In my reinterpretation lies my salvation
Of the life I have lived
And the one unlived
Nesting precariously in my mind

Of my life with me and those with others
Where I may have fallen short
Needs cautious revisiting
From a new perspective, a new dimension

Of my near and dear ones
Who tried sincerely and faltered
Of their imperfect years
Of their failed tears

Of my own choices chosen
And the ones rejected
Due to lack of courage
Due to hidden fears

Reinterpreted they must all be
To bring about closure
To bring about peace
To my heart tormented by unease

And as for my soul
Which desires to exist in harmony
Crying for reinterpretation
Pining for redemption

Subir Chakraborty / 7th Dec 2018

Love and happiness the twins
Rowing the sail boat of eternity
Are they really two
Or are they one

For what is love without compassion
Without the giving or sacrificing
Of a portion of your own life force
To sustain another

And in that space so surrendered
Springs the well of happiness
Filling up your bosom
With the nectar of contentment

Which nourishes your soul
Imparting unimaginable fertility
Sprouting green shoots of empathy
In joyous abandon

Love and happiness intertwined umbilically
Never in isolation, the conjoint twins
Rescuing drowning souls
Sailing the ravages of humanity

Subir Chakraborty / 14th Nov 2018

Wherever an alternate idea blooms
Whenever a real threat looms
My immediate reaction
Is to burrow back into my hole
And take solace, find succour
In the rigid bureaucracies
Of my imagined supremacies

For every threat must be countered
Actively, both without and within
Lest it becomes larger than life
And attain a life of its own
To influence the weak and the gullible
The questioning and the guilty
Of its veracity, its logical fluidity

So, I need to resist and fight
With my head still buried in the hole
To convince others, by words or by the sword
To drown out all voices of dissent
To usher in an air of claustrophobia and stasis
So that ultimately, only one idea can remain supreme
The impassioned serpent, the reigning queen

Subir Chakraborty / 6th March 2019

I come to myself
In the deep recesses of my mind
Where precipitous dichotomies
Are crowding me out of line

Painting illusions of should ‘bees’
As well as should have ‘beens’
In the surrounding chaos and din
Of ambitions, regret, failed dreams

The dilemmas that present
Are real, causing serious lesions
Disturbing my mental balance
Consuming my well of patience

To welcome and accept the new
Through the prism of my past
Or discard the smouldering emotions
Tearing off the age old cast

Each time I loosen a bond
A new one germinates surreptitiously
Wainscoting the edges of my consciousness
Parading the images relentlessly

I come to oneself
In peace, aloneness, serenity
When both past and future
Fail to cause any anxiety

I come to myself
When the gale has all but receded
I come to myself
When the self has all but evaporated

Subir Chakraborty / 30th March 2019

At times I have only myself to talk to
Not lonely, just joyously alone
With my own voice echoing softly
From the perimeters of silence

Which determine the boundaries
Of my self imposed solitude
Amidst a potpourri of city life, intermingled
With the ravages of daily existence

Sometimes I speak to my voice
Sometimes the voice speaks to me
When it rebounds, ecstatically fresh
From the far corners of my mind

The dialogue is refreshing
Soothingly vibrant in its hues
Peeling away layers of unreality
Dawning a touch of reality

Where my ambitions are rephrased
My disappointments revisited
My anxieties re-tempered
And my sanity re-established

Subir Chakraborty / 3rd May 2019

Am I alive
Am I really alive
Or am I being eaten up inside
With dead habits on the rise

Is my passion on a song
Is my heart feeling free
Do my senses sway gently
In tune with the springtime breeze

Does my laughter reverberate
Like a gushing waterfall
Do my tears silently tiptoe
When my mind is on a recall

Can I take a stand
For a just and righteous cause
Or do I always get paralysed
Forever hitting pause

Can I just be myself
Without the shroud of vanity
Can I burn all these myriad costumes
Which conceal my true identity

Subir Chakraborty / 23rd Nov 2018

Blares the loudspeaker
Hurling a slew of slogans
It’s election time folks
In our dear Motherland

The eyes are shedding tears
The heart is torn asunder
As the politicians hit the streets
With their palms joined together

Every manifesto is curated
For humans under the weather
Creativity knows no limits
In changing for the better

After the results are declared
Promises are quickly forgotten
For now it’s deal time folks
Requiring astute political acumen

For the man on the street
It is just so much of fun
Free entertainment, along with
Occasional doles for lunch

Subir Chakraborty / 14th May 2019

My journey towards wholesomeness
Is not without risks
For it comes with a growing sense of detachment
To the material life, which exists

Which is where I live and breathe
And participate each day
Treating it as ongoing drama
As a mere audience in a play

Where I laugh with all the highs
And cry with all the lows
Yet knowing only too well
That the show will take a bow

I notice the emotions of others
Of egos ballooning or lying in tatters
As the serenity of existence engulfs me
Together with all that really matters

I also notice my own ego
Gasping for its last breath
As wisdom energy seeps in
Unfolding its wholesome breadth

Subir Chakraborty / 20th Jan 2019

The revolution of the earth
The cyclicality of the seasons
The transience of existence
Brings home the lessons

We are bound to the cosmos
In truly remarkable ways
Tied to its tide and ebb
Moored to its divine plays

The universe known to man
Contains mostly empty spaces
Matter and all life forms
Follow with identical paces

It is at the darkest moment
Embroiled in the cosmic soup
That the Big Bang occurred
Illuminating the skies in a swoop

It is also in our gloomiest moments
Encapsulated in utter despair
That radiance seeps in to our hearts
In need of urgent repair

Similarities exist across the spectrum
In multitude ways and means
For we are all deeply connected
In our waking hours and in our dreams

Subir Chakraborty / 21st Oct 2018

My desire to see my being flesh
Anew, afresh
Free from the moorings of my mind
Unentangled, unenmeshed

When the unconscious shall peep into the conscious
Decisively, conclusively
Giving it a definite shape eventually
Ultimately

When reality shall emerge from the cocoon of surreality
Gradually
With herculean effort, in sweet pain
Ecstatically

When my urgings shall assume a life of their own
Flying on wings of euphoria
Unbounded, unbonded
Forever free

Subir Chakraborty / 5th March 2019