PA: "A Skyful of Love" By Satinder Malik, Foreword by Rocky Lagou

Hello dear community on MPS.

This is not a poem, but a very important public announcement.

Thanks to the kind heart of my dear poetic friend Dr. Satinder Singh Malik (MPS username "adventuressmalik"), I have had the opportunity to write a foreword to his stunning 100-poem anthology entitled "A Skyful of Love."

I highly encourage everyone to please check it out, as we are one big poetic family, and please share it with others.

I will link the book in the "author's note" below.

Foreword to "A Skyful of Love":

In this life that we live, there are two ways that one can approach the world: lovingly, or unlovingly.

Now, it may seem too obvious or too pithy of me to say such a thing, but in the tumultuous times that we’re in, there is no “middle ground.”

I’m only a new and young poet entering the scene of poetry’s splendor, but I know enough to know that love surpasses all.

So, when my poetic friend, Dr. Satinder Singh Malik, asked me if I would chip in to write a foreword for his upcoming anthology, “A Skyful of Love,” my initial reaction was, “Seriously?” “Me of all people?”

But after premeditating my decisions, I’ve discovered that Dr. Malik’s willingness to offer new writers a chance to collaborate with him only further proves that he is a community-minded individual, and this literally encapsulates the overall message of “A Skyful of Love.”

Dr. Satinder Singh Malik in “A Skyful of Love” not only touches the surface of what it means to be alive in a modern generation, but he fearlessly penetrates through all stereotypes and stringencies that mankind has put in place, to reach the purest essence of who we are.

The reader embarks on this journey with any preconceptions that they’ve conceived throughout their lifetime, and the ways our minds have been conditioned will ultimately lead to each reader having a different experience with this book.

Love can mean a myriad of things. For some, it can be the subtle presence of a lover, to have that reassurance tucked in their heart, to feel a sense of security, whenever the two commune. On the other hand, love may bear more spiritual value, this can be a moment of connection with nature or a strong bond between the Creator and creation.

However, not everyone’s perception of love is viewed as fondly. Whereas one may cherish a warm embrace, another might reject this as unfamiliar behavior, to which their only options are the instinctual “fight” or “flight.” Or take perhaps, an act of goodwill, where one experiences a tug at their heart to help another human in need. This can simply be assisting the elderly cross the road, offering some pocket change to the local vagrant, or showing genuine compassion with any courteous act of selflessness. But if we take the typical apathetic person, and switch the roles of this scenario, then we’re left with a situation in which neither person A nor B will be fulfilled; they are both left emptyhanded. And this takes me back to my notion that we can only go about life with either an attitude of loving-kindness or bleak indifference. The most worrying thing about it all is that this scarcity of spontaneous sympathy is becoming more common worldwide. Whenever you flick on the news, you’re bound to come across the world’s chaos, acts of malignity, and the lingering demon of wars, wars, wars. And this is all rooted in the heart of who we are, in the heart that absorbs the world and its influences surrounding us ever since the dawn of time.

Within these 100 poems, Dr. Satinder Singh Malik gushes from his inward heart an outward appreciation for the world and its multifaceted inhabitants.

Bringing into this enthralling poetry collection aspects of divinity, social awareness, soul-searching, romance, and an all-encompassing observation of the world’s vast and boundless glory, with its focal theme being the enormity of love. Therefore, this book is the perfect invitation for any person of any background to experience the beauty of the natural and spiritual world.

Dr. Satinder Singh Malik bears all the merits that make him the ideal orator of this stunning 100-poem anthology.

Apart from being a writer and poet, Dr. Malik served the Indian Air Force as a combat pilot, which is the epitome of bravery and altruism; risking his life to serve a nation and the people thereof, which emphasizes his lionhearted character.

Not to mention his status as an adventurer. Being a skydiver and mountaineer, going as far as Antarctica, truly concretes his fearlessness and understanding of the world.

This poetry collection is an open invitation to the world of the author, with the introductory title poem being the beckoning hand to feel the magnificence of these words.

Just as the author explores the high peaks of mountains, we too will scale the grandness of these poems to reach new heights. One that’ll bring encouragement and enlightenment.

We the reader, together with the poet, will identify how love manifests itself before us, and the nuances of such an abstract emotion, in a profound state of introspection. It is an almost transcendence-like experience, that will surely be worth the ride.

Leaving our footprints on the valleys of affection, and climbing towards the summit of this immense mountain of love, where we’ll be granted the finest view, of this limitless and immeasurable horizon…

Of this “skyful of love.”

- Rocky Lagou