Freedom is an Eagle: Poems from an Outpost

G D Bakshi

Freedom is an Eagle: Poems from an Outpost is a unique collection of poems by a soldier. Most of them were written on remote outposts in the high Himalayas and are a record of intense loneliness and exile. They record one of the most lonesome sounds – the crunch of a lone sentry’s boots upon the snow. They also record the stark contrast in the sounds of utter silence that you encounter on the Himalayan battle fields and the exact opposite – the thundering sounds of artillery guns, bursting shells and mortars, staccato machine gun fire and the screams of the dying and the wounded that you hear on the self same battle fields. These are the musings of lonely men far from their loved ones – consigned to live alone – condemned perhaps to fight and die. They represent the stream of consciousness of exile and philosophical musings of men faced with the stark choices of life and death and coping with extreme peril and danger. They also provide unique vignettes of war that are intense and searing in their intensity. All these poems are held together by a magnificent liet motif – the majestic Himalayan Eagle that flies in and out of these poems – a symbol of Freedom and valour; of the cosmic destrudo and the aggression of armies.

G D Bakshi
Maj Gen (Dr.) G D Bakshi SM,VSM (retd) is a very well-known TV Commentator and India’s leading Military Analyst. He is a prolific writer on matters military with over 30 books to his name.

Contents

Vignettes

Book One: Freedom is an Eagle
Freedom as An Eagle
Have You
The Connoisseur of Silence
Vigil
Destiny
Talks With The Moon
More Talks With The Moon
How Quiet The Night
Orion
Star Frost
Has the War Begun?
Cloud Artillery
The Cold
Howling Hyenas
Christmas Valley
Tracks in The Snow
Shadow
Hush
How Much You Plan
The Peace of The Eternal
What Else Besides?
A Visitor to My Post
The Manic Depressive
The Only Book
Have You Understood?
The Geeta
Have You Ever Been In Love?
It Was Not
What Makes You Suffer?
Why Do We Suffer?
Emotions and The Buddhist Monk
Storms in My Psyche
Angler
Angling Again
I Curse
And What of Him
The Mournful Procession
Its Been A Long Time
My Shadow is Dead
No One Ever Comes
I Saw The Eagle Again
The Eagle
Chained Eagles
Hymn of The Eagle
Assault Line to The Sun
The Dawn Attack
Samurai
The Tourists Have Left
The Vision
Have You Found Him
A Prayer
No Letter
Cry
Never Give A Backward
The Point
The Journey
Book II: The Killings Fields of Kargil The Master of Machine Guns
Deadly Chatter
Curl
Tracer At Night
The Tracer Show
Stutter
Crump!
The Music of Mortars
The Thunder of A Hundred Guns
The Mountains Tremble
The Eerie Whistle of Shells
Shaqma and Thanus
Drunk With Power
Raje Singh
Corpses
Fragments of The Last Post
Funeral Pyre
Where is He Going?
Radiant Form
The Killing Fields of Kargil
The Flame Has Gone
The Eagle’s Flight