A lesson in poetry appreciation
I wish I can teach you
How to hold my poems
You hold them as if
you were not holding them at all
You let the petals breathe
a bit longer in your cupped palms
In the tender light of your love
Orange and white Parijaat blossoms
You gently pick each one
Word by word
One at a time
And inhale the scent
in long deep breaths
As if you were smelling it for the very first time
As if you were trying to memorize the smell
As if you were trying to reach someone by smelling it.
I wish I can teach you
How to taste my poems
How to pluck the right notes
Distinguish dark purple ones,
almost black ones
The long and ripe ones
From the small, dark red, unripe ones
Savour the silky-smooth shiny Jamun skin
On your lips
Before you dig your impatient teeth into
The succulent, translucent pink and white insides
Smelling of spices and dark earth
You need to be really patient with these poems
Open your heart
To the astringent sweetness
Before your kalakhatta stained tongue
Falls in love with its colours
And let an Indian summer
Blossom inside your mouth.
Relationship/સંબંધ
“પેલીની સાથે તારો સંબંધ શું છે, કહે તો?”
PELINI SAATHE TAARO SAMBANDH SHUN CHHE, KAHE TO?
(What is your relationship with her?)
My poems often ask me
Curious and insecure
They want to know
which language I am really serious about
My English ones wonder
why I sometimes write in one
but speak in another
Gujarati ones don’t understand
(why I even need more than one)
હું છું તો બીજીની શું જરૂર છે?
HUM CHHU TO BIJINI SHUN JAROOR CHHE?
why I need one as much as the other.
Is it about excitement
or just nature
or some vicious design
that drives you?
I say, I don’t know.
પણ એ બેય માનવા જ તૈયાર નથી
PAN E BANNE MANAVA J TAIYAAR NATHI
(they are not just ready to accept it)
What makes that one
more attractive than me?
each one persists.
Is it her texture on your tongue
or my feel beneath your skin?
Is it about the smells that I bring along
or the silences she breathes in your lines?
what does really matter to you?
they keep asking.
Do you like to love in one
and curse in another?
Do you experiment with her
and trace the familiar pattern over here?
Or do you just know nothing
but absolute surrender?
I say, I don’t know.
