Realisation

Poetry nibbles at my silken solitude
like a playful mouse;
I learnt the art of turning cloth into water
and the mice quickly changed into fish
I found a way to turn water into sky
and the fish morphed into birds by magic

Poetry actually
breaks into my solitude 
like a shrewd hunter
To protect my silence
I turn into cloth water sky moon cliff or tree

To those trembling under the weight of their own names 
the mystery of the sun isn’t revealed —
A shooting star’s dust showers over masqueraders;
Sometimes, poetry becomes
a half-broken broom, unable to sweep my yard

I realise:
One day the broom’s bristles will crumble into dust
One day sunshine-harvest-melody-iron-wood-humanity: all will merge
One day all the world will become my home
One day my own name will become estranged from me
One day the land of prophets will be my abode

Beloved,
do you know the art of piercing the sky
with a single bristle of the broom?

I realise:
One day I’ll be born from a mote of dust
The sky will explode its brilliance all around
One day I’ll part my hair with sunlight— 
Sunlight,
the dust of a meditating star
One day I’ll stud my anklet with sunlight—

Sunlight,
the chiming anklet of a celestial dancer
One day a storm of dust will rise on earth
One day all directions will ring with wonder

There will be a primal dance
to the beat of howling winds— 
Nami daanam ki aakhir chun dam-e-deedar mi raqsam
Basad saamaan-e-rusvaai sar-e-baazaar mi raqsam¹

The pliant sky follows some eternal rules
The dawn sprouting in rhythm has to spend a night of deluge;
Masquerading is the dust
Masquerading is the moon
Masquerading is poetry
Masquerading is the poet
Masquerading is the pageant of stars

Poetry 
is the shadow forming in the searing sun of life

Solitude is an open terrace
The sun’s mystery is revealed to scorched shadows:
That’s it, that’s 
all there is to it!

***

1.  I don’t know why at the sight of the beloved I dance/ Bearing the weight of disgrace, in public I dance:: lines from a Persian Sufi poem ‘Mee Raqsam’, attributed to Hazrat Khwaja Usman Harooni Chisti. ↩︎