समय का फलना

दो सूखे पेड़
और लटकती टहनियों के बीच
एक बात सहमी सी
सूनी है

जकड़ है
इन बातों में
क्यों कर कोई
कहीं बुलाता है

अजीब वीरानी है यहाँ 
जिससे पूछता हूँ
वही गिरे पत्तों में
हकिम की दवा ढूंढता फिरता है

अब औरों की
गुंजाइश नहीं
तार तार सा लगता है
समय का फलना यहाँ

एक पर्याय ढूंढता हूँ
अपनों का, अपनों मैं
सभी तो हैं
पर आकाश में तारे टिमटिमाते क्यों हैं 

करवटें

बड़े सुकून से सोते हैं
रात में परिन्दे यहाँ
एक मैं हूँ
जो पंख फैलाये जाता हूँ

हज़ार नमाज़ों में
सजदा करता फिरता हूँ मैं
एक अज़ान सी सुनाई देती है
कहीं दूर चारागर लिए हुए

वक़्त ने मुझे बदरंग किया
रात दिन नवाजते  हुए
वरना कमी नहीं थी
स्याह भरी रंगों की वहाँ

अभी भी सालती है
करवटें बदलना उनका
अनकहे पहलूओं में
क्या दर्द छुपा रखा है 

अतृप्त

काटो तो खून नहीं, और
काटो तो नहीं दर्द

यह क्या विरक़्ती है -
जिन्दगी, नाख़ून सी
बढ़ती जाती है

बीमार हूँ -

रक्तहीन सा
कोई बहा ले जाता है  -

अतृप्त
इस जहां से, अब

विछुब्ध हूँ 

कटी पर जब कटती है
बेजान जमीं  पर गिर जाती है

THE DANCE OF SHIVA

I orchestrate my vision 

by the turnkey of my third eye, and

All lures into a galactic submerge 

Taking magical trance -

One birth in all uniformity

Playing a part, one half clown

the other half the dance of Shiva 

Kyon shabdon se pirote ho

Kyon shabdon se pirote ho 

Apne aap ko

Kabhi chup rah Kar bhi 

Ada pharmaya karo 

Mana ki nadiyon ka taal

Patwaar se hai

Kabhi samudar ka khara paani bhi

Pi liya karo 

Unki nemat me

sahda hai din aur raat

Kabhi awaargi me bhi

Aasman ko jhulsaya Karo 

Mere kismat me bandis e bahaar hai

Jindagi ki zid liye

Kabhi murde ko bhi apna maan Kar 

Mutthi bhar Mitti daal diya Karo 

PREGNANT MEMORIES

In foregoing relationship

(eons old)

to win you here -

on Earth

I fought many battles

Time and again

with blood and breath

But was rollercoasted 

with upturned rides 

Many skies afar -

Twinkling stars, 

Bulging planets 

Pregnant memories, and

All

BLOOM AND EXPAND

Understanding of this world 

is very strange

Once to bloom, and next

to wither away 

Better tuck me 

into ignorance, and

Let me revel 

The unbecoming 

I have sent emissaries

to different places into the world

Not to repeat of this Earth, but

To bloom and expand 

Receeding away 

AN OCEAN OF PAIN

How will I hurt you, that

Which I have bargained -

tears

by the softness of my heart

Heavily you come 

Blinding me by your Westerly winds

Clinging me -

with the dust of your dusky hue 

I have take a lamp 

of your dark eyes, that twinkle

My nights, with

Semi transparent looks 

How can I be not yours -

that from deep down

You crowbar a nail 

Lifting me out of my pain 

How will I settle 

My heart's due, that

When I look at your fraility

You mirror an ocean of pain 

HUMILITY

Your humility made 

an unknown me -

No further I look outward

my inner look holds me back 

in cognitive forebearance, that 

It was yours will 

that made me come here 

Otherwise, I too would have joined 

the vastness, raining

Blessings on all 

GLOBULAR MESS

Underlying emptiness

Caress the solitude 

to burst forth, and

Fathom the fire -

in strange beauty

like a rumbling volcano on

On itself 

from the core within

Shooting sky high

the thoughts 

in globular mess

MY DRESS

Just you see 

the shrinkage 

taking hem of my thoughts

It happens

On every longer dress 

Edging at its behest

No life stretches beyond

Other than

How you acted your past

Its ruling 

terms with every lived space here

Towards affinity to the ground

An ensemble, play

Cosmic orchestra

As a whole 

Just you see

My dress

How it looks sans my thoughts 

GAZE ME VACUOUS

Gaze me vacuous

from the strands of

Your marinated vastness

All here elude and delude

Pendulum to space and time

"Namaste Uncle Ji..."

It came from my depth, and

to deep it settled down -

A thought

That

I kept on gasping the meaning 

out of my wheezing heart, that

He is no more, now 

to attend to my voice

My invariable greeting to my friend's father

as and when I used to meet him saying: 'Namaste Uncle Ji. How are you doing in health',

Praising him with respectful eyes and folded hands.

Today

Only this hospital morning 

at wee hours 

He breath his last.

"Namaste Uncle Ji..." 

Tears flowing 

THE TRUE PAIN

What will
Thousand voices, echo
about the depth
The respite of which
have soaked unfathomably
the true pain
by
million drops of tears

ALL THY NEEDS

It is all
Here
into your eyes

Scissors cut -
Tailored
to drape.

An opium or nectar -
Suitor
to all thy needs

आदमी से डरता हूँ

छन छन कर आती है
यादों का यह कारवां, और
कपस सी
कुहूक उठती है
दिलों का गुबार यहाँ

न जाने चैन कहाँ पायेगी -
न जाने किस दिल में
समाएगी
शान्त कब्र सी
शब्दों के पार

हज़ार आवाज़ों में
दिल  की आह ढूंढता हूँ
परदानशीन हूँ मैं
फरिश्ते से ज्यादा
आदमी से डरता हूँ, मैं

TOGETHERNESS

What fingers you weave

by your braided fragrance 

Neither I judge the difference

Between my hands, or

the fillet by the garden space -

It beat fluffy to my soul 

Chirping, cajoling 

the very nature of oneness -

Me and you, and vise-versa 

in togetherness

RICHNESS OF PRIDE

You came fussy, about

all worldly languages

at the tip of your forked tongue

and, when I queried 

the instances of your upbringing 

I found richness of your pride

all sands of a desert -

Bedeviled

By a hunch on your back

OVER THE SKIES

It avow willingness

to sprout -

from any place, any where 

It is but 

A matrix -

That cast a mould on you 

It is but a dream

That plays, heaven

Over the skies

NEW BEGINNING

How comfortably

will you ask me

of my whereabouts;

Did I not 

privileged you 

inside my heart, before!

It is only in pain, that

Silence sprouts your understanding of me

Come, come unruly 

to weep a little with me 

And say by your heart 

Not the degree of love

that owe on you; but

A cry in pain -

Birthing a new beginning 

SEVEN WONDERS

 

Started collecting pearls

of my eyes

and

bedecked it on a blue canvas -

up in the sky

Such was the twinkle, that

it owned me, all

That was no more of this earth -

Glittering

Seven wonders, alive.

SPROUTING

Now

If you will come

close by my side

whispering the fullfillment

of my last wish 

into my ears

with a glee;

I will certainly not offend you

by not hearing it inside my grave

But

Will take a big ear

into an outer unknown

Sprouting my verdant heart

GIVING A PUSH

When I looked at the mirror

it seemed it was looking at me, and 

when I removed the coating 

from its back 

I was no more 'me'

Face to face 

But a stark reality -

Outside

Giving a push on my face 

Then

Who 'm I!

FOR THE USE OF IT

I ever try to, revamp 

my inner self within

by my true silence

Shedding worth of my thoughts

but, finding my breath 

Coaxing: inhaling and exhaling

I become an ote 

to my colorless heart 

Finding no respite 

Deliberating

my accidental choice - The birth

I count on life for the use of it

VAN GOGH

I will bear the wound 

to the cut of my ears

and

paint my pain 

into "Sunflower"

All "Starry Night sky"

to see, what

Comes of Theo, his brother

Who played a middle man

to his blood Van Gogh

whole of his life -

in pain and penury

PISCES OF MY LOVE

I will never waste you 

in my passionate desire, here;

But will take a heavenly hook

To bait you there

Not that this earth is

quagmire of limited desire -

Birth till death

But a bigger haul of unfulfilled wishes

And I will scale 

Every skin on your body

Pisces to my zodiac sign

And let you swim in an ocean of my love

BLINKING MY DREAMS

How the night, milk

dreams

out of its large udder 

I ever get satiated, cocooned

inside its silvery nest 

and play my beaks 

Upon a simple story

with a little smile

Spreading a cozy look 

I live 

Not by larger extant 

of dark nights

But 

Essence of its bloom, that

Play softest 

to my petal eyes, and 

take joy 

Blinking every story to my dreams

MUMBLING LIPS

Now that I have lost 

the syllable -

Somewhere into the murky ground

Still I urge my wishes

Towards a silvery path 

Pronouncing seven moons 

into my darker nights;

Yet it sickle me 

towards blind phases

Never finding a new moon 

To pray 

by my mumbling lips 

STEPPING OF MY FEET

A time you open the door

The next, you latch;

What keeps you there

to stop

the stepping of my feet 

Am I not so 

the guest -

Inside out

One that you reason me living in, and

the next 

Graving me out 

ONE 'SELF'

What is This

Colour changing -

Azure of deep ultramarine 

in the sky

Shining so bright

All clouds are clearing away

for the hue 

of your manifestation

So dazzling -

Blinding my eyes 

How is that

Your vast imagery, take

Willow to my breath -

Thin

Pliant to my palpitating heart

Muting all my earthy wishes

You wishper 

A grand union -

Leaving whatever is here of me

Towards your unity with my one 'self"

BRAIDING THE AIR

You braided the air

by the hue of your plumes

Gaining beauty unparalleled

You were no such bird 

But a phoenix to my dreams

Birthing every second with vigour and youth

No fire flickered, against 

What you seek of me 

But a flower vase from the ashen whole

ETERNITY

O ye the wonder man

See, how wonderfully 

you are formed in body and soul

from head to toe

Spirited nature -

Seepping into you

All that Is, and all

That will remain ever 

Birthing and rejuvinating 

The Cosmotic will 

I am here by the time, and

for the time

That I am born,

And unborn 

Churning the space 

in a galactic whirl 

O ye the wonder man 

Take a mirror 

Out of your divinity

Here this moment, and

All eternity

WISHES

For you, that 

I have dipped my brush 

in an ocean of paint

I never know, how

Will I draw your portraiture 

on the blue canvas 

You came 

to obey my wishes, and

Vanished by the dark night

NAMELESS

Ask him 

not to howl my name 

Squeezing my pain 

Yelping in the night

I am not of canine

Nor of raucuous bound

That

Take shrill into higher air 

Call me nameless

in matters of my friendliness

That, I

Outlive my will 

to rescue you out of here -

On the plinth of highest altar

That in your peacefulness, I beat my heart... 

Nameless

From Homo erectus to Henrietta Lacks - Immortalised

You mutated a longer strand
of my two lakh years old genes
and here I am penning my poems
from the helical bond of DNA
gurgling four letters, paired
into my billion genomes
inside a nucleus

What faith could I envelop
on my Mitochondrial Eve
that by spreading a change
it lessened predated humans
into more of a present man
engineering his hands, on
Mapping an immortalised gene

INVISIBLE DUST

Take not,
the look of your eyes
on me
darker of night
that
my weaker heart
fear
those black pupil
enticing the maze of your depth

Hold me closer, near
on lashes of your eyelids
like an invisible dust
and, keep it closed
lest
pain will enter inside;
Keep me off in lesser distance
giving dream after dreams
inside -
from your closed eyes

सिमटती हवा

एक आह ने
दर्द को ऐसा समेटा
दिल बुझता गया, और
हवा भी सिमटती गयी

आँखें नम थी
और दम भी
कण कण
टूट रही थी

एक आवाज़ निकलती हुई
मद्धम सी
आसमां को तकती
आस टटोल रही थी

किस बिना पर
शब्दों को छेड़ा था उसने
जीवन भर बोलते फिरते
दुर्दुम्भी का खेल रचाया था

क्या राग है ये
किसको साथ लगाने का
मिट्टी के पुतले को
साँस से सींचने का

तूफ़ान सा क्यों है

लहरों की हंसी पर
कभी इठलाता हूँ मैं
कभी ख्वाब बन
आसमां से बरस जाता हूँ मैं

वक़्त की सरगोशी से
पैहम है रात और दिन का होना
चंद लम्हों पर
निढाल सा परे रहना

गैरत में अमादा है
रूह का फिक्रमन्द होना
वरना समंदर में
ये तूफ़ान सा क्यों है 

पास हो तुम

पास हो तुम, फिर;
दूर, विचरते क्यों हो

हे करूणानिधि
विकार विनाशक
हे पालनहार
दृश्य दिखाते क्योँ नहीं

मन विचलित है
नित् , अश्रुधार लिए
ताप, तम संलिप्त
कई रात अन्धकार लिए

चित्त शाषित है
मन आह अग्नि लिए
जय हे, जय हे
हे तारक, विकार विनाशक

पास हो तुम, फिर;
दूर, विचरते क्यों हो
हे दात्री, हे दयानिधि

तुम्हे पुकारूँ
या भक्ति करूँ
मन पाक है, प्रहार कैसे करूँ
भाव सागर पार करो हे पालनहार

भ्रमित हूँ
खण्डित  प्रचंड अपार लिए
पास हो तुम, फिर;
दूर, विचरते क्यों हो 

MUEZZIN

Not by
passing you through
the slush of your darker whirl

But, Slowly
Anti-gravitating
against your twitching pull

I drilled a pass
into your
Gravitational stronghold

And
I let a streak of light
take
A new sprout -
Muezzin to my freedom

SPIRITOMETRY

How you stirred
my galactic eyes;
it whirled, and whirled
pirouette to your uniforce dream -
a notion
to my sight

a distant merger -
Becoming of me
no less you, nor less mine
to treasure a look
in your spiritometry

ROPING UP AN IGNORANCE

I never waited
to stand a while
and let the fruits fall
naturally from the branches of a tree, and

In ignorance
I started plucking fruits
from an old tree
Knowing not
how others could feel the pain

Truth belied

I turned
to my inner ignorance
and
plucked my ears or two
in repentance

and, stiated my 'self'
roping up a bucket-full
from a deeper well
of my ignorance

VILLAGE LIFE

I run my thoughts

On the wings of a butterfly

And

I would see with bigger eyes

the caravans -

Busy ants marching in search of foods 

Life in village -

So tranquil, so true

The musical notes 

of falling rains;

How not to wet and quench our soul 

The quack, and the cawing 

Routine of the day

Little childrens

Run, and play

Frocking their pleasure out 

Parents walk their fields;

Grandmother gossip soft, and

Grandfather take his Hukkah out 

I run my thoughts

on my loving past: my Village life

That

This city hub make a desert

of my present  

All ruins, and no joy

LIPSING OF MY HEART

You walk mountains

of your thoughts

Raising heights over heights;

I of a lighter veins 

flap my wishes 

in supplication at your altar

May with prayerful hands, and

mumbling lips

You could hear 

Lipsing of my heart

निर्मल

कण कण में फैलाती
अरुण कमल
विप्र धार
सहज संजोए
शांत सरल
भाव यह कितना निर्मल

पूज्य प्रणय
प्राण सकल
मोक्ष वन्दना
हर दिन, हर पल
कितना निश्छल, ह्रदय
वरुण तल

रिमझिम रिमझिम
बरस
भावेग में बह
पसर पसर
कितना निश्छल, कितना निर्मल 

YARN

One spinning
was not enough
for the yarn
to make a fabric of my own
and
embellished it atop
layering one more
over my skin
with
thoughts and spaces -
time in haste
running by

PRUDENCE

Your pages
in omnibuses of wisdom
started flipping
pages one after the other
by the light of the night wind

Emblazoned
with starry eyes
an invisibility sweeps
across the skies
echoing the realm of your stately kingdom

There, perching upturned
Owl of all wisdom
Take prudence
at the behest of
"Wish fulfilling tree"

PAWING UNKNOWN

I search you
in meaning of your existence -
Blooming and fading away
Caught between
my past memories, where once
I did reveled my days -
Carefree
my belongingness onto you
Now, when time slips by
Breathing deep into me
I revenge not, but
Take a silent mark
Pawing its invisible steps
Somewhere
Into the unknown

BURNING CORE

What holds you inside, that
it melted mountain
in one sight.
All days and nights
Sun and Moon
take their chance of valor
wearing armor of gold and silver
And none win a bet

If the ruling is
not by love
Then
What else could it be
That in
every passionate heart
Lurks a burning core

घूप अन्धकार

दीये की बत्ती
आगे से काली पर गयी है
धुआँ दे रही है
जल रही है -
ईंधन मात्र शेष है
केवल बत्ती ही भींगी है
पात्र ने आईने का सबूत ही मिटा लिया है

जिसे फ़िक्र था
कहीं अँधेरे में मिलने का, उसे
बुझते दिए की लौ ने
अंतिम छन
पूरा कर दिया -
अँधेरे ने उजाला कर दिया

बुझते दिए की लौ
आश्रित है, कहीं
ठहराव लिए

कोई
अनवरत सी चल रही है -
घूप अन्धकार
देखो
उत्तम, भरपूर

PRUDENCE

Your pages
in omnibuses of wisdom
started flipping
pages one after the other
by the light of the night wind

Emblazoned
with starry eyes
an invisibility sweeps
across the skies
echoing the realm of your stately kingdom

There, perching upturned
Owl of all wisdom
Take prudence
at the behest of
"Wish fulfilling tree"

ENTWINED

If could find
two hearts, entwined
No sublimation could
do what inebriated souls
Can do in a flicker
Even His standing lulls
by lovers sight

If in penalty
of my deeds
I could find warmth
of your breath
heaving inside me
Let me do the crime
Again and again

Let humanity stand
hemlock in his hands
Who cares about death
Parting is not my way
As life is wholly predetermined
to accord a perennial fest
in eternal togetherness

DEEPEST ROOT

When I could not find
any words
lofty enough
to call you, there

I mimicked
a resonance
from the deepest roots of my heart
and, found a deepest pull
lifting me
into your unbound space

there, I found you
peeping
an infinite say
to my beeping heart

sans any tongue -
an utter silence, prevailing

CREATURE WITH SPIKES

How I give
my tender heart -
a gift of a twilight
that
You have been
lurking so enviously
braiding dusk
by your dark strands
pawing creaking nights -
invisible cricket, moonless

Were you not, yesterday
that pecked me
with your
luscious green
and, promished life to sprout
out of my barren land
and, Now
when the present is
receding fast
You turn me
into a creature with spikes
Roving antennae into the dark

How I give
my tender heart -

REMINISCENCE

Remembrance are
but the sweetest tempest
to our heart

We have communicated
with pleasant glances
the meaning of our smiles

Those senses, beyond
What noumenonic IS
Where light fleck in unison

I see
what I have come to see.
You vision what you see beyond

Mere 'I'
wriggle in itself, but
In duality bonding creeps over all

Parting was
not an ounce of pain
that I drew out with my blood

Reminiscences are
but faithful blessings
that by you, I was blessed

ANOTHER TAKE

Such was the existential bearing on me
that
Inspite of seeing you
shrouded in darkness -
Night loving tree

I sequestered myself away
from my own
And, saw
My silence
Dangling down the leaves

bearing silently
on the tree
all lonely fruits -
ripe
for the survival of my verdant dreams
consuming night after nights
and
another take

TWO END

What desperation
pains you there -
as you throw your legs

What spontaneity
gain you wriggling -
improvising your weakness

What repose
I dirge in lamentation -
Eyrie eyes owl me from above

All dreams are
not motteled green
when shadow is vised between two ends

CAUSE ME

Cause me, not
to thunder
a pellet into mud.
Petrichor
the essence of your being
wafting my body and soul

Such is my wish
to drench you
by my love -
finding my whole
in your drizzling warmth

Womb you inside

If by ripples
of your love
I could see you
smudging your face
into the skies
I will willingly,
not tilt my head above
But, will
womb you inside
mirroring your face
to the depth of an oceanic blue

ENORMITY

Beset not, O tranquility
your enormity
in banal platitude
of which humans have
taken an ego out of you
in daily faith
Dare,
Take River by swell
Winds by storm
Earth by quakes
Sea by wild waves
and Thunder by rain

Inspiration: Swati A Gadgil Jee
Poem: "Mindful Nature"

LIGHTHOUSE

You have asked me to
rebuild the lighthouse
that had crumbled
down in stormy past

How could I tarry myself away
when I could find you
riding back on oceanic tides
to the glow of my heart

alone I stand day and night
on these familiar beaches
taking thunder and rain
in all conviviality

Your coming
have satiated all my thirst
and "I won't let you go" - hearing this
All ocean dried away

Amour de soi

How unblinking
I submerge my faith
day and night, unflinching
in ocean of thy love -
my pisces eyes
Yet you wriggle me, dead
on an earthy atmosphere
playing trickery
on my Amour de soi
Skylarking
polemics of the skylark; verbatim
in your prolonged voice

मौन-व्रत

कहीं दूर तक

जहाँ तक

नज़र जाएगी

तकते रहेंगे

लोकातीत

तुम्हारे आकाश को हम

चंद लम्हों की सौगात लेकर

फिर मिले, हम

न मिले

यादें विचरती रहेंगी -

कहीं दूर तलक

लुग्दियों से भरी

जमी हुई आकाश में

तुम्हारे शब्दों का

अस्तित्व ख़त्म होगा जब

एक पूर्ण आकाश -

अस्थिविहीन ठठरी को

सजायेँगे हम

तुम्हारी वीरानगी का

मौन व्रत लिए

भाव विहीन सा

हल्के कदम से
कोई आता है
स्वर्णीम् पल का
आगाज लिए

दिशा दोष को मिटाता -
विलुप्त होते 'मैं ' को
एक नई जगह
का भान कराता

कोई है
कोई है जो
बीज बोता, यहाँ
निवृत्त भाव लिए

पंखों का संसार लिए
पंख फैलाता
टीमटीमाते आँखों का;
अर्पित, आपरं अपार लिए

अभी वक़्त है
निर्लज जग हंसाई का
फिर कौन मरता है, यहाँ
अमृत्व भाव लिए

हल्के कदम से
कोई अाता है , और
फूर्र उड़ जाता है, करके
भाव विहीन सा

आसिफा तुम्ही हो न ...

घटक श्मशान पर

वाज़िब है

परे रहेंगे

लाशों के ढ़ेर

और

जलती रहेगी चिता, अट्टहास -

झिलमिलाते पानी में

दफ़न है

दफ़न है,

बेमानी सी जिन्दगी

यहाँ

अमावस पहर लिए

क्यों पनाह

देते नहीं तुम.

अविरल हो -

ऐसे दिखते क्यों नहीं

मैंने अपने पर

गुजरते

कभी दर्द पाया नहीं

आदमी हूँ न -

अस्मिता लूट जाने

की चीख़ कभी सुनी नहीं

बेटियों का बाप हूँ न

ऐसा लगता है की

कमी सी रह गई है मुझमें

फिज़ा में शोर है.

सुनाई देता क्यों नहीं

लहू टपकते क्यों नहीं

जमी हुई आँखों से

आशिफ़ा तुम्ही हो

तुम्ही हो न ...

मेरी बेटी सी

सभी चले जायेंगे

सभी चले जायेंगे
हम भी चले जायेंगे

एक धुन  -
जगत में
प्यासी सी रह जाएगी

कभी खेत - खलियानो में - देख
अँकुरित बीजों को
मुस्कुरायेंगे हम
और, फिर
आँखों में बारिस लिए
बरस जायेंगे

शब्दों की सैय्या पर
बधिर और मूक होकर
टटोलेंगे तुम्हे हम
खुले आसमान का
आस - विश्वास लिए

जब फ़सल -
काट कर
बाज़ार में बेचा जायेगा
तो हम खाली परे खेतों पर
फिर एक बार
अपनी नज़र दौड़ायेंगे
और सपनों का सब्ज़ लिए
बरस जायेंगे

सभी चले जायेंगे
हम भी चले जायेंगे

एक धुन  -
जगत में
प्यासी सी ..

सब्ज़  = green pasture

RUSTLE YOUR FREEDOM

Why mumble and fret your loneliness, here by the pulse of your weaker heart gnawing days and night afflicting you with scars and multiple woes Expand the reach out of your thoughtful thought plunging deeper than the deep, Where the splashing Wear a sound of silence Liberating your senses of its will Rustle your freedom Unshackling your self, unblemished from the trees of vice and ignorance Where no season can hiss you now by its fangs of reason and debt Stay, where the height grips you there

IN YOUR SHADOW

Your silence have
kept me - eons;
cocooned inside thousand books
stacked one after the other
Yet I find you
in every crooning of my heart
May I look so fragile,
crumpled and pale
pages after pages
Yet, wherever
familiarity wafts into the air;
In no lesser whiffs
I finds you enchanting
closest to my
heaving heart
bewildering me
by your presence -
a fresh draught; that
lees me priceless
in your shadow

कतबा

अब और किस सफर को

मुक़ाम दू

तेरे मुन्तज़र

सारा खला खाली कर दिया दिया

तेरी क़ुरबत ने

ऐसा तअस्सुर बाँधा, की

मेरी हरेक ज़ुस्तज़ु

ज़र्रे ज़र्रे पर लर्ज़ है

खामियाज़ा, मुझे

जिन्दा रह कर लड़ना पड़ा

वरना

हरेक कतबा मेरे नाम से दर्ज़ है

................................

maqam = place

muntazar = Awaiting

zustazu = Quest

qurbat = closeness

zarra = atom

furqat = seperation

taassur = effect

katba = Epitaph

क़तरा-ए-लहू

जिस आशना के बग़ैर

कभी मैं जिन्दा नहीं रह पाता था

अब उनके तग़ाफ़ुल ने, मुझे

पूरे आसमां से बेदखल कर दिया

भले हिन् वजीफ़े में

मेरे इल्म का सुरूर न होगा

लेकिन तेरे इम्तिहान में

सारा जहां महरूम होगा

नौसादर की जग़ह

कलम दवात होगी

मेरे बहकने का हरेक सिलसिला

तेरे वस्ल का चारागर होगा

उल्फत के अल्फाजों

अब बेमानी लगते हैं

वक़्त, बे वक़्त

मेरे ताबीर में तेरी इनायत की हयात होगी

मेरे मरासिम को

किस जल्लाद की हवा लग गई है

की इस रंजिशी शाम में

महताब के आँखों में क़तरा-ए-लहू दी है

...................................................

आशना = acquaintance

तग़ाफ़ुल = negligence

वस्ल = passion

चारागर = doctor

ताबीर = interpretation of dreams

हयात = life

उल्फत = love

इनायत = kindness

मरासिम = relations

महताब = moon