The roles I play are the ones I believe
Creating in the process my outer identity
Which learns to dance and sing with the shadows
Transforming mere perception into reality

Childhood, adolescence, adulthood, old age
Are the various scenes in this act
Which I learn to play reasonably well
Keeping the age old script intact

Am I really the genuine I
Playing out these diverse roles
Or is the real I lying hidden
Silently nesting in my soul

I need to cut the clutter of the apparent
And dive deep within my mind
To grasp the reality of my true self
Immanent, unchanging and sublime

Subir Chakraborty
29th August 2020

The fourth dimension is time
Which I have left long behind
Now moving at a blitzy pace
Towards the others in line

This body cannot tie me down
For I am traversing in my mind
As the daunting galactic years
Cannot keep me in a bind

The sensory organs sense danger
Of being obliterated to dust
Unable to create any illusion
Of anger, greed, sadness or lust

I continue to travel unimpeded
As awareness seeps in gradually
And my Being begins to resonate
With a gush of conscious energy

Subir Chakraborty
27th August 2020

The abundance within leaves me spellbound
For it is unique in many respects
Nothing like I had ever experienced
Nothing like I had ever encountered

For it is mere nothingness, ungraspable
Unbounded treasures of silence
Silently nudging me to keep my calm
And enjoy the tranquil intensity of existence

Where it is an undifferentiated world
Where the you and the I have ceased to have any meaning
Where the arrogance of identity and self
Has accepted defeat in its disappearance

I can feel my mind surrender to consciousness
With open arms and a bowed head
Allowing my ego to gradually melt away
Leaving the core to cradle in effulgence

Subir Chakraborty
24th August 2020

The glitter of desire
Drives me crazy
My rationality turns blubbery
My reasoning hazy

The object of desire
Rainbowing at the edges
Rests like a dream
On my mind’s inner ledges

My fountain of joy
The source of all my happiness
Appears embedded within
Bordered with luminescence

And finally, when the object
Comes within my grip
A sudden surge of euphoria
Takes me on a trip

Yet the effect is not long-lasting
Fleeting at the very best
For the meltdown to take place
And indifference to nest

Was the happiness in the object
Or in myself, I ask humbly
Whichever way it be so
Why did it disappear suddenly

Were all my emotions
Connected with the object
Or with mere perception
Created by my senses

For anything not real
Is bound to be transient
Unsteady and unstable
Conceptually evanescent

Happiness can only emerge
With roots in profundity
Nestled in abundance
Divorced from materiality

Subir Chakraborty
18th August 2020

Hiding behind those masks
Are men, women, toddlers, teens
Trying to feel safe and secure
From a virus they haven’t seen

There is an acute feeling
Of irritation and revulsion
At this added contraption
At this mandatory imposition

I ponder deeply and wonder
As to why this should be pertinent
Why does it feel so awkward
Why does it feel so inconvenient

When we are used to it for centuries
Hiding our emotions and pain
Behind those expressionless eyes
And a forced smiling face

Or for that matter
That feeling of intense revenge
Burning our chests
With the fire of vengeance

Nothing we cannot adjust to
Till we finally emerge victorious
And glide once again, effortlessly
Into our normal make-believe chaos

Subir Chakraborty
16th August 2020

The religion of my dreams
Is not adorned by scriptures
Transparent and mellifluous
Free of suffocating strictures

The religion of my dreams
Knows not any ritual
Knows not any divisiveness
Residing in the spiritual

Knows not any language
Other than that of love
Tingling with sweet music
From the heavens above

It knows only of humanity
And of unlimited humaneness
Imbued with limitless inclusivity
And permeated with rare sublimeness

Subir Chakraborty
10th July 2020

Are you living my dream
Cause I am living yours
Cause dreams are really
All you are left with, for sure

When your dear dreams
Cross the limits of your reality
I am there right beside you
To add to your sweet fantasies

So that your precious dreams
Can blend with mine
And create a chemistry
Uniquely divine

When you finally begin
To live my dreams
You may notice familiarity
A place you have been

Cause you shall observe
A set of known footprints
Imploring you once more
To blend with the imprints

Subir Chakraborty / 24th April 2018

I sit, I lounge, I eat, I sleep
I remain locked down in my own house
Yet everything’s not quite the same
Cause times are changing

Cause the winds of change
Do not stop anywhere
Bounded by any circumference
Restricted by any artificial perimeter

Millions have been affected, many more to go
The violence of the times striking surreptitiously, silently
At the citadel of human existence
So haughtily constructed for everlasting permanence

The candle of human life wavers, stutters
Facing the fury of Mother Nature
Causing all pride, arrogance, conceit
Pale into helplessness and insignificance

Almost back to square one
Just like our ancestors in the prehistoric past
Trying to pick up the pieces after a calamity
Trying to find a new meaning to existence

Cause times are changing again
As they have changed many times in the past
Only the eternal question remains unchanged
The purpose of life on this earth

Subir Chakraborty
26th July 2020

When do I feel
The world is mine
Why is it so blissful
Atop cloud nine

Why do I need
To feel eternally happy
Monotonously serene
Lacking in variety

Why do I yearn
For an insipid life
Devoid of twists
Conflict and spice

What is so daunting
About an eventful ride
Filled with the energy
Of a sea gull in flight

Welcoming all winds
With outstretched feathers
Gliding majestically
In the heavens above

Does not matter
Which way they blow
The show goes on
For the mortals below

Subir Chakraborty / 4th June 2018

 

The poison arrow of insult
Is released from my bow
For the target near at hand
For him to fret and crow

And yet what happens next
Takes me by utter surprise
For all the invectives I throw
Greets them all with a smile

Blind with anger and rage
End up shouting some more
Without any effect on him
Putting up quite a show

Till it finally dawns on me
That pound for pound
An insult not internalised
Hits you on the rebound

Starting off the aggressor
And winding up as a victim
An unsavoury situation
An unpleasant ending

Subir Chakraborty / 1st May 2018