Eldorado Fades (Eldorado IV)

Eldorado Fades

Eldorado, My love!

Stay for a while more.

Stay in my sight.

Stay, let them explore -

The green of your lands,

The yellow of your sun,

The red of your hills,

Blue skies like none.

Stay here while I die,

Come, let fall your golden locks,

My love! don't fade now,

Let me think these little thoughts.

While they slow my beating heart

And Gods claim their due

My love, let me fill it with

The golden sight of you.

Let me breathe in your air

Smile, this one last time,

As you've done for all poetry -

Pose, for this one last rhyme

Ah! I lose. I falter. I die.

But what matter it does.

My eyes shine with lyrical light

My heart with a golden buzz.

Don't spare your precious tears,

Don't blur my golden view -

All life is worth my love

A sight of golden you.

Lost

LOST

Lost a color on the street of reality.

It looked benign, felt soft, smelled green.

It slipped; Got lost with such finality -

From is, From being, towards had been.

It was mine, I forget which shade though.

If you find it, please return it to me.

My address has changed a while ago -

Color dash less, Drab Street, Dull City.

हे भविष्य

हे भविष्य

इस समय की मुठ्ठियों से
आज का पल पल बिखरता,
वर्तमान की मृत्यु देख,
देख कैसे कल सिहरता!

इन प्रलय की आहटों से
न सोच की मैं डर रहा हूँ,
मैं कवि हूँ, हे भविष्य!
मैं प्रश्न तुझसे कर रहा हूँ -

ये बता झुलस रहे
इस कल से मैं डरता रहूँ?
या जल के कुन्दन बन रहे
एक कल की कल्पना करूँ?

ये बता विद्रोह को
मैं मन में अपने मार दूँ?
या सुलगते सागरों को
विस्फोटकों से ज्वार दूँ?

जीव हो कर मृत्यु से
हार क्या मैं मान लूँ?
जीव हो कर मृत्यु से
हार कैसे मान लूँ?

चल कि दोनों मिल के हम
कुछ मुक्ति दे प्राणों को,
कुछ हवा दे शोलों को,
कुछ गति तूफानों को,

क्रांति हो कुछ इस तरह
कुछ इस तरह आ जाय प्रलय -

विध्वंस का निर्माण में
कुछ इस तरह हो जाय विलय -

कि बस अग्नि हो बच सके,

वह सूर्य हो जो ना जले,

भस्मी हो जाय सब यहाँ,

रहे तो केवल सत्य रहे ।

रहे तो केवल सत्य रहे ।

Dreams of Flying

Dreams of Flying

However hard I fall

However hurt I be

Dreams of Flying will

Never ever leave me.

Nor will I grow wings.

Nor stop getting impelled.

Dreams of Flying will

Forever be my personal hell.

Home

This piece is from the perspective of a young school going girl. Probably class 3.

Home

I don't want to go home.

Don't send me home.

Miss, please don't send me home.

Have you seen our playground?

The wide green compound?

And breathed freedom

And wrote a poem?

Have you seen our classes?

Cream tables, cherry benches?

And learned numbers

And found answers?

Let me stay some more.

I love it here, Miss.

Please don't send me home.

I'll be good I promise.

My home? Yes, I have one.

But I don't like it there.

It has walls and a roof

But no soil, no air.

And I wish to breathe easy

So I need a little air.

And I wish to feel special

But nobody wants me there.

Your school is easy still

All numbers and play.

Don't send me home

Miss, please let me stay.

Yes Miss, I understand

I cannot stay here.

And you have to close the school

And go home somewhere.

I shall go to the walls.

The only place I can.

And try and grow a little

And then sit and plan.

I shall plan a home, Miss.

And work hard and get.

I shall build a home, Miss.
With bricks of love and sweat.

Soil, air, and freedom which

I shall call my own.

I make me a promise, Miss,

I will have a home.

Pink (A Prayer)

Pink (A Prayer)

I wonder how He felt

When He designed

Pink gerberas

Intertwined.

I hope He approves

My little support

In keeping them pink

For a while more.

I hope He approves

My long vase of glass

His creatures' comfort

With a bit of class.

His royal pink

When built so bright

He must have felt

A mother's delight.

My own design

My hands have tried

I hope He allows them

Small share in His pride.

Maya

Maya

Real unreal grief and joy -
Chemical symbols over arrows.
Moments of truth, ages of a lie -
Complicated sums of lots of zeros.

Drops of diamonds, layers of gloss -
Soap and sugar, sellers' tricks.
Real unreal order and chaos -
High definition animated matrix.

द पॉपर एंड द प्रिंस (The Pauper and the Prince)

द पॉपर एंड द प्रिंस (The Pauper and the Prince)

शोर से बच के जो चलते हैं

और शोर नापसंद करते हैं

साफ़ चादर साफ़ लिबास पहनकर

साफ़ भाषा से शर्म करते हैं -

पेट में दाना, घर में माँ,

सर पे छत जिनकी रही हो हमेशा -

जिन्हें मांगने की ज़रुरत न पड़ी हो कभी

देने में वो कंजूसी किया करते हैं।

भूखे रहकर आता है समझ पानी,

अकेले रहकर दुनिया समझ आती है।
ढाई अक्षर के लिए दर दर भटके नहीं जो

वो रोज़ खाने में नखरे किया करते हैं।

जान लगी ही नहीं दाँव पे कभी,

जब खेला सोने चांदी के लिए खेला,

जिन्होंने जीता तो घर भर ने ख़ुशी मनाई

वो जीतने पे बड़ा मान किया करते है।

कोई नुकीले पत्थर से, कोई मोम के तीरों से -
लड़ते सब हैं, चोट सबको लगती है, पर
हर चोट पे माँ की आवाज़ सुनते हों जो
वो शोर से ज़रा बच के चलते हैं।

Prisoners

Prisoners

Who has ever wished

For dreary lands instead

Of rains and greens and trees

Of love and rest and ease ?

Who has ever thought

Of getting what he sought

At prices high unfair

Of paying all unaware ?

Yet, we all seek and get

What we asked and has been let.

We all trade our rains -

For heat, and thirst, and chains.

Save Mr. Wilson

Save Mr. Wilson

Knit a song
Then watch it grow
Grow the song
Then let it go.
The reality
Is not a song.
After all
It is just a song.
But after songs
What remains?
Empty homes?
Silent lanes?
After songs
Ask why.
Why be?
Why die?

Hide a song.
Stealthily.
Before the end,
For company.

Mr. Wilson is a personified (but unreal) character from the movie Cast Away.