Poetry: Nandini Sahu

Nandini Sahu

Zero Point

I am at the zero point of divine energy

in the engagement of numbers in enjoining my universe.

The muse of my life is to accomplish freedom

 and mount to sundrenched worlds.

My existence is designed to realize inner transparency

of the metalanguage and institution, and

 zero is my witness, guardian, channel and champion.

Zero is an algebraic account of Nirguna Brahman

 the Brahman sans a form and devoid of intrinsic worth.

Nirguna Brahman is a timeless ambiguity.

The known-unknown. So is zero.

The bodily laws of the cosmos

do not pertain to zero.

Zero rises as a link

between the material and the metaphysical

 between cause and conviction.

The least and also the leading of all,

 it could neither be ruined nor twisted.

 I find it everywhere,

veiled  in every other figure.

Zero is symbol of the primitive.

There is no other in order

that can embody me at this point

with such precision and such attached-detachment.

From Dust to Dust: A Voyage

Air

In the Air’s dirge and in its uncanny speech

In the symbolic inscape, towards an anonymous acreage to reach.

In the muted melancholy, winding round and round

In the deep scars of ages, sheltering words from their sound.

The ‘anatomy of love’ just glossed over the bracelet of the heart

The ruthless self-probing did create a mayhem and then an amendment.

In the cosmic plane and in the evolutionary destiny of man

On the sanctified invocation to the Muse, in an interminable fusion.

Oh virgin air!! Please tell me, what is sacred and what is profane?

Death levels all, from dust to dust—to the five elements we are prone.

Water

And then the Air went on wandering upon blue Water.

Blue was the motif, pure blue, unguarded and blessed.

Why did their guilty tongues stagger without a purpose?

Was a thirsty  yearning woman denied water amid all abundance?

Yes water is virtuous in myriad ways, not evil even when not good.

Water is reverie to nurture beyond all achievement and disappointment.

Like Sophocles’, water soothed the  bereaved soul of my  fiery being,

Like Everest, water stood tall amid sledgehammer and lute.

Of course my daily life is my temple, my faith and  conviction.

With watermark I ascend  earthly heights, towards a quivering sun.

Earth

I had been cohesive with the woodlands, I being the Earth.

I blossomed on the blooms, and then flourished  watery fresh.

In the avocado sprouts, the vines were my attitudes.

My senses flowered on every bush, and in my vulnerable arms.

Whitecaps in the soaring pointed grassland, and in the silvery murkiness

And the sea side respired with me, and the looping waves.

Trembled through the stomata of my own membrane

I had been cohesive with the woodlands, I being the Earth.

Our paradise was occupied with celebration of  light to rejoice the fusion

The green Earth was adorned with buds for  the  invocation.

Fire

I said let there be Fire and Fire there was !

The wandering soul ascended naked and with pride unabashed.

I earned love, I deserved to drink to the lees, filling life’s cups  numerous.

I have been just a giver, an instrument of giving,conquering all fire.

Life! You owe me a debt, you made me the eternal Socrates.

In the jeopardy of the abysmal, you have unsettled my winged feet.

I fear no fire now, all fire engulfed in me with time implicit

No fear of time-eternal,death or even any dainty unknotted route.

Love is the intermittent flux, a fiery ‘me’ enters its mode of being

I powder a single essence into myriad forms, the blue firmament is watching.

Sky

Oh! The sky is ablaze with gulmohur  this sepia noon,

With champak and  jasmine composed from the mellowing dawn.

New leaves sprouting on the banyan stems, yearning skyward

Honey-bees conduit, piping the budding figs; blooms call the bees homeward.

Coral and ivory lilies reveal their fragile gold

The insects and kingfishers perturb the plumy sedge.

Round the gloom of my lonesome nightfall, ululates a carnival of lights,

Like Plato, I trust justice is loftier than injustice, they deliberate it or not!!

Today’s Air is my god-self, to persist forever unblemished.

Much in it is my not-yet being, still today’s ether is bright-winged.

My Tranquil City, Tonight

Is it fine with you, love, to live and negotiate

through the language of oblivion?

It’s a separate matter that

this is yet another love story for you.

And you can tell us, re-tell, re-tell more tales.

Some know partsof it, some not even a hint of it,

some compose their own editions of it.

Anyway,I remember the primary version of the tale--

that clouds froze in dark nights.

Despite your claim

that I took your story and turned it into

whatever I needed to.

Fair enough,to make the world contented

of late

you began to amend

a simpler, happier life for yourself.

Fair enough, love!

I am glorious.

Proud.

More proud.

Much more, tonight.

To love you is like going to

the battlefield.

One comes broken, bruised

from the battle, for sure.

Still I feel like a lepidopterist, who has

Gloriously peeved an unusual moth.

We couldn’t have been written out of the past, right?

I know that youknow that I know.

The untold and the told, I know it all.

Predictable, comforting, heartening sorrows,

but trustworthy, consistent ones.

Tonight

my city is tranquil;

as if the city is having its meditation classes

as if we all are gleaming from our Yoga sessions.

Tonight

the sky is the woodland of stars.

I wonder,

is another world possible?

Ever? Ever?

Life failed me in a nebulous yet fundamental way.

Let me embrace what you have given me

like we embrace old friends;

let me deal with your gifts like

we handle old enemies.

Perhaps it’s raining in my head

perhaps it’s my survival strategy.

I know that you know that I know.

This is how it has always been

between you and me.

I made you so tall, I needed to,

in order  to live life;

and thus, you always act

as if I owe you a thing or two.

We have been simultaneously

sweethearts and former sweethearts

siblings and former siblings

lovers and former lovers

friends and former friends.

When it comes to the matter of heart

we always have had

 an implicit jungle of safety nets.

Your knowledge has made you pessimistic;

your intelligence,tough and callous.

You think too much and believe too little.

And love even less.

You are my salvation, you are my nemesis.

In you,I have been swimming through layers of love.

With you, the heart suffers like a grey pebble

in an accumulating stream

rolling down, always in motion.

I have been your beloved madcap.

You  know why.I don’t need to tell.

I knew love, the macabre, would visit upon me.

So you did.

We knew that we knew that we knew.

And then the Judgment Day had been forestalled

a blessing received its place.

I wish life could be minus such determinations

and death minus such finality. 

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Prof. Nandini Sahu (Professor of English, Creative writer, Folklorist, Critic).
www.kavinandini.blogspot.in
kavinandini@gmail.com

Setu, August 2018