What is it about the heart
That the mind cannot comprehend
Why does the mind need to
Repeatedly feign and pretend

What the heart can see
The mind cannot always understand
The heart is a continuing enigma
With the mind liable to misunderstand

Where the heart knows the truth
The mind tends to calculate
About the effect down the line
Once the reality percolates

While the mind is weighing the risks
The heart is the embodiment of innocence
Trickery not part of its character
Subterfuge alien to its presence

Subir Chakraborty / 27th March 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you can see the distance
Without looking afar
When you can feel the distance
Without your eyes kept ajar

When you can smile
With the innocence of a child
When you can empathise
Without really having to try

When you can be detached
From all your worldly gains
When you can be attached
To your values, despite pains

When you can meditate
Despite all the surrounding noise
When in the face of adversity
You do not lose your poise

When you have the strength
To face the bitter truth
When you can wait patiently
And not jump the queue

When you can look upon friends
As true compatriots in this journey
When you do not wish ill
On even your staunchest enemy

When you can appreciate an opinion
Not in congruence with your own
When in the face of a terrible loss
You do not despair and mourn

That is the time life shall change
And begin to have the power of healing
Develop some worthwhile substance
And impart to it a brand new meaning

Subir Chakraborty
22nd August 2021

‘Mind the gap’, came out loud and clear
On the public address system this time
As the train screeched to a halt at Bank
London Underground, Central Line

Minding the gap, thought I
That’s what we do all the time, don’t we
It is the time between birth and death
And all that comes in between

Which we fill with anger and frustration
Joy, ecstasy, happiness and exhilaration
Tears and laughter flowing in torrents
Misery and pain hugging in vain

Sitting in a park one day
Was lost in daydreaming for a while
‘What are you doing my son’, asked an old lady
‘Just minding the gap’, said I

‘And how do you do it my son’, asked she
‘Really quite simple’, said I
‘Look for the dreams that keep you awake
And let them soar like a gull in flight’

‘Don’t bother about the terminal ends
Merely two events in a lifetime
It’s the gap in between that really matters
Giving meaning and substance to life’

Subir Chakraborty
20th August 2021

All that I have, ever had
Lies scattered at your feet
For you to pick up or tread on
Choose or reject as you feel

If you do desire to tread
Remember just one thing
That you tread on my thoughts
Laden with fragile feelings

If you choose to gather
Those throbbing shards
Remember that you pick up
Tiny pieces of my heart

Which way you shall go
I do not know your call
All that I know presently
I have given you my all

Devastated by your refusal
Or enwrapped with your love
Either way I stand destroyed
Divested, denuded of my trove

Subir Chakraborty / 12th April 2018

My greatest tragedies do not occur in isolation
But in the innermost being of my thoughts
Laced with surreal discomfort
Cradled in my own notion of the self

Never in the absolute, never alone
Gauging, measuring, weighing
Against my own illusion of the standard
Delusionally deviant from reality

And when one tragedy passes
The next one quickly fills the vacuum
For the illusion would have moulted by then
Into yet another illusion of the self

Thus we live from one tragedy to the next
Praying for heaven some day
Chasing an illusion really, yet again
For that elusive heaven in our Milky Way

Subir Chakraborty
14th Aug 2021

If only I could build a road for you
That starts with my desires and yearnings
And meanders through my being
With slow, throbbing steps
Winding through lanes of laughter
Of ecstasy, euphoria, joy, mirth
Navigating through puddles of anxiety
Of bitterness, anger, mindlessness, tears
Leading you to me
With only one longing, only one want
To be just with each other
Without the trappings of wealth
Or the entanglements of power
Without any of the heady stature
Or slippery reputation
Or worthless net worth
Just the way when we started
With little to call our own
Save the two of us
With dreams in our eyes
And precious love in our hearts
Together on a nowhere road
In a nowhere land

Subir Chakraborty
8th Aug 2021

Your imperfections blend in with mine
As mine joyously embrace yours
Creating a rare crescendo
Of chaos, ecstasy and pathos

For what would life be
Without that touch of bedlam
Fleeting, feathery to the feel
Delusional, dreamy to the touch

Imperfection. Ah! Those subtle nuances
Those minor flaws, a faux pas or two
Once in a while, every now and then
Which enthrall and shake me up

And the more they come, the more I evolve
Creating a halo of disarming disquiet
Unleashed in a playground of silent disharmony
Weaving a tapestry of gentle fallibility

Subir Chakraborty
2nd August 2021

Tomorrow shall be a new day
Filled with fresh promises
And yet I shall long for the ones gone by
For the ones with you I have spent

For I shall not be able to hear your laughter
Nor savour your mild admonishments
Feel the radiant warmth of your presence
Or share your niggling pains

Tomorrow may be bright and sunny
New pastures may reveal themselves
Novel thoughts may usher in a glowing tomorrow
Rainbowing the edges of my sorrows

But you shall not be there with me
Having made your way back to your nest
Tomorrow shall not be as untamed
Tomorrow shall not be the same

Subir Chakraborty / 12th Jan 2019

Why does revolution look red
Why does blood need to be shed
Why does revolution spin our head
Why does it always mourn the dead

What do we learn from the toil
What do we expect from the turmoil
What do we ruin with blood on the boil
What do we create when we spoil

When do we stop being the fodder
When do we begin to speak louder
When do we put our house in order
When do we mark our new border

How do we know blood wasn’t cheap
How do we know the cause was deep
How do we know what we shall reap
How do we know if conscience is a heap

Subir Chakraborty / 18th April 2018

Knick-knacks, artefacts, relationships
Lie strewn across the landscape of my life
And as I glance back over my shoulder
Sometimes I discover the old precious

Which takes me by storm for the moment
As I discover new facets, nuances, I had missed earlier
Wondering why, how, I could have overlooked
Wondering if it was too late to make amends

And then the voyage begins once again
With telltale signs of the earlier one
Where the old transforms to the new
Making it the all new precious

Somewhere I feel I am missing something
Perhaps, the salience of this journey
Where the migration from the old to the new and back again
Is woven in the theme of eternal transience

Subir Chakraborty
18th July 2021