from the window

my room is looking out
on lush vegetation

trees are heavy with
sleep and morning rain
midnight rain and all
that falls in between

i see a man walking in tall grass
his walking captures the falling
movement in and out of nowhere


he is moving with the rain
with the sound of the temple gong
with music coming from branches
with all drenched things around
in the direction of a world
yet to be seen

ubud, 3 december 2014

down the wind

you no longer go astray
when loss becomes your path

still you will go astray
but wont feel it as loss

it delivers the seeker
from the sought
returning fire
back to fire


the village poor pass
one by one
gathering frangipani
strewn before the house
as the day rises

falling is what you have
when abundance comes

here
in the whereabouts
of the wind

ubud 2 november  2014

listening to you

something of you
floats in birdsong
rising from the trees

in scattered noises
down there on the road

cicadas' calling
an impromptu tide
rolling over me

something of you
is moving with
the abandoned grass

as heat slowly rises
in the morning

ubud 17 october 2014

notes made of borneo rains

I

the way i see it
the way you see it

stories
no one's really
simply stories

floating in the morning air
floating with dust that fills
the lungs of trees
before rainfalls pour

fables of floating
in the morning air
rising and falling
through dust

of absence come alive with words
words such as
you and me
sabah
mengalum island
the land below the wind

II

at the table across the floor
locals chain smoking
sipping ice-coffee
words again

conversation is a fire
we keep rekindling
heat where both
speaker and hearer
try to warm up

for it feels cold
suspended in mid-air
mountains below
light pools above
to rest alone
in the fold of clouds
invoking songs


 III

she writes to tell me
she needs more days
for pain to find her way
through the rocks
flow into a voice
run through the steppe

for now
we are part of a
longer poem
to come perhaps

for now we are left waiting
here at the bottom of this page
at the mercy of a finger
that alone decides
if what is left of us
shall one day reach the sea

kota kinabalu, 24 october 2014

take me to the other shore

day is dimming
across the strait

dying light that receives
early flicker of lamps
from java's shoreline
is still

is still the light that waits
is mute and still

still it rips through mist
shrouding land that falls
into abyss disappears

sense of something closing here
as distances carol
incarnate
undulations
pearly

voice
imbued by ocean speech
i hear you rise
cave in

i disgorge your vowels
one wave at a time


4 august 2013, gilimanuk

alter

dust on your shoulders
incense ash piling at your feet
not a flower to ornate your vase

bouddha
this oversight
is an indictment
to my state of mind

as without
so within
chaos merging
with chaos
seamlessly 

early morning breeze
passes through the window

ubud, 30 september 2014

echoes

in this world
on scales of distance
you are weighed

you weigh
what weighs
a dog's barking
on empty streets

sound of frangipani
falling on the ground

a drop
into the night
that passes

a drop

20 september 2014, ubud



 

alone

there is ease
in dying
if not comfort

there is ease when
heart wears thin
thread-thin
smoke-thin

you snap

to snap
at every sound

20 september 2014, ubud
 

ashes of words

the path with a pulse
that keeps beating
when all seems lost
that keeps beating
when your fingers
consumed by shadows
lose their sight
that keeps beating
the path with a pulse

you stand on the shore
facing moonlit waves
trawlers stringing the
far away with pearls of
absence and
receding roars
receding roars

tears rolling
unwritten and white
on sand that is black
but brims with gold

to be part of the night
part of the salt
adrift in the air
in the breeze of grief
to be part of the night

star clusters you take in
blued jewels of darkness
pangs of dreams
love's murmuring
crossings your face
now begins to mirror

you feel devotion
for the muted pain
given into your care

canggu, 4 july 2014




 

logos

full moon illumines boulders
and sleepy  stones strewn
on mountain pathway
grass and hedges
gleam with frost

voice
the silent voice listens
obeys the procession
of silvery clouds

hereon your kingdom commences
jewelled branches your crown
let sombre tree shades
guide you to the frozen heart
where austere a throne awaits you
among shattering mirrors
myriad

la rochette, 2004

travel provisions

as if the mind
recalling the mind
itself or another
always the other
mirror
reminiscing emptiness
where erring images slide
as the body shears through
sleep

wherever you be
you are a gate open
to welcome seas
star or any mountain
hurdling your sight

each breath a circle
vertiginously expanding
enfolds galaxies unknown
returns you
to that single source
spring of your purest request

time and space
not apart from you
your emerging
eclipsing

exit tower of silence

now that mirrors
lower their glow
pain cedes to rest
now that this body
has been released
you may close your eyes
and watch me freely slide
along the watercourse

i am part of all journeys
here and to come

your blessings
a budding fragrance
guides me home



hardiwar, 2001

bilan

page
yet another
on the journey turned

is that what it’s called
this erring oblivion
of ends and beginnings

not knowing why
not knowing whence
nor whereto from here

no longer questioning
what portent to sea’s
glittering mirrors
sands brushed away on dunes
echo of cries dying in the wind

or

dreams that from threshold
to threshold displace us

or

stars’ borrowed light
some fading preceding us

arambol, 2007

it was blue

from gold to amber
now for the end flight
cast in glassy brown
oak trees
we shed summer
together
on these hills
leaf after leaf

leaving you asleep
beneath giant rocks
down a stony trail i move

shadow slithering on scree
i cross the bloodline
of voiceless crows


la rochette, 2005

pour ainsi dire

at the village bar
the boy serving drinks
hands me a slip of paper

day is coming to a close
cashew hills retreat in the dark
night birds can sing now in the bush

pain bluntly sharpens
without sending out signs
consignment of grief
va donc de soi

poems are fatherless
alone and without echo
they stand at crossroad of winds
while we sleepwalk along country roads
they watch over our silence

its god's day today he says
gangeshwera
each monday
bhajans
sung in his praise


mandrem, february 2013

white stone on white stone

when death comes
alone she finds me
alone and in agony
in no shape to welcome her
with a bouquet of lilies
as she walks home
to walk me back home
lips murmuring graces
should one still hear

we offer our late hours to these walls
that in turn offer to entomb us
with glittering dust of prayers
suspended in mid air

when death comes
leave my linen outdoors
let the rain pour libations on them
let them reach down and grow with the turf

nothing is lost
may you receive abundance
as i receive abundance
abundance of rain
thirst in abundance
thirst blooming into desert
desert resurrecting hell

hell of this man
hell of that man
peaceful moon of no man
showering treasures of afar

this is the hell of man
nothing is lost
only forgotten
so that we may stop and see
so that we may silence
so that we may amen

ubud, 13 february 2014

wet of late

not unlike the young snake
slithering through drenched grass
not seeing the high wall
rising to bar her path

you are not seeing
the high wall
rising to bar your path
not unlike the young snake
slithering through drenched grass

ubud, 22 december 2013