Being there

I talk to the mountains,

I chat with the seas,

I sing with the breeze,

I dance with the trees.

I am called a loner,

By most all I know,

Some even find me a loser,

But wonder how I glow.

The cliffs call me all the time,

The seas never call me names,

With them, I never cease to rhyme,

We rock and roar in the game.

by design

hot, clear afternoon

spread in every corner

of the street

a hungry mom

buttering a slice of bread

for her child

the knife, the dollops, the slices

collected from places

the child’s stony eyes

looks at the sun

then stares at the actions

throws up

hunger has eaten his appetite

made him replete

takes the bread

throws up again

then chucks the piece in the sky

the slice falls

on the rooftop of an ngo

a crow

takes it in its paw

and flies

thanks to the butter, it slips

through the chimney

scrolls down in the cauldron

the surprised cook

preparing meal for poor children

tosses it from the window

it falls in the middle of two starving dogs

the stunning sun has stopped

the street looks like

a slice of buttered bread

twenty-four years ago
now
twenty-four years later
action stunned like the sun
poverty, starving, feeding

coexist, by design

The bond

A vagabond

            in exile

untraveled paths

no fear

                      of getting lost

déjà-vu crossroads…

christmas

crescent at night

rainbow in daylight

fresh trees

silvery hopes

au courant cheers

new linings, new ropes

the hobo has no yearning

for new years

in broad daylight

hiding from the sun

seclusion at night…

not in search of a name

in need of a land

nothing to claim

the limbs and the hands

agile

ears and eyes

moving

without ties
for a meeting

in a golden garden

by the silver pond

in the traveling

with the stars

relegated scars

only traveling

is the bond.

Sitting by a pond

I looked at the silver sun,

in a pond

I was busy feeding the fish

silver and golden;

the colours didn’t reflect

on the earth,

I was engrossed.

I thought of the moon,

of the night

as diurnal musings.

O what have we done

in this time!

Killed, butchered, slaughtered,

then blamed the night

as darkness?

We haven’t spared the daylight,

back-stabbed, betrayed, blew the whistle

but light, o light…

you are too bright for the stigma to sight.

I am still feeding the fish in contemplation

I echo without rue

the calm of this dew

the swimming souls without reflection.

ইতি হরিসাধন রায়

ব্যায়রাম

হরিসাধন রায়

একশো টাকা আয় হলে 

তার দুশোটাকা ব্যায়

বাজারে তাই ধার নিয়ে 

ভাই করে সে হায় হায়

মাঝে মাঝেই জেলে গিয়ে 

হরির গাজন গায়,

শাস্তি পেলে কেঁদে বলে

এ কি ঘোর অন্যায়!

আয়রাম

হরিসাধন রায়

দুশো টাকা আয় হলে 

তার একশো টাকা ব্যায়

দিনগুলো তার কাটে সুখে

টাকা জমায় স্টেট ব্যাঙ্কে 

চিন্তার লেশ নেই যে মুখে

নেই যে দেনার দায়

দানধ্যানও সে করে কিছু 

মুখটি যে তার সদাই উঁচু 

আনন্দেতে তার পরিবার

আছে যে বেজায়,

এই ভাবে সে 

তোমার আমার

প্রত্যেকদিন ভালো থাকার

দেখাচ্ছে উপায়!

আয়ের থেকেও জরুরি

তাই প্রতি মাসে নিয়মিত 

সামান্য সঞ্চয়।

Undying

My defeat is your victory,

I exist yet in your story.

My grief has covered your feet

With flowers, glorifying your seat.

My death is written in your play,

I live still, in your thought.

My tears are jewels in your way

Pearls you won, I lost.

One act play

Her sari,

Hanging in the balcony…

Was heavy a while ago

Its movement was pretty slow

A drunken stupor

The golden mate

caressed,

Transformed its demeanor

Slightly embraced

Wow

It’s feathery now

Light, soft

Flirting with the breeze

O jeez

Can’t steal away

Tied with a spoilsport  

No way

It can transport.

All the three mates

Writing stories

Trying their fate

With the sari,

Who’s writing hers

The owner who wears

Shh…doesn’t even know

The goings-on  

Of all the four.

And the seer

Trapped in time, a writer

Of hush-hush, is engrossed

At times lost

Now and then

With all of them.

Life like this

Alive in moments’ bliss

She comes and takes it away

Thank god doesn’t notice me

Caught in the act for free,

Trapped in the play.

Note:

Sari - a garment consisting of a length of cotton or silk elaborately draped around the body, traditionally worn by women from South Asia. [Source, Wikipedia]

Crucial

fruits

colored, hanging

in the garden --

no sin to have them

but critical

you are caught in between

trees, birds

simple words written here and there.

Prophets of the yore

sad ---

saints present

bad ---

per your benefits.

You are busy

to know the reason,

to pinpoint the misfit

confused, because

you had been acting too

with the same stars

on the same roof;

the sky, the wind

the seas, oceans, mountains

never fell of their planes

and important!

You were reading aloud the same words.

You lost your way

in the clutter of letters

you looked for clarity

you found scarcity in bounty

you hollowness is connected

overlooking a lot of warm sounds

of those performers

who became important,

and whom you wanted to impersonate;

but the travelers

wanted perhaps to trigger your minds

communicating prosperity

but you triggered guns

in their names imaged poverty.

You have done the impossible

credible, you must be

glad.

You sound silly

I was trying to read your face,

It looked different

With its texture, color

I was taken aback to see

That you smile and weep

For the same reasons.

I was trying to read your text.

With same words and expressions

That you have learned in classrooms

Perhaps,

You construct an apple I’d call an orange

The fruit of your labor

Has some kind of strange

Sweetness,

But loses out on what I call clarity

I guess you’d find me hoity-toity

But willy nilly,

You sound silly.

Leaping into life

Sky is overcast.

Clouds have gathered

for the concert,

seated as poets, writers

singers, dancers.

Black freshness,

breezes caress

the whole stage.

Millions of songs and stories

falling from above, onto the ground,

mountains, meadows, trees

oceans, brooks and seas

listening and receiving

sounds of the clouds,

feeling,

drenching in

the lightness of the rains.

Life, life and life freshens

words, it’s raining words

quenching the muddy world

succulent energy

in every pores and holes

there’s this sudden synergy

present in these promising paroles.

Writing, singing, dancing

are millions of poets

without any hat

free from this and that

composing their best.

Pouring

life

life

life

asking life on earth

to listen to the call

of the freely

falling

rains,

maybe tad in vain

gather courage to sing and bawl

in the downpour’s musicale,

leap into the moment’s re-birth.

In between light and sound

Crazy ears and eyes,

Busy to criticize.

Powerful machines and guns

Killing distressed organs

Blinding light and sound

Deafening all around

Stealing ambrosial sense

From the drums and the lens

The power to hear and see

In present clarity.

But there’s music in the air

Hanging everywhere,

Easy ears and eyes

In tune might apprise.

Precious

No, I cannot afford to wait.

My coffee’s getting cold. I’m late.

That I can re-heat

The drink, my steps forget

I have cold feet.

I come from my morning walk

Reach out for the cup.

The trained talk

Takes me away, anxieties go up

With every single sip.

My mind missed the chirping of the birds

It reminds me of the dewdrops

I had to skip.

I wasn’t with the sunrise, overlooked the trees

Didn’t feel the grass, wasn’t present with the breeze

Life is here with me walking as my mate

With worries onerous,

This life precious, 
I cannot afford to waste.

Journey

Waves! Waves! Waves!

I have these waves inside me,

Old salty icy thoughts

Like tired bricks and clocks

All clean and washed,

Clearing severe ways

Rushed back to the sea.

Rays! Rays! Rays!

They’re running into me,

From the moon and the sun

Unseen, strange, unsung

Falling in my space

In unheard ecstasy.

With the solid froths gone

Felt a little bit alone,

Wondered what will I do

This image seemed untrue.

Standing in the beam,

Now a revealing company

A constant flowing stream

The image cracked and changed

I’m fully charged, engaged

For my truest new journey.

dichotomy

reflection is scared of light...

if the pencil dies, it will expire with it

if the stream bides, the specter will lose the credit

it is tense

for as long as it stays

for the crown of the knight

Partner

Death has come at last.

I am on my bed

going back and back

turning the pages, trying to search

for the space where feelings fell

in place, where time stopped,

but I was slipping on the surface

when I thought fearfully of death.

I looked out of the window

nothing has stopped, nothing changed

save the body that held me so long,

and brought me finally to my friend.

I am meeting my lover

shy, hesitant as ever,

no I welcome you

though I know

I will never be done

I was always looking for you,

in the meaning of life I was missing you too.

Hi there

From the mountain top

you were showing us your tricks.

The world is tied with a wire

from one end to the distant other,

connected with ease, without bricks.

Your vision is high, your mission and goals

foolproof with gumption, without loopholes,

technically the world is a global village

hearts in us are still heavy in the cage.

From the cliff you have forgotten to climb down

you need a hand to keep your feet on the ground.

Monopoly

Ten million ways ― you

lead the dazzling fate.

Engaging the glamorous

feeling overshadowing

failing white policies.

What matters most,

is the fun, along the sun.

Moon has no place.

But you have this craze

that you will say and you will stay.

You have managed to scare

the world, which is chasing the eagle

because you told in your convincing speech

that the bird has fled with its eyes

poor world cannot see it can see

it fails a myriad times, it tries.

It is chasing with a rod you sold as a wand

ten thousand wails with yelling hands.

I am waiting behind a tree, beside the bank

of a crying river bleeding for some silver touch.