~ 
Here is a list of names of some of my poems
(most of them published elsewhere before) in alphabetical order. To read any
particular poem, click on its name.
- A "Fall"en
Beauty
- A Query
- A Tall Dream!
- A 'Wondrous' Thought
- An Instantaneous Poem
- Candlelights
- Forethought
- Humanity
- In Search of a Line
- Life
- Love or No Love, That is
the Question!
- Mother Teresa
- Please Save Her!
- Second Home
- Snowy Fancy
- Solitude
- The Birth of a Poem
- The Eternal Question
- Thinking Aloud
- Time
- Unruly Heart
- What is Love?
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here to go to the top of this page.
Life is a pack of cards,
packed with tension all the way,
And a surprise or two to make your day.
Rugged is life with a lot many troughs
and only a few mounds,
A few ups and a lot many downs;
With acquaintances galore
but friendships too few,
And how many to respond to your cry and hue?
Life is strife, --
A story of struggles
with a handful of blossoms,
A puzzle of so many difficult sums.
Strange is life with too few truths
in a plenty of lies,
A smile a while and a day full of sighs;
One or two virtues and lots of vices,
A rose with thorns that make up the spices;
A game full of chance with twists and bends,
And who knows where it turns and where it ends?
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go to the beginning of this poem.
Click here to go to the
list of poems.
I'll carry the smell of my youth
Into the hoary days of my future:
Sweet and memorable fancy
Interposed by pungent yet inevitable reality,
Smell of days hurriedly spent
With conviction and might,
Days of athletic feats and competitions,
Of successes and failures,
Hopes and despairs;
Days of strong commitments
And of desperate attempts to keep them --
All I'll carry.
Time will take its toll on age and physique,
But the spirit will flow
And carry snapshots with it,
Like that of the first exchange of shy looks
With my sweetheart
And love-borne moments I passed with her;
Snapshots of freedom, of bondage,
Of nightmares, of dreams ... ...
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go to the beginning of this poem.
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list of poems.
Let me write a poem unwritten
For a young girl devastated
by the vicissitudes of fortune
and so who has to spend her days
in the false dazzle of red lights.
She had a sweet little home --
Rife with penury, yet sweet --
where she was born and brought up
with caring parents, loving siblings
and yes they were happy.
Like flowers bloom
she bloomed into youth --
comely, lovely youth --
When one day clouds sailed into her skies
and darkened everything.
She was taken by a storm --
storm that began in her sweet little home
and ended in the false dazzle of red lights.
Let me sing a song unsung
(An elegy perhaps)
For that young girl,
hapless and enchained with compulsion,
rocked by Destiny --
cruel , uncompromising Destiny!
O humankind, please be awake
And with all your might save her! --
Save her from disgrace,
from oblivion,
from slow yet inexorable death!
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go to the beginning of this poem.
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list of poems.
A home away from home,
Far away,
I do breathe in air from home.
Reno, Nevada, U.S.A. --
My home away from home --
Gives me a world of fresh breath:
Glittery evenings, frequent parties, sumptuous dinners,
Myriad of international friends,
Friendly chats and blabbering;
Here I find a gateway of opportunities,
Dream of a bright future seems close to reality;
An environment free from air pollution,
Cool, calm, quiet, beautiful, picturesque, serene,
And above all,
There is the gentle, polite, receptive behavior of the people,
Who gave me a warm welcome to this second home of mine,
Far away from home in India.
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go to the beginning of this poem.
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list of poems.
The pangs of solitude nobody knows
But one who has lost his or her sweetheart
Or one who has had to leave her or him
in a very distant land
Far from sight
And has to live alone
With nobody to be beside
In pain or joy...
The pangs of solitude are hard to stand,
But one has to when it comes to
just not being able to do without it.
I wonder how with such big burdens
people do maintain a mental equilibrium!
I wonder how solitude
could not tear apart the human heart
and make the body and mind non-existent! --
It is, indeed, a wonder!
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go to the beginning of this poem.
Click here to go to the
list of poems.
The reflections of the white snowy flakes
sink deep into my heart,
My mind dances with ecstasy
And a feeling of elation
carries me through the chill of the night:
Quiet and calm, serene and lonely,
the night dresses up like a bride in wedding gown!
Wet with emotions
and white with fancy,
I fly like a bird to a land unknown! ... ...
I wander places at my will
and stop not for anything --
Over trees and houses and streets I fly,
Over rivers and lakes and streams I fly,
Over mountains and dales and passes I fly --
I fly and cry with never-ending joy:
I cry and smile and cry
And know not when I sleep
on the bosom of Mother Nature!
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go to the beginning of this poem.
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list of poems.
Someone from somewhere
Is watching us
Always......
Hide yourself in the closet,
Run away into the wilderness,
However much you forget the world,
Know for sure
Someone is watching us
From within and without,
From somewhere in hiding,
Away from the human eye
Always......
A pair of eyes keep following you
Wherever you go
Whatever you do
Always......
The question is:
If that pair of eyes
Is that of the Father
Trying to protect us
From all possible dangers
And from unpleasant situations,
Or if it is that of the Judge
All out to point out our mistakes
And bring us to test
At the Court of Law
From which no one has respite!
Click here to
go to the beginning of this poem.
Click here to go to the
list of poems.
They call him "bastard",
She picks him up by her arms,
Caressing and loving,
Giving him a home to stay,
A name to identify with,
The warm affection and caring of a father,
And endless, unrequited love of a mother,
Raising him up as a gift from Heaven
in the Missionaries of Charity:
She is the true Mother --
Mother Teresa --
A name to conjure with,
The savior of the poorest of the poor,
The most diseased of the diseased,
The doors of her heart so big are wide open
To embrace Truth
in the crudest of the crude forms,
A living legend in the world of misery,
The world of haste, of sickness, of poverty,
of anxiety, of hatred, of war,
of destruction, of death.
When beggars -- the children of God -- die
No comets are seen in the sky,
When the Mother -- also a child of the same God -- dies
Comets fly to a different world
To make the world think
That there are no comets, no beggars,
no desolation, no destitution;
But there is peace,
there is solidarity,
there is happiness,
As variants of richness of the heart
possessed by the Mother,
Who can never die:
She lives, she lives, she lives......
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go to the beginning of this poem.
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list of poems.
Life goes on and on
Even without you...
Even without you!
And I wonder how!
Two hearts,
Melted into one,
Molded into gold,
We poured into our souls
and filled them to the brim:
With no sense of caution,
Without our knowing,
The happy, joyful, twosome heart
spilled over and over...
Limits of reason,
of sense of direction
We left behind in no time.
Then,
All on a sudden,
Again without our knowing,
A wind of change swept us through,
Beating us, torturing us,
Making us puppets
in the cruel hands of time.
Soon after the wind subsided,
I found myself lost --
Lost in the dark,
Left alone by myself,
With no option at hand
even to say "goodbye":
You left
And, without my knowing,
Left for good.
Years rolled by after that,
But...
My parted heart still pounds,
The 'uncompromising' clock
keeps ticking still,
Life keeps on flowing and flowing
Even without you...
Even without you!
And I wonder how!
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go to the beginning of this poem.
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list of poems.
Just for a glimpse of you,
Or even a part of you,
Each day,
I can take the pain
Of climbing the Everest,
Or crossing the Atlantic,
Or breaking the barriers
Of a million acquaintances!
Knock me down
Like an insignificant pebble
From a cliff,
Or throw me away
Like an unwanted piece of paper --
I do not care!
However wayward they may be,
I will follow the rules of my heart,
Which has not gone to any school,
Has not learnt to obey your commands;
And, so, will not stop falling for you!
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go to the beginning of this poem.
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list of poems.
Let me write a line or two,
Whatever comes in mind for you --
Part by part,
Straight from the heart,
Down the stream of arteries and veins,
Falling on paper like snows and rains,
In desert lands
With faded sands......
Keep these lines in store
For moments sad and more,
To make you happy all the while
When you walk a lonely mile;
Remember them as you remember me,
For this time and times to be.
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go to the beginning of this poem.
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list of poems.
Love is one thing that binds all peoples of
the world in one long chain,
Love is the word that bangs your heart again and again;
Love is the thing which at the same time can make one happy and sad,
Love is the thing which at one go can drive people mad;
Love is one thing which has no bounds,
Love at the same time can stand on many different grounds;
Love is joy, love is pain,
Love is the sun, love is the rain;
Love is love which love creates,
And fully opens the mind's gates;
Love is God, love is life,
Love is strength, love is strife;
Love is what makes you live,
Love is more than you can give;
Love is the most powerful power on earth to be found,
Love is everywhere if you carefully look around.
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go to the beginning of this poem.
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list of poems.
Freeze your beauty or this moment
In the museum of my heart,
So that I can revisit it
Again and again
At my will,
Even when you will be away
Or this moment will be gone.
Freeze your beauty or this moment
With a secret password,
Which will be a close preserve
Of me and me alone,
So that I can revisit it
Again and again
At my will.
Give me a chance
To make a carbon copy
Of your beauty or this moment,
So that it becomes an integral part
Of my inner being.
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go to the beginning of this poem.
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list of poems.
Who am I,
A speck in this endless creation,
A boat afloat in a vast ocean?
Limbs, torso, and head do speak of myself,
But who or what is this 'self'?
Is it the ceaseless existence of the soul
Life after life, through transformation?
Or is it illusion?
Do 'I' really exist?
Does anybody and anything, for that matter, exist?
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go to the beginning of this poem.
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list of poems.
What if there were no religions on earth,
No Mandir-Masjid controversy,
No Salman Rushdie "blasphemy",
No Taslima Nasreen escape,
No curfew, no bloodshed?
What if there were no religions on earth
To divide people in mind, in values?
No need to scorn, no need to appease,
No need for lectures and TV speeches?
Why not unite the entire humankind
On one common pulpit,
That of humanity?
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go to the beginning of this poem.
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list of poems.
He always dreamt of a skyscraper
and an airplane crashing past it!
He hardly ever had a penny to buy even a half-meal,
but he always dreamt tall --
Tall like the building
the front pathway of which
he improvised a shelter for himself;
A crooked begging bowl and a shabby worn-out rag
were among the very few things
he proudly inherited from his parents:
No bank savings, no tension,
no rat-race could rule his mind,
Only the dream of a skyscraper
and an airplane...!
Was it just a dream,
Or a nightmare?
He knew not,
And we know not either,
But we can always give it a thought!
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go to the beginning of this poem.
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list of poems.
Times are hard,
Hard to stand:
From personal pangs
To mass suicide in San Diego,
Worries are many;
Youthful memories to contemporary love,
Headaches galore;
Scarcely oblivious mind
Scans at large
The past till the present;
Spanked by time,
Immaculately immune
Is the machine-driven heart
To the modern virus.
But...
International treaties
Trust human endeavor still,
Love gathers momentum with distance
And partners stay close
Till the end even today! ...
God created Man,
And Man reacted
By nailing God to Death!
But even today...
God still exists,
And the Holy resurrection is honored;
Newton's laws still hold good;
The pangs of labor,
However tough and difficult to bear,
Are loved and welcomed
By all birth-providers,
Like the creators
Of various art forms,
And are seriously felt
As were felt
While this poem was born!
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go to the beginning of this poem.
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list of poems.
History it became
The moment in time
I wished to capture
By the stroke of pen!
None can match the speed of time
So to catch it!
It flows and flows and flows
From moment to moment,
From world to world,
From sky to sky,
From mind to mind!
It flies and flies
Farther and farther,
And never dies!
History it becomes everything,
Like it became this moment!
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go to the beginning of this poem.
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list of poems.
Just in search of a line
to describe my feelings,
I ran into rough-and-tough times --
I plundered tons of encyclopedias,
Ravaged piles of thesauri,
Tore off bunches of my overpopulated hair,
Tossed on the bed in pain
as if in labor,
Swallowed vitamins and cups of caffeine,
Spent nights in study,
Became cynical,
Turned a stoic,
Got drunk,
Became a recluse,
Sunk into oblivion, --
Oh my God,
Just in search of a line
to describe my feelings...
But still in vain!
Can I ever find that line
to my heart's content?
I doubt!
But I am still trying,
And will try my best as long as I can,
Because it is in this trying to find
That I discover my newer feelings,
My newer thoughts,
That give birth to more and more lines --
Just in search of a line
to properly describe my feelings!
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go to the beginning of this poem.
Click here to go to the
list of poems.
I smell my life inching towards my heart,
And a chilling thrill drains through my veins
In the hushed silence of the night....
A symphony of achievements and failures,
Wrongs and rights,
Goods and bads
Of the distant and the near past
Plays on a number of unknown dimension,
Unheard of before,
Untouched and unraveled by the mind,
In the hushed silence of the night....
Mother Nature has painted a picture
By herself both outside and inside,
With the magic touch of her tender hand --
A picture of cool, red-yellow beauty,
Shining and glowing bright,
Heralding the advent of fall,
Speaking a volley of mixed emotions,
Even in the hushed silence of the night....
I hear a far distant voice whisper in my
ears,
I feel the warm breath of someone close to me,
I sense the soothing touch of Beauty
Beckoning me to be by Her side,
The entire creation seems to creep into myself, --
I unlock my mind into eternity,
I start counting steps towards tomorrow
And lose track mid-way;
Bewildered and bemoaned,
I stop thinking,
Just keep smelling life inching towards my heart
In the hushed silence of the night....
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go to the beginning of this poem.
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list of poems.
LOVE OR NO LOVE, THAT IS THE
QUESTION!
There is no love, no trust, no faith
but in stories, in movies, in dreams --
No potion can make love happen,
No lotion can cure the lacerations
caused by the tantalizing Goddess of Love... ...
The hapless mind pines for love still!
Love has been described and analyzed and
thought of
so much and in so many ways
as no other thing on earth has ever been!
But what is love?
Is it just a concept of the utopian mind?
Is it a mirage in a desert land?
Is it merely a hallucination?
Is it barely true?
Is it a dream only to be dreamt
and forgotten at its end?
When I place my mind in its proper place,
I fail to find a proper answer;
But when I think with my mind
in the periphery of my heart,
I find Love's sweet beckoning
at all times and at all places:
A stream of amrita flows
from eternity to eternity!
It all depends on how you LOVE,
i.e. Learn to Observe the Various Ends of life!
***************
Note: The word 'amrita' comes from the
Sanskrit word 'amritam' meaning the divine fluid, which, if drunk, gives
endless life!
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go to the beginning of this poem.
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list of poems.
Candlelights keep burning in my heart, --
A glowing ray of hope keeps me awake
in the widerness, in the desert, everywhere:
History of my past has created such an inertia
That it now carries me through my years...
As if I have wings of fancy
And I travel through eternity
To touch the ever-fleeting truth!
I cross the boundaries of time and space
with incredible ease,
Looking for a tender-yet-firm pair of arms
to comfort my overburdened cranium,
Looking for a sky to lift my eye up to
and rest my nerves under the azure canopy
of a myriad stars,
Looking for a soulful heart
to let my heart rest in peace,
As candlelights keep burning in my heart!
Candlelights keep burning in my heart...
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go to the beginning of this poem.
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list of poems.
Copyright © 1999 to all poems on this site is owned exclusively by Swagata Banerjee. All rights reserved.
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I will welcome your feedback to this page so that I
can improve on it.
