Gaamuk

Happy Birthday

2011-06-09T01:00:00.000-07:00

You were in my heart when I first took wing
silently floating on my mind
like a butterfly in the sky
Fiesta of sunrays at daybreak
upon distant misty mountains
still reminds me of you
When we sauntered across
around our comforts
criss-crossing the peripheries
of pure joy and kinship
Thy laughter and floundering
gathers in my soul
like a robed wizard’s charm
Old times whereupon
I held your finger
to turn new leaves
My soleprints on the shore
look lonely this evening

© Sameer

Harvest and hankering

2010-11-30T10:57:00.000-08:00

Can we not light up a fire
and see each other’s gaze?
Can we not make noise
like those good old days?
Can we not break into a song
when first snows alight?
Can we not be awe-less
and fear not the night?
Can we shut out the guff
rulers let fly at us?
Can we summon to mind
poems of harvest and hankering?
Can we paint wistful meadows
in bold colors of concord?
Can we sit and laugh
in the midst of this curse?

© Sameer

Scarlet puddles

2010-07-30T07:56:00.000-07:00

Woodlets are cold once again
Nights are drawn-out again
Death rattle is here again
Burying grounds are busy again
Scarlet puddles have formed again
Bowmen appear on trees again
Wildly shooting at dreams again
Each bird is a foe again
Birdcalls are grievous again
Darkness at dawn again
Nighttime at noon again
Clouds bursting once again
Old men crying yet again
Savage wilderness once again
Hop-skipping puddles time and again

© Sameer

One more

2010-06-20T12:53:00.000-07:00

One more smokestack is smokeless tonight
one more child put six feet under
One more mother is wringing her hands
one more son is inhumed tonight
One more joy is trampled upon
one more lad is overhung tonight
One more bullet to the heart
one more woeful home tonight
One more sombre evening
one more starless sky tonight

© Sameer

To my old bed

2010-06-10T09:11:00.000-07:00

I smell wild wood trees
possessed by buccaneers and bulbuls
criss-crossing each other
along heaving paths
I see bee-eaters, their iridescent wings
like violin bows upon the track
fringed with tall pines
like sharp arcs into blue Eden
I hear sounds being chargrilled
in the timberland, so green
surrounded with dug-outs
as deep as war sorrows
I walk into my vale
self-same over the years
cacophonous and comforting
if only to fell happily
into my old bed

© Sameer

Why?

2010-05-31T10:42:00.000-07:00

Mother they promised me
honey from the bee hive
and I ran to savor some
mindless of the night

They gave me not a single drop,
instead punctured me with
honey-color death beans
in my mouth

I kept asking for some
food and they kept
spraying me with arrows
till I gave up

The longbow man roared
and turned to his men
wiping away blood, he said
my violence conquers yours

Mother I think they killed me
But I know not why
The thinnest crescent
of a moon saw me bleed

© Sameer

Fig and the cartoon bird

2010-05-26T04:11:00.000-07:00

A cartoon bird flaps its wings
in a doodle as old as dirt
Looking high and low for perch
across a glum-looking portrait

In a wood and canvas canoe
I drift along the bird
Looking for shiny moorage
by a phony familiar island

I forget what season it is
as I chase the cartoon bird
I wade on,
as it soars, abstracted by the trail

As it reaches a tiny garden
to halt upon a fig sprig
Kissing wasps on a fruit
gape at the bird’s beak

Figs deny to grow in winter
shy of sky-smelling snows
Adam and Eve robed in leaflets
once rambled about the sky

The bird pierced a lilac fig
to jab a wasp deep in it
Drupe is often confect
for the lover lives inside

© Sameer

Liberty

2010-05-13T04:11:00.000-07:00

Past prairies full of dewy grass
on a hummock east of sunrise
Next to boughs laden with cherry
in the rouge of concealed groves
Far from a million churlish noises
where stillness strokes the soul
Beyond the bounds of barley fields
deep in woods of rose-ringed parakeet
In the land of shiny caterpillars
cocooned from the ogre-ish uproar
Across streamlets with slippery cobblestones
underneath cliffs of last year’s snow
There is a hint of hope
and it is stark

© Sameer

At the last gasp

2010-04-27T04:09:00.000-07:00

Was it effortless?
like your smile
Did they wake you up?
one last time
Or was it quick?
like a burglar in night
How many wings did it have?
Grim-reaper or arch-angel
Did you float or glide?
was it heady, like dope
Could you see our eyes?
from the cheese-like moon
Is it hot or is it cold?
beyond the stars
Do souls have foot-prints?
in the kingdom of heaven
Is it limitless hence?
are you weightless tonight
Will they let you see God?
from an opening in heaven
I’ll see you in the cow-slips
by your distant grave

© Sameer
~Dedicated to my amazingly mad-cap friend Selçuk, who passed away earlier today

Published in Poets' Basement -- CounterPunch Magazine, USA -- on the weekend May 7-9, 2010.
www.counterpunch.com/poems05072010.html

April sprinkle

2010-04-22T12:04:00.000-07:00

Rain -- cold small beads
come slanting down
on Zero Bridge,
upon old waters that flow beneath

Wet almond blossom
in night-long showers
scattered in bolshie gardens by the Dal
stamped upon by everyday ghosts

Bloodshot glower in black skies
Men in sand-bags with sad, cold eyes
Spring showers upon ugly bayonets
early rain on parched souls

Moist, hidden graves in deep, distant woods
under damp raspberry trees
Dead sleep in rain-swept dark
the undead roll in stone Hamams

Rain spatter on familiar roofs
Rainy sounds like idle words
Rain-color puddles on the boulevard
No rain songs to live it up

© Sameer

For the baby

2010-02-28T08:19:00.001-08:00

Stones, that fly thick and far
like poisoned arrows in some war
A million rocks to wallop the foe
no kind souls to hear the woe

Stones in drizzle, stones in snow
pale evil mist on each little bough
Noise in alleys, tumult in the village
Stones to scare, stones to pillage

Double edged swords, our bold stones
Beneath all broil the city still moans
Stones that hurt, stones that maim
Fanfaronade without any shame

Slings and canon to pluck the stone
old lake shore, a virgin battle zone
That random shot in some head
aimless bricks and more of red

Rock pigeons on Hazratbal dome
Tiny nests in chimneys, back home
covered in some dark foggy soot
shaken by endless funereal hoot

Princes’ waltz and paupers die
Are peace pastures in the nigh?
Shall we always torch our shawls?
Let's throw some scooped snow balls

Sameer

Love and alarm clocks

2009-11-10T23:09:00.000-08:00

Love is setting up early alarms
and melting into bracing arms
Little strokes on the hand
saving a solitary hair strand

Sound of the autumn rain
brings back the images again
Million maddening mysteries to crack
and only your memories to stack

Love is waking up at ungodly hour
to check on the mystic flower
to look at the alarm clock
answer heart's tender knock

Sameer

Why is the dew roseate this morning?

2009-06-12T05:22:00.000-07:00

Why is the dew roseate this morning?
Why is this frenzy without a warning?
What are those forms near the brook?
Why are they clubbing us with shepherd’s crook?
***
Why does the orchard smell of hurt?
Why is the father without his shirt?
Why is the village wailing in a distance?
Why does the heart yearn for resistance?
***
How did the country flowers die?
How was this lad hit in the eye?
What are musketeers planning to do?
Why is an old man refusing to move?
***
Who put fetters in my valley?
Why aren’t men allowed to rally?
Have our tears also been banned?
Why should our lament always stay canned?
***
Why did the Saffron turn so white?
Why are the alleys startlingly quiet?
Why is the Jhelum without a ripple?
Are we a country on the tipple?

Sameer

When I am dead

2009-04-21T05:55:00.000-07:00

[Originally jotted in the year 2000]

When I am dead, my boy
sing no sad songs for me
When my souls blows away
dig no limestones for me
When I am buried, my boy
hold no hands for me
When my echoes wear out
read no praises for me
When the lights go off, my boy
light no candles for me
When my laughter dies down
drop no tears for me
When the gusts are strong, my boy
breathe no sighs for me
When the spring breaks again, my boy
Watch me in the cowslips, by my grave

Sameer

Of pals

2009-04-21T05:43:00.000-07:00

Originally written on June 24, 1999

The voice smells of wine
such are old friends of mine
some knocks stir lifelong joys
you recall the broken toys
You miss those loving times
The silly school rhymes
Oddity, sleep, familiar paths
You recollect the impish baths

Sameer

Catechism at 21

2009-04-21T03:14:00.000-07:00

First written on Sunday, June 10, 2001

My little vale, why do you cry?
why do your airs sigh?
What ails your mountains?
What shut your fountains?
How did your blossoms cease?
What happened to the evening breeze?
Who set your shrines aglow?
And why doesn't the Jhelum flow?
Where did our neighbors go?
And why could we not know?
Who is that khaki scarecrow?
And why do the winds not blow?
Those joyful sweet songs
Are they replaced by our wrongs?
Our warm nuptial surges
replaced by sad dirges
Shall cool zephyrs kiss us again?
Will groovy buds adorn us again?

Sameer
[First written 9 years back, in the midst of mindless violence in Kashmir]

I wish I had met you before

2009-04-14T07:00:00.000-07:00

I wish I had met you before
to know what love is like
to learn to love with eyes
to fathom the meaning of silence

I wish I had met you before
to hold onto your soul
to shut you from the hurt
to clutch your hand

I wish I had met you before
to cover you in those storms
to keep you forever warm
to hear your heart's song

I wish I had met you before
to love you like a madman
to hold you in my arms
to never let you go

I wish I had met you before
to make you feel safe
to brush your tear away
to never let you fall

I wish I had met you before
to walk you into eventides
to talk an ancient talk to you
to count the myraid stars, with you.

Sameer

Why do I think you love me too?

2009-03-08T06:18:00.000-07:00

Why do I holler inside?
Why do I try and hide
Why do I still care
Why do I think you are there.

Why do I love you?
Why do I think you love me too
Why do I feel pain
Why do I feel I'm insane.

Why do I want you so bad?
Why do I get a li'l mad
Why do I miss you like hell
Why do I need you my belle.

Why do I still love you?
Why do I always see this view
Why do I allow myself to think
Why do I feel I can't blink.

Sameer

Snow

2009-02-12T05:55:00.000-08:00

Soft, new, cold snow
Tiny flakes in heaven
Come dancing in the dark
on countless twigs and buds
Rooftops, tree tops and topless rills;
on highways and lowlands
upon the pen and a little nest;
over the mountaintop
on tiny eggs in the nestling;
upon black umbrellas
and aquiline noses
on moulds and fresh graves
into deep crevices
and our buried hopes
upon grasslands and horses
on little homes of ants
Tall spires of the mosque
And abandoned temple ruins
It snows into the night
And upon my memory

Sameer

For my blogs go to:
www.sameerbhat.blogspot.com

For short stories click:
www.kashmiryat.wordpress.com

Change has come

2009-01-21T04:55:00.000-08:00

They say a son of slaves has come
some people will no more be called scum
And this boy from seaside Hawaii
brings a tear to the eye
by all the magical words he has to say

They say he has a funny sounding name
And he clinched the DC game
And his color isn't all that white
And his gaze remains without spite

They say he likes the good ol' Lincoln
And like Abe, has earned his run
And he breathes plumes of hope
And in a storm he is the guy rope

They say he must shut the dark bay
And he won't let the goodness fray
And he will fix the dis-respect
because no one really is a suspect
A rainbow change has taken place

Sameer

Whose entrails are these?

2009-01-01T18:07:00.000-08:00

Do humans inhabit only one side of the wall?
Whose entrails are these in the town hall?
Do they only have mothers in Tel Aviv?
In Gaza why do so many women grieve?
Why is the civilized world so silent?
Are they immune to a million lament?
Can only white kids whimper and weep?
Can only brown children be bombed in sleep?
What is so likeable about Santa Claus?
Across river Jordan why does humankind pause?
Do they have friends in Israel alone?
Will Palestinian pals forever mourn?
Is the blood in Sderot so priceless?
Is the blood in Al-Shati so worthless?

sameer