Pharaoh in wilderness (Poem)

My heart is a sanctuary   
in urban wilderness   
where a great Pharaoh   
buries himself   
in a hole of secret riches   
behind several barriers.

(10/12/2010)

Note: Image Source- Internet
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

Song of an aborigine in our times

By Remigius de Souza
(Originally published in Archetypes India)

Image 1: Bhills celebrate Holi Festival

In our ancestral Land and Waters
I am not a residue or a by-product,
of this monstrous civilized chaos
that challenges at every breathing
the honour and dignity of humanity.

We aren’t depressed or dejected
by our lack of wants; for us
Life rises above all artefacts.
Every breath is indeed an occasion
in deed for celebration
of Life forever to Rejoice

despite the chaos around so base.
It falls free at its own equations
and impositions, the notorious
and famous; all are about to be
washed off in time through
the floodgates of anonymity.

I assure you of my loyalty
to reach back in antiquity —
our spirits are ready to spring
O, my kinsfolk, in aboriginality.

Image 2: Bhill aborigine damsels’ impromptu dance

Image 3: Bhill aborigine damsels’ impromptu dance

Note: 
Image 1: Bhill aborigine tribe celebrate Holi Festival
Image 2 and 3: Bhill aborigine damsels’ impromptu dance at time of maize crop gets ready.Images by Remigius de Souza

© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

LIVING IN FOOL’S PARADISE

 LIVING IN FOOL’S PARADISE

Once conditioned by the system
Subjected to a quarter century
Of rigors of the mass schooling
It is not easy going, easy keeping
Aflame awareness
In the cyclonic waves turbulent
By the anarchist housekeeper
One tends to buy time
In the memory (of events, images)
In future (projecting hopes, images).
Transient is but Time;
Remi is racing with Time.

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

Hail Careerists!

Hail Careerists!
By Remigius de Souza

Arjuna sees only the parrot’s eye.
Hail Careerist!
Unblest me, I see
   the eye
   the parrot
   the twig
   the tree
   the earth
   that gives food.
I see the reflection on his eye
   of the sky
   that gives rain.
I see through its dark interior
   the picture
   on his retina
   of the clouds.
Arjuna’s arrow transcended;
Parrot was delivered of his birth.
But my bow and arrow dropped;
And I received my boon of mirth
(To be born again?)

CAREER is glorified in Industrial Age; it wasn’t different in any civilized society since its inception 5K years ago: It is power-oriented. The recent example is Steve Jobs, who recently expired. He was so possessed by his occupation that he had no time for his children, or to write his autobiography. He lived life compartmentalized, so much so, he did not attend to the aspect of “recycling” his own products when they are obsolete. This is a major lacuna created by the Industrial Civilization, which is against Nature’s Laws!

(Translated by the author from the original text in Marathi: See Link)
~~~~~
© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

Firefly (Marathi Poem)

काजवा 

आम्ही आहोत क्षणभंगुर

पण आमचा आहे 

उजेड स्वत:चा 

नकोत आम्हास 

प्रेषित आमच्या न्यायचे. 

* * *

Firefly

We have a short life
but we have our own light.
We do not want
prophets of our justice.

* * *

With the woodlands and forests vanishing, with the use of chemical pesticide and insecticides in aggressive farming, the fireflies too vanish. Where would the younger generations see the firefly? Would they comprehend what a firefly is? Is it on the TV, on the internet, or in the Natural History Museums, which most unlikely?
Firefly inadvertently represents generaly the peasants and particularly Adivasi, the tribal, who are upright people.

Mumbai
[6-3-1989]

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

Karma-sannyasi's Self-immersion in Water (Poem)

Karma-sannyasi's Self-immersion in Water (Poem), translated in Matarthi and published on Remichi Marathi Boli on September 3, 2011.  

Image 1: Christian Burrial ground in Mumbai

Death, now, in the civilized societies is no more natural, and is more expensive than living.

I
His logic ends in No-Action act,
no energy spent in any effort,
no chase after what is gone,
no regret if it may
or not return ever,
in an environment
hostile or ambivalent,
natural is the behaviour
when body and mind
and soul in tune are.

II
Cosmos autonomous inner
is never an inert matter
enslaved not, isolated or
from the world outer.  
There’s the fearless fire
that can’t be consumed
by trivially mass mania mundane
in the waves after waves
that rise and fall and vanish.
In finality his flame inner
unites with life-giving water.

(Mumbai | 27-29/12/2005)

Image 2: Underwater Life and Death

Note 1: Recently there was news on BBC: New body 'liquefaction' unit unveiled in Floridafuneral home". It made me laugh. On one side the First World Nations talk-talk-talk of Environmental damage and hold responsible the entire humanity, and on the other hand find new ways to destroy natural environment by proxy.

2: Image 1: 'Christian Burrial ground in Mumbai' by the Author

3: Image 2 : Source- Internet

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

All Fools’ Day

The Fool in Tarot Pack

All Fools’ 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,

Save Forest-Save Life

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 | Mumbai | 26 March 2004
Note: Image: The Fool; Credits: the Rider-Waite Tarot deck.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

LUCKY DOG ON VALENTINE DAY

Poem by Remigius de Souza

Lucky dog

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!

By Remigius de Souza
Mumbai
12-02-2004 

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

Walking away forever

Walking away forever  
From a make-believe picture   
of civilized culture  
In the rising sun I enter;  
It isn't same again ever.

(13.01.01)


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

GO GLOBAL

Earn to burn in the urns of desires.
Eat - drink - sleep - (xxxx) - make merry
And drain the sap in the gutter holes,
which overflow to meet the dump yard
of the sea and add on the heaps
of unwanted generation; Chant. Chant
The global mantra of ilu*, ilu, ilu!
Does one live by food alone?
Or in a metropolitan nightmare
breathe some fresh air!


Mumbai [29-07-03]

(*ilu: I love you.)


~~~~~~~
© 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.

A lesson in a non-action action

A lesson in a non-action action

There’s none other lesson than in
Non-action action in communion
With nature like a savage aborigine
The son of soil in bliss eternal
Here and now for a civilised man.

Alas, Remi the son of man
Belonging to a civilisation
Dwells in Future or in the Past
Of super-ego astray gone;
May Remi now in action at his last
To love his self until his last!

I now notice ripples tiniest
In the space innermost
I now witness movements calm
In the depth innermost
The bliss I enjoy now highest.
-----
Remigius de Souza
Mumbai
28-12-1999
~~~~~
© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

Warli Painting with the Artist and her Family

Warli Painting with the Artist and her Family
Warli painting is the DOMAIN OF WARLI WOMEN, unlike male chauvinist civilised societies. Warli Painting, like their dances and music, is part of their life and culture and not a separate department for the so-called gifted artists in the civilised societies. Warli Tribe have neither gender issues of discrimination or prostitution like in civilised societies.

However, we notice that the do-gooder urban elites are promoting their own values and encouraging males to paint for publishing and marketing Warli Art. They don’t learn because they can’t appreciate Tribal values. This missionary work is most detrimental to tribal culture.
Read MORE ON Warli Housing and Art





© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.