.
I am the just,
As well as justice.
I am equality,
As well as its means.
There's always a way, so long as I exist,
And I exist wherever there's a Universalist.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Giants in Jeans: 100 Sonnets of United Earth

“Languages come easy to me,
Cultures come easy to me,
Scriptures come easy to me,
Science comes easy to me.
You know why? Because there is no me,
only the mission of undivided humanity.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Aşk Mafia: Armor of The World

“With all our eyes, we don't see.
With all our ears, we don't hear.
With all our tongues, we don't speak.
With all our limbs, we still disappear.

We turn our eyes where we need to see,
We shut our ears where we need to listen.
We chain our tongue where we need a voice,
We freeze our feet where we need movement.

It's time to thaw the freeze,
It's time to break the silence.
It's time we hearken to cries,
It's time we walk as guardians.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Aşk Mafia: Armor of The World

“Uphold principle, not prejudice.
Uphold reason, not rigidity.
Uphold duty, not derangement.
Uphold correction, not conformity.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Aşk Mafia: Armor of The World

“Istanbul to Alpha Centauri,
Cosmos courses in my corpuscles.
Religion, nation, stuff it all,
Benevolence makes the world livable.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavictor: Kanima Akiyor Kainat

“Trance of Totem (The Sonnet)

This is my decree to my soldiers of the future,
Refrain from raising my giant lifeless structures!
Use the funds to build schools and hospitals instead,
Providing free/affordable education and healthcare.

Keep me alive in your heart, not in dead statues,
each one taller and more extravagant than the other,
Just so self-absorbed snobs could take the perfect selfie,
to declare an empty alliance with humanitarian behavior.

If you must have symbollic momentos of me around,
Keep them personal, humble and utterly non-extravagant.
Always remember, I am honored with your acts of love,
not with your thousand feet statues and chants unsapient.

It's a sad state of affairs, when virtues
gather moss upon the monuments of hypocrisy.
Break your trance of totem poles,
be the freedom you are meant to be!”
― Abhijit Naskar, Vande Vasudhaivam: 100 Sonnets for Our Planetary Pueblo

“You are the nutrient,
you are the pollutant -
you are the stain,
you are the detergent.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Aşkanjali: The Sufi Sermon

“Awake, Arise, O Atlas Supreme,
Take the world on your shoulder.
Denounce all roots of hate and hurt,
Wielding your humanitarian viking thunder.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Vande Vasudhaivam: 100 Sonnets for Our Planetary Pueblo

“Drunkenness of alcohol ruins life,
Drunkenness of scripture ruins society.
Drunkenness of ideology ruins the world,
Drunkenness of nationality ruins humanity.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Vande Vasudhaivam: 100 Sonnets for Our Planetary Pueblo

“Sonnet 1142

Naskar the scientist says,
Science that lifts no human condition,
is not science but superstition.
Naskar the monk says,
Inclusion is illumination,
discrimination is delusion.

Naskar the philosopher says,
Better lose truth, than lose humanity -
Better lose truth, than lose love.
Naskar the sufi says,
Sense yourself till
you sense nothing but love.

Naskar the humanist says,
I don't care about your belief or disbelief,
all I care about is your behavior with others.
Naskar the humanitarian says,
each human must earn their admission
into the human race with humane actions.

The spirit of love speaks of love,
no matter the faith and field.
Hate is but a mark of narrowness -
When you expand heart and soul,
whole world becomes kin and kith.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Vande Vasudhaivam: 100 Sonnets for Our Planetary Pueblo

“Sonnet 1144

Istanbul to Alpha Centauri,
Cosmos courses in my corpuscles.
Religion, nation, stuff it all,
Benevolence makes the world livable.

Din, dünya, milliyet falan,
hiç umurumda değil.
Sen mutlu ol - bana yeter.
Scripture, constitution, god, government,
Nothing matters to me, except behavior.

The greatest iftar is
to break the fast of apathy,
with the feast of affection.
Sin humano no hay dios,
Where there is no kindness
there is no divine intervention.

Sapiens intervention is divine intervention,
There is nothing higher or more mighty.
When we are obliterated in lifting the fallen,
That's the living manifestation of the almighty.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavictor: Kanima Akiyor Kainat

“Sapiens is the dawn,
Sapiens is the saint.
Sapiens is the bridge of heart,
Sapiens is the mend.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Aşk Mafia: Armor of The World

“Strum on heartstrings the song of synergy,
Be the headstrong harbinger of harmony.
Coexistence is existence when human is whole,
Wake up to duty, geopolitics will be history.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavictor: Kanima Akiyor Kainat

“Time to Defect (The Sonnet)

It's time to defect, my friend -

from the side of passport to the side of heartport,
from the side of prison to the side of reason,
from the side of nationality to the side of sanity,
from the side of myopia to the side of motion,

from the side of crutches to the side of conscience,
from the side of coffins to the side of character,
from the side of bombs to the side of backbone,
from the side of barbwire to the side of brainwire,

from the side of flag to the side of fervor,
from the side of parasites to the side of paragons,
from the side of pacemakers to the side of peacemakers,
from the side of ideology to the side of illumination.

It's time to defect, my friend -
from the side of caves to the side of kind,
from the side of tribe to the side of life.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Tum Dunya Tek Millet: Greatest Country on Earth is Earth

“Vicdansaadet, The Sonnet

I have many names,

Sometimes I am Hometown Human,
Sometimes I am Mucize Insan,
Sometimes I am Ingan Impossible,
Sometimes I am Mukemmel Musalman,

Sometimes I am Dervish Advaitam,
Sometimes I am Bulldozer on Duty,
Sometimes I am Corazon Calamidad,
Sometimes I am High Voltage Habib,

Sometimes I am Himalayan Sonneteer,
Sometimes I am The Gentalist,
Sometimes I am Divane Dynamite,
Sometimes I am Rowdy Scientist.

These all look and sound so different,
because you are distant in culture.
Move past the circus of manmade caves,
within every heart you'll find a Naskar.

Call it Naskar, Shams or Adi Shankara,
it is all but one spirit of oneness.
Wherever the fire of integration
takes hold, there emerges Vicdansaadet.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Tum Dunya Tek Millet: Greatest Country on Earth is Earth

“Civil Sanity
(Sonnet 1631)

You know what the problem is!

We question love
more than we question hate.
We question humility
more than we question arrogance.

We question benevolence
more than we question biases.
We question integrity
more than we question deceit.

We question curiosity
more than we question prejudice.
We question character
more than we question cowardice.

Problem is, we question humanity
more than we question inhumanity.
Grow out of such prehistoric normalcy,
and the world will encounter civil sanity.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Yüz Şiirlerin Yüzüğü (Ring of 100 Poems, Bilingual Edition): 100 Turkish Poems with Translations