SMELLING YOUR PRESENCE

Darkness creeps in beneath canopy of the sky

from under shadowing wings of birds in fly

bringing an end to flutter of  desires of day,

enlarging Sun of your sweet image in my eye;

I roam here like a stag in the riverine  jungle

in search of memories that are fighting shy

of the dark circles under my startled  eye

that deepen with night’s growing darker dye ;

and I go on asking  myself one big silent ‘why’--

Why does a soft drunkenness  of Time seize me

with every eve dawning on this Earth nearby

to bloom of jasmines in my mind’s crazed eye ?

comp. n copy right : saroj k. padhi

07/01/15

LAST VISIT

I know you will come

when from this world I’m gone,

stand beside a lump without shadow,

to look at dream’s mellow meadow ;

with an arrow of light from heaven

by a soft wind  to be slowly shaken ;

and feel my still parted lips

without life’s honeyed drips…

You will find me flung—

a hum of happy tunes

by fairies of night to be sung,

and I  will be surrounding you

like specs of scented dust

into the lap of a big cosmos flung…

we will be nodding  our heads

like buds of love from boughs of passion hung ,

soaked in  beads of dew that to our green leaves

so dispassionately clung, when we were young !

comp. n copy right : saroj k. padhi/ 06/01/15

RUSTLING LEAVES

Don’t know how the music of your foot steps

sneaks in,  bewitching  the soul of my ears

thro’ the thick of talkative leaves on grass

that lie in a frenzy of  long, cool shivers,

awakening in our Earth the romance of ancient rivers

that are at present  in trickles of happy tears

with a spasm of sweet pain running thro’ every nerve

incurred by perfume of your potent presence around

bringing an end to all my old, irrational fears ;

My breath grows louder, longer and deeper

in expectation of a repetition of that whisper

you sent thro’ the leaves of my yearning lips

long back during our Jamuna trips

like you always do with your flute, Govinda

that keeps me in an ever awakening spate of joy

in my breath I feel  music of your woodwind toy.

Comp. n copy right : saroj k. padhi/05.01.15

ANKLETS

Sands giggle under my tingling anklets

as my feet skid and willy nilly I fall

 into your arms to lose my jasmine petals ,

into  your hold that completely enthrals

leading  me to the end of my rehearsals .

Drops of sweat glisten on my skin

I’m nervous

yet I  don’t mind holding on

nestling to your wishes

like a secret wind playing  inside the thorny  bushes ;

as you have inspired my anklets with your touch

to blush , to dance with a desire to be

and  bleed till  I embrace eternity ;

see how 

my blush has melted into your looks

and your love has kept  me on tenterhooks .

comp. n copy right : saroj k. padhi

04/01/15

PERGOLA

Sands form outlines of your foot steps

here  on the bed of the vanished river

under this  pergola of woody vines,

under which you held me like a misty dream ,

that yearns  for your touch today in core of  their spines;

wind recreates the song you sang -

tuned to the smiles of your eyes -

that trickled into ears of thrilled bougainvillea

 dissolving years of past pent up melancholia

into the dancing flowers’ wildest hysteria ;

crystals of ecstasy float in the overhanging air

eloquent in their silence about our hearts’ true affair ;

 time holds the receding wind and the soaring moon at bay

in wait to recapture moments of that cool, sequestered stay

when  the green vines glistened with Sunlight’s truant play

exciting the wisps of hair flying on to your face to heights of joy

where time was a silent witness to our love’s sweet little ploy ;

I wait here for you under the lattice work of heaven’s stars

trying to form the curves and contours of your sweet  face

vines dangle down in the shade of trees to form your tress

and the rill flowing down nearby echoes your foot steps .

comp. n copy right : saroj. K. padhi

03/01/15

ACHING BELLS

ACHING BELLS

The wind driven chimes sing of the desires tumbling

in the heart of the tree banged by the storm from Java sea

wherein  the debris of the Air Asia Aircraft lies drowning

wails of passengers right from  encounter with storm clouds

till being engraved under high waves of the tragic waters.

Who knows what pangs shrilled across the waters

as lives dropped as pebbles into the womb of tides

that engulfed the crash-fire with burnt out ashes of  their dreams

who died without being able to raise alarm thro’ their SOS screams !

Tonight the bells echo the cry of those travelers in air

For whom the tree’s heart is on fire

pining to see those sweet smiles back in the morning sun

that have  passed unnoticed into currents of a tragic dawn.

Comp. n copy right : saroj k. padhi

02/01/15

The wind driven chimes sing of the desires tumbling

in the heart of the tree banged by the storm from Java sea

wherein  the debris of the Air Asia Aircraft lies drowning

wails of passengers right from  encounter with storm clouds

till being engraved under high waves of the tragic waters.

Who knows what pangs shrilled across the waters

as lives dropped as pebbles into the womb of tides

that engulfed the crash-fire with burnt out ashes of  their dreams

who died without being able to raise alarm thro’ their SOS screams !

Tonight the bells echo the cry of those travelers in air

For whom the tree’s heart is on fire

pining to see those sweet smiles back in the morning sun

that have  passed unnoticed into currents of a tragic dawn.

Comp. n copy right : saroj k. padhi

02/01/15

NEW YEAR PROMISES

This New Year I take a vow not at all to dream,

not to drink deep in waters of love’s old stream ;

not to drink honey of memory ingested by secret bees of pain

that regurgitate the old nectar on to forms new again and again ;

not to think so much of moments of intimacy with moon or rain

that have ravaged the honeycomb of my peace again and again;

I would like to promise not to awake at the dead of the midnight

to catch those dreams of  butterflies that add colour to day light;

I won’t go too near the rainbow in your eye that sucks in the sun

dousing the fire in dark droplets of rain falling  from clouds on run,

for my wings are lost like the recent flight lost into an unknown sea

hardly leaving any trails in the heart of the distant smoky horizon;

I would rather prefer to sink into time’s  secret oblivion

where dying is pure fun in ecstasy of a union

with no images of any now or then mourning our separation ;

But as you know promises are made to be broken,

here and in heaven ,

and I don’t know where I am to go in my flow,

as I go where I’m led by the whim of my moody pen.

Comp. n copy right: saroj k. padhi ; 01/01/15