All Fool's Day

All Fool’s Day

Whatever may be, it’s my doing,

by choice or by force, that I forget;

my rush ends it in half-hearted doing

and in endless strife I am caught.

In my fear of loosing my doing

no moment spared to stop and look

from all sides around, inside out,

at all levels, in all dimensions:

much of it I am ignorant.

On the fast track of one dimension

never knew when I lost myself;

never realised I am the means;

and I am the end. A product, an idea,

a thought, an act, or a concept

in time is perishable and transient:

no sooner born belongs to the past.

In stagnant water all actions stink.

But waters of life are always flowing,

condensing, evaporating, raining,

reflecting; that’s the nature of water,

of life born in water, but not my doing.

In looking at doing, the doing ceases.

At the core of ocean prevails

Silence pregnant with new life.

-------

Remigius de Souza

(26 March 2004)

~~~~~~~~~
© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

चेहरा सावली हरवलेली संस्कृति

© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

LUCKY DOG ON VALENTINE DAY

LUCKY DOG ON VALENTINE DAY

By Remigius de Souza

Valentine or Santa, both strangers to me,
in this media-frenzy in this market place,
though I carry European Christian names:
They remain merely non-entities for me.

Certainly the seasons, even in this urban jungle
are close to my heart; so also the sun, moon
and stars, sky and clouds, dawn and dusk; a rare
patch of green and a song of bird. They evoke

emotions, memories, longings and aspirations
though I have no knowledge scholarly of them
to make money or name from these real entities.

I am enriched as I meet them in remote holes
in this urban maze like a stray ferrous flake
meets magnet: what a windfall for a lucky dog!

Mumbai

12-02-2004

~~~~~~~~
© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

CULTURE AND SURVIVAL

CULTURE AND SURVIVAL

Philosopher is a thinking person,
talking saves him of any action,
a self-seeker in self-gratification
gets fruits of loud applaud in vain.
Sustained by the philosophers in ages
raising burden on their dumb heads
the Moderns create wars of louder clutter
and ever-rising deafening noisy culture.

A farmer's thinking is in his action,
in caring seed and soil all in one
like a woman silently bearing a child;
both are in action - a soundless word
like a plant bearing flowers and fruits
bearing and keeping cycles of survival

Mumbai [11-12-2002]






© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

Cultivated Identities

Cultivated Identities

Do we ever change dear? None ever changes –
neither a man - not even a blade of grass.
We are cultivated only in the reformatory
Out of what we are, bred by waves
Of netty pretty pictures, words pretty
Having no fragrance, no taste of honey
Fed by their ever growing netty tentacles
We are delivered always by the reformists
Selling - buying - swallowing swarms of locusts.
To change is to grow is to keep
The inner flame alive in us
Is the only option most dangerous
Is left to us of our creative powers.

~~~~~~
© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.