कुछ यूँ उठे मायूसी में आख़िर हौँसले 

कि दिखने लगे बेपर्दा रूह के ऊँचे साये 

तुम्हारी गहरी नज़रों के आईने में अक्सर

तराशते हुए ख़ुद को, हम ने ख़ुद को पाए 

तो क्या कि किवाड़ है क़ैद कब से

और ख़ुद को हम वहीँ छोड़ के आये

अब आज़ाद हैँ परिंदे जन्नत तलक

पर ज़मीन अपना आसमान कहाँ से लाये.

The prudence

 

Profound agility when embedded 

Within the enticing succulence 

Keen to alight on any nest or twig

That finds the way to a beckoning furrow

And the vows of a hatching nascent life 

The freshness of an impatient puerility

Then the penance of an enlightened yogi

When sown in the dusty promise of a tomorrow 

Crouching to prey upon the imminent time

Camouflaged in the begrimed bed

Then the culmination of the efforts 

Is the birth of a spectacular dawn. 

Rishikesh 

1.1.26

23.31 hrs 

2329

The signal

 

The weakening signals

That break the voice 

Once which was clear

When the I within me

Was wrapped with nothing 

Then the layers I earned

Dispersed the seeds of soul

In search of better clime

Lost in the layers my clumps 

Twirled into significant shapes

Recognized by the outer world

That remains usually amorphous 

The silence of the thudding beats

That rippled between ears once

To create tides within the mind

Now it gets no relief to sprout

One stroke or the other always

Continues to smudge the canvas

For white is not a perceived color

The unison of the spectrum 

Is often mistaken as left out 

The signal dies in an effort

To prove the echoing commotion 

That there is no silence within

While the lost signal severs

The connect of the inner world

When my breath dangles 

It often twitches the blinds

For a small peep outside 

These blindfolding layers

If you still wait eagerly

For a knock from within

The signal to open the core

When there is no difference 

Between what lies out or within.

Rishikesh 

2328

01.52 hrs

27.12.25

The narcissist mast

 

Galloping strong atop frothy waves

Spurred often in many lunar nights

Scraping the land bound misty clouds

Lofty ! The Mast with a heedless flutter

One who often decides the route to shore

Is the brightest speck from the horizon

Slides sometime adrift into a placid realm

Sure of his poise amidst gushing waters

Tilts to bask in the glory of his stoutness

And stretches to extend his view in the waters

Instead of a small peep within the vessel

Gasps then in deepest waters as nadir

When his frenzy leads to a capsized ship.

Ludhiana

18.12.25

2327

22.10 hrs

The advancing waves

 

The waves come gushing onto shore

Silently they recede with the footmarks

The castles,  etched names and succinct prayers

These all the waves carry when they tip toe

Only to confound the succeeding ones

When their charge is entangled in the distraction 

The advancing waves that remain focused 

They ride the advancing chariots by overlapping 

The futile treasures of the fickle shore 

Then they vault over the preceding ones

And cross the unfettered domains in the sand.

Agonda, goa

2326

09.21 hrs

11.11.25

In finite

 

When I am restrained in finite 

Your horizons remain infinite

Frigid from afar , molten within

Glittering sun from the façade

Sparkling jewels deep down 

The retreat from my broken shore

Back to the realms where sun sets

The sails are reduced to specks 

Of multiple hues where sky falls

Dark , wild and unpredictable 

Once under the deceptive moon.

Agonda, Goa

2325

09.34 

10.11.25 

The flicker

 

Amidst the surging peril towards dusk

While the flame blazed under the sun

Now with elongated shadows of the day

The breeze that nourished the sparkle

Swells into a rampaging tempest

Conspires with the swarming clouds

And conjures up the startled chime

While the twilight stretches his palm

To smother the floundering fluorescence

The flicker that is sown in residual dreams

Gasps to clutch the brim with a frantic might

Never to fade till the last drop in her lamp.

Goa, Assonora

2324

8.11.25

09.22 hrs