Friday 31 October 2014




AN  AUTUMN  AFTERNOON


A weak Autumn hides somewhere  far behind the fields
Of  half-ripe paddy , maize , peanut and mung beans
Revealing the phantom skeleton of a late monsoon;
And the sad dysfunction of a thin dew in the night
In the joyless countenance of a burning afternoon.


Farmers  compute losses , peasants await more relief
Cyclone-hit millions chide a shameless  ghost moon
When ceaseless cawing of thirsty crows fills the noon;
Sun-struck butterflies in absence of flowers droop
To the ground to sit on dry grass to sigh and swoon.


Casual fall of leaves from sparse tall trees break silence
Of  serpentine roads leading to hollowed hearts of hamlets
With hunger for food, polythene, water in their shrunken eye
As the Sun quickly softens  behind the eyelid of a half-sleeping sky.



Comp. n copy right : saroj k. padhi
31/10/14



Thursday 30 October 2014





FAREWELL


A beautiful death awaits me in your Autumn  lap
To drench me in the drizzle of love’s parting dew
Dropping from the sky of your clouded look
When questions will be many and answers few,
And I would be perhaps mumbling the last question
To which answers will keep flowing from the horizon
In multiple dots of colours from melted rainbows
In the anguish of dead  lightnings and  sorrowing showers
Explaining each grain of my past love in phantom sounds
In images of things lovely from here and beyond bounds ;



As to why I loved what I loved—
Faces and flowers, beams and bowers
Naked bliss from Sun and showers
Woman’s evolving curves
And Nature’s ever changing contours—



All such wonders that drew me sweetly to my bed
On your lap death for me such a beautiful dream doth embed.



Comp. n copy right : saroj k. padhi
30/10/14


Wednesday 29 October 2014







WHY AM I JEALOUS ?



Why am I so jealous
As you smile back
At the morning lily
As a weak flash from Sun dithers
Unable to fight a cold wind
Flicking a lazy, loving mind ?


Why am I so jealous
As the bee whispers some secrets
Into the flowers of your ears
Sending you into soft tremors
That make you ignore my tears ?


Why am I jealous
As ripples rejoice at your reflection
On the chest of the river
Vying with a full moon;
Eager to touch you
When we walk on
Before our destined separation ?


Why, why am I jealous
Knowing fully well
That you will go away from me
As birds sing to you
During fruits’ maturation
And as each green  leaf waves hands
For your jubilation
And each falling leaf smiles at you
Before kissing oblivion ?


Comp. n copy right : saroj k. padhi
29/10/14a

Tuesday 28 October 2014




LOVE  TIMELESS



Image of first love
Grows  like sunset- time shadow
Entangling an ageing lover more and more
Engulfing a receding Earth of birth  to the core;


Incarnating the sweet  illusion in million forms--
From the smoky Sky to the roaring shore
Inviting the aroma of your breath to the breeze
Whispering your name with such loving ease


That one doesn’t know when
The image and the sound
In the entire being resound
Defining the beautiful way
From here to sweetly pass away ;


Leaving behind nothing
But the primeval sound,
And that unsullied image
in every loving heart’s wound.


Comp. n copy right : saroj k. padhi

Monday 27 October 2014





LOVE’S  SUBLIMATION



A block of ice you were then  that Summer couldn’t melt
Where desires crazy  hovered to  hammer right and left;


Directionless ,daunting like a desert  wind
Trying desperately a  hidden flame to find;


Simmering  inside  somewhere deep within
They caused my shying  hands to break in;


Not knowing when and  which  way  to go,
I  had turned into  a hot humid flow,
When  you  recognized  Love’s  sizzling glow
Cast on drops of each  of my sweating  brow
And  soon, you were blocks of loving ice in flow.


It was a moment of recognition, my Love
When you gave a name to passion
And  life got a new direction
That was so urgent for Love’s desired sublimation !



Comp. n copy right : saroj k. padhi
27/10/14

Saturday 25 October 2014






A HAIR IN THE BROW


You shed me while rubbing your eyes--
In  tantalizing grip of a loving  itch,
Not knowing when I softly fell
To an overflowing  salty well,


Where images  of youth swelled
Suffusing your dark, deep eyes
 In hues of lovers’ hoary dreams
With heat from their heavy sighs.


You were  Love’s first glow then
And  I ,a trickle in waves’ dark flow.


How soon hath time
Brought me back to the brink
Where like a leaf fallen
Downward slowly  I sink


To kiss the earth of your agony on the lower lid
And  find  joy there  in every little, funny  skid,
Till . the wind of your ecstasy blows me to my grave
To  silently about some memories of  lost love,  rave.



Comp. n copy right : saroj k. padhi
25/10/14





Friday 24 October 2014





 HATE


There is some magic in your hate
From whose strands  I have built a house
For rest , on a  small river of love;
Where birds from all over
Come swarming to roost
And  big dilemmas to solve .


The  rainbow dies here  to suffuse
Each filament of your thought
With  colours from  sun ,sky and sea ;


Thunder dies here  to echo
Syllables of  songs melting
Into the quivers in hums of the crazy  bee.


Your hate is so superb darling !
Like the froth of a big wild sea
Where shoals of my dreams swim
Invisible  to common,ordinary eye;
Touching all branches of my being
In the ecstasy of a love that would never die.



Comp. n copy right : saroj k. padhi
24/10/14



Thursday 23 October 2014





LIGHT FROM DARKNESS


Which dark are you talking about
That gave you knowledge of light ?


Is it the dark behind the bushes  of  low heights
Where glow worms celebrate the festival of  lights
Without fireworks
Or emitting  any poisonous gases;
Kissing the silken tresses of darkness
With  lips wet  from fresh dips into the river’s
Tremulous  nakedness
Aroused  to  glowing curves
Under the Moon’s new madness ?


Or is it the protective dark behind her tresses
Where the evening lamp of devotion is kept  burning
Before Goddess Brindabati  this world with eternal  love blesses ?


Or is it the dark behind her eye-lashes
Where my heart burns in expectation of a  love
That would never splinter into small pieces ?




Comp. n copy right : saroj k. padhi
23/10/14






A LEAF FALLEN


I ooze blood here as I tried to kiss
your shadow looming in the body of a night
intimately warm as breath of lost youth
soaked in the aroma of your dream-like presence;

not knowing how to hold myself
in the face of the storm of an ecstasy;
drawn by instinct still nearer
when your voice sounded dearer
I planted a tree on your lips
that some old poison seeps

to drop me, a gray leaf
into the sand dunes of a desert heart
where wind buries
the footprints of ancient love
under the light of a ghost moon;
I’m that fallen leaf
waiting to pass on
into the oblivion soon.


Comp. n copy right : saroj k. padhi
18/10/14






WHY DO I ?


Why do I again and again die
To seek attention from your eye?
Why do I die again and again 
To live in memory of that sad past
That under a grave doth so coldly lie ?

Why do I?

Why do I search for meaning in a moment lost
In the valley of forgetfulness
Without being content with this golden moment
That burns me with that fiery touch
From your mythical sweetness ?

Friday 10 October 2014





LASHES

No need to search for the shoals
that swam down to the bottom
of your overflowing  eyes,
took a new name
to escape from the net of  normal desires
and  alas !  just added a few bones 
to the existing  heaps 
resulting from  our false dips
into the  depth of the deeps ;

no need to search for the fire
in the face of the dead volcano
that burned us for sometime
and made ashes of our love
on the pyres of a past
where we got recast;

it’s time for renewal , my Love
look from that dark shore again
not with remorse or pain
but with  true longings that hearts moisten;
rock this ageing heart with storms
to lash the territory of  the entire being
splinter me into pieces
for this heart about our love  to really sing.

Comp. n copy right: Saroj k. padhi
10/10/14

Wednesday 8 October 2014





AT  BIRAJA KHETRA

Bow to you,  Goddess of energy,
and to your Bakul with boughs
bound  to our bangles
and folded cloths with wishes in them;
of our orange desires simmering 
under a hot Sun  now and then

as the vast arena  lolls out
its hungry tongue
with love for midday  Prasad;
and beggars, as usual  yell out
for offer of  more coins at the lion gate
where your  tired  Chariot looks on

at the strange drama of life enacted
on the plains of your courtyard
where poverty is speechless
like the thirsty crow roosting
and devotees on the corridors
of  desires, endlessly crawling !

comp. n copy right : saroj k. padhi
08/10/14




MY NEST REAL !

My nest  swinging
 from dark clouds
 leans to a side
as I clasp the moon
after many an unsuccessful swoon;
stars pop up
to fight the gloom
surrounding my desire
to soar higher into a better place soon;

where  lotus blossoms
 under the beams of divine love
freeing the spirit from the unnecessary
burden of tired wings ready to fall;

where the peace from whispering leaves
turns  the  white instincts of  life
into  pure petals  of an  undying delight .

comp. n copy right : saroj k. padhi
07/10/14
  



Monday 6 October 2014





WHERE ARE THE BEES GONE?

Where did the bees vanish yester night
when I was lost in drizzle of moonlight
without any hint about their sudden flight
putting  me into this awkward silence
that has been simmering  in me since midnight ?

Look how my petals droop, fade and fall
my eyes in a big, wild blank lazily roll
inviting the wind to write  
an elegy on these graying leaves
drawing  drops of ink from depth of my soul !

The pink grass flowers  blare out news
about  these bees from their funnels
that flash in all corners of the garden
by agents of birds in all the channels !

But who will give me meaning this morning
under the light of the new Sun?
In the absence of my soul’s companion
who will bring me some real fun?

Let me burn in this  fever of quiet longing
till the bees from the unknown haunt return,
touch me not dear  lovers of flowers
in my present  plight of  painful sojourn !

comp. n copy right : saroj k. padhi
06/10/14



Sunday 5 October 2014




COBWEB

A  dark  dungeon of  desires
at the edge of the jungle
feeding on memories’ corpses
caught  in the dank threads of Time
as our heart towards an awkward silence
round the clock  races;

webs of wild love
 woven by a  huge black spider
whose intricate  sticky cells
sometimes break
but  instantly rebuild themselves
like a magician’s wishes;

to  catch  you unaware
when you   prod on
to  find the final  meaning
like the glow-worms on the riverside
trying to read the lines
carved on the waters by anguished lovers
in their hearts’ million pines
and hardly the mystery uncovers !

Why are you afraid of these webs
that  oft’ stick on to your skin
like some unwanted thoughts
during a  prayer or  a reflection
as you move on and on
before reaching the desired destination !

comp. n copy right : saroj k. padhi
05/10/14


Friday 3 October 2014






BETWEEN  YOUR PONYTAILS

Katak,
Why do you  always try to cage me
between  your two  pony tails
in their cascade-like flow
down  to vast fertile lands of imagination
where I am a captive to the  moist musk
of million flowers bursting with affection ?

Why does your sandy mud stick to my tired feet
like obstinate memories,
like dust on old  cowries
with anguish of adolescent  love  replete?

Why do you always  haunt me
like a youthful dream
 in the corridors of  eternal Time
turning me into a dumb lover
of your ethereal  beauty in morning mist,
your holy chants from  a devoted  priest
singing the glory of Goddess Durga
in  Autumn’s pleasant evenings
when Goddesses Chandi,
 Banadurga and Gadachandi
offer  flowers of  joyous blessings ?

Your heights also awe me
with enchanting views  of  the Mahanadi
from the steps of Lord Siddheswar’s temple
where my beloved  God-mother
offers  ambrosia  from heaven
as my steps to a sweet world above
seem to unconsciously quicken !

Comp. n  copy right: saroj k. padhi,
03/10/14


Thursday 2 October 2014






TREMORS IN THE RIVER 



Why  do you  always murmur
lke a talkative girl
about each and every tremor
in the remotest corner
of my heart’s secret chamber ?


I hear your magic voice everywhere--
In your ripples lapping the bank ;
in  voice of the wind kneeing
onto  your  surface from the flank;


in the whisper of  leaves into your ears
in fall  of each of the kash flowers’ tears  ;


in the flap of their  enchanted wings  
as herons and crows descend to drink
before they retire to their swings;


in the constant twitter of birds
that love to tear your heart
in the mornings and evenings
of your quiet flow across time
into long  cherished divine flings ;
My heart listens to itself this evening
in million songs sung by you
as fairies descend in dark
to swim into your depth
where the moon and stars
 land from  distant heaven
before to a serene life they awaken.


Comp. n copy right : saroj k. padhi
02/10/14


Wednesday 1 October 2014





MORNING TRYST



How lovely is my morning tryst
as I walk with you on the wet grass
of  our soft dewy memories
filled with tears of past sadness and present joy
when our breezy feet move lightly  as plastic toy
on heads of tiny , smiley flowers--
on a sprawling bed of dapple green
as if containing springs of steel  thin--
an enchanting mix of white, pink and purple
that on our way to happiness  so proudly dazzle.


Swimming  across morning’s glorious face
in an ocean of sparkling mages --
of a romancing  Sky’s new dress
under a  pink Sun’s balmy grace;


and  here we listen to those birds’ address
that heal hearts of broken plants
and lovers’ pangs  easily redress;


in twitters of a true love
Nature’s woes they resolve


when  we humans reside
under masks of painted hide
before in secret doses of lust
our false love do we confide.


Come out of your skin, Love
kiss the petals of cosmic  soul
drink deep in morning dew
before into a drowsiness we roll.


Comp. n copy right : saroj k. padhi
01/10/14