Reality and beyond... by Anirban Chatterjee
Part I: Nature
Nature is practically everything we see all around us. It is our mother, our progenitor, our very essence, for we emerged from nature itself. Often compared to mother, nature in my opinion is even more glorious. She (to personify her) is the combination of everything we see, hear, touch, smell or taste. She is in fact a sort of cosmic playground for the human soul.
Describing nature is in one way very difficult, because no matter how beautifully you word your lines, the actual intensity of seeing or feeling something immaculately beautiful, as a part of nature, can hardly be synthesized. But still, multiple attempts have been made over the ages to relate the beauty of nature to words, to express or channel her glory through languages we humans speak and understand.
The primary purpose of this section is to produce in the reader the same degree of affinity that I myself feel towards nature, our mother, our creator. I felt, so I wrote. I hope when you’ll read my humble verses, you’ll be able to look into the majesty and beauty of nature through my eyes, through my mind, through my words. And that would make us, my dear reader, even closer than we already are, as children of mother nature.
So, my precious reader and my newly made friend, are you ready to move along? Then come, give me your hand and let us delve into the realm of descriptive poetry, together.
I. The sleepless night
We often spend long, sleepless nights, not sure what to do other than reflecting on our own past, present and future. Memories long lost often re-appear before the mind’s inner eye, and we see a flash-back of our life, yet seemingly uncertain about our future as well. What does it feel like, staying alone, in the midst of an endless ocean of loneliness?
The sleepness night
A calm, cold night it was...
Amidst loneliness, I threw my stare outside
Through the window, into the ageless sky,
From my heart, emerged a painful sigh.
A sleepless night greeted me...
With silent glances, it pierced my soul.
The lonely, silent void all around me
Wintry winds plunged on life’s green tree.
A darkness, an empty space...
It coiled around me tightly, like a snake,
My dreams, vanished into abyssal despair,
Winds froze me, my faith’s sacred fire.
An endless journey through time...
The colossal emptiness to greet my gaze,
My heart still resonates with hope’s rhythm,
And waits for her, my precious gem.
II. Cold Winds
Shelly famously wrote the magnificient lines of ‘Ode to the west wind’, which still inspire many to try out poetry on similar themes. I am hardly capable enough for the task, but I thought, why not give it a shot? We meet wintry winds every year, no matter where we are, and as time makes its way through frigid winds of cold, one day suddenly the aura of Spring, marking the birth of a new season, is seen. That is the happiest moment of the year for many lovers of nature.
Cold Winds
O come, frigid winds of cold,
Sweep away the leaves fallen and old,
O come, ancient heralds of wintry chill,
With frosty mist the air you fill...
Blow over the earth, flow into extinguished hearth,
Celebrate season’s death, another one’s birth,
Carry away the memories that haunt me still
And my weaknesses, and my feelings ill...
Feed on the colours of the grayish sky,
And paint air white with your misty sigh,
For without end there is no beginning,
As without you there is no Spring...
III. An autumnal afternoon
We often come across moments in our lives when it just feels great to lazily sit down somewhere, and simply reflect upon the philosophical meaning of life, sometimes relating it to, or expressing in terms of, nature. I have experienced this special, beautiful moment, and maybe you have too, dear reader. This is an attempt I make, using my humble verses, to express my feeling in form of words.
An autumnal afternoon
Tired, I sat under an age-old tree,
Its yellow, lifeless leaves all around me,
I heard the echo of a shrill cry
Of a lonely bird, from the distant sky.
Maybe it was searching for its nest,
I thought as I looked to the west
And saw the Sun, the clouds blood-red,
And stared back to the leaves lying dead.
Green leaves shall take the dead ones’ place,
The world shall again see Sun’s bright face,
But will I return from death’s shadowy realm,
Or will time erase my soul, my name?
As evening envelops my vision and heart,
Stars appear above a now-silenced earth,
Like them, twinkling lights in the dark,
Is life nothing, but a transient spark?
IV. The eternally flowing river
Nature is deathless, endless and timeless, while we are but transient products of nature. Elements of nature, her other children such as mountains and hills, forests and rivers, lakes and seas continue to live on even as we die. They remain, to greet generation after generation of humans. This brief immortality of theirs’ is indeed beautiful, when compared to the transience of our lives, isn’t it?
The eternally flowing river
Kingdoms of men fall, and are lost,
Sands of driest deserts turn into frost,
Lives of men are doomed and buried,
Below waves of death’s dark tide...
Yet you flow, O babbling stream of glee,
Down from mountains high, forever free,
Along your course you are greeted by those
Civilizations you sustain; like a young rose
You are ever joyous and fresh,
Covered by your shinning, watery dress.
You surge on and on till the end,
Where you, with oceaning salinity blend...
Drain my sorrows along your mighty course,
O Princess of nature, we bow to your force.
Mountains your father, mighty ocean your love,
Eternal bride, you flow under the heavens above;
Peacefully chanting and babbling like a girl,
Decorated with Sun’s gleam, Moon’s fairest pearl,
I joyously wave my transient hand
To greet you, from where I stand.
Love of the ocean, forever we sing to thee,
May your unceasing flow, last for eternity...
V. Rains
Rains, showers, and how much I love them! Rain washes away all grime and dirt from everywhere, like a god he bestows us with his creative energy, making fruits ripen and flowers bloom. He endows us with harvest and food, with life and freshness. Here I thank the glorious rains, the eternal giver of nature.
Rains
Come O refreshing rains, your arrival foretold
By the southern winds, your glory we behold,
Wetten with your joy, our souls forever dry,
And shower down on us, from the cloudy sky,
You bring to reality nature’s ageless dream
Of bountious forests thriving with your gleam,
You wander like a bird in the distant west
And return like a bird at night to its nest
To us each year, to keep alive that love
Of mother nature, under the stars above...
Birds accompany your footsteps in their flight.
Shinning southern shores to lands lacking light,
You wander, O rains, O child of the cloudy mass,
Rejuvenate lands, mountains, trees and grass.
The tune of your falling down on earth
Delivers peace of sleep to my weary heart,
Life force
By your blessings, that sustained lives first,
O Rains, you are the elixir of life,
That came to us from heavens beyond strife.
May your splashy babble and windy song
Resonate in my heart, all my life long.
VI. Free waters
Oceans, mysterious and seemingly infinite extent of water, whose untiring flows move away to places beyond the reach of human thoughts and dreams. To me, the ocean symbolizes an unbound, infinite, eternal, timeless, deathless extent of freedom, of its cold waves splashing against the shores, of its unceasing currents exploring new heights of freedom. Here’s my ode to the free, unbound waters of the ocean.
Free Waters
Say, O saline waters of the saline sea,
Will you take my hand and guide me?
Away from this world, of teachery and hate,
To there, where awaits me my fate?
For long have I seen decay and lust,
For long have I tarried in sand and dust,
When your whispers flowed into my heart,
Alluring me of a new life, a renewed start...
Free waters, unbound by time and space,
Freer still, from death’s cruel embrace,
Take me along, where your waves kiss
The clouds of serenity, purity and bliss...
Forgive my jealously, as I saw you flow,
To edges of earth, into Sun’s scarlet glow,
Make me your mate in your voyages long,
And teach me verses of your wavy song...
Make me your mate, in happiness and pain,
Alike through Sunlit days, through storms and rain,
Through joy and sorrow, through mist and haze,
To worlds unseen, to worlds beyond my gaze...
Make me your image, immersed in serenity,
Make me your image, from all burdens free,
My worries and shackles, may all you destroy,
And fill my heart, with your tunes of joy...
VII. Silence
Silence, the unspoken, unheard words. It marks the beginning of speech, of every story, when our very words break it. And yet at the end of every single day, every journey, every word, it reforms back from its own shattered pieces, like the birth of a Phoenix from the ashes of another.
Silence...
She hovers down from a dark, still sky,
Over deserted woods, over hilly peaks high,
Over deserted banks of rivers and streams,
Over empty fields bathed by moonbeams...
Alone she travels to the unbeknownst lands,
Beyond Himalayan ranges, beyond Arabian sands...
Her footsteps resonate with beatings of my heart,
And echo with evening’s ever-renewed start,
The sound of her breath and misty sigh,
Follow the lonely bird and its cry,
Unseen, unheard, she accompanies each of us,
As we take respite from world’s frenzied rush,
Alone she accompanies the loneliest soul,
And solitary travellers, in pursuit of goal...