Melodies and Maladies

Ratan Bhattacharjee

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Books Way 2013

Preface to Melodies and Maladies

“Ah, Love, but a day,/And the world has changed’Ratan Bhattacharjee , the poet of love sings out so spontaneously in poem after poem in his book Melodies and Maladies . It can be said about his poems “No man hath walked along our roads with step /So active, so inquiring eye, or tongue/So varied in discourse.”He made all love experiences his own. His poems are not poems about little children who win good-conduct prizes. They are poems of the agonies of life, poems about tragic severance, poems about failure and mostly about love, the most vital passion in human heart. They range through the virtues and the vices with the magnificent boldness of Rumi poems. Dr.Bhattacharjee is one of the very few poets who, echoing the Creator, have declared that the world is good and Love is best. The objective distancing of a poet from his themes is a part of of his impersonality as a poet. Dr.Bhattacharjee confesses as an artist that the poet is no philosopher, he is above everything a lover. He utters in all the varied rhythms of his poems which have the movement of living things. They are lacking in smooth and static loveliness as they happen in modern poetry. It is really strange that the author of Melodies and Maladies , is given

a muted celebration.But after reading his love poems one may sing: ''O lyric Love, half angel and half bird /And all a wonder and a wild desire” as one sang out in Browning’s The Ring and the Book. Friends , why so mute about this outstanding poet of love?

A few comments on the book :

Elisabetta Marino , University of Rome Tor Vergata

Congratulations! Excellent Collection…..Grazie a te….(Thank you)

Dr. Jaydeep Sharangi , Poet and academic , Kolkata :

‘Ratan Bhattacharjee’s love poems record blue and liquid whispers of hearts where rolling and sparkling lines become reflection of his petty little corner of mind. His theme-song is deeply human , and thus deeply universal.’

Dr.Ketaki Datta , Poet and academic , Kolkata

‘Ratan Bhattacharjee is the outstanding poet of our time’

Foreword

Behind the literary persona of a great poet there is always a mysterious background of his upbringing. I poorly lack such background. In fact, I grew up as an ordinary boy with an ordinary academic background. But I always felt in my growing years that I am a poet. This is a conviction in the deeper core of my heart which might have resulted in the spontaneous composition of these poems. I never knew the difference that a poet is an author only when his writings are published. I had no such compulsions to become an author or to read poems in a literary conference or a poetic festival.

But I can sing spontaneously as long as you tell like Shelley’s skylark in profuse strains of unpremeditated art. It may be called a magnificent feat by many of my friends, but I never felt it to be a literary feat , rather I was happy to know that I could speak out what I wanted to say, though not always in a fabulous manner as I imagined to tell it. These poems of Melodies and Maladies are the outcome of my interactions with men and women in life and society. I talk with my characters in my poems and there are still some with whom I had an imaginary conversation. But they are all real to me. My passions and feelings are all genuine. They are quintessentially tangible.

I made all love experiences my own. Mys poems are not poems about little children who win good-conduct prizes. They are poems of the agonies of life, poems about tragic severance, poems about failure and mostly about love, the most vital passion in human heart. They range through the virtues and the vices with the magnificent boldness of Rumi poems. I may sincerely like to be one of the very few poets who, echoing the Creator, can declare that the world is good and Love is best. The objective distancing of a poet from his themes is a part of his impersonality as a poet. I confesses as an artist that the poet is no philosopher, Iam above everything a lover. I

utters in all the varied rhythms of my poems which have the movement of living things. They are lacking in smooth and static loveliness as they happen in modern poetry.

Ratan Bhattacharjee

June 1.2013Kolkata

Melodies and Maladies

I Loved You

When I loved you You kept silent Like the olive sky With none to ask 'why'. 

When I loved you You sang a song About the rains To wash out all my 'pains'. 

Loved you so much As the birds love the nest I was so tired I craved for rest.

 Why I loved you  Nobody knew  I loved you A bud clothed in dew. 

Heart Wet with Raindrops of Love I Dream of the Clouds

Look me in my eyes, my belovedYou will discover a continent of loveColourful, jostling with rainbow desires and dreamsAs pure as jasmine blooming in the rains.

It is raining now in KolkataBut my heart is wetWith the raindrops of  your love.

You are the queen seated blissfullyOn the throne of my heartAll soaked in pearly showersI wanted you for me to wait

You did not stay for meThat day.But you could stay.Why  can’t you stayFor me?Am  I that worthless one ?For whom none stays

I Miss You Most When You Don’t Miss Me At All

Look me in my eyes, my belovedYou will discover a continent of loveColourful, jostling with rainbow desires and dreamsAs pure as jasmine blooming in the rains.

It is raining now in KolkataBut my heart is wetWith the raindrops of  your love.

You are the queen seated blissfullyOn the throne of my heartAll soaked in pearly showersI wanted you for me to wait

You did not stay for meThat day.But you could stay.Why  can’t you stayFor me?Am  I that worthless one ?For whom none stays

When the sky becomes crimson red I miss you my dear When the cuckoo coos sitting on the palash trees Sweetheart I miss you When the apple turns red from green in Kashmir I miss you now and then When the boughs are loaded with mango shoots I miss you since the dawn When frosty winter lashes at the door I miss your warmth in the lonely room  When the mailbox is filled with letters from others I miss you, miss you dawn to dusk When I am at mess and feel all alone I miss you in the crowd  I miss you when you don’t see my e-card in your mailbox Or when you don’t log in But I miss you most my dearWhen you don’t miss me at all.   

 

Betrayal

  There are hundred ways to love a womanNot the one when you feel the sorrowThere are hundred ways to sing a songSave the one when you sing of a dark morrow.

One morning you wake up with empty eyesYour griefs fill your heart and rend the skies,Your knee is bruised and  a crowd of sorrows leaves you hurtBleeding is profuse inside but Light enters your heart. Flower is false, rainbow or  rose, nothing, and nothing is trueYour lover loved you only so much to betray you!

Today like every other day you wake up empty and scaredAll called you beautiful, but none had anything shared ….I and you both are wide awake all the nightInsomnia, and somnambulism, am I right?

Why ice melts, fire burns, meteors fall,When a woman weeps?My lord, that’s all.

I Love You, My Valentine

  That day the sky was olive green And the two green parrots repeated the words'I love you'.

Who exactly taught the birdsto speak those words I didn't knowBut I knew it was easy to tell these words in a moment of togetherness. 

The sun no longer shone in the sky It was not the sunset still She promised to come before the sunset. She came and sat close to me. 

She looked like an angel To my surprise, she was clad in olive green She was for me the sky She greeted me with a casual 'hi' She asked a series of questionsOne question was - 'What date is today? 'I told '14th Feb' 'And just that? Nothing more? ' I stared at her face and she looked at the seashore. 

She was silent in the twilight Wanted to tell me something, all right. But what did she want to say? She only said 'Don't you know it's Valentine's Day? 

I got back to my senses. I was not in mine minutes before. It was Valentine's day sure It was, I heard, 'a lover's day, sure. 

I wanted to apologise I was so busy telling her 'I love you' I missed what day it was. 

But when I realised that it was Valentine's Day I forgot her call, her messages I only remembered those three magical words 'I love you' .

But she had left the place long ago She is gone, gone for ever... Still when every year Valentine's Day comesI feel as if it were my first love day And I will whisper in my beloved's ears 'I love you'.  

Life is Meaningless without You

Jab We Met* 

 

The oleander red tree of love grows within meI am the ground to feel its branches and rootsInside me.I cannot fully explain my feelings nowYou are within me and myself within yoursThat much and that muchI know about you.

The oleander red tree creates a windowFrom your heart to that of mineAlthough there is no wall to separate the twoThe two hearts which burn all midnightLike the moon.Like alchemy you cause the metamorphosisThe total makeover of my soulThe inner secret is known to noneTruth is revealed only to the canonizedWe are the saints.Do the lovers ever meet?They are always with one anotherThen why do I crave to meet youI did not love you then.The day I felt I really loved you

 

You came into my life Like a blazing star or a comet You filled my heart with joy You took my pain as if it was yours 

Like an angel on the earth I could not believe You gave me love that no one ever could 

With the soft sweet words you whispered in my ears You made me realize that I was in Love 

You made me realize Life is meaningless without you 

Jab We Met* 

 

The oleander red tree of love grows within meI am the ground to feel its branches and rootsInside me.I cannot fully explain my feelings nowYou are within me and myself within yoursThat much and that muchI know about you.

The oleander red tree creates a windowFrom your heart to that of mineAlthough there is no wall to separate the twoThe two hearts which burn all midnightLike the moon.Like alchemy you cause the metamorphosisThe total makeover of my soulThe inner secret is known to noneTruth is revealed only to the canonizedWe are the saints.Do the lovers ever meet?They are always with one anotherThen why do I crave to meet youI did not love you then.The day I felt I really loved you

Jab We Met* 

 

The oleander red tree of love grows within meI am the ground to feel its branches and rootsInside me.I cannot fully explain my feelings nowYou are within me and myself within yoursThat much and that muchI know about you.

The oleander red tree creates a windowFrom your heart to that of mineAlthough there is no wall to separate the twoThe two hearts which burn all midnightLike the moon.Like alchemy you cause the metamorphosisThe total makeover of my soulThe inner secret is known to noneTruth is revealed only to the canonizedWe are the saints.Do the lovers ever meet?They are always with one anotherThen why do I crave to meet youI did not love you then.The day I felt I really loved you

Niagara:‘Terribly Beautiful’ Splash

  Hear Listen to the roaring in the airWhen you find Waterfalls coming nearSound is golden hereSilence does shimmer

This is what in Niagara you feelReal life in a reel

Down the cliff it plunges whooshingDown the rocks pushing gushingWreaking, pecking, decking out of rocksThrushing, brushing and crushingCreating all the shocks.

Water in white sheets flows roundListen with rapt attentionListen to the soundIt is like a hungry lion roaringLushing, shushing and mushingLike a hungry hound

Fast and faster in rainbow varietyFrom the hills pouringNiagara is roaring day and night

Jab We Met* 

 

The oleander red tree of love grows within meI am the ground to feel its branches and rootsInside me.I cannot fully explain my feelings nowYou are within me and myself within yoursThat much and that muchI know about you.

The oleander red tree creates a windowFrom your heart to that of mineAlthough there is no wall to separate the twoThe two hearts which burn all midnightLike the moon.Like alchemy you cause the metamorphosisThe total makeover of my soulThe inner secret is known to noneTruth is revealed only to the canonizedWe are the saints.Do the lovers ever meet?They are always with one anotherThen why do I crave to meet youI did not love you then.The day I felt I really loved you

Niagara is roaring.

Are the hard rocks melting all white?Are the hard rocks weeping the night?On the  way to Niagara all  boarded the busTo see what meaning, water carries for us.

What description can they give to Niagara Yes,  a ‘Terribly Beautiful’  splash,Bringing awful memories of lifeIn just one flash!

Waterfall cascades downVillages, cities and the townCleansed, washed and drenchedWhinstones collapse andWe are all entranced.

Dudhsagar, Kempty, Chitrakoot, AbbeyVictoria, Unchalli, Pallaruvi, HebbeAngel Falls, Ramnefjells FallsKukenam, Long and Alfred CreekAnd Kjerag and Monge Waterfalls.

Everywhere on the green mountainsTerrifying, plunging water sheets rollFrom the mountain peakBeauteous, free and ecstaticWaterfalls can touch your soul.

Love is a Sapling That Grows

Love is a sapling that grows  If it gets nourished If it gets water,air and earth We love and begin loving Since our birth.

Love is a word Love is a sentence Love is a page  Love is a book  Love expands itself in this way  Beyond ,beyond and beyond everything Love is an eye  Love is a vision Love goes far away beyond the sky. Love is what  I am unable to define Love is a cordial  That keeps us hale and hearty  Love keeps us fine..

Nothing More to Say

 

("And as I walked on I was lonely no longer.I was a guide, a pathfinder, an original settler. " - The Great Gatsby)

When you have nothing more to sayAnd I hadWhen you have nothing more to hideAnd I hadWhen you wanted to leave me aloneAnd I wept. When the waves dashed against the shoreWhich was swept

Life brought a new meaning for me

The man who loves a woman for a certain reasonThe same man hates a woman for the same.They both share the love, and now the shameThey once thought that there was nothing more to say,Today they realized that there was nothing left to say.

Sandy Moves from New York to New Jersey* 

 Sandy, Sandy, SandyThe newspapers screamed all aroundFriday, Saturday, Sunday.Sandy came to New York to meet me,

She looked like a houndShe gave me boundless love, and many a wound.

My life had been chaotic since thenNow my love is a deserted ruinI know I am defeated all my lifeI never in my life did any prize win.

Sandy is behind all these wrecksSandy is not a hurricaneYou know her name was Sandy,Sandy was a wicked (more than naughty) woman.

I wanted a wild, wicked Sandy to blow all nightSandy came and battered all my mightShe flooded me with caress and passionsShe bellowed against the dazzling sunlight.

I felt Sandy tangling my hair to freedom,Sandy took me to the rim of Rock CanyonI felt all around the brown skiesSandy brought tears to my red, red eyes

I loved Sandy so muchI loved her lovely name, no less her wildnessI loved so much this naughty galThat one could never even guess! 

The old barns shattered and glass panes did crackA freight train thundered down the track.Sandy laughed like a rolling millSandy surely wanted somebody to kill.

She was a killer and never felt shySandy killed me and left me saying‘Hello, I am going to New Jersey, goodbye’. 

The Son-in-Law Becomes the Son

 

We thank God for giving us so much joy and so much funOur Son-in-law has really become our son.When you shone brightly it was nice to seeOne day you will become all you are meant to be.

You had been a special boy from the day you were bornWe pray for you every evening and mornYou have an excellent head, more than that a heartWhich is filled with love for my daughter whom you never hurt. You are the treasure to us and we don’t want any more wealt We only wish for you on your birthday, A jolly mind and robust health

Treasured are the memories We engrave them in our book of lifeBe happy, happier, happiest as husband with your wife.

Our love will nourish you through the path that you will takeOur promise to cherish that our bond will never breakMay God bless our sweet angel and you, my sonOn your happy birthday, wish you the brightness of a sun.

Sweetie, One Day I won’t be There 

  I lie on the green meadow under the blue skyThe blue sky is azure and so wide!Birds chirp all around, flowers bloomand you Sweetie, by my side. You will be with me wherever I goto the riverside, seashore, flower gardenyou ne'er say 'no'. The starry cluster shining bright   We saw them twinkling all the night Some bearded meteor whispers rightLife is but a tale of celestial light.

But one day you'll walk alone  One day I won’t be there with youOn the green land, on the metaled roadI won’t be there to tell 'Sweetie, see you'.    

They Tore the Petals of a Budding Flower*

 

Light breaks when darkness sets  inDrop by drop. On the Highroad that glitters with neon light,Love begins when the words of farewell were uttered

And Damini, you are not alive in spite of all the fight.

Never will it be uttered DaminiYou cried it out in the cursed bus, Save me, anybody there?But they tore the petals of a budding flower.

When the Delhi Gurgaon Highroad was slipperyWith your blood, loud with your cries in the moonless nightReverberating all over there…But they dared to tear the budding flower.

You gave the fight and they killed you DaminiThey killed womanhood, the mother, daughter, the sister in youAll in one night… just one night.

Horrible it is to see a lover trying to save his belovedWho is being raped and killed before his eyesMore horrible it is when all shouts for helpWere drowned in the gloom of the night.

“The waves dash to the seashore to throw the sandMy heart begins beating when you promise to take me tothe broad bright land.” -The lover will never say these words to your ears Damini,You are dead, You are killed, You are gone far away tonight.

Flowers bloom when the air stops blowingThe petals slowly drop from the budsin silence,Old ships return when the new onessail out for new islands.You had been the symbol of love and service to people

But Damini, you are no longer aliveYou are now a piece of flesh that Shylock wantsBut there was no Portia to come to your rescue.On the Delhi Highroad, the night was all darkAnd neon light still burns but to give no light.

Darkness, O horrible darkness! EverywhereThe angels keep their wings soaring heightNo light nowhere, the morning is darker than the night.

A woman is killed, a mother, a sister also killedAnd the angels too felt shy, nervous and agonised

*Note: The poem is written on the Delhi Gang Rape of a young female doctor

What I Want from you God

 Last night God met me on the street He said, 'I'll give you a good job in the States'He wanted to know if I wanted more I said 'yes'.God  said, 'Let me give you a good house'He wanted to know if I wanted moreI said 'yes'He said 'I'll give you a hi-fi car'.

He wanted to know if I wanted moreI said 'yes'He said, 'Well, let me give you a good gal to marry'He wanted to know if I wanted moreI said 'yes'

He said 'I'll give you a super-duper child'He asked me  if I wanted more I said 'yes'.God felt surprised and said, 'I'll make you a trillionaire'He wanted to know if I wanted moreI said 'yes'.

He read my face for an hour and said ‘This country will be scam free’ I wanted more, He felt it so.The corrupted ones will be punishedBlackmarketeers will be hanged from the nearest lamp post I still remained silent and God looked confused 

He patted on my shoulderand said, ‘What more do you want? Not a job, not a house, not a car, not a gal, not a child, no wealth? What do you want? You aren't mad? 

I said, 'yes, God, thou art Omniscient. I am madI want nothing, nothing that you gaveI want 'LOVE', I want LOVE.   

When I will Die

 

When I will die My memory will disappear Like the dunnest smoke in the air Sorrow lasts Not more than a week, Less than a month And never a year 

When I will die Sorrows all disappear. 

What is death? It is a noose if I am hanged It is the devouring tongue of fireIf I am on the pyre It is a mound of grass .If I am buried It is the fear In the mind of a drowning man ,Or sleepless night in prison or in a police van. 

Death is a boring Sunday Memories curling all around Death is an unfinished song An incomplete letter, An already written poem Which no one can make better.  

 

Growing Up 

Love likes privacy, and so abides in our heartsBut when the beloved is a priceless beautyLove permeates the soul,Then feelings all, suddenly go beyond control.

What is this special feeling, for a childOr for a woman whom I saw in her parent’s lapWhy do we cherish it for so long?

This feeling is precious and secure for everIt is forever so strong, so strong!You in the moonlight plaza of your foreheadI saw the roses blooming and the petals all shoneWhen you asked me to write the ivory letters ‘Philo’I tried to cheer you up with all that is best in my breastbone.Your body vibrates like a harp, when I played on the wiresIt suddenly had opened like the hyacinth petals,Creamy tuberoses or shells are not as smooth as your skin was,Or, in the moonlight brilliantly shining, crystals.

On the Karwa Chauth night, you woke up longWhen you talked about your love for your husbandI galloped, (don’t know why) on the best of roadwaysOn a mare of nacre, without stirrups, without bridle

I felt I met a lady who carries a lamp of love always.

May the Sindoor, testify your Prayers, for your husband’s long life.The Mangal Sutra reminds you of the Promise that binds you.And the color of Mehndi prove the depth of your Love.I cannot believe the little girl who in the lap of her parentsLooked so innocent, so vacant in her angelic gazeBut you grew up fast, beautiful like a rose treeLife is so great, so mysterious a maze!

In her parent’s lap, she was vibrant as a fountainShe didn’t know which way to flowShe opened up like the blades of the liliesShe bloomed into flowers, but it was very slow.The shadow of magnolia settled on her eyesLike a humming bird of love, she cries and criesWas she a fairy, was she an elf?

She cries all night silently ,She wants to live not seeing self.The little girl you are missing nowExcept in your smiles,Like the river you flowTo meet the sea with the unchartered isles.

You are my Moon

  The morning soaks itselfAlong the shores of the seaAnd in your eyesWhere flowers bloom so niceI pass my long dayLooking only at thee.

Thousands of flowersOf so varied colorsRed, purple and blue -The morning birds chirpAbove the frosty rooftopsThey burst in melody softWhen I look at you. Naked the shingles prattleThe sandy shores singYou bathe your bodyIn foamy waves

Numberless pearlsThe oceans do bring. 

In my dooryard

When the shiyulis bloomIn autumnal whiteFor sorrows there is no roomMy glorious lady takes awayAll my gloom.

When you look calm or smile Or even look vacant, right? My mind is all moonlit sprites You are Moon, you are bright Really, you are my Moon Steady though all night.

Why your Dad waits for you, My Daughter?

 

My daughter, how shall I tell you the truth It is really very tough to be an ideal dad When you were a wonder kid with all your talents And I could not make you either happy or glad You waited long for my coming and never you did fight 

You used to go to bed on time after studies each night You never asked me for toys or clothes, you were such a child! You made my anger frozen and you made my wildness mild. I want from you nothing now, but your lips in smile drest It made me happy and proud to see your gallant crest. 

You are the heaven sent Nature’s gentlest boon When you are happy I see a full silvery moon Sometimes I sit alone and think of the entangled world You relieved the burden by dissolving it into a smile unfurled. In the morning you greet me, and want to know if I am happy or sad I know all you do and at night you tell, I am going to sleep my dad. 

The night seems so long, I see silent trees and the intruding sky The stars glitter far away, I could not say, bye Booni bye. 

I don’t know why, why my eyes moisten with tear Memories of your childhood and youth appear. All night I hear voices whispering dark on the seashore I feel I have lost a precious pearl, though I weep no more. I wait all hours wide awake, with vain delight I wait for your message to come, all day and night.

 Your Smile is All Light

 

When you come near me Do not smile… In a roaring ocean I become a silent isle.

Ah, that smile! it kills me after midnight it crucifies me at dawn it mesmerises me at noon it ravishes me in the even and it makes me feel in darkness All the Light

Your smile is the star Your smile is the moon Your smile in my drunken haze Will kill me soonWhen you are out of sight.

Your smile is bon voyage An evening walk in Kovalam or Goa In the deluge of God It is the Ark of Noah.

It is the cottage In the stormy night Your smile makes me Burn bright.

Give me one more peck before I fully break When the tree breaks it oozes from within When the mind melts It burns hot

In a passionate din So much keen You my sun I crave for your smile The shore The shore stretches many a mile

Colourful Bihu of Assam

Rongali Bihu is near with the cuckoo singingAnd Kopou bloomingTinge of jetuka on the clean-washed handsWith Bihuwan offeringChira pitha laru, all home made foodiesMerrier is the mindMuga and mekhela chador on their bodyDancers dancing behind.The ambience of Rongali BihuIt’s filled with lightOn the small plaza, enormous people throngEverything is brightLui is flowing  gently, the river is now fullThe parched palm trees on both the sidesFlattered by the wind and its cool.I know the roadways to GuwahatiAnd the all in the crowded busThey are now the picture of merrimentNothing else does surpass.Rongali Bihu is round the cornerOn the street and inside the home  With new apparels the boys and galsSing, dance and roamBihu is sweet in words, Bihu is sweet in DanceBihu is sweet in look, but why once in a year it comes?

I Am a Phenomenal Man

(Recalling Maya Angelou)

 

Hey, I am a manNot of the showroom adRaymond’s ‘Complete Man’But an ugly looking unimpressive man.

I am not handsome,Not enough well-built toget invitations from a model contest,The beard and the moustacheThe long stride of my stepThe poor look of my big eyesMade me look a little oddAnd I never got any billet-doux from a gal.

The invisible muscle of my armsThe quick thinning hair of my headThe piping of voice

Which the women around me talk about.

But women themselves get wonder-struckWhen some of themLoved me in secretFlashed a quick glanceOr gifted me a lovely kissAnd the other women looked green in jealousy.

That moment I am chivalricI appear to be heroicTo save a woman from the rapistsTo feel that the woman is half the skyTo express love to a womanAnd to be frank dear,That very momentI felt that I am a Phenomenal manThe man’s me.

Nature has a Wide Within

 Rivers have ecstasies during the flood Heart overflows when men fall in love,Stones prattle melodious songsWhen the hills want to fly like a dove. Sick philosophers are like mad poetsMad philosophers are never sick,Thank God that rivers are riversThe skies don’t ever leak. I never understand natureI never saw birds flying in moonlight,Rivers would be mad philosophers If poets have their insight. Life is strange like a paddy fieldThe spirits guard the bourne,Nature has a wide withinSorrows all ripen like corn.

Lonely Through the Breezes

 

Far away and lonelyThrough the breezes, through the valleyI move willy nilly,Death is looking at meRed moon, black ponyAll so sad and gloomy. Once I too loved the roseIt cut my torment from meBut I lost the light for the leavesSweet fragrance the rose never givesThe thorns cut the shadow from meThe world looks more gloomy. Who spreads the wings -The shadow of sorrow?What if I live no moreTo see a bright Tomorrow!

River is Man's Power

(The River is within us, the Sea is all about us)

  River, riverSometime you are,Thames, Hwang Ho, Meghna,TitashYou flow, far and nigh…Sometime like WordsworthI ask myself‘Is this the Yarrow’, is it Wye? Mark Twain had his Mississippi,Eliot had his Thames,Dante had his StyxFor rivers, Heaven is too high.Lu Xun had his Hwang Ho,Irving had his Hudson; Rabindranath had his Padma, Shakespeare had his Avon.

Can you hear me riverYou in rains overflow for everWhy in winter do you shiver?Samaresh Basu liked Ganga,Marvell liked Humber,Sunil liked Kopai so muchMemories do encumber

Across the rush of riverFed by the waterfall whose origin liesIn the death-grey mountains.Lu Xun cries:‘Can you hear me River? Can you hear?’Dulung, Titash, Karnaphooli did so much careYamuna and Narmada are also thereHuman pains to share.

Hwang Ho caused so much sorrowThe country called it River YellowFor Millions of yearsSindhu,Tigris and Euphrates flow

To see the river Indus still without a stir.To see a boat in the midst of waterWhite sheets of ripples carried those tradersThere were also a few invaders.Rivers carried the dead bodies,The ashes, the mud and the flowerRiver is man’s weakness, river is man’s power.

The Red Palash and the Yellow Radhachura Fall on the Grass

  I could write thousand poems I could have thousand dreams I could wake up all night I wished I could have the power to tread On the soft grass where the red Palash and yellow Radhachura fall all the night and all my sadness and gloom removed... Alas! I could not …..write a single line. 

I wanted to die like Veronika With sleeping pills in my hand Which I crushed in the glass of water On my bedside table Paulo Coelho had his Veronika I had you in my dreams and in my waking… 

When I felt that you would wait For me For my mails, for my words, For what I said about you, About your nice scribbling About your lovely face, 

Your cute figure, your smooth white, bare, naked arms On the Holi day, the rose of your cheeks smudged with Abir Crimson abir I always dreamt to see on your forehead Your soft caressing touches all over me My fingers running into your dark silky hair…. No, I could not take the sleeping pills

Life was more than a fragile existence Life means living for me Living in the grandest way like the round orb blazing all night So I only wrote a few poems for you my dear, Because, you had been there at the end of all roads You had been there smiling for me You had been there to read my trashy poems.  

Tomorrow Holi Colours will be Everywhere

 Tomorrow Holi colours will be everywhereThe trees will smile with their sproutOf tender leaves and blooming flowerBut your face is pale my dear and smile nowhere!

You had a great dream of colourFestive and joyous, Fresh and clearYou will dream of your beloved one to be nearBut all night before Holi, I saw nothing in your eyes but tear!

Don’t weep my dear, your love is trueYour love is like sunshine bright and glittering all throughDon’t cry my dearr, one day all unhappiness will goThe boy you loved will gain maturity and will surely grow! 

When I Go to Light a Candle…

 When I go to light a candle I cannot light it onGusting air blows it off for no reason.The candle is not damp thoughIt falls on the ground countless timesThe sticky wax melts beneath aroundI know not why with me things are not sound.

When I see a cloud in the sky, often I feel that something will happenSome cloud will melt for certainInto the pearly white drops of rainBut the clouds in thunderous roar Lash suddenly at the green moorOn the broken hawthorn hedgeOn the steep hill’s Kargil edge 

Wrap all waves in a mantle gray  The shattered visage and the frownNo rain, the clouds all go brown.                                               When I try my best to make a beautiful thingSomeone breaks it in the middle ‘Man is destroyed but not defeated’-Who shatters my dreams and drowns my sigh I feel defeated though I try; I try and try Only to feel I am ill-fatedAh! my philosophy! How I am cheated.

Silvery pearls don’t melt into rainAll adages like the barren clouds go in vainIt is all true, it was all true….Then why a murmur still echoes, heard by fewThen who  says ‘My son, I am with you, I am with you’?

You Bask on the Seashore 

When you bask in the shadowy staircasesYour beauty glitters like platinum-rimmed diamondYou sit under the almond trees in coolYour long beautiful legs awaken the shadow behind.When you awaken the morning silenceThe birds chirp in circled flightI never forget your naughty cute smile,Memories like the stars glitter all night.You were smiling, you were smilingYou thought as if I was goneBut I remained with you thereUnder the trees at each new dawn.

We live in virtual reality, You are right Sheba‘Ratanda, we are not alone’In quest of beauty and truthMy Facebook page is open and my mobile is on.Tagging, posting, these I did all day longShadows and sunshine composed a songThe rainbow colors in a combo curl your eyesThoughts all romantic in my mind arise.You can be my pilot, I fear not the wavesI live in the virtual world, I live in the Webs…

I am a Columbus on the unchartered sea When the ocean is so far away and the ship near me.

 

Yet We Love to Dream  

Dreams are like a broken-winged bird You cannot fly on them too long. Dawn comes so soon after nightAnd with the dawn, gone is the dream song.

Dream is a barren heath of snow Dreams do not have any meaning They freeze you with liesThey fade with nothing there to flow. Dreams are dried up river Dreams have nothing but pebbles.Dreams have all the dry sands,Dreams make you shiver in fear.

Yet we dream, yet we love to dreamKnowing fully that dreams are liesDreams turn into nightmares Dreams fly to unknown skies.

 

You are the Definition of Beauty

 You are, like a blooming roseYour hair, your eyes and your straight-built noseThe moment I think of you, you say, HiThe free birds chirp and leap in my mindThey dip their wings in the orange red seasAnd they fly in the azure sky.

When I think of you beautiful BelleThe roses of my thoughts all bloom in redWith the green leaves to give them shadeAnd you are very much nigh.

When I think of you beautiful angelMy dreams keep me awake for everI long for Freedom as Mandela dreamt of itOr Martin Luther King dreamt of it for the BlacksMy wings are clipped and my feet are tiedWhen you go away and bid me, Goodbye.

I remember your light stepsYour dark night like hair all over your foreheadYour eyebrows and your angelic cheeksBut you always felt shy.

On the surf tormented shore I now standI hold within my hand grains of the golden sandI miss you so much and see above the crimson skyAnd love to see most myself in your eye.

I saw beauty in the river kissing its shinglesI saw all beauty of earth in the field of ryeWhat is beauty? Where lies beautyIt's not in diamond, not in emerald, but in RubyYou yourself are the definition itselfYour beauty is Truth, believe me, I never lie,I don’t believe, I never will believe,Beauty is born only in the viewer’s eye.