The sky extends beyond my knowledge
Beyond my vision
Beyond my being
Beyond my imagination

What is it I seek
From the limitless sky
What can I gather
With my limited mind

Looking up above
I see it is serene blue
And yet I am told
It is all a dark hue

Sheer vacant space
Without any colour
Emptiness surrounds
Without any flavour

I exist in sheer bliss
With an illusory sky
Thinking it is real
From reality I shy

Do I really know
If my body has a base
Or is it just an illusion
Created by space

Giving it a shape
I love so dear
Holding on to a mirage
And forever in fear

Subir Chakraborty / 20th March 2018

Where shells are raining
And decibels are rising
Blazing tanks, automatics, grenades
Singeing the horizon in flashes
Shattering the sky with explosions, shouts, mayhem
Drying the hapless eyes of their tears
Old men, young men, old women, young women
Innocent children, the toddlers, the unborn
Wondering the whys and the whynots
Asking relentless questions
While remaining clueless about the hows
As they go about their lives
With clogged minds and blank stares
While the world debates
Routine engagements, mindless semantics, picturesque settings
Aid, arms, assistance, assurance, deterrence
More arms, more aid, more of conflict
While she stays cooped up in her shelter
Shielding her children who know not
What has suddenly befallen them
Why their lives have become half-lives
Why the half-lives are decaying slowly
Ever so painfully
Into the swirling depths of a giant maelstrom
While she scrounges around for the next meal
And looks heavenwards for that elusive god
Who has forsaken her, them
Amidst the chaos and din and mindful destruction
And the smell of sweat, fear and death
While praying fervently, silently
Not to any god but to her own steely resolve
To find the strength to survive one more hour
With some luck one more day
And then perhaps days, maybe months
And develop the courage to hold on even if by a slender thread
And to dare to hope

Subir Chakraborty
26th Feb 2023

When grief cries out in pain
And breaches the threshold
When trauma torments ceaselessly
And desperation sets the tone

When solace and sympathy
Aggravates your state
When misfortune and misery
Come in a spate

It is time to look inwards
Time to turn a leaf
Time to treat your agony
As chaff to wheat

Your body and mind
Is not the you or your threshold
What you are, lies much deeper
In the fabric of your soul

Where peace and tranquility
Reign perennially supreme
Where trials and tribulations
Are ripples to a stream

Where hardship and adversity
Are welcome guests
Helping you to evolve
And turn in your best

Subir Chakraborty / 23rd Feb 2018

The space separating the couple
Was no longer the same
No longer imbued with tender glances
No longer habituated with long lost habit

It reeked of a sense of loss
Laced with nostalgia at the outer edges
Crowded with what ifs, and only ifs
Insulated from the excitement of wild spontaneity

As if it had a life of its own
Distinct from the two individuals
It was destined to connect
Or disconnect, depending on its fancy

Moving across different sets of couples
Causing intrigue, anxiety, apprehension
Conniving, plotting, crafty at the fringes
Planning its next move artfully, playfully

Subir Chakraborty
9th Feb 2023

When the youness in you seemingly disappears
And dreams of mingling with the Iness in me
Do you cease to exist
Or do I

Or do we coexist in parallel lanes
Trying hard to maintain our individuality
While welcoming this diffusion
Riding on the wave of transition

While we play the game of pretensions
Trying to delude ourselves
Creating an illusion of bonding, unification
Dismembering ourselves, detaching ourselves from our moorings

While keeping our respective identities hidden
In a state of forced hibernation
Waiting to be unleashed when least expected
On the canvas of confused emotions

For the island in us
Needs to be cocooned, protected, sheltered
For the ego to exist and to bloom
For the Iness and youness to flourish lifelong

Subir Chakraborty
30th Dec 2022

My aspirations go beyond the limits
Way above the ordinary
For what I truly aspire
Is limitless, without a boundary

What is the point of an aspiration
If constrained within a limitation
What is the point of that daring
If confined within a jurisdiction

The playfully gushing air
And the mountains with their soaring cliffs
Beckon me to dream ceaselessly
With the song of freedom on my lips

Without a challenging aspiration
I may still exist within a code
Living the life of an amoeba
On the bank of a deserted shore

But to experience life in all its facets
I must be willing to gain height
Like the Bald Eagle in the Grand Canyon
Awesome in its majestic flight

Subir Chakraborty / 28th April 2018

I carry my heaven with me
In my mind, in my heart, in my very own being
In happiness and in unbounded ecstasy
In agony and in the depths of misery

In the sweet music of the birds
In the melodious ululations of the leaves
In the warm embrace of the evening zephyr
In the quietude of the tiptoeing twilight

In the doom of deepening despair
In the loss of my sweetest memories
In letting go of all that I have ever cherished
In the death of each treasured instant

My heaven is ever moving, ever evolving
Where I am only a mere traveller
Enjoying each moment enriched by life
Enshrined and embellished with rare beauty and love

Subir Chakraborty
1st Nov 2022

Love makes everything seem so easy
So seamless, so full of life, so very pretty
The obstacles melt into the deep horizon
Leaving only the rainbow to paint the sky

Leaving only two hearts, two souls
To mingle
Intertwined in each other’s embrace
Interlaced with the warm breath of love

Leaving the mundane and the ordinary
To also take on radiant hues
Refreshed with the touch of togetherness
Re-embellished with the ardour of yearning

Where the world seems so welcoming
Where the breeze is redolent with rare passion
Where the moon peeps from behind the clouds
To usher in a life of melodious longing

Subir Chakraborty
1st Oct 2022

The voice of reason
Eludes me, escapes my grasp
Leaving only uncontrolled aggression
In my tightly fisted clasp

Where I act before I reason
Where emotions are in turmoil
Where rationality takes a back seat
And tempers are on the boil

What must I do then
Who shall I seek
When my mind is unable
And reasoning is weak

The path to destruction
May loom large ahead
But honour must be protected
If need be, unto death

What is this honour
Which is flying like a kite
Perhaps my untamed ego
Sheathed in disguise

Which I truly imagine
To be a part of my body
When an intruder it may be
Creating unrest and anarchy

Subir Chakraborty / 14th April 2018

The traveller in me
Seeks to unravel the unknown
Armed with the knowledge
Of what is so far known

Yet how do I know what I truly seek
When I am all at sea
Searching blindly with eyes open
Amidst all that I can see

Unknown faces, unknown places
Unknown my destination
Unknown my immediate itinerary, and
Unknown my ultimate situation

New experiences, unique lands
Expected and unexpected sights
Where the unknown and the known
Intermingle with rare delight

Where the I in me begins to evolve
To a different I, hitherto unknown
Creating a new I, each moment
Far from the one that is known

Subir Chakraborty / 18th May 2018