portrait of the poet

Master Wordsmith Gulzar by Saurabh Turakhia

Sketch

Remember, one day,
While sitting at my table
You sketched on a cigarette box
A tiny plant

Come and see,
That plant has bloomed!

— Gulzar, tr. Pavan K. Varma

the box stayed closed as if
hiding a lost thought
from another time, when
your words would settle
like sediment
at the bottom
of my breath,

as i read you out loud,
flicking ash from one wrist,
upending the goblet in
gesticulation
from another.

you draw words
like those vessels
bursting forth in the kitchen,
strung to a high note
of despair & hope,

your love speaks to me,
even though i have barely scratched
the skin of that mischievous marauder,
and yet i feel i know, as if
from another life, another rhyme.

you free my closed thoughts,
and water seeds of my silence
as i sing you and praise you
to myself.

.
© Anmol Arora

For A Tribute to Poets of Our Time at WTR. I am paying my tribute to one of my favourite poets and lyricists, Gulzar. Gulzar is 84 now. So, whenever I talk about him and his sprawling work with anyone, I only hope that we wring it out of him — his poetic brilliance, his sensibility, his love, and all he has offered to us for decades — in this lifetime.

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waking up alone

a sweet supposition of staying –

a berry-like beau living in little
exchange of a light dream,
dying in the rapture of its brilliance
in a paint-peeling world,

a likely return to the existing
absence of its past, a sky white
wakefulness towards its own burning –

a river, a moon fretting over
a hundred years of dashed hopes, of brittle
triumphs –

twenty-seven miles breaking
hearts, still making dreams,
negotiating for rainbow griefs,

rising, chasing, waking up alone

all for a similar kind of relief.

.

For MLM Menagerie’s Music Challenge on Moon River. I chose to go with Amy Winehouse’s cover. The above outline was something I drew recently. It has been 7 years now that she’s gone. The title is based on one of her tracks.

Also linking it up, albeit a little late, with dVerse OLN.

planet earth is blue and there’s nothing I can do

an infidel runs out to the street
to gaze at the five planets which aren’t there,
the whore ties her hair in a bun
to sing to the moon draped behind the clouds,
and the starving mutt barks

creating a collapsing sense of reality,
where sound & vision are marred by
the man who sold the world,

the goblin king wreathing gold coins
enumerating the faces in pain, and
the pain in faces.

how odd is that space of un-belonging,
how dust from stars fall into my eyes
to let me see and let me think, and burn
from ashes to ashes, from skin to skin,

I did relinquish the desire of faith and fate,
I stole the diamonds from his eyes
but they were just buttons with no life,

so in the end, there are only dreams
and that tiny whimsy bit of hope
that has to be quashed, in order
to live.

the whore’s song has died.
the infidel castrated,
the starving has starved,
and I,
I, done with the world.

.
Image source

A Farewell to David Bowie. Linking it up with With Real Toads.

Right2Write Prompt 6: Tribute to Nation/Other Language Poetry

There were many wonderful creations submitted in response to the last week’s prompt, Broken Red. I am thankful to everyone who participated.

source

For this week, I am summoning everyone to submit any of their creations, be it poetry, short story or non-fiction for the prompt, as a tribute to their nation. Or in case English isn’t your mother tongue, you can convert an already existing piece by you or any other acclaimed poet/lyricist in your own language, to English and post it.

I think that is quite an interesting idea. I will look forward to your entries. Remember there is a choice between the two of them. You may submit multiple links, writing both of them as well. In simple words, start writing now…

General Guidelines:-

1. Write and submit the links to your creation in the linking widget below.

2. Try to visit other writers who submit their links for the prompt. In this way, you will get to share your work and receive feedback as well.

3. Tell others of this prompt. Everyone is invited to participate.