THREE GHAZALS: Kanwar Dinesh Singh

Kanwar Dinesh Singh

1. The Providence

Reminiscences of days bygone scrape my heart again and again;
I cannot do anything than acquiesce to the crawling, protean pain.

I try hard to forget my past, but maybe even God can’t repeal that;
All my efforts to disavow my indiscretions peter out in vain.

Who could ever itemize the excruciating impasse of existence?
Too many inhale and succumb to a spiritually impotent strain.

Combating against one’s Providence is not an undemanding task,
That’s why, Dinesh, everyone looks at one’s nakedness in disdain.


2. Gordian Knots

Oft we speak of ourselves for what we are truly not;
While we’re icy within, how highly we feign to be hot!

How fondly we show up when clean enough in face!
While inside how craftily we hide many a grubby spot!

How we keep spreading our politely scheming tentacles;
Yet on every cord we loop a Gordian knot! 

By the time we get to our height as sought,
Dinesh, on our inside grows up the thickset rot!


3. Befuddled

Carry on, Friend, with your affairs fearlessly here,
God’s far away from sight, you’ve autonomy here.

Who is bothered when the conscience grows quiescent?
There’s no constraint other than conscience here.

People wouldn’t believe in your cries howsoever loud,
Until you bellow on a loudspeaker, none will hark here.

The propagandists peddle their strategic points of view,
The chorus of the majority is the one-and-only truth here.

I am befuddled between the left and the right,
Walking the middle-of-the-road is lonely here.

Setu, May 2019