कोपलें

सहस्त्र हांथों से

दूलार पाती

कोपलें आसमां चूमतीं हैं

वज़ीफा ए ऐतबार का,

ज़ुबान लब चूमती हैं

उनकी आँखों में

पनाहगार की सुरत देखो

कितनी हरियाली लाती है

सराबोर करती है,

रहमत ख़ुदाई की

ज़र्रा ज़र्रा खिल उठता है

उसकी ज़ारदोजी के हुनर से

टिमटिमाते हैं फ़रिश्ते

नए जोश से

नदियों और पहाड़ों पर

सहस्त्र हांथों से

दूलार पाती

कोपलें आसमां चूमती हैं

वज़ीफा ए ऐतबार का

फक्र ए ऐतमाद पाती हैं

आशना

क़फ़से ज़िस्म में
एक हुनर परोस; वरना
न जाने किस दर से
पैगाम ए आजादी की इत्र
आसमां में घुल जाएगी

एक बानगी है
दिल का आशना होना
वरना आसमां में लहराने को
एक कफ़न शेष रह जाएगी

एक क़तरा लहू का
न जाने कितने इंद्रधनुष तारेगा
आसमां तो आसमां
परिन्दा भी पिंजरे से पंख मारेगा


क़फ़से = Cage
आशना = Friend 

बित्ता भर ज्ञान

साल उठती है, भग्नता

खंड खंड

वक्ष स्थल के भाल पर

एक दरिद्रता, दमित है

अक्षर असंख्य लिए

लेखनी को जप्त करती

आह हज़ार लिए

आकार टटोलती, जिव्हा

वक्र है

बरगत के डंठल की तरह

एक नाप का फर्क है

बित्ता भर ज्ञान में

कुछ ही गज का फासला है

सहर और शहरयार में

PS -

सहर = Pain of the night

शहरयार = Friend of the dawn

ज़िन्दा तालाब

ग़ुम सुम सा है, कोई;

लब्ज़ सीले हुए

यथार्थ यही है

अनगिनत राह लिए

नूर की शबब, कोई

आग बरसाता है यहाँ

अम्बर में

कोई फ़रियाद लिए

ज़मीं पे अब, और

क्या रखा है

एक पानी है

ज़िन्दा तालाब लिए

Nabh geet

Koyal ki kuk
Madhur nabh geet
Unmukt, avikal dhaar

Kalrav karte megh malhaar
Dhamniyon ka dhamniyon se milan
Avichal, adig chitiz aur wo pyar

Lam bandh ho
Ki dharti kare pukar
Kya niras rahe manushya ke vichaar!

Seat par juta

Seat par juta
Aur jhangari  ka chabh
Kya kahen bacchoon ke kwab

Selfie ka surur
Aur balon aur galon par
Unglion ke touchscreen

Bulandi aawaz me, agar;
To lauh sabdroz hoti
Train ke isharon par

Rohan ka akele
Kano par takrir likhna
Gum sum mobile par taktaki lagaye

Now, you take
One photo like this:
Sister Ganita

Sister Mudita ka khel
Samay ko
Indradhnus ka nishan

Sattu ka roti
Sprite ke saath
Kya kahen bacchoon ke kwab

Library me ek ghanta
Kitabon ke bich
Lahren marti angrai jaise

Pulse ke saath
Bitata samay
Jibh ke sez se

Saalte hain jab

Saalte hain jab
Labon par tanhai ki kasak,
Uski bandagi mein
Ab din gujarte hain

Us sama ko kya kahe
Jiski aag,
Lalten ki chimni se
Nasib paati hai

Bahut dekh li
Zamane ki berukhi,
Ab to saikil sawaar ko bhi
Motorcycle ki aawaz azib lagti hai

Kaun kahta hai, ki
College mein class nahi hoti,
Zate waqt bhi, Loyola Hall se
Tak tak ki aawaz sunai deti hai

Mante hai enayat unki hai, par
Zab lagti hai
Fine gairhaziri ki,
Attendance sheet lahuluhan ho jati hai

Raushani se raushan rahe
Dua ka taz pahan,
Parisar me basti hai jiski mahak,
Wo, raat ki Rani hai

ENAYAT

Reham khuda, Reham
ki pagal man
Gali, baazar mein
Tere nazar ka didar liye
Disa pukare

Hosiyari mein bhi
Khanzar ki aawaz aati hai
Khudaya, reham kar;
Mere kis gunah ki khata liye
Zanaja ko meri, pheri karoge

There pyar ki kasak mein
O Khudaya;
Hansi bhi, kabhi
Aansu chalkaye jati hai.
Paresaan Hun apne aap se, ki
Pass hote huye bhi
Nazar, dhund chupaye rahati hai

Raham Khudaya, raham
Masiha ki enayat kar de

MORE THAN LOVE

Your portrait have

All the colours

of my deep eyes; then

How my sight is 

Getting blurry

In loving you

More than

Into my inner world

MORNING TEA

Stir me inside

like a whirling galaxy

In a morning tea cup

Churning butter

out of the milky way

How the sky is all blue, and not

Green and verdant

Whose fertility, compass

All areas of intoxicating land

With a morning chirp all around

Steer me towards

The land of my silent dream

That have essence of my love

With you that I fill my joy

Will you that I sip my tea

HEART IN BLUE

When reason was meagre

To attend; faith

Upheld the roots

In an upturned look

Wisdom came 

Breaching nothing, but

A compartment in space

A heart unilocular

When reason tested red

On litmus paper

Wisdom came

Enlivening​ the heart in blue

SEEK

Take refuge in deep senses within

Crossing over birth and death

Take restive poise in your world

Caving in the reins of your mind

Take wind and heat toiling your path

Shine your goal passing beyond sorrow

Take a child into​ the cosmic womb

Dwelling a cry inside your heart 

Take heed losing not your path, as

that which I seek, he seeks into our heart

DEEPEST POINT

Hundred scripts, unfathomable
Engrave inside my crinckle heart
The oozings of certain despair
In abounding desolation
of the setting sun
The west crimson, far; and
The deepest point of the dead sea
All forlorn
As a host of invisible guest
or, the

Muted musk of the spotted deer

Inking

Inking globular clouds

Silvery vein

Cracking up a laugh

LAUGH OF HEAVENLY MEN

No soul
talks to a soul
But
with a silence
of thousand tongues
Stearing
along an eternal void
Rubbing
the edges of time
An invisible path, agape;
Utterly
incomprehensible
The laugh of heavenly men
A cleft

gapping it apart

सन्नाटा

एक अजीब सन्नाटा है
चन्द गज ज़मीन लिये

चन्दन की ढ़ेर पर
लाश की महक फैलती नजर आती है

अस्थी कलश की आड़ में
पिंजर ही मात्र शेष है

सुबकते हुये लमहे

लूटते नज़र आते हैं

NEW BEGINNING

An unknown voice

Creaked in

through

the cracked walls

of my chambered heart

Predestined

a new sprouting

Creeping up the sunlight

Emanating a deeper urge

Deep down

to augur my wants

for a new beginning

A CHIRP ROLLED ON MY LIPS

Nature ballooned

a lovely chirp

doting my heart

It wove

a fabric in space

Interlacing my beat

And fluttered

an ethereal joy

Nay to the other world

Skies rained heavenly

My golden droplets

Rainbow to my heart

A chirp rolled on my lips

Pecking my heart

Aves to my veins

BOOT A GAME

Dare not touch

an elusive truth

that beguile

an eternal charm

Repeatedly vamping

to boot a game

out of me; lost

at the end

under the murky earth, and

definite silence

IRON PILLAR

You have rustic beauty

of an iron ore

That tells the time

Of your demise

Time and again

In your old age

Yet,

Not all are 

An iron pillar

In front of the Kutub Minar

ALL MY SPACE

How you shoved

a mound

On my flesh

and

Plowed yourself, planting

Seed 

Twinkling the skies;

Don't you know

the lyre

the music of my broken heart.

It will play

All my string 

To bid you all my space

INK OF HEAVEN

The number 48

That give a touch to my age, presently;

gives eleven dig

at my heart

Not for the wages, that

I have earned in between

But

The wages that will be notified

with the ink of heaven

In well over hundred registers

and more

PASSION FOR YOU

How far will you

take me

Towards thy end;

Shall not 

a single life

Be a bait to thy beat

How long will you

play me

An organ timelessly;

Shall not

a single tone 

Be enough to fathom thee along

How I wish

I were you, and

Be a guide 

to thy every passion

Rolling multiverse 

In every breath of my take

BEAUTY: FOUR MOONS WIDE

 

I bait 

your sweetest voice

with my elephant ears

flapping like an oar

and gurgle 

your beauty

Four moons wide

Through parched lips

In my fastest run 

to an oceanic heart 

LOST SOUL

A long robotic arm

Came floating in my dream

Knowing not from where

In a slur of an indistinct moment

Pulling me to his auto car 

Showing the plight of modern man

Begging the long lost soul 

Of our great great grandfathers

By whose one lullaby

I used to sleep my nights

Snoring flowers and silent deeds

HAMMER MY HEART

It never hammered me

to beat my heart willingly

But your single blow

Drew  a cut

to my shadow

And was bleeding profusely

MUSICAL CENTRIPEDE

Rolling a quixotic move

I saw the moving wheels

of vehicles on the busy road

It betide my senses

Like a centripede

Sounding flat on the screeching tar

A predatory mass

In a longer journey to prey

distant lands with animated legs

One by one

It obeyed traffic rules

Pausing, respecting the game of laws

I jerked myself from the seat

To offbear my muscle

And let mistrel crawl multi legged into my veins

SUPPLE PAST

How you draw meaning

out of the dark space,

As I mark curved lines

Pointing my upper finger

How you fathom deep

an ocean of pain,

As I scuffle my tears

Through the desert sand

How you wear my lonely hour

shadowing yours,

As I shed skins

From my supple past

GERMINATION

How you mirror 

An image 

into mine

Every time, I

Stand before you

Rooted in  thoughts

A new sapling, germinate

In greenery 

of my dreams

TURN BY TURN

All lonely

By street light

You come by dint 

of your deep silence

afar, at night

The Walk of a heavy heart;

Where am I going

with heavy steps

While the dogs bark, and

The roads takes a turn

Looping turn by turn

PORTRAIT

How you wear

happy moments into your eyes

Did I spare 

A part of mine

To nurture your beauty in

How you paint

rainbow to your canvas

Did I imparted

A brush of my heart

To hue your beauty in

How you fancy

the art of mine

Did I lost 

A part of my portrait

To gain you through

ROOF

A little chance, dwelth

On his little frame

To till the land; 

With no strength left

As in his youthful years

That drove the spirit 

With strength of a spade

And now, with wife

by his side, old and infirm

In a mud house, and thached roof

They counted, both

The years left, and the yellowing

of their thached straw

BLIND LOOK

Your devotion was

Worth the denomination

For the crowning faith;

Yet I hunger my heart

With my begging bowl

Panning space with a blind look

CREST A DREAM

She would not lament

The last song of the day, that

Streak through the slender branches

of dark forest

Humming deep

The twilight of the setting Sun

Where its tiny beak

Crest a dream, nesting

A golden tomorrow

In her frothing heart

SIMMERING MY HEART

I know not

What silent beat 

You prod me, inside;

Yet I go on doing

The deed 

of an unknown

I know not

What colour 

I paint you, inside;

Yet I go on painting

The canvas

Simmering my heart

CHORD

Many a times

I feel your near about

Umbelical to vast space;

When all that, which

Grip on me here

Loosen me towards

An unknown chord

FROM WITHIN

There was a small ripple

On the ocean surface, and

I kept on seeing, nothing

Far off the distant land; and

A little later

The water spumes from within

Spreading towards the edges

An ocean mirage

A horizon lifting up

Lifting up

Many miles into the sky

ANOTHER WORLD AROUND

Body shudder
by the touch of invisible hands
Feasting on senses,
Ministering the need
by wakeful alliance

Not wholly
the dread passes by itself;
Million bounded souls, serf
Inside pocketed universe
A fob chained to time

How long an ocean wave
Will go on trooping parallel
Its painful crest and trough;
One of gainful heart, awaits
Trouping another world around

BLACK GOLD

A dark window, gleamed
from without, and
looked askance
at the murky sky
Adrift with melancholy;
Mirroring pain of far images

What annoyance
You growl at me
As you gravel
panning precious
an ounce of your black gold
invisible, with two large hands

MY LOVING MOTHER

You come
Softly
by your feeble steps
to the side of my bed
partialy blind - an old age eyesight
and spread your thin fingers
on whole body mine
to feel
her aged son, little and so wide
with your delicate hands

Didn't you know
How you have been
Caring to me
from birth till,
I knew how to well up my tears
remembering
Love and kindness
Deeply; that you poured on me

Aged frailty
Sag your skin now
Weak hands take rest
Still,
I see you carving your son
Touching one part to his face
one part to his nose
Is that
How you count breath for your son's longevity
or, to gasp your last puff

RAKE OF MUNICIPALITY

Of the mortals, that die
Like a crow
A black death before its full youth:
An immortal and mystical touch
of supine crow
facing upward, lifeless
stiff
The talons of the sky
the harrow of the fallow land
conspire
In pure exaltation, that
Life, alas
has been seeded away from here
covenant to God and demigods;
Electrocuted by the current
running live; high
On the field wire,
Or,
On the pavement headed by a pole
Or,
On the busy streets; waiting
The rake of municipality

GENETIC VIABILITY

Genetic viability, kept
A common evolutionary ground
for us humans
to mutate and breed
our paired bases
Otherwise why of
Watson and Crick,
Dolly sheep and transgenic mouse.
Away from creationist and geocentrics

Mapping of genes, did
A common forum for inquisitives
to prune our parts
Weeding unwanted off
from our longer code
Otherwise why for
Robotics and AI
Bionic legs and pacemaker.
Away from navel parts and world turtle

तृप्त आत्मा

हर रोज की तरह
यह सोच कर मैं
सब्जी मण्डी गया, कि
आज भी मुझे
तीस रुपये किलो
बासी, कठोर, लम्बी सी
भिन्डी की सब्जी
टोकरीवाली से खरीदनी पड़ेगी

मैंने पुछा:
भिन्डी कैसे किलो दीजियेगा
उसने शांत लहज़े में कहा:
ले लीजिए, बस बीस रुपये किलो है

यह सोच कर की
जरूर कोई न कोई बात है
वरना कौन बीस रुपये में भिन्डी देता है -
वही बासी, कठोर, अधिक लम्बी सी

मन मार कर
अनचाहे मन से मैंने एक भिन्डी को
उसकी टोकरी से निकाला,
परखने के लिए कि
रोज की तरह वह वैसी तो नहीं;
लो यह क्या -
पैसे भी कम और भिन्डी भी ताज़ी ताज़ी सी
छोटी, हरी, लचकदार

एक मुस्कराहट लब पर
आकर बैठ गई -
आज तो मैं घर पर
जी भर के भिन्डी की भुजिया का स्वाद लूंगा
छोटी, पतली रोटी के साथ खाऊंगा

मैंने उस वृद्धा के आन्तरिक मुस्कान को
भाँप लिया था
जिसने इतने कम दाम में
स्वतंत्रता पूर्वक
मेरी आत्मा को तृप्त किया था

जय माँ, जय भारत!

कब्र की आवाज़

अनकहे - हे रे मन
जोड़

परास्त हो रही
आंखियों से
जोड़
विह्वल मन को

भटकते हुए को
हूनर सीखा
की यहाँ ग़ैर, से
ग़ैर है जिंदगी;
अपनो की भी
मचलती धार है, यहाँ

कहीं ले चल, वहाँ
अनकहे - सूत्रधार में
की
अब तो जीवन की भार
काँटों पर खेलती है

अनकहे - हे रे मन
सुन
कब्र की आवाज़
कौन यहाँ, रोता है
मरने के बाद