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

demeurer

hour of parting comes
that lifelong fascination

weeks stay in samui where
balmy westerly winds stir
waters deceivingly shallow

what you leave behind alike
to what you take with you
lush tree leafages
careening coconut-trees
ruffled by the breeze
combing the breeze
breeze-inebriated
swinging
wild

directions' mantra released
chants of removal from
bays of distances
harbors in longing

swiftly moving ritual
high tidal cadences
reinventing shores to brace for
morning rises to come

just as stars
when they brace
darks in retreat

koh samui, february 2004

with the rain

it is early morning
as i come to sit in a circle
birds spread out before me
with music that wears away
roots' heavy years in the air
in the air in the air in the air

gateway to a mighty voice
the rain the rain the rain
as it pounds on tin roofs and leaves
as it pounds on passages of sleep
whence i struggle to emerge
soon there to return
without this bundle
or so says the wish
after ferrying an orphan pain

though often the urge to unload
ends weighing on the burden

this listening redeems
it is an ancient song
it is the voice of the world
humming its own beginning
maybe a resurrection

source of endless vibrant songs
where alongside birds
we too glean our provision

siem reap, august 2011
ubud, july 2013

       

return

if i could say whence i would say back again

 

if i could say again i would say leaving again

 

it all springs from loss

 

incidental  the loss of more or the loss of less

 

nothing to be lost in time eternally forsaken

 

this much shall be preserved

 

what we are losing now cannot measure against the forever lost

 

joy of being part of or abandoned by the irremediable the irrevocable

 

sheer beauty of being a part of or being sundered by the perdition that floods the human mind

 

we are still human we are the too human

 

our lids closely sealed as visions race by in what we call our wake in what we call our sleep

 

 in what they call in what the dead call that slumberous journey

 

pulling into no station for ever marvellously rolling by

 

many a weathered tree witness our passage

 

for only to fire fire returns

 

upright and broken

to rise to soar

through verbal heights

shouldering trees hills

shouldering clouds

regal

to summon winds

scolding stars

chimera

chimera too

underworld images

guilt fault terror

human like the like unlike
captive to fateful tunes

as abysses slowly herd us in

in muteness to creep
to moan
you bemoan
bemoan separation

what separation

chimera

palms

light's calling you heed
ever rising
above scarcity
and abundance

its a dizziness we
pain to outgrow
thirsting for purer sources
itself submerges us

pulled along your wake
we leave our face
pearling in your hands





nice, 2007

praise to the unborn

for nima

the bridge on which i stand
call it gateway of the mute
life and death both
pass through its arches

what runs in these waters
is more than just obscured
parts of fortune and
home seeking souls

here sound of fish flapping as
more than a star cast shimmers
on the trembling surface

a candle by the window pane
is what i have to offer
to hearten you in these droughts
as you stumble through bardos
solid night of weeping names
heavy on your shoulders

mandrem, 25 november 2011

sans commencement

palm-fronds' rustle
unending
waves on the shore
breaking
bird psalmodies
myriad spirals
loosened in the air

traveler
its the same book
erring
we write
writing
we efface

drinking light of sands
as they pour in the eyes

calls
recalls
of emptiness


arambol, 2007

nour

wondrous too
our grieving samsara

where with a smile
adjourning time
you tie the seas
that sunder us

where i slowly waken
as you wheel my soul
with ring of songs

together we blaze
by fire’s breath
untouched

and its light
uplifting light


mougin, 2005

stasis

entering a deserted
mountain village
in white heat

that single toll
from the steeple
arrests you

blast
dashing through
a dragonfly’s head

so goes
the fine mind
of nirvana


la rochette, august 2006

langue invisible

since we need to stand our ground
where no ground is to be found
since we lose our way
where no way is to be lost
through and away from
language 
you mirrors of

since no one is to name

no one to call to recall
in forgetfulness to dwell
in forgetfulness to name

though no sound to enshrine
the homeless one
the nameless one
that no more of  you
nor less of me
could construe
with trust common to rivers

just promise of dust

some dust of you
some ash from me
kneaded together

just promise of us
awash in predawn showers

 

mandrem, october 19, 2009

near to harvest

thicker the veil than
what you were told

just a tremor at times
running through wet grass
basked in sleeping shadows

its late night moon
cloud fringes kindle
with whispers of her halo

silhouetted against woods
palm trees enlace the paddies
crops slowly ripening into gold

deep voices of frogs
squeezing songs
out of motherland lungs


ubud, 21 april 2013