Early morning
After a sleepless night
Of thunderstorms and shrieking winds;
Now this clear dawn, the empty roads,
This sleeping world:
The orange ball rises, shyly,
Turning the snow-white peaks red,
Lighting the green valley
That lies ripe with yellow mustard.
Utterly beautiful,
Quite impossible
That such loveliness exists.
I am greedy.
I have this strange yearning
For an off-season mango,
And your presence;
The mango months
Are half a year away,
And you and I
Are forever split by the bounds
Of customs and propriety.
But this is a make believe world.
I find you by my side,
Laughing at my mango fondness;
You ask me, sleepy eyed,
If I too find such dawns lovely:
I answer, tongue-in cheek,
With a warm smile,
“Impossibly so”.
Diptesh Ghosh
It must exist like they say
The poets, the artists, the drunks
For, where did it come from if not from within?
The world does not show it
For there is war and hate and malice
But there are people
It must exist like they say
The poets, the artists, the drunks
Yet I have yet to feel that euphoria
That whirlwind that everyone wants
That so few have
That even less keep
It must exist like they say
The poets, the artists, the drunks
Because I’m still counting on you.
Something in dusty corners of my heart
Seems to have lost its sting: the broken dreams
That haunted me so long, all sorrows old,
Those regrets have disappeared. Once again
My life is filled with promises of things:
I hear the footsteps of joys yet to come.
The world is still the same, I know; the flaws
Still run in me. But I cannot shake off
This happiness that clings to me so long
Like your lavender smell. It’s raining now
And you are coming here: a brand new poem
Is walking towards my long-waiting heart.
Diptesh Ghosh
People call me heartless
But never wonder why
Even though I'm smiling
I really want to cry
People call me heartless
They cannot understand
When I look back to the past
It's footprints on the sand
Memories washed away
With the flowing of the tide
I want you to greet me again
With arms open wide
People call me heartless
They can never comprehend
When I was there with you
I thought it'd never end
But as was sure enough
You went, left me behind
I wish I had gone with you
If fate had been so kind
People call me heartless
I remember what I heard you say
"I'm off to join the army,
We'll meet again some day"
I waited every day for you
Until I got the letter
I knew it was for worse
But hoped it was for better
I opened up the envelope
And read what was there wrote
The words 'your lover is deceased'
My breath caught in my throat
I remembered what you said
On that summer night
You told me that we'd meet again
But you had to take your flight
People call me heartless
And maybe it is true
I no longer have a heart
For it belonged to you
I put the gun up to my head
In my eye formed a tear
I used my voice to comfort me
"I'll see you soon my dear"
I pulled the trigger quickly
Said one last goodbye
Thought about deaths impact
The people that would cry
But the world doesn't matter
The only thing I want to see
Is for me to be with you
And you to be with me
Everything was black
Then came a blinding light
My life flashed before my eyes
What a breathtaking sight
People call me heartless
But they don't understand
I couldn't let you walk alone
On the beach with all the sand
Now that I am with you
I can finally be content
I understand those words you said
And what they truly meant.
Lately I’ve been writing you poems
that gush
like open faucets, shine
like new wounds.
I swing my fists in fits
of delirium, I sing to you as if you’d
know the words. Do you hate me yet, darling?
Will you listen?
I know that there are many things
I haven’t told you
and even more I wish I’d said.
You wish on different stars
and I break the poetic fourth wall far too often
but I have to tell you I’m sorry.
This one’s for you. I’m sorry that I
am better at falling in love
with props than with people. I’m sorry
shadows have the arms to hold me. I’m sorry
your memory is so goddamn persuasive.
I close my eyes and I sing you the song
about how the world never
stops turning,
you dance a hundred miles away
pressed against the meter of another heart.
I sit in exams and I write poetry
in the margins.
I’d send you an invitation to that party
but I don’t have your address
and I’m too afraid to ask.
I ask our friends instead.
I have forgotten how to write stories
that do not read like eulogies
to something long dead.
Smoke enters my lungs and I begin to travel into a another world. One without any worries and without any fears. I don't feel corrupted by society here. Maybe that's what I visit so often. I can hear the padded voices of my mom and dad asking me to come back.
" Were sorry" They say.
We're sorry that this happened to you.
I can't come back. My brain tells me no. Don't leave. I'm trapped. And I like that.
I wonder if she knows how lucky she is,
To have you by her side late at night.
I need you,
I want you.
Am stuck with stolen moments.
A few hours here and there.
Stuck in an alternate reality,
where we have all the time in the world.
In my dreams you are mine.
You hold me close and whisper in my ear.
You serenade me in a million ways,
With your touch and words.
I tremble for a moment in your arms.
It's the only place that makes sense.
I can't help loving you.
I fall for you in a million ways,
everytime we steal moments from fate.
The world has cast its spell on me.
I’m caught in her net of loveliness.
Like a fish I gape, open-eyed,
In wonder, forever and ever:
The star-laden cosmos unfolds,
Infinite, endless, with no borders;
How do the planets move in sync?
Exact, perfect, never out of step!
I can barely keep my car in line.
Nothing I see is plain, or mundane.
Dawn shines on saffron-shaded peaks,
Evening sets on the purple rocks.
The sea rushes in and retreats,
Across the white sands, the dark shores
Resounding with deep loneliness;
Seasons change -- the blue waters flow
Past green fields, yellow with mustard,
Apple trees rich with white blossoms --
Till the winter winds shake them down.
Every day, I wake up, somehow,
And find silver strands in my hair,
New wrinkles in my ageing skin…
All things change, one by one, while Time
Playfully lingers, unchanged, timeless.
Wonder comes to me, on certain feet.
How beautiful the world, how diverse.
And here I am, a lost traveler,
Stranded under the swirling stars!
Diptesh Ghosh
A gray winter morning,
Cold and silent;
Shrouded in the gray mist,
Even the birds are sleeping.
I think of the great silences:
Lonely winding roads after dusk,
The quiet, leather-bound libraries,
The forever unsaid words…
From the lips of the newly dead;
And then, somehow, I think of you
Drifting somewhere in this wide world;
We are separated by a million hearts,
In the cacophony of voices,
Just two voiceless strangers,
With so much left to say.
I am a star, among the countless stars,
Frozen in a dark universe,
Utterly silent, oblivious
To the babble of the planets.
Diptesh Ghosh
The trees start whispering as evening comes.
Birds return, one by one, into their nests.
And then, night falls, and all is still
Except the falling leaves and rustling wind;
From my window, I look through the branches
Of the Oak tree into the starlit sky;
An owl hoots in the dark forest,
Leafy, mysterious, the cry of the night;
I stay up late, sleepless, windows open.
Time is tripping by as the soft wind blows.
The voice in my heart hums with joy.
All is well: the world just as it should be.
Diptesh Ghosh
