Songs of Separation

The pangs of separation ever melt and flow

into songs through my poetic heart, a home
for sufferings and joy; this overspreading pain
seeps from that deepened loves and desires.

The songs of separation spread in the world

giving birth to innumerable shapes in the sky
gazing in silence all nights from star to star
becoming lyric in rustling leaves in darkness.

Adopted from Tagore’s Gitanjali, poem 84

Henry Victor          14.12.2012

 

Pearl of the Formless

I dive down into the depth of the ocean
hoping to gain the perfect pearl of the formless
wanting no more sailing from harbour
to harbour in my weather-beaten boat.

To be tossed to-and-fro on waves was my past sport
now long passed and I am now eager to die
into deathlessness, an audience of fathomless abyss
where the music swells from toneless strings.

There I shall take this harp of my life tuning
to the notes of eternity and when it has sniffed out
its last utterance I shall lay down my silent harp
at the silent feet of the formless, the perfect .

Adopted from Tagore’s Gitanjali, poem 100

Henry Victor          10.10.2012

Wait

If you speak not I will, with patience, fill ears
with your silence; I will keep still enduring
your speechlessness in heart, wait like a night
with starry vigil, her head bent low.

Morning surely will come, darkness vanish with
your voice pouring down from sky in golden streams,
your words, then, will take wings in songs of birds,
and melodies breaking from every flower in the forest.

Adopted from Tagore’s Gitanjali, poem 19

Henry Victor          27.09.2012