Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Critizens

We are hungry animals
in a circus
everyone plays their
restricted role
being out of the vicious cycle
is but a theoretical goal
citizens criticize to entertain
thinking out of the box
is perhaps easy
but while doing, we shrink,
go wild and crazy.

Blame,
be trapped in the losing game
Trick with talk,
on which the being will seldom walk
Do,
be free for good, from the zoo.

Get out of here

What do you do?
I breathe in, breathe out.
What? Without money, how?
I breathe in, breathe out.
No! But what do you do for a living?
I breathe in, breathe out.
You are draining your savings, what'll you do?
I'll breathe in, breathe out.
How do you deal with people?
I breathe in, breathe out.
When they call you names?
I breathe in, breathe out.
But how do you survive?
I breathe in, breathe out.

Get out of here!

Monday, February 5, 2018

Life lies

We have seen eighty-five new summer
spring, autumn, winter.
It could be even more
we lost count of the exact figure.
Suddenly, by liars we are told
we are no longer young, we’re old!

We are unable to speak for ourselves
is that the reason you left us
in one silly corner of the home?
Guests come and go
hear their babble, footsteps
not allowed to participate
with life anymore.
And we get know, there are poorer cousins
woebegone like us,
waiting for their days in morbid old homes?

You are expecting us to die? Why!

We are fragile, not that bold
we depend on you, breathe hazy
sounds of phlegm rest in our chests
forks and spoons we are unable to hold
overgrown bones, we may not walk straight
be as civil and presentable, yet the flame inside
burning just the same.

We had been your child’s best friends
your pets love us for sure
our parents, don’t you remember them
had their say in every matter of the game?
We’d say, ‘older people are darlings of all homes
that make a worked up den a garden’
don’t you recall those bed time stories we shared then?

We won’t lie
however aged we may be
will never be old enough to die,
as long as we’re breathing the same air
don’t push us farther and farther
the blokes are alive, your father and mother
a song we sing as passing birds
include us ahoy
life lies in us seasoned with joy
it can also ease your stressful world.

Sunday, February 4, 2018

Dawning

I am wasting my time
thinking of it
leaves of sallow lines.

I have to wake up
in the words of the song
humming in me for years
what I have gained
what I have lost
my mind is engaged in this.

I need to write a new book
ignored words inked from the rainbow
shelved feelings of blooming flowers
neglected force of streams from the cliffs
a book that is so simple and right
truth alone, all along the ride.

I can sense the dawn
stealing in from the backyard
take me to the unknown.

A tough job ahead
to free me from the false chains
tiring my legs
unknot the phony rope
crowning my head.

Revelation

When the sun fell on my bed I was in love with my dreams.
I knew, like any other day, I would have to stop.
Be under the influence of the alcoholic sun,
would have to forget I was struggling with dark words
showing faces, calling names; they suddenly fainted, vanished
blue horrors became fake, like the y2k,
everything seemed okay, sky didn’t fall, though I imagined
the sun to fall like a shooting star, on this earth, to change things
I got up, ran into the day, met people, walked my brown steps
wrote and talked about meadows and sparrows
ignoring, overlooking many stories of oppression, hatred, deceit
the rays have an effect; until evening, moon rose like a white flower
in the dark, everything’s so clear, I walked into my bed like a somnambulist
dead with words; my insomniac eyes waited for the fresh sun
in the middle of many nights, for the hope-drops, to discover on grasses…
simple, unmasked, eureka of Archimedes; wake up from this waking state,
purely mine, no sunny impact, drowsy eyes,
to read the same stories of treacheries, another unfulfilled journey
sleeping on the other side to be over-written; but now, huh ‘now’
this state of sleepy sleeplessness walking over me; several nights, like waves
waking up, sleeping are being in the blue; sea and ocean;
with the moon, there’s a longing to be gone
see a shooting star, imagine it as the falling sun
all sins of the world, refusing to wake up, will burn.


Selected for the Amaravati Poetic Prism Anthology 2017

Révélation


Révélation

Quand le soleil s’est effondré 
sur mon lit,
j’étais encore ivre de rêves.
Je savais—comme tous
les jours—qu’il me faudrait
m’arrêter.

Sous l’emprise de l’astre
alcoolique,
j’ai oublié mes luttes avec
les mots sombres,
ces ombres qui prenaient
visage,
qui criaient des noms,
puis, d’un souffle,
s’évanouirent.

Les peurs bleues devenaient
illusion,
comme le bug de l’an
deux mille—
le ciel ne s’effondra pas.
Et pourtant, je l’avais imaginé :
un soleil en chute libre,
comme une étoile filante,
percute la terre
pour tout changer.

Je me suis levé.
Marché dans le jour,
rencontré des visages,
arpenté mes pas couleur
châtaigne,
j’ai écrit—parlé de prêtres
et de moineaux—
ignorant mille récits
d’oppression,
de haine, de silences
trahis.

Mais les rayons ont
leur effet.
Le soir venu,
la lune s’est élevée
comme une fleur blanche.
Et dans le noir, tout
devint clair.
Je me suis retrouvé—
somnambule—
dans mon propre lit,
mort de mots.

Mes yeux insomniaques
attendaient l’aube fraîche,
des gouttes d’espoir
sur les herbes endormies.
Un Archimède sans cri
trouve son eurêka :

Se lever,
non pas ébloui du dehors,
mais d’un feu intérieur,
purement sien.

Mais les mêmes récits
reviennent—trahisons,
départs sans au revoir,
un autre voyage inassouvi.
Et l’on s’endort de l’autre
côté du sommeil,
repassant le monde.

« Maintenant », dis-je.
Mais l’instant n’écoute pas.

L’insomnie endormie marche
sur moi,
comme une marée d’ombres
lentes,
des nuits nombreuses,
où je suis à la fois veilleur
et naufragé—
bleu d’océan,
bleu d’absence.

Avec la lune surgit
le désir de fuir,
de voir tomber une étoile
et croire qu’il s’agit du soleil,
pour que le monde,
dans ses péchés répétés,
refuse enfin de se réveiller—
et brûle.


Selected for the Amaravati Poetic Prism Anthology 2017


To listen, click here

কাজের কথা


ইতিহাসে বাঁধাকথা আর কাজ
চিরাচরিত দ্বন্দ্বে আছে  আবদ্ধ সমাজ
সত্যি কথা বলোতাই যতই কথায় বলি
কাজের বেলায় শুনি আমরা  মুখে মিথ্যে বুলি

সৎপথে চলো থাকে কথার কাগজে
কাজের বেলায় অসৎ পথই আসে যে সহযে
যুদ্ধ থামাওশান্তি আনোসারা বিশ্ব বলে
অস্ত্র শস্ত্র কেনাবেচা চুপিচুপি চলে
আয় ফাঁকি দিওনাশুধু নিয়ম কথা বলে
কারচুপি করছে আইনআড়ালে আবডালে
এর ফলে অবিশ্বাস আর হিংসাজালের ফাঁদে
আমাদেরই প্রাণপাখি দুঃখ্যে-কষ্টে  কাঁদে

ভাল শিক্ষা পেয়েও আমরা যুগযুগ ধরে
নিঃশব্দে কথার খেলাপ করছি একই ভাবে
আজকের শিশুরাও তাই একই পড়া পড়ে
পড়বে তারা আটকা বূঝি একই জালের প্রভাবে
কথা-কাজের যুদ্ধ থেকে বিশ্ব মুক্তি চায়
শিক্ষা যদি এই দুজনের ভাব করিয়ে দেয়
শান্তি আসে মুক্তি আসে স্বস্তি  সম্মান
কথা-কাজের মিলনপথের করলে সন্ধান

Selected for the Amaravati Poetic Prism 2017

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Sisters and brothers

Such a small handful of people
are they more powerful than us
sisters and brothers
of the world?

We are millions and trillions of us
who wouldn't want wrathful wry wars
we want the dry weapons
removed from the hands immediately
don’t we?

Then how is it that such a handful few
do not lend their ears to us anew
are we blaming them all the time
pushing them more towards the crime
those confused leaders
aren’t they also one of us
sisters and brothers
of the world?

No more peace organization can do the magic
no more lines of poems can perhaps undo the tragic
unless we placed truth over logic;
of all the sentient beings
only humans invented wars
others kill only to eat,
for them, there is no winning nor defeat
all this while we thought of war as natural
it’s untrue, it’s false, it’s plastic, it’s artificial
from our minds we need to kill wars for good
in the name of an inclusive humanhood
for peace and prosperity
for growth, for our birth-right liberty
can’t we organize ourselves to rid of this fuss
ye sisters and brothers
of the world?

Weapons to rest in peace in museums
wars that troubled the floors for years
to be scrapped as bad debts of our universe
o sisters and brothers can’t we win with love a handful few
for they are our sisters and brothers  too!

We need to wash the frozen hatred clean
gift the world, charming countries within
its warm nature serene
the leaders, they are so few in numbers
by us they need to be influenced
if we convinced them on things that made sense
we take the responsibility on our shoulders
of restoring peace in our winsome campus
going forward, an emphatic ‘no’ to weapons and wars
the tortured earth will profusely thank us
let us convince the leaders
we need no more of wars and weapons
we can make it happen, as sisters and brothers
of the world.

I become my stories

The page is my dais
the infinite stage,
my universe;
retelling in words
in prose or in verse
I come back to the leaf
for the compulsive relief.
In ecstasies, agonies
I become my stories.

I walk without steps
jump over the fence
fly without wings
with sky in my head
stars all around
clouds on the ground
I whisper without breath
I dance in a trance
I speak without letters
with minutest details
that form into words.
In hopes and in despair
the loving lines appear.

The wrongs and the rights
of the borders and the fence
with its numerous tales
I sing without notes
its tender cadence
life's moving moments
in abundance, decadence
through days and through nights
I come and I leave
willing in delight
the forever lying leaf
I touch every sense
through the gaps of silence.
With its worries and glories
I become my stories.

অমূল্য রতন

টাকাকড়ি সোনাদানা জিনিস রাশিরাশি
মানসম্মান, প্রতিপত্তি থাকুক ঠাসাঠাসি
সবই বেকার মনের মাঝে না যদি রয় খুসি
আর সোবার
আগে সবার মুখের সহজ সরল হাসি

মিথ্যে
হাসির মেকাপ রে ক্লান্ত হয় যে মন
সত্যি হাসি ভিতর থেকে কাঁদে সারাক্ষণ

এই দুনায়ায় সবকিছুই কিনতে পাওয়া যায়
রকমারি বাইরের সুখ সবাই পেতে চায়
এত পেয়েও কেন তবু মনের হাহাকার
ফুটে ওঠে মুখের ওপর নিয়ে অনেক ভার

আমরা যে তাই খুঁজছি দেখ তাদের দিনেরাতে
জিতে নিতে পারছি কোথায় দুঃখী ভূবনেতে

বল দেখি কোন পথেতে আসবে গো সেই হাসি
কেমন রে মনের মধ্যে উঠবে ভ’রে খুসি
ভিতর যদি নির্মল হয় সুচিন্তার বলে
সে থেতেই ফুটবে তারা সকালে বিকালে

মনটা
খুলে রাখো সদাই চিন্তিত ভাই বোন
ভিতর থেকে পাবে সবাই অমূল্য রতন