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The Poetry Issue 2023: Umbrella of Borrowed Words and other poems

The Poetry Issue 2023: Umbrella of Borrowed Words and other poems
S Harshavardhana, Untitled, Mixed Media on Canvas, 2023; Photo courtesy of Art Alive Gallery

Trepidation 


In this ostentatiously indifferent landscape
the ghosts of desire once I knew
dance gracefully in the autumn breeze
and create a river of illusion 
in a full-moon night. 
 
I may not see a pretence 
of absolute longing to be here
I may return to walk 
on an untrodden path

But I cannot deny succumbing to
the glory of this moment that
holds carefully a heartbeat 
I skip
while remembering you 

It is all there
settled in the black corona
of a dazzling light
all those glorious words
I keep inside 
the membrane of memory 
stares at your absence in silence

An obliterated river 
runs between us 
we share a strange forest 
written by evanescent seasons
in favour of reductionism 


Endangered 


There always exists a twilight 
where the shadow of joy 
and the illusion of love 
depart from each other
and the ecstasy 
of darkness insists 
on dwelling inside you

At such a juncture
stars subdue your darkness
in the hollow of your 
expectation and desperation

They keep you alive
with their resplendent gaze
as you pass through the time
and walk the whole way down
to eternity

But not even the stars are eternal
they come and go
leaving only their halo and nebula 
behind them

No one asks what happens 
to a dying star
as it collapses 
to form a singularity
with infinite density
at the heart of a black hole

A dying star lit from within 
by embracing the silent warmth
of its remnant stellar core 


Imperceptible 


when a patch of mildew 
perpetually expands  
we remain indifferent

we let it expand 
with its insatiable hunger
and keep on searching
for our respective images of love
and we name it eternity

but what about our lost pieces
those of kite runner
of chess player
of vagabonds or homemakers
who knows how many rugs 
we have tried to stitch
out of these rags
who can determine
what it takes 
to reclaim these purest joys

at times we want to believe
in the power of 
an infinite straight line 
without interruption 
of time’s zigzags


Silent Prayer


It is just an attempt
to crush the desperation
and to hold the hope
inside the folded palms
Silent prayers conjure 
the garbhagriha
of a silent God
in a disjointed time —
just a space

When red rain thrashes
the barren fields brutishly
blurring the epiphanies
in a random time
beyond the screen
of your teary eyes
and your sanctum sanctuary
collapses silently

To the prayers falling silent
you gift a voice of absolution 
and the wings of love 
you are the glory of your pain 
beyond the history
of your progeny
you are the stardust 
of your wounded world

Umbrella of Borrowed Words


Vienna stands silently
in the evening 
glittering like a Christmas tree

Its extravagant coffee houses
serve sweet pastries with salty memories
Here you make friends out of strangers
and strangers out of friends 

Slow-moving shadows 
nod friendly in your direction
Guten Abend, they whisper
and then they vanish 
in the slick dark walls of the city

You walk past them alone 
in an unfamiliar cold torrent
holding the umbrella 
of borrowed words

You put your feet carefully 
on the cobbled street
saving a lonely dandelion
that blooms in the fissure 
between the two paving blocks

These poems were part of The Poetry Issue 2023, curated by Shireen Quadri. © The Punch Magazine. No part of these should be reproduced anywhere without the prior permission of The Punch Magazine.   


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