I create my own silences
Interspersed with periods of worldly pursuits
Yet they nest with consummate ease
Amidst all the hullabaloo
Removed from all social interactions
My own special zones
Of seclusion
Reflectivity
Where I contemplate my surroundings
Myself
In a fertile environment
Far removed from inactivity
Divorced from lazy meanderings
A zone of constant evolution
While existing in the present
Without any strings attached
Without any past regrets
Or even unbounded ecstasy
Just me and the moment
In deep conversation
Mellifluously flowing
In tune with the divine rhythm
Filling my mind
With a sense of tranquility
And sweet aloneness
Where there are no questions asked
And no answers given
Just existence at its purest
Letting go
Letting it be

Subir Chakraborty
13th Aug 2023

The rainbow from your eyes
Flew to the sky
Riding on a wisp of your breath
Creating a majestic arc
Right across the horizon
Beckoning me
To fly with you
Into the unknown
Leaving everything behind
And without a care in this world
So that we can tiptoe
Onto the seven sublime colours
Allowing those hues to seep into us
You
Me
Filling us with heavenly ecstasy
Not of the ecstatic kind
But one which diffuses into you
Gently
In soft dreamy whispers
Caressing your soul
Making us immortal
In that moment
Of reality and surreality
Intertwined
Interlaced irreversibly
With each other

Subir Chakraborty
4th Aug 2023

When the silvery hue
Curls up into a tiny arc
And caresses your angelic face
It becomes a threesome
You, me and the moon
Playing hide and seek
Seeking to hide
Yet, with the intent to reveal
The unspoken words
The subtle nuances
Still germinating in the mind
Not yet ready to be uttered
Or expressed
Being buttressed
In that zone of uncertainty
When to
How to
If I should
If you should
Trembling lips
And a laden heart
Bursting at the seams
And still
Waiting for the moon
Impatiently
To trigger the moment
Waiting……..

Subir Chakraborty
3rd Aug 2023

When do parts become whole
Or a whole a sum of its parts
Do the parts always need to act in unison
Forming a common citizenship
And what happens when they are not
And conflict is the order of the day
When the glial cells in my brain
Are chewing up my own neurons
As per some grand design
Performing the role of a scavenger
Am I the conqueror or the vanquished
Am I the whole or the part
Which do I identify with
Oh! How many such deaths
And how many such lives
In this one life must I endure
Just in order to live

Am I really dying to live
Or living to die
A fine line distinguishing between the two
In this constant drama of life and death
Where I am being continuously renewed
Shedding off old skin
Metamorphosing into a new entity
At periodic intervals
Sometimes as short as within the same day
Or even the hour or the minute
And yet, I am mortally scared of dying
Like an ignoramus
For have I not already died many times
Over and over
In this living life
Or perhaps, living death
And been resurrected again and again
So what is one more death in this long chain of happenings
A minuscule of an event
Not worthy of any consternation
Not in this life
And even if there is one more to follow
Not even in the next

Subir Chakraborty
21st July 2023

From irrelevance to relevance
And back again
I float in a sea of unending fluidity
Constantly being rocked by neuronal signals
Chemical neurotransmitters followed by electrical impulses
And back again
Firing randomly
As per plan
And sometimes without one
I begin to wonder
Who is really leading who
Who is the real master
And where does my ‘I’ ness begin
And end
Whether I am just a mere slave
To the vagaries of nature
Evolutionary, perhaps
But who knows
Where the answer lies
Till doomsday arrives
And even after
There may be no real answer

Subir Chakraborty
19th July 2023

My brain houses a plethora of black boxes
Cellular in construction
All distinct and unique in character
Other than the central character ‘I’
Which forms the nucleus of each cell
Otherwise separated from each other
With impregnable membranes
Consuming precious energy for sustenance
Needing a flood of blood to stay afloat
Refusing to budge, to dilute, to sway
To play any game, any other way

The only vulnerability, the only weakness
Is through the nucleus, its very identity
Which needs to be annihilated
To rip open these cells
And free the brain of garbage
To feel the gushing air
Of the open blue sky
Welcoming one and all
To rejuvenate in the sea of freshness
And breathe the aroma of vastness
Never to sink again to the depths of putrefaction
Of repetitive earthly decadence
But to build for oneself
One’s little nest in the sky
And to be free
For now and forever

Subir Chakraborty 2nd July 2023

Have you ever felt the urge
Not to speak
Not to see
Not to think
Or to touch

Only just to feel
The vibrations of sunrise
And the nostalgia of sunset
The lazy rhythm of meandering streams
And the silent tiptoeing of dew

For it is through feelings
That you can attain completeness
Devoid of your thoughts
Devoid of turbulence
Devoid of suffering

For it is through feelings alone that you can experience
The pain of birth
And the rejuvenation of death
And be blissfully free, now and forever

Subir Chakraborty
23rd April 2023

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