In The River of Blood

Menonimus

September 6, 2023

IN THE RIVER OF BLOOD

In the River of Blood

(Collected Poems)

Menonim Menonimus

Internet Edition

www.menonimus.org

In The River of Blood (A Collection of Poems) ‘by Menonim Menonimus, Published by www.menonimus.org

In the River of Blood

Internet Edition

Website:www.menonimus.org

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D.T.P. by A. Shahriar

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CONTENTS

Rain

Tears

The Lad Who Carried About Light

Eyes

These Two Palms

Ode to Spring

My Verses

House

Civilization

Life

Democracy

Sedan

Ascetic

For Death

Poverty

One By One

My Planet

Hill

A Poem of Love

Since Then

Every Night

Revolution

Language

For Love

Tale of a New Land

To Mother

To Merina

You Know Well

Do You Know

I Don’t Believe

Telephone

Today at Mid-night

In the River of Blood

How Are You

Your Love

Entreating

Lousie

Green Field

A Visit to Your Valley

To a Friend

Adieu

Poetry

Misunderstanding

The Rain of April

Once I Used to Visit

I Have Died Within

A Song

Death

I Live

You Taught Me

In the Mart of Love

They Would Say

I Could Have

Dialogues

Music

You Are Going Away

For the Last Time

Dead Tree

Let Him Live

A Song

My Love

My Soul

An African Says So

Foundation

Love Lines

That Day

Outlook

My Patron

To My Sullen Maid

The Lake

I Have Never Seen

Triton

When at Night

Untitled

Death of the Century

My Love

Reminiscence

Your Touch

Travelling

Don’t Teach Me

Don’t Compose

Who Will Reply

If Once and Again

To the Campaign

To Become We

Narcotics

Talk

To Live

I Am

Once Again

When I Open My Eyes

One Evening

A Band of Singers

Since an Unknown Spring

…………………………..

Table of Contents

IN THE RIVER OF BLOOD

(TEXT)

Rain

I wish to have a bath

In the shower of rain

After a long spell of drought

I – putting off my robes run out to the rain

But alas!

The drops of rain turn into the dust of stone.

Now I’m bathing in my blood

I’m wounded being struck by the stones

Sometimes I wish to go to the flowing river

But alas! as I go ahead

So far the river runs away. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Tears

My tears – where have you gone?

I wish to have a cry-

After the lapse of many a night.

I was dead so long-

I’ve been revived again

Let me cry and have the taste of life.

We count our joys and peace

With the drops of tears

We weigh-

How much love we have in our heart

For our land, for our people. 0 0 0

In the River of Blood

The Lad Who Carried About Light

Yester-night the lad was coming here

Through the maze

The day before yesterday he went there-

He went everywhere.

But today just this moment

He is stabbed in his heart

His legs are beaten well

Till they are broken into pieces.

His voices are suffocated

His eyes are plucked out.

His hands are smashed well

Because he committed a crime

Of carrying light about him wherever he went. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Eyes

I have buried both my eyes

Under the dark cell of the Earth

My eyes were ill since my birth

It always saw what it should not see

It looked at what it should not look

It was wayward, obstinate

For my eyes, I was made blind

Hence I have buried both my eyes. 0 0 0

In the River of Blood

These Two Palms

Look at the palms of my hands

The past of my days was built with their veins.

The future of my life lies also in my palms

What has not been done with them!

The town has been devastated

The city on the hills has been plundered

And with these hands

These have been built again! 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Ode to Spring

Spring, you are the hair-lock of that

Virgin who had been

Enamoured of an Iranian youth

He sucked and sipped and squeezed her honey

Like one does to a lemon

And drank to the ooze and throws away the peel.

Now the lively April has withered

No philanderer gazes at her.

Spring, you are the most violent, most severe

Like a hurricane

That throws up all its victims to the sky

And then again dashes against the hills

And against the tree-tops.

You are like a glass of liquid that tastes sweet

But becomes poison while glides down the throat.

You are like a tsunami that takes away

Thousands of babies in sleep and thrush

Against the huge surge of the sea.

You are the sorrows after joys

Tears after smiles

You are the black heaven after the rest

Of the eyes of the sky.

You are the drought that designs

The plot with the god of Weather after Winter

You are the groaning before death

That comes to a leper

And to those who suffer from tuberculosis.

You are the menace as given by the muffin agents

Before one is kidnapped.

You own a realm of your own

Full of fire and sulphur

That burns to the heels but emits no smoke.

You are the mother giving birth to the finest flowers

But nursing poisonous serpent behind. 0 0 0

In the River of Blood

My Verses

A person – I know not

Whether he is male or female in sex

I have heard-

My every word echoes in his heart.

Nowadays I have ceased to utter more words

Lest they would hurt his heart.

So is my verse- scratched in fewer words

Uttered with the sighs of love. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

House

I have a little house

Divided into some cells

I’m only the titular owner of it

Much before my birth

Somebody has made his sway over it

The de-facto owner of my house

Has divided the house into some

Thousand semi-cells

He uses one for reading

The others for drinking, dining

And for sleeping respectively.

Everywhere – whenever you peep through the chink

You would see his paws and proud entity

Who is he?

Might be you know

He is none-

But my poverty, my mate and maid. 0 0 0

In the River of Blood

Civilization

I have lost the rain that fell on my heart

You have also come to lose it

Well! all have been suffering from the same drought

For many a long, long spring.

The bones and body have died in me

Dead is of that of yours also.

Let us go in search of a shower of rain

For the revival of our life

We are the people of a drier world

We pray and sing for rain in vain. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Life

Life is but a drop of dew

On the leaf of an arum

That glitters like a diamond

In the morning sun-light

And then drops down.

It is the mystic smile of a prostitute

She receives all her customers

And quench their thirst for a moment

And then turn aside.

Life is a piece of blank paper

To a crazy pupil

Who scratches ups and down

Which means nothing, none can read. 0 0 0

In the River of Blood

Democracy

Our likings and disliking are relatives

That obeys the laws of Einstein’s Relativity.

Our land is so, we the people are so.

If we wish- we can kill

Thousand and thousand innocent souls within a night

If we do not wish-

We can call on a ceremonial condolence meeting

Besides the dead bodies

If we like

We can deliver heart-felt sympathy

Commemorating the souls we kill.

If we wish- we can take off all the clothes

And can lead a grave procession

If we wish- we can refrain from our duty

And can spend the hours

Blowing up the black smoke

Throughout the blue sky. 0 0 0

In the River of Blood

Sedan

(a)

A swing sedan

Built by the long-footed spider

There swings a butterfly

She swings and swings and dies

I am in the trammel of your love

Like a butterfly

I will swing and die.

(b)

I died

The world became my dirge

Everybody came to my funeral

But it was only you who remained absent

Had you known-

It is you for whom I swung and died. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Ascetic

What is there more intoxicating

Than your lively love

Truly I’m an ascetic

The fragrance of your love is my entity

My birth, my life, my death

Truly I’m an ascetic of your love. 0 0 0

In the River of Blood

For Death

Come out and stand up

In the open field and call up-

Who are there- come on and join your hand

With that of ours.

I’m shouting here with all my voices

Let us go forward

We are in the field of death for life

We’ve waged war against the disease

That sucks our blood and laughs at us

We are fighting against ourselves

Against what is inhumane in us

We are ready for death

Let us die for a newer birth. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Poverty

My warm welcome to thee

You are my thousand books

Reading the pages of which

I can learn a thousand lessons

Poor are they who have not faced thee

They are like a lamp without light

They are like a tree without fruit

They are like a well without water

They are like a flower without fragrance.

Poverty – a better scripture of all the wisdom

That a man can earn lies within

Poverty is my guide, my light

That shows the path of my deeds

Oh! Poverty, make me thy best company

Be my mate and maid and keep

My heart and brain are alive

Poverty, excuse me

Don’t be angry with me

Though sometimes I call thee by bad names

And curse thee

It is for thy too much intimacy with my bony flesh

My anger with thee is like my anger with my maid

That deepens my love to her and makes me happy. 0 0 0

In the River of Blood

One By One

One by one

The wind becomes unacquainted

And I’m left alone.

Minute by minute

The hues of the rainbow change

But I remain unchanged.

Hours by hours

The river lulls the fishes

But I’m lain dead.

Day by day

The grasses grow

But I wean. 0 0 0

In the River of Blood

My Planet

Just this is my planet

Do you like to come down to this of mine?

Though

We are the offspring of flaming oil-

I’m not so hot.

I shall also burn you

But not much beyond you can bear

Summer and winter, day and night,

Snow and hill, tears and smile-

We’ll find here.

I’ll make you thirsty

And give the warmth

Of my heart to be quenched.

Come down to my planet

Let me love you again anew. 0 0 0

In the River of Blood

Hill

I’ve kept my heavy hill

On your breast

The magnet of your blood draws it down

With all its might.

You are so strong to keep

The heaviest of hills preserved

In the core of your heart.

Blind is the hill

Dead is the hill

It gets life only

When you embrace it.

It walks and wanders

On the nook and corner

Of your caves and tunnels.

It cools the sun

But does not know-

How to quench its thirst

It is a parrot-

That can imitate her master’s voice with ease

But unable to utter a voice of its own

How poor, how forlorn the hill is! 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

A Poem of Love

Your beauty is fleshier than your desire

Brittle is your thigh

The black waves of your naked dress

Is more precious.

Woods grow in you

Darkness hides in it

Beauty flows out

As a cataract glides down the mountain.

A crocodile swims in the sea

It sheds tears and love

And live on the warmth of your sighs. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Since Then

Since then I have been feeling pain

Pain in the core of my heart

That day –

That you were gazing at so pierce

It was the raw resource of my pain.

The trees grow thus

As the pain grows in the heart.

We think it is rain that moisturizes the earth

But after rain it gets drought.

Sorrows have also their own teeth to smile. 0 0 0

In the River of Blood

Every Night

Every night of mine is a moon-night

Moon-lit is my first friend

I’ve learned the alphabet of dark and light

Being taught by her.

I’ve just learned the first lesson

Of making sentences with the alphabet.

And just this moment I’m manacled

My friend who taught me the lesson

Has flown up to the sky

I’m left here alone. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Revolution

From this very spot

Let us set out our boat

It is so late.

The death-like waves will roar again

We will sail upwards-

We must make them our comrades

Who are sailing downwards.

The river is replete with blue water. 0 0 0

In the River of Blood

Language

I’ve no language of my own

You see- I speak and shriek

These are the talks taught by my parents

My father also had no language of his own

My mother also did not own any language

They laughed, smiled, whined,

Stammered and wept to imitate their forefathers

I’ve also been taught –

What they were taught.

Now we have to invent a language

Worth to be our own

For that, we are forming an ad hoc council

But till then we’ll die. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

For Love

The hail storm is coming

With the brightest deadly lightning

Mother, let me go out and have a bath in rain.

The eye of the day is turning aside

And the dark is coming down to our courtyard

Mother, let me be lost there.

The tide comes up to the sea

With sky-high surge

Mother, let me swim in it.

The cool is dropping down with all its eyes,

Arms, hands and feet

Mother, let me take off my clothes.

How beautifully the flowers of our garden bloom

Receiving warm kisses from the bees

Mother, let me play with them.

Mother:

Twisting her lips replies:

My child- the spot on my lap

The thorn of my eyes

The fire of my womb

Again you have fallen in love. 0 0 0

In the River of Blood

Tale of a New Land

One night I had gone to a new land

Leaving that of my own behind

Spreading the whole sky of that land

There was only one heart.

I feared-

How much blue that sky contained in her heart

The twinkling stars whispered to my ears:

We all have gathered under one flag.

All that talks while I told my comrade

He said:

Once I also had been there

But soon returned. 0 0 0

In the River of Blood

To Mother

Mother, pardon me

I could not have kept up my promise

My backbones have been chopped into pieces.

The entity has been burst up

With the ferocious roaring of a wild lion.

Mother, pardon me

My feet are bound in chain

I could not have climbed up the greens.

The sickle of my hand has been snatched away

It was given once by you

The promise was that-

I would grow to be a smile on your face.

Mother, would you not give birth to a baby again

A new sun to smile on your face

Mother, not me

Bless your new child! 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

To Merina

To greet my dead soul

They invited all.

Wishing a long life of my dead soul all came

There came all my mates- both males and females

All came who loved me

They also came who did not love me

They who had never seen me had come also

They who had not heard of my name also came

Only he had not come for whom I am dead. 0 0 0

In the River of Blood

You Know Well

You know well

This forlorn poet has nothing

But a quill

With which he draws up the lines

Both of winter and spring

The tears of the sea swim in the lines

The joys of flower leap in him

The song of spring echoes in his breast.

His heart echoes the throbbing of humanity

His face reflects the tears and smiles

Of every day and every night. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Do You Know

Do you know?

A flower has bloomed in your garden

Look at!

The bees are flying from petal to petal

Its fragrance has reached my sense

O, let me have a sway.

Do you know?

If it is virgin

I say-

You may not know but the bees know well. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

I Don’t Believe

If you say:

A day would come

We would be friends

I would not have believed it.

If you say to me:

The river would change its course

I would not have believed it.

We are on the battle-field

He stands up against me

And I am against him

He aims his gun at me

And I aim my gun at him

He looks at me obliquely and vice-versa

And then comes the truth

I shot him dead

I remain alive

Though they do not see-

I am dead long before. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Telephone

Telephone sends your message and voice:

I’m well.

How well are you without me?

Sleep there, tread the flowery carpet

Drink and be a drunkard

I’m here gleaning the mist

Groping noisily in the dark.

I wish I could change the palm of my hand

I could rise up to thee

Or you could have fallen down to me

Then I also could have said:

I’m well.

You are behind the screen standing

And enjoying the rising and setting

Of the eyes of the sky.

I’m here playing hide and seek

With my shade – a burning smoke.

You are the sky behind the stars

I’m a poet as free as an orbit. 0 0 0

In the River of Blood

Today at Mid-night

Today, at mid-day the boy falls into a deep sleep

The boy- that sang the song of freedom

Just since some days, he took to sing

This forlorn poor poet happened to hear his song

Since that day all the rhythm and rhyme

Of this poet have turned shuffled.

And for many days his practice

Of perusing poems has stopped.

Today, at mid-day his throat has been strangled forever.

They say his song had wounded many a heart

The heart of those who plundered the rays of Light

Keeping them in the dark.

The voice of the boy was their thorn

Hence death is his reward.

I cannot say-

Whether the act is good or not

Because already one of my souls

Has reached the other world. 0 0 0

In the River of Blood

In the river of blood

I cannot take a bath

If need I’ll remain dirty and dusty

As my eyes are kept blind

With the fragrance of your love

During the entire spring.

It is the photosynthesis of my soul

That is torn apart by the thorn.

It is the mouthful gruel of food

For my passion. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

How Are You

How are you, Merina?

Have you still a basketful hopes

To build dreams?

Once in the light of your hope

There bloomed flowers in my heart-

Do you know?

Now it is a history.

Still today I have been swinging

On the sedan of those flowers.

Still today I keep myself vigil

And have talked with you

The talk that is remained untold forever.

We only exchange the talk of our past spring

The tale of jasmine bloomed at night.

And then a long lapse of years. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Your Love

You have presented me with a pen,

A piece of marble

The clustered of sorrows had also been gifted by you.

I’ve preserved them in the core of my heart

As a token of your bliss.

You made me nude

And adorned me with the juice of your desire.

Spring came beforehand to my winter

Fire burns the fuel

But I burn within

It is your love that has turned me into a gilded gold. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Entreating

Let me have a piece of your flowers

I entreat you-

Let me have a piece of it

I’m in need of it since my death

Only a drop of your tears may give me life

But you are as wayward as a widow

As free as the wind.

While you smile the earth smiles with you

While you weep all the flowers weep with you.

You are the rainbow in the eastern sky

You appear to madden the earth

Had I been blessed with a piece of your flowers! 0 0 0

In the River of Blood

Lousie

Yester-night Lousie visited me alone

She came while all the lights of my home were off

All were asleep

Only the door of my heart was open

I knew she might come

She came and knocked at my heart

I woke up

But it was too late

Now she is dead. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Green Field

Peasants

In the green field shedding their sweat.

Peasants at morn

Plowing the field.

Peasants in the noon

Walking in the sun.

Peasants in the afternoon

Losing their souls.

Peasants at night

Falling dead.

In the blood of the hills grows their food

Their sweat moisturizes the land

And nurses the crops to ripe

But the bats and birds devour. 0 0 0

In the River of Blood

A Visit to Your Valley

I’ve given you the word:

I’ll visit your valley in the following autumn

I’ll climb up the yellow cornfield

Holding your hand to that of mine

I’ll walk ahead with bare feet

Till I reach the ridge of the hills.

I’ve heard- there grow the greens

Friend, I would like to sip some of the greens

Does the sun rise there at noon?

I’ll enjoy the sun setting during the autumn evening

I’ll like to put some songs of the greens

In the pocket of my bosom

Here there is a scarcity of wild songs.

I’ve heard also there the wild deers

Drink water in the open pond.

Is it true, friend?

Here in the land of ours

There is neither the screaming of the birds

Nor the huwa of the fox.

Here we are well acquainted with the sound

Of gun shooting and the bursting sound of a bomb.

If I am alive till the coming autumn

I give you word:

I’ll visit your valley

Your valley I’ll visit certainly. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

To a Friend

Once you asked me:

Are you alive?

I’ve been carrying about

A breastfed sorrows since you left me

Oh, had you not come to my life!

Friend, let me keep my heart

On that of yours for a minute

You would see-

You are blazing! 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Adieu

I had taken that path

Showing honour to your command

You said:

That was the only path free from thorns.

Now my Lord, look at my feet

I am torn, my forehead is bleeding

I’m about to die

Excuse me

Adieu! 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Poetry

These days I hardly can pursue verses

As you are with me

The withered face of thine

With its scratches of pain and sorrow

Efface away what my quill draws in.

The patched piece of the cloth of your breast

Shuffles my syntax.

The rhythm and rhyme of my verses

Fall headlong and prostrate flat on the ground

The sweat of your pain-stricken forehead

Washes off the light of my hopes. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Misunderstanding

What much not happen in misunderstanding!

Love retreats

The husband leaves his wife

Wife leaves her husband stealthily

And happy nuptial life breaks down.

It breaks heart, begets enmity

It sends many to the guillotine

What much not happen in misunderstanding! 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

The Rain of April

When the rain of April

Falls down cats and dogs in my courtyard

The memory of thine chases after me

The rainbow rises in the sky of my breast

The red, black and brown fishes make sports

In the lake of my eyes.

The flowers bloom and wither within.

I begin to dream-

Again we are in the stars and in the sky

Being a pair of birds

To the far off milky ways also we travel

Hand in hand and begin to grasp the endless greens. 0 0 0

Once I Used to Visit

Once I used to visit your garden

Groping in the dark of the night

Following the sweet fragrance of your flowers

But going there I found-

All the lights were off

All the flowers were withered.

I roamed about here and there

In search of the fragrance

But I met with a serpent gaping up to engulf

I feared and retreated.

But days have passed

The nights have passed

All have become a myth

Now I have owned a garden of my own

All the flowers have bloomed in my breast. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

I Have Died Within

I have died within

The rose in me has withered forever

The soul in me has turned into a piece of hill

As I have not heard you say:

I love you.

I have died within

The valley of my life becomes barren

Where once evergreen trees grew in abundance

As I have never heard you say:

I love you.

I am dipped in the deep dark

Since your departure

The sun is ever absent from my sky

The stars in me have bid me goodbye.

As I have never heard you say:

I love you.

My heaven is full of dark clouds

The least peace in me has gone out.

As I have never heard you say:

I love you. 0 0 0

In the River of Blood

A Song

You may not love me

I have no sorrow.

You may not bear my presence

I have no woe.

You may keep far away from me

I never mind.

But my dearest one,

Please tell me once:

I love you.

I’ll never ask you to send an epistle

I’ll never ask you to ring me on

I’ll never ask you to meet me alone

Only say once:

I love you.

I’ll never ask you to make gossip with me

I’ll never ask you to wander by the royal park

Along with me.

I entreat you only to say to me:

I love you.

Say to me once and let me breathe and live. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Death

I’ve been looking at the sky

And again looking at the sky

Maybe my death is coming down

Breaking the steps of the black-white clouds.

Nowadays I often hear the call of Death

And foresee the Angel of Death

Has come down to the royal road

To the hut of the forlorn farmers,

To the school classrooms,

To the footpaths,

And even to the dustbin of airports.

Death appears with a loud noise

And burns the souls of the newborn babies

Of the old and of the youth

I also wish for a death that comes down through the clouds.

Hence I’ve been looking at the sky

Maybe my death is coming down

Enlightening the way of my life. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

I Live

I live in a heaven

There is nothing except your warm memory

And an immortal river with a tree on its bank

I see there are many green leaves

While it is morning

And while it is noon- the tree is bare

But while it becomes night the tree disappears

Every day I ask the tree: how old are you?

The tree replies:

I’ve not born till now

I’m still in the womb of my mother

Every day I ask the same question

And it gives me the same reply. 0 0 0

You Taught Me

It was you that taught me-

The sports of life and love

You had been then a green paddy field

The eastern wind had lulled your fringe

I looked at you, gazed at you

And became a drunkard of your love.

It was you that gave birth to

A river of love in my heart

The water rippled and flowed down

And you used to swim there ups and down

And thus made me mad of love. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

In the Mart of Love

Often I used to go to them

They dealt in love

Every time I purchased some love and returned

I returned and found that

I was as I had been before I went there

Thus many a spring has passed.

As I used to frequent them

So many would frequent me

I’ll sell love to them

They would buy and return

As I used to get returned.

Time would pass

And then they would discover-

In the mart of love

Everybody cheats everybody

Both the buyers and the sellers.0 0 0

In the River of Blood

They Would Say

They had been buried here

In this very valley

They met death before they came to age

The long grasses have grown over their bones.

After some days the followers of the King of Death

Would take charge of the field

They would build a clubhouse to commemorate

The departed souls

With sleeping, dancing and revelry.

Thus history would be written anew

They would be inscribed on the wall plate:

Once there was a river. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

I Could Have

I could have lived long

My maid,

I could have walked up to the hills

My maid,

I could have swum across the river

My maid,

I could have whispered to your ears

My maid,

I could have peeped through the windows

My maid,

I could have roamed about the forest

My maid,

I could have sung a song with the sea waves

My maid,

I could have slept in peace

My maid,

I could have bathed in the river

My maid,

I could have enjoyed the adventure

Of climbing up the peak of the Himalayas

My maid,

I could have taken a tour on foot

To Antarctica

My maid,

I could have played with you

My maid,

I could have made you laugh and cry

My maid.

All these I could have had

If I could have your love only

My maid. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Dialogues

“Go then, when the dark is off.”

“Do you think-

The dark will come to an end?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Your thought is cloudy.”

“There is little probability of going off the dark.”

“After some time the moon of the midnight must rise up.”

“Can the moon drive away the darkness of the heart?”

“Though the moon cannot drive away

The darkness of your heart

Certainly, it would drive away the darkness of your path.”

“If it is so, it is well.

Then what is there to fear?”

“Let the moon rise up.

Let the dark go away.

Let me walk up by the way of the dark night.

I see better in dark.”

“Your will. You may go then.

But I fear if something happens to you!”

“There is nothing to happen to me.

All that had already happened.”

“Yet there is something else.”

“What?”

“Death!”

“Already it has happened to me.

It was you that had torn and engulfed my seduced heart.

Now farewell forever.” 0 0 0

In the River of Blood

Music

(a)

Day and night we will be singing the song of sighs

You will be playing on the harp

And I will be the tongue

Or you will be the tongue

And I will be playing on the harp.

(b)

Again autumn will change our melody

Winter will change our gamut

And then our mutual mis-feelings must break off.

(c)

Oh, wayward pair of hearts!

Running after the flying of the day

Don’t be frustrated. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

You Are Going Away

You are going away from me

The uproar of weeping begins in the sea.

You are going away from me

The wind begins to sing the dirge.

You are going away from me

And with it the sky over my head

Is running after the wind.

You are going away from me

To a world unseen, unknown to me.

You are going away from me

For the entire futurity.

But why have you dropped down your heart

Upon that of mine?

Say: how can I bear the weight of it? 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

For the Last Time

We met each other on the stairs of the court

You were getting down

And I was standing facing upward

Being a piece of hill,

You were going away with the gust of wind.

You happened to cast your eyes on that of mine

And so happened to me.

We exchanged some silence

A smile glittered on your tired face

The tears of sullen sorrow and grief

Blew out being forced laughing.

In the fringe of your saree

I saw the sweat of my trodden heart

Its entity you must feel in days to come-

On solitary nights alone,

At the very dawn before the cock crows.

At deep night you’ll get up from sleep

Your heart would begin to pain

The cuckoo will sing a song

In the core of your heart

(Formerly you laughed listening to the songs)

It will make you weep now

The tears would change their hue

The weeping will change the tone

Go away and forget the sorrows of separation

Being a piece of hill

Go away and live with the freedom of the wind. 0 0 0

In the River of Blood

Dead Tree

In the river of my eyes floats

A boughless, leafless tree.

A flock of birds flies up to its thin twigs

And then begin to whisper to each other:

Let us fly away- the tree is dead.

Then I laugh within myself

And then being dumb I cannot utter a word

I only keep looking at them

Now I must cry loudly up to my throat

As they fly away – I feel myself dead

I’m dead now onwards. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Let Him Live

To-night a child will take birth

Unfurling the womb of his mother

Taking birth he will cry for a piece of land

Fee from pollution and dirt.

Let us nurse the child

He may be our prophet

He would free us

From the narrow circle of caste and creed

Let us welcome him with all the greetings

Maybe he would make us feel and live! 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

A Song

Don’t kill, don’t kill, comrade

If you can extinct the death,

Let us forget our caste and creed

And let us live like men.

Let us embrace each other with a warm heart

Let us feel we are the sons of the earth,

Let not face Hiroshima, Nagasaki again

Let us not see blood and tears but smile.

Each for all and all for each

Let us have our desired peace,

Let us love and keep our hands

On each other’s and be brothers.

Let us forget the narrow wall of the earth

Feel to be the children of the same mother,

Comrades, why should we hate ourselves

Whereas we all bear the same red blood. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

My Love

I love you

But none sees, none knows

Neither my nearest kith nor kins

Nor my enemies- know it

Even to you, my love is not known

My love is like the pearl

In the stomach of an oyster. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

My Soul

I’ve heard-

You are ill

I was hale and sound

Till I come to hear the news.

Now I’ve fallen ill

Yet I am on the way to you.

I must go

Tarry a little

Don’t die alone-

Let me have my soul. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

An African Says So

The Pyramids that people take visit to

Have been proclaiming-

The power, victory and pride

Of the ancient Misarian kings and princesses.

You visit them, walk around them

And be aback in wonder.

But alas! Had you known-

That how many tears had been shed

To wet the breasts of the gigantic pieces of stone!

Have you ever thought –

How much affliction had been suffered

By the slave workers?

Had you known –

How many slaves met their premature death?

Being fallen in the chink of the hills

Have you known-

How many black-skinned African babies were abducted?

And were compelled to take up the chain of slavery

Had you known-

How many of the rebellious slaves

Had lost their life being beaten badly.

All these history has ever remained unwritten

But among you all

Who is there with a heart and eyes?

That can see and read all

In the chink and steps of all the hills.

Woe is that-

Only very few of you have such a heart and eyes

That can read all those history. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Foundation

I have a house

They have built a house upon that of mine

And then another

And then another more

Again another more.

Thus they have been building houses upon my house.

Now they are the inhabitants of skyscrapers

The sky appears vaster to them

The stars appear to be brighter

I being an inhabitant of the ground house

Appear to be a pigmy to them

But what a pity!

They don’t know –

My house is the foundation of their houses. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Love Lines

(a)

I’m here falling headlong on the bed

Being ill

I thought-

I must not send the news.

(b)

Your forehead reflects the sunlight

And it falls back to my eyes

And with this light, I climb up

The craggy mountains.

(c)

Like love there is nothing

Neither rose nor lotus

All are dumb and dark

If compared.

(d)

You have gone far away from me

And I have come far away from you

Yet our souls are in the same cell. 0 0 0

In the River of Blood

That Day

Have you not heard?

That day while I was walking

With a busy brain

By the side of the road

A crowd of children ran up to me

All were naked

Some with a tattered shirt

With no sandals on their feet

With no gloves on their hands

To guard off the cool

Their faces were dried up in the sun

Their bellies were as thin as a piece of spat.

Some of them were holding little pots in their hands

They came to me asking for alms

I could gift them nothing

Had they known-

Under my dress

I’m also a beggar like themselves. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Outlook

There was a time

When I thought-

We are under the sway of Nature

Nature makes us, guides us as she wills

After her wills she makes us smile

She makes us weep

And makes sports with us.

I thought-

We were the puppets in the hand of Nature

As people were in the hands of the medieval monarchs.

She causes our death by a spate of floods

She freezes us to snow

She causes us to float up in the sea being a tsunami.

Of late a change has happened to my flow of thought

Though late I’ve learned

My thoughts so long were prejudices

Maybe some fickle-brained philosophers

Had injected this tenet into my mind

Or some poets had put this into my head at one stroke.

As the Jupiter, the god was put into the mind of the Romans.

Verily to say-

Nature has nothing to interrupt our man-made customs. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

My Patron

Had you not been my patrons-

My readers

My Muse would have remained inert in me

None could have known what is in me-

How much virtue, how much evil

How much light, how much dark there is

I would have remained as dumb as a hill. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

To My Sullen Maid

What is the cause?

Don’t, please ask me a question

Nowadays time has changed

Bomb bursts in the footpaths,

In the buses, in the courtyard of the peasants.

Bullets shoot from the guns in the Masjids,

In the Churches, in the Namghars.

Maybe, someday I’ll lie headlong somewhere

Without least pre-knowledge of my death.

Perhaps thus, I’ll be the victim of such terrors

And in the mid-way to the hospital

My soul would fly up to Heaven.

Please my darling,

Practice to bear the pain of separation

Be accustomed to hardening your heart

That my untimely departure may not make you unrest. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

The Lake

Let us immortalize the lake

Not by looking keenly at it

Not roaming about its banks

Not sleeping by its side

Not praising the blue water of it

But by bathing and swimming

And drowning in it

Like that of Proteus and Triton

Of the ancient Greeks. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

I Have Never Seen

I have never seen her crying

Though often I heard of-

If she cries the bunch of flowers drop down

I’m too much poor for such pearls

Once she often used to visit me

At day, at night

I saw her always smiling

And when she smiled

Lotus bloomed in my breast

Now she has turned to somewhere else

And in me, the lotus has ceased to bloom. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Triton

When I was a child

And hardly could utter a word

Made up of two syllables

Then a scholar in the Greek Mythology

Told me-

Triton is a god of Fear and Treachery

Don’t utter the name of him.

When I was a college student

My teacher said to me-

Triton is a minor sea-god in Greek Mythology

He bears the shape of a man

And the tail of a fish

And carries always a conch about him.

Now I’ve ceased to listen to their talks

And have learned to disbelieve

What they said. 0 0 0

In the River of Blood

When at Night

When at night in the light of a candle

I practice war with death

I happen to see my father

In front of me smoking cigar

Holding it between his fingers.

He seems to sip the smoke

I think he is burning up

The rubbish and stigmas of the earth.

Seeing this adventure, the quill

Of my hand drops down.

Then my mind thinks- if I could practise

Like my father the task of burning up the world!

But I’m helpless-

I’ve neither cigar nor fire

With which I can burn up

All the dirt of my mother Earth. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Untitled

Everywhere around the earth

There is the loud noise of bursting out the ball

Yet there the sun rises and sets

Yet here is heat and cool

But she has been running up to life

She desires a death on the lap of her comrade.

She is dead now

People say-

She was their mother, sister and maid

In the long way of their orbit.

But a poet says-

She was the very sun

Who shed lights

Unto our dark heart. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Death of the Century

My mother had given me birth to

In such a time

When the earth with all the stars was sunk into dark

The far-off green forest

Put on the dress of black snow

The moon was in the womb of her mother.

I have grown up now

And with me, the dark world is growing darker

Now I am moribund

And the night is growing deeper

I wish- had I a good sleep at the light! 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

My Love

When I keep my hand upon that of yours

Or when you keep your hand upon that of mine

Then I think-

In this vast universe, there is none

But you and I

And then all the heavenly bliss showers on us

If I had been a poet, I could tell-

We were happier than all the flowing rivers of the earth.

More beautiful than all the roses

And new like the everyday sun.

Days have passed

And I come to feel-

The earth is replete with crowds of men and women

Only I am lonely outside the world! 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Reminiscence

If I get a chink in my busy life

I recline on the edge of my past days

I unfurl the pages of those moments

That I used to spend with you.

I remind the dye of your thin newly worn dress

I walked hand in hand with you

By the bank of the lake

Where you had lost your childhood-

As I was told.

I remind your grave and grand smile

Hidden dance and loud tone of silent music

I then lose myself within the pages

I see- we are taking a bath scattering muddy water

Here and there.

These days have gone for years

Yet they keep my life warmer

Days will come and days must pass

But all these days with you must remain

Evergreen in the pages of my heart. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Your Touch

Tears,

Shed here, my sister

On the palms of my hands

I have stretched out my last surviving pot.

I’m alone here

Let me have your touch at least

By means of your tears

I am lying alone here. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Travelling

A travelling

Of whose is travelling?

Why is the travelling?

I don’t know

I only know-

It is travelling through the impossible path of time

A travelling either through reality or through a dream

It is travelling from earth to sky or from sky to earth

Travelling with the wounded laughter

In the face of the traveller.

Travelling through the alarmed breast

Of the traveller himself

A travelling from finite to infinite

Or from infinite to finite.

I know not-

When did it start?

When will it come to an end?

Only I heard someone say so-

The travelling commenced

Prior to the beginning of the chaos

Some million years before two-footed animals

Began to come into being.

I know not-

Does it get tired?

Does it talk with anybody?

Or does it take repose on any edge of the universe?

I know not-

Whether it travels through light or through dark

I know not-

Whether it is for life or death

I know not whether it is making the past or future.

I only know-

It is a mystery as mysterious as the time itself

By means of which

God expands His ubiquitous omnipresence. 0 0 0

In the River of Blood

Don’t Teach Me

For whom you teach me to sing?

Or for whom will I learn to sing?

There are a thousand tones prior to that of mine

Yet the world is dark

Yet the breast of the earth is cool and coarse.

Then why you urge me to learn singing?

Let me remain unheard, untold, unsung

As every white soul is. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Don’t Compose

Dream upon dream

Don’t compose

Song upon song

Don’t sing.

You ought to know-

In this over-crowded world

Everybody is an outsider. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Who Will Reply

Who will reply

To the call of Time?

Everybody is free from everybody

Within the inner chest of everybody’s mind

As every petal of moments is fugitive

Nobody knows- what he is

Yet in vain they exhibit with pride-

We are brothers and sisters

Came off the same mother. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

If Once and Again

If once and again

I hear the call of war

I will take the lead

With the promise of life.

Here all are dead

Because-

They were afraid of death

As they were afraid of death

They avoid war

And hence they are dead.

Let me hear the call of war

Let me take the lead for life. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

To the Campaign

I am as bold as a horse of war

Like a hero, I go ahead with the campaign

Though I know-

In our time fighting on riding a horse is a farce. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

To Become We

I endeavoured my best to become WE

I struggled to my last drop of blood

To become WE

On my death bed, I have come to know

I have been being beaten well by all the WE. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Narcotics

To quench anxiety

To veil the fire of poverty

To forget the agony of separation

To drive away the woes

Of losing one’s dearest one

To invigorate the tired soul

Nowadays men take to narcotics.

Being drunk they have learned to lie

On the footpath facing downwards

Many have practised accustoming to chiding

And beating their wives after returning home at midnight.

Being drunk they have practised

To utter prohibited words one after the other

Some young lads and lasses begin

To take wine, cigar, kani and afing

Of late I have heard amorous desire is also a kind of wine

It makes drunk and invokes more pleasure.

Nowadays the price of all goods is in an increase

A bottle of English wine costs more

Than a thousand Indian rupees.

A bottle of Japanese wine costs two thousand

A hundred grams of heroine cost some half a dozen thousand.

Nowadays all are available in the open market.

If we compare a woman’s flesh

To all these narcotics

It is cheaper.

In an open market, a woman’s body is sold only in fifty rupees

Hence the young drunkards say-

Let us buy the cheaper

And let us be intoxicated with the wine by the name of woman

And let us forget our sorrows, pain, woes and idleness

Let us forget life. 0 0 0

In the River of Blood

Talk

Oh! The bird of dawn,

I pray to you

O, the sun I entreat you

O the darkness of the night,

Turn to me and please give me back the Dawn.

Oh! My dear sun

I have sent my horse

Please play more with it

Behind the mountain.

O the bird of dawn,

Don’t sing the song of light.

O the goddess of darkness,

Keep up the rays of light

Under your veil,

And let me walk ahead

The daylight makes me blind. 0 0 0

To Live

To live there we need not of a sword

No need for a sharp knife

To live we need neither gun powder nor machine-gun

To live we need not bullet-proof jacket

Neither the ammunition nor the lethal gas

To live we need neither war nor massacre.

Friends, why you think so strong?

Look at us; keep your eyes upon our eyes

We are your brothers and sisters.

We are in front of you

Look at-

We are in bare hands

We have no armours, no gun and no ammunition.

Why friends, make so loud laughter?

Think a little of us

Let us embrace each other

Let us forget vain enmity,

Let us repent for our sin

And let us live like a man.

To live we need your love

Let us do with love what we wish to do. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

I Am

Just now

I am well trodden

By ten war horses.

I am a fugitive soldier

A mariner in the midst of the sea

Without the helm.

A fallen down spring flowers

Being mad of the dream of the future. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Once Again

Once again

Oh! My sullen beloved

Let me be gifted with your handful of love

Let me listen to your song of hopes

And let me die in peace. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

When I Open My Eyes

When I open my eyes

I am made blind with sands

And black vapour

When I gap up to inhale

I am manacled by showing bullet

When I put my foot ahead

I am encountered by the mountain

Yet I must go ahead. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

One Evening

One evening,

While I was wandering alone

In meditative mood

Along the banks of the hilly spring.

All of a sudden, I happened to meet

A man about forty

His face was covered with a jumbled beard

Two eyes were red as cheery

The hair was as long as that of a maid

A wallet hung on his back

I got a little amazed and asked-

Who are you so tired, so weird?

He put his index finger unto his lips and gestured-

Be silent and shut up your eyes.

So I did and I found a sage

Sitting under a huge tree.

I asked him- please who are you?

He replied- I am nobody.

He asked me the same question-

Who are you?

I thought and the following reply

Came out of my tongue-

I am he who is a nobody like you.

Then he embraced me.

When I opened up my eye-lids

I found that the night is over

The morning sun was about to rise

Breaking the wall of dark dew

With the arrows of light. 0 0 0

In the River of Blood

A Band of Singers

A band of singers was looking about

In the midst of the dusty street

Their lost reminiscence.

They sang a song and looked about here and there

And I happened to see-

They plucked up something like sands

And then they shut up their eyes and died. 0 0 0

In The River of Blood

Since an Unknown Spring

Since an unknown spring

I have been singing a song

Sitting under this oak tree.

The rippling river nearby

Adds music to my melody

The western hills echo my voice

The flying birds become my orchestra.

I am singing the song with a silent voice

Making a louder call for picking up our freedom. 0 0 0

*The End*

Books of Composition by M. Menonimus: