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| Jaydeep Sarangi |
1. Souvenirs
In our love’s souvenirs
left paths are worth more
than the paths we walk everyday
full with grass flowers smiling.
Where are those rivers gone
On the banks of which we sat together
Dreams beating at our heart
sparks of touches were signals?
from the Subarnarekha to the Ganges
each letter or a gift was a journey into the heart
of an ancient city and its clouded river water
that could be a love poem for you.
Only old bricks abound
some noisy crows
searching for a lost horoscope
dictating towards our meeting again
With what fibre is it woven now?
A lotus with eight petals spinning the wheel
with five elements, holy threads
making a silky thread somewhere.
2. House of Words
Sitting under my foliage of words, I count pearls
I gathered in a gesture of prayer, ask them to describe
this immense faith, this gash, this silence, this purity
with the infinite and never having enough moments to hold.
I summon all mighty emperors, knocking at the
heart's door tonight, old pain arrives again
outside my door like a ghost of my grandfather.
I am warned again and again not sit idle, not writing.
I extend hands inviting moments to travel
through my daily thoughts and feelings to connect
I’m not chosen for time’s beloved as you are,
Sparkling waterfalls you hold in both palms.
***
3.
My fate is where pure minds chant
on the ghats of an ancient river
no one else, only surrendering the self
narrow lanes of Varanasi, moving water.
I couldn’t stop for the road not taken.
Pyres in burning ghats stopped for me,
to be lost or to be a saviour of souls.
Meet me where the end begins
in the Himalayan silence
where your universe is me
and my universe is you, all in prayers.
Ruins of Akrotiri or Mohenjo-daro
the peacock dances in tunes.
Tears, tears against the dying light of the day
Empting all shared times, words and meetings
Life’s vessel is on voyage on a all-weather bed
to live upon these shifting shores, random moments.
***
4. Memory as My Writing
Formless like the waves
Rising on the sea shores
My memory surges
Sessions of thoughts at late nights
My memory is like an old stone lying
As I cross river beds under an alien sky
Time’s tongue is lolling out of hunger
From Palm leaves to stones. Writing.
Old images were inscribed
Pangs, prayers and funerals
On my brown skin
Even today, this afternoon.
Thorns to flowers. Daffodils to Hibiscus
Memory is my voices, reflections.
***
5. The River of Life
In a living voice from the past
messages are tall shadows.
Life moves on like people huddling
standing, sitting, chanting together,
walking and preparing for the prayer meets
beside an ancient river of holy faith.
Sages chant for peace, order
flowing in a vessel of searching light.
Home for all who have no
homes to go, no sky to live.
Only prayers exist for ages--
are a huge door, hope of the secret river flowing
carrying the heart of a nation
living and longing, faithfully
holding the world on its lotus self.
***
ABOUT THE POET:
Dubbed as ‘Bard on the Banks of Dulung’ Jaydeep Sarangi is an Indian poet,
poetry activist with eleven poetry collections in English latest being the half-confession (2024). And scholar
on dalit studies, postcolonial studies and Indian Writings with forty one books
anchored in Kolkata/Jhargram. Widely anthologised and reviewed as a significant
contemporary poet Sarangi is on the editorial
boards for journals of repute, devoted to marginal studies and poetry
criticism. With Rob Harle he has edited six anthologies of poems from Australia
and India which are a wealthy literary link between the nations. With Amelia
Walker, he has guest edited a special issue for TEXT, Australia. Sarangi has twenty books and several
articles/essays/reviews on dalit studies which are a window to the world. His
recent article, “The Sociological Self as
Palimpsest Caste, Class, Religion,
and Gender in the Select Writings of Bama” appeared through Routledge, UK. His recent co-authored
books include, Mapping the Mind, Minding
The Map: Twenty Contemporary Indian English Poets, Sahitya Akademi, 2023
and A Life Uprooted: A Bengali Dalit Refugee Remembers,
Sahitya Akademi, 2023. His book of essays, WITHIN HER HOME, AND OUTSIDE:
ESSAYS ON INDIAN ENGLISH POETRY, Black Eagle Books, Dublin, USA (and BBSR) is
in press. With
many international and national awards in the bag, Sarangi is currently the President of Guild of Indian English Writers, Editors
and Critics (GIEWEC) and Vice President, EC, Intercultural Poetry and
Performance Library, Kolkata. Living with poets and poetry, Sarangi is the principal
of New Alipore College, Kolkata. Two
recent quotes about his poems, "(Jaydeep’s)
poems continues Jaydeep's indignation with the plight of the downtrodden, and
his love of flowing rivers and mystical realms. An enchanting read!" by Robert Maddox-Harle, Reviewer & Poet, Rainbow Region, NSW Australia.
“Jaydeep’s poems
are rooted in the world of being and feeling, conjuring up colour and senses
and sensibilities, asking how it is that we humans navigate the natural domain,
survive the social domain.” By Jen Webb, a Professor, Creative Practice,
University of Canberra, Australia and a distinguished poet
Link to a
recent newspaper coverage (The Hindu):
He may be reached at: jaydeepsarangi1@gmail.com Website:
https://jaydeepsarangi.in/
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