Voices Within: Debendra Sahu

Debendra Sahu is a Corporate-Finance Banker, a dreamer by nature, free bird by spirit and seeker by choice is a passionate young Poet who finds his calling in penning down poems through his experience and imagination put together in the best combination. Words and metaphors are his best buddies when his thoughts go wild and flow free in the canvas of poetry. His passion for bilingual writing in Oriya and English got recognition at a very early age through publications of poetries and short stories in magazines, plays in All India Radio, TV and stage that he wrote.

Bouquets near the Woods

That day you softly said with a feathery smile that men don’t cry,

Gulping down few tinted pills lying at the hospital bed

While reticently unveiling the blanket from your withered face.

Trust me, I have never rained a drop of tear after that,

Even when you traversed on a long adieu to a virgin land

Packed in a box located at six feet down

Leaving me in the lurch like a kite unthreaded, detached & trashed.

Maybe I was fragile so my heart was reduced to multiple wee pieces

But I held myself like an earth clutching all the five oceans of my eyes

Without spilling an ounce from the waves splashed in my face,

Tight fisted, contained the uprising in my quivering pulses.

O’ my Turtledove, one day I will go six feet below to find your lips,

Caress them for infinitude over and over again

Erase that somber expression on your ravishing face.

Careful enough not to awaken you from your deep slumbers,

After all, finally you have gone to your bed

In search of bouquets of Lily near the woods.

Weaker with Every Breath

The pensive full-moon peeping through the hanging clouds

Midnight sea-winds roaring from the desolate shores

No one around to chase away the tidal rolling waves

Or run away from the water whitened like milk that swells.

I am lying solitary on the beach like one last flower of the season

To my left the vast sea and to the right, the city of Mumbai

Beneath my immobile body the wet ocean of sand

And above, the infinite grey skies hovering over

Till yester-night, he was my brother; love, pain, smiles and tears

For he was mortal, travelled towards the heavens.

When he was too full of sleep to understand or realize

I was there when his body gently laid into rest in fire.

My mind strolling in search of a fountain of wines

Where I can lie inebriated closing both my eyes

Wishing to pull over the sky and spread over me

Tell the stars, no more to twinkle and fool around

Bring the clouds closer, not to rock but to hide beneath

For I am growing weaker, a crumbling pillar with every breath.

In Pursuit of Bliss

O Chandelier!

For ages you have been staring at me

You remain silent, still gazing at me.

From a peripheral view, have caught you smiling at me

Murmuring thousand tales, even shedding tears for me.

Often heard you saying, ‘O Candle, I love your appearance

Wherever you travel, sprinkle an enduring elegance.

You exuberate an ambience that’s so soft, yet warm

I love your beauty, nothing else but your charm’.

But fail to understand that you never go down

On your knees and whisper, ‘I love you, you are my own.’

Wonder, why love doesn’t kindle within you

Or your soul get ignited or inflamed within you.

Why are you holding yourself back at the fence

Is it the vagary of modesty, inhibition or mere diffidence!

O Chandelier!

I know you are a magician with a piper

I can crawl on you & wriggle, if you make me a creeper.

Lie me down, hover over me like the sky and then kiss

Bring your hands around my waist and crush my lips.

Show little more magic, you be a sea and make me a river

Open your arms, let me flow into your embrace, O my dear.

Let me warn, no more my wick can withhold the flame

Be hurry, my wax is melting so rapid

I know I cannot tame.

Voices Within - Complete List of Poets :: Setu, January 2019