Poems

1. Not in eutony of speech,
   if you seek,
   seek me
   at the shores of my silence.

2. Words
   rounded rides
   in concentric circles
   Never reaching the centre.

3. Every leaving is a rupture;
   bleeding forth words,
   said- unsaid, faces, met-unmet,
   places, touched-untouched.

4. As I lay awake in a distant city
   the night swells around, thick with a nebulous air.
   An argent moon steals the show in a starless sky
   some rain drops hang on to the window sill-
   Too obstinate to let go.
   The wet and the dark impregnate the night,
   A wind-song fills the lonesome hour;
   Sleep plays coy to incisive awakening.'

5. Words cast shadows on mind,
   Impressions take shape, a tale unfolds.
   You read a one act happy tale;
   I infer an epical tragedy.

6. "Hridoy obadhyo meye
   oke kono pora bujhio na
   boi khata chire eksha, thutu diye ghose
   muche pheleche garho bidhilipi
   Nil byakoroner patay likhe rekheche cheleder naam!
   Emon ki chobio!!
   Hridoy obadhyo meye...take ki shashti debe dio"
   
   
   'The heart is an unruly girl
   Don’t teach her anything;
   Tearing apart her books, she has
   Wiped away all rules with her spittle;
   In the blue grammar book,
   She has scribbled names of boys
   And pasted pictures;
   The heart is an unruly girl
   Punish her the way you want!'
   By Mandakranta Sen, Translation Mine

7. Don't show me the stars
   they are distant and removed
   I would rather look into
   the highway light flickering
   In the river of your eyes.

8. There is a softness somewhere
   at the core of pain;
   A feeling akin to peace,
   A twilight tone, mellowed and restful
   An awning for life and it holds you fine.

9. It Rains in my City

Few rotund drops and a feeble petrichor,
came visiting this evening;
They brought the message
Of an impending deluge.
A celebration of souls, your's and mine
It will be, they said;
wild things! I thought and shooed them away.
"It's coming", they insisted, in utter nonchalance
and shot back before leaving,
The penumbra will be punctured of pretense,
Giving love its reckoning recourse.
Shall we keep the arc pliable then, my Noah?

10. She too had words of poetic finesse,
    She wore them as a gown all frilly,
    She made wings of words all downy,
    Her walked in beauty,
    She talked in verse,
    An enchantress absolute  
    A regal queen of sorts.

11. With the first hint of summer in town
    and the ceiling fan switched on
    for first time in months,
    the Gossamer scab of oblivion
    Weaving a faint possibility of my salvation,
    Mothballed  for yet another winter.
    What remains now is the curve of your smile,
    And my eternal undoing.

12. In some fleeting moments
    I have seen the face
    Chiseled like an artwork.
    The half smile has promises
    Of a love song,
    The eyes a foreboding
    Of damnation and death;
    Like a seraphim out of a sepulcher.

13. You
    You came to me
    Eternity's God child
    And I knew
    My life was made
    
    My waking call
    My morning ode
    My dulcet joy
    My cup runneth over
    
    A distant land came a'calling
    Your journey was fixed.
    But I stashed you away
    In the alleys my dreamland.

14. You 1
    In a transient dream
    u came to me
    And love was what
    I felt for you.
    My waking call
    My morning ode
    My dulcet joy
    My cup runneth over.
    I lost you now
    Beyond life's measure
    My ephemeral love
    Eternity's God child.

15. Bridge
    The bridge you built
    with words, dreams and stars
    to reach my marooned existence,
    has turned into a rainbow.
    
    As I have colors now
    I will paint you a house someday
    for us to live in.

16. Bridge 1
    The bridge you built with words,
    to reach my marooned existence,
    has turned into a rainbow.
    
    I have painted a house with its colours
    A dainty dwelling space for us,
    Will you cross the bridge to join me?

17. Ode to Dejection
    With the possibility of words now exhausted
    and all scopes of armistice annulled
    here I sit now at the shore of relentless love
    and see my soul, trapped for life
    dying a slow and sad death
    Muffled by the turbulent deep of your calculated chaos.

18. Dreams
    Every time they broke
    I gathered the pieces with tender care,
    As if they were my progeny-
    And buried them duly;
    Vexations past,
    I created some more.
    For dreams are all
    I am capable of creating.

19. Game and War
    It’s a game you said
    An open ended one
    With no rules-
    And played in friendly terms.
    If only you knew the reward
    you would have made a war out of the game.
    
    
    

20. Bridled joyclanks at the ankle bell
    Liberty's swan song.

    Repressed words degenerate
    gnawing at delicious pride.
    as tuppence life ticks on fast.

21. You must need it
    like the earth needs the sun
    you must deserve it
    like the shell deserves the pearl
    you must hold it
    like the lotus leaf holds the dew drop.
    
    
22. Closing is a remedy daubed with hopelessness.
    Closing is losing and succumbing as life succumbs to death.
    Closing is a ritual black and dark with grief.
    Closing is a swan song indisposed but resolute.

23. Shadow of an old tree

on the window pane;

the night is now an art.