Hands – A Poem by G. S. Katz
Holding hands with you
Like ducks swimming in pairs
Never far apart
Love, devotion, unity
Holding hands with you
Like ducks swimming in pairs
Never far apart
Love, devotion, unity
For my effective expression,
wonderful maybe but
I possess a pair of tongues-
one by birth and another by profession.
Ever-active these are to simplify
the jumbled lanes of my heart to other,
yet unable to restrict a critical estimation,
as these differ from each other
so similar these are too to some extent.
Different these are in location
by the distance of more than five oceans,
in emotional expression-
if Windows XP is the former, easy to handle,
the latter is nothing but Windows 8,
needs extra- care and fuel
and in ethical justification,
communal is my tongue by birth
but universal is the tongue by profession.
Yet these are spontaneous and hand in hand
in spraying honey and custard oil
in the ears of friends and foes
Well disciplined these are
In maintaining a line of control and jurisdiction,
as in the outdoor-
my hands are outstretched to embrace the universe
and the professional tongue-
forgetting all jealousy and hatred
wishes to be loud in uttering,
”I Love You”,
but in the indoor,
quite spontaneous and communal I am
in using my tongue by birth
to express my love to my beloved wife,
”Aami Tomake Bhalo bashi”
an oriental expression of love,
meaning, the same- I Love You.
One of my friends said
You should never marry
A poet!
Why?
He would write love poems
When you are together
And break-up poems
If you leave him, and
Elegies- if you die.
Thus you are raw material for
His creative machine.
I never agreed with her
What’s wrong in using your lover
For Poetry?
The world doesn’t let you be
A Marxist, a Feminist, a Nazi or any
Kind of rebel
So poetry can’t have a social impact
You get me?
If you don’t the price is your head
Morality is out of style
So no one would bother to read your moralistic poems
War poems are outdated too
Anyway the NGOs won’t let you write war poems
Like Tennyson’s
So what is left to you
Is that little boy
Who has a crush on you
Or who is your crush
So you take him out
Rip him open
Separate each part
Scan and analyse
Then categorize
After that he is ready to be written about.
When you write
You can distort his looks, characteristics,
His history etc.,
And upgrade them or degrade
As you like
So basically you can do anything
With that crush of you
But you should inject the word “love”
Here and there with some sentiments.
For that purpose
You can add some images of
The beach, the sky etc.,
So your love poem is ready
And your creativity is justified
If you say “yes it is”
To the question,
“Is this poem based on your personal experience?”
He has a stand at the corner of my block
Fruits and Vegetables only
24/7
Rain or shine
I call him Fruit Man
There’s two of them working 12-hour gigs
Like a nurse’s shift in a hospital
But they’re not, they are the Fruit Guys
In their country they could have been doctors
Accountants or Lawyers too
At the very least cable TV installers
Here they sell fruit
No complaints from these guys
A milk crate to sit on
Stoic and friendly enough
One box of strawberries or two?
The keen longing for a paradise,
maybe, a dream or a pet always
but the sky alone is incapable and helpless
to germinate even a tiny flower plant.
A paradise- a luminous and tumultuous garden,
full of blissful flowers and feathery singers-
exhibiting the colours and beauties of fresh life –
and singing the triumph of life as the best.
Paradise – assumed already as a belonging
of life-less heaven- a world of fantasy
but well appreciated and valued
only in the real world of blood and sweat,
well co-operated by open hands and hearts,
germinated on no-where other than the land-
Nurtured, enjoyed and glorified by the mortals
adding the sky to the land—fantasy to the reality
for a spontaneous intercourse- quite significant
for blooming a life in the paradise
and a sweet smile on the thirsty lips
as a consolation- bestowed upon by mother-nature
against the pains and strains of tough reality.
Yes you were correct
You have no place in my life
Only a tiny but special place in my heart
That place my boy, is dark
Yet lightened by candles and stars above
It smells of black roses: intoxicating and relaxing
I tread there light-hearted and blissfully
Laughs and mischievous jokes
Witty remarks and playful grudges
That place has no name
Just you and me, no meaning
I’m an opposite of the general population
I’m either upstream or downstream
Rarely mainstream
Translation: I don’t fit
I’m chronically shy but
a good actor
Quiet by nature
Women love me because I listen
Is that why you are drawn to me?
Or is it the sex?
I’d like to know
Do not accuse him my love
You were wrong not him
You created the gap, he just filled it
Or I let him fill it
Do not accuse him my love
Your harshness was too much to bear
He just came and smoothened the wounds
Or I let him do that
Do not accuse him my love
You did not care
He just came and cared a lot
Or I let him care
Do not accuse him my love
You left me alone
He just came and accompanied me
Or I let him do that
Do not accuse him my love
If you lost my love, it’s because of you
Not because of him who loved me
Or I let him love me
Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday
My place
Look good, smell better
Don’t be late
Do everything I want
Money on the dresser
In the Godiva bag
Take the trash on your way out
Smile back at me
Leave
Do not sigh my darling do not do it
I want to feel your warm breath not your sighs
I want to hear your laughs not your cries
Do not sigh my darling do not do it
Whisper softly into my ears
The deepest thoughts of your heart
The fears, the dreams, the love
Yet do not sigh my darling do not do it
I know what you are afraid of
I know where your dreams are directing
But not the sighs you let out
When you think of me and us
I do not know where these sighs go
I do not know if that is uncertainty
Or the utmost despair
So do not sigh my darling do not do it
Do you know how fiery these sighs are
Do you know how they burn me
Do you know how they ruin me alive
So my darling do not sigh I beg you do not do it