I caught myself...

Leave out all the rest
it's our faith that's been put to test
Candidly light
the spaces that have been darkened
by this light

In them amorphously dwell
shades of both heaven and hell

I seek you out while
within flaying you alive
While the truth is that
the fire rages deep within
without reprise

All it burns is all there's alive
like a pain that's cued for reprise
over and over, the soot of solitude
a thick mist of black and white

Falling from heights that were never mine
rising to levels stranger to my mind
Tumbling down is free falling
to the lows that were earlier appalling

Where were you, in hindsight
Where were the promises that
had to fishnet our lows

In losing and failing and
unimaginable derailing
I caught myself...

Castaway

Leading from a land
to a place without shore...

Running in oblivion
but circumspect to the core

Muddled in disbelief
and demonized by the cynosure
of this black

Heaps and heaps
of torn sand
waved upon miles
of unpossessed land

Tagging the mirth
of the vast emptiness along
like the barren wind
whistling for rain to come along...

Blur into the thin divide, the ends meet
and worlds collide,
words polite and thoughts aside

part between the gentle
and the maverick, cast aside

I hide in the blue tavern
where abstract was at play,
a coral stoner gazing at the still day

No feelings or words,
just emotions at play
dark and sullen
there the dandy lost its way...

A cry in the lone,
a gump in his moan
dithering but never shown
censored for those to whom known...


And then the 'happy, forever be,'
a dream that swells within every anomaly
sailing away to the place
before wailing away what was,
what it was, unsure...

अंकुश

उठते कुछ सवालों के साथ

बीते कुछ इरादों के सहारे

पानी में बहते कुछ तूफानों के बीच

हमने भी अपने इरादे उतारे

ज़मीन से फलक तक

खाव्हिशों की झलक तक

बिखरे कुछ पल, जो कल थे हमारे

कही अनकही और सुनी अनसुनी

और जो कह के भी न

समझ पाये, कुछ ऐसे थे इशारे

जाने पहचाने, अपने बेगाने

ज़िन्दगी के नजराने

और कुछ बेखुदी के पैमाने

खो कर मिल जाने

और कुछ महफूज़ ख़ज़ाने

आज ज़िन्दगी की कशमकश में कितने

अनदेखे थे और अब हैं कितने अनजाने

चुप रहकर सोचें तो कितने गम हैं

बाहें फैलाये इस अँधेरे में आखिर कितने रंग हैं?

और कह कर अगर जग जायें रातें

तो सूरज बन क्या कल जग जायेंगे...

इस अंकुश से हर सवाल तक बढ़ते सब कदम हैं

न आये आंधियां तो भी ज़िन्दगी क्या पूरी है?

दूरियां और फासले खुद से भी क्या उतने ही ज़रूरी हैं?