Nature – Primal Source of Wealth

Mother Nature – Srishti – within us and outside, even beyond the Earth, Infinite

Mother Nature – Srishti

Nature – Primal Source of Wealth

Labour of living-beings creates wealth,
From Land and Waters,
with help of Five Primal Elements;
Not in a mint, factory or stock market.
There happen processes,
building-breaking, energy-expenditure.

(Translated from original in Marathi by the author)

सृष्टी साधन  संपत्तीचे

Text of the original Marathi poem in the image

Remigius de Souza | Mumbai | 15-01-2013

Note: In the image 'Mother Nature – Srishti' above, background picture is by NASA.
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© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

In the Urban Wilderness

Illustration: Stuffed Crested Lark in a natural history museum

In the Urban Wilderness 

Perhaps I could sing words of birds  

Along smiling shoots of spring  

In the company of mango bloom  

And soothing green of cuckoo's Pancham,  

And dance under the canopy of clouds  

To the peacock's call in the backyards  

On the pathway of Meghdootam  

There in the abode of Saras;  

Or inscribe them on deadly diskettes  

For the posterity.  

In my mega-city, mummies  

Of birds celebrate, sing silently,  

In the tombs of Natural History.  

Who shall cherish the memory  

Of my jungle of skyscrapers  

And of glass buildings which scares  

The heavenly eagles away;  

Of serpentine Metro that snatches  

The abode of Shesha's descendants away!   

[29-2-1996]  

Illustration: Stuffed Crested Lark in a natural history museum: species of plants and animals are becoming extinct with progress and development of Industrial Civilization.(Image source: Internet)

Note: Pancham: the Fifth note of the seven tones. Eagle is considered Lord Visnhu's vehicle by the Hindus. Meghdootam: The classic literary work in Sanskrit by poet Kalidasa. Saras: a bird. Shesha: Primeval serpent that lives in lower world, the bed of Lord Vishnu, the ancester of snakes on the earth.

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© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

COOL Legacy in the 21st Century (Poem)

All fall down

COOL in prestige – power – politics
with CAR-CAD-CLASS-COM
Quickies come handy
to push away or out easily
a man or matter alike.
Quickies all fall down
like a house of cards falls down.
(23-04-2004)
Note: Image source: Internet
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© 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.

Circus (Marathi Poem)

Dombari are a caste of acrobats in Indian Society

Circus

From South Pole
To North Pole
Life —
A tightrope walk
. . .

Dombari are a caste of acrobats in Indian Society. In the democratic India’s changing economy, they are now vanishing: No rehabilitation, No education. Who cares?

They are mentioned in Siddhartha Jataka that date back to 3rd Century B.C. Would they ever reach Olympics, or vanish?

© 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]

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© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

Indian Budgets 12 years apart (2 Poems)

Fence-sitter

Indian Budgets 12 years apart (2 Poems)
By Remigius de Souza

Fence sitter's view (Year 1994)

Grand old Adam
From heaven
Of free enterprise
Wonders, watching
The acrobatics
Of the finance expert
How he manages
Indian rope trick
Of the annual national budget
In between the holes
In the sky, by
Terrorists' acts
And Bofor's kickbacks
So also, securities' scams
Until bomb-blasts sneaks
And Mother Earth shudders,
All of which rise on and on, along
The progress chart of GNP
Successively year after year.

In the arena of circus
The first rows
And the second rows
Are entertained with
Intellectual kicks,
While the acrobat makes
Those in the stands
Forget their woes
Back at home, awhile.

The Marx, the Thoreau
The Gandhi and Leo
Watch with thumb in mouth
While grand old Adam
From heaven of free enterprise
Relishes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
(Mumbai: 8-3-1994)
__________________________________________

Ways to Wealth (Year 2006)
1 
Once a god adored adorned
many a head of door to an abode.
Now the gods take to the road,
beg for patronage. And the rich
beggars go globe trotting for
finance, know-how and trade.

2
Once the children of communities
cohesive received learning free
in the life-supporting skills in
branches of wholesome life-tree.

Now in the forward societies
they buy it at the trading malls
turning their clocks fast forward
until late to their adulthood
to earn their dough of uncertain
value to buy the living and life-
supporting services from expertise
at the thriving market place.

3
Now the bureaucrats – the masters
from the branches of expertise,
at their highest level of incompetence
in Peter Principle – take chairs;
replace colours faded of feudal-ship,
at the helm of the people’s affairs.

Now no wonder the prostitution goes
rampant and the pimps thrive on
as they make it quick with smile on
the by-ways and highways to wealth.

4
Now no wonder all the world children
– you and I, yours and mine –
are the cursed ‘unwanted generation’,
as much said, the ‘growing population’
by the stakeholder – the rational animal – man
as much done: the rape of Mother Earth.

(Mumbai: 04-03-2006)
Remigius de Souza
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© 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

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© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

Writing on Waters: Epitaph by Remigius de Souza

Writing on Waters was published by ARCHETYPES INDIA.

Waters for Life

Imagine one half of century spent in the self-imposed silent exile even while most of it spent in the public domain followed by a period of a decade exposing selfhood in private in public leaving behind the age of space and of time in the futility of existence of Beautiful Life continued encountering the very same ceaseless landmines exploding under my feet on my paths ceaseless I write my epitaph on the waters asking do wipe away O God my footprints from the paths I have walked upon at long last Who listened.

 01.03.02 (Mumbai)
Free verse from ARCHETYPES INDIA  -revised.
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© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

TRANSGRESSED

A garden (Source: Internet)

I was born to a virgin forest
in a vital company of others.
All savouring free energy plenty
yet enough we took and shared
with others who took it from us;
enough for all to dance and sing
all together all days along:
The past that still stays in me

sadly. Here now I live in a margin
confined to keep respectful distance
from all others – all lead a solitary life
of gods in this arty manicured garden
content to see the sun and the moon,
to see the dance and song in a mirror.
Mumbai
[18-08-2003.07:00]
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© 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.
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© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

Maroon Veil

Maroon silence covers
Thousand hundred wars
And the emperor cried of his bloody hands.
I fight with an unrecognized enemy
That is in maroon veil.
My enemy goes on multiplying
Like an amoeba within me
That I don’t recognise myself anymore –
Me a fractioned self into innumerable
Amoebae to fight against
Under a maroon veil:
Maroon is the war
Maroon is the threshold
Of day and night:
I hide myself under a maroon veil.
* * *

17-10-1969
Baroda (Vadodara) 
Note: The image above is by the author. It was made around the same time.
(I wrote this composition during my stay in Baroda (now Vadodara). Then I was the witness to communal riots, exploitation of the scheduled caste and the schedule tribe in Gujarat State. The gender atrocities were very common, such as dowry deaths. It was no more a peace-loving State. But what I witnessed then was only a tip of an iceberg, or the beginning of the unrest/atrocities that followed in three decades.) 

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© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

घड्याळाचे महाभारत जागतिक (मराठी कविता)

नेमेची सूर्योदय रोज पाहता
चुकुनच कधी येई ध्यानी
माझ्या विचारांच्या गतीहुनी
अफाट आहे धरतीची गती
नि
सूर्य रोजच्या रोज जागा बदलतो,
उगवायची वेळ बदलतो, ऋतु बदलतो,
कधी रात्र मोठी कधी दिवस,
वारयाची दिशा बदलतो;
नि
मी मात्र असतो जागच्या जागी
धावता धावता अधांतरी फिरत्या
प्रचंड चक्राच्या परिघावर वेगाने.
तरीही रोजच्या रोज सूर्य सांगे,
बा रेमी,
ही तुझी घड्याळाची टिक टिक
जळवेसारखी चिकटलेली तुला
आहे एक हुलकावणी देणारी
वादग्रस्त संकल्पना केवळ.
नि
कितीही आटापिटा केला तरी
चुकत नाही काळ; परी
लिहिलेली एक रेषेवर सरळ
चुकतात माझी गणिते केवळ
नेमेची.

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© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

Desert Soil (IMAGE)

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© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

चेहरा सावली हरवलेली संस्कृति

© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

Caterpillar by Rhea

Caterpillar by Rhea

Rhea quickly draws a caterpillar on a notepaper. Then goes on, takes another paper, drawing several of them: Mummy Caterpillar, Daddy caterpillar, baby caterpillar… she, perhaps leant to draw it from the blackboard in her KG class, drawn by her teacher.

Now she made it her own. She has added several dimensions to it. The sizes of her caterpillar are according to the designation. The sources, of course, are coming from her surrounds, which we call environment – personal and social. But what is her input from natural environment?

We shall come to that later.

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© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

२८ ज्ञुलै१९८९: 28 July 1989

२८ जुलै १९८९



२८ जुलै १९८९ रोजीं रायगड, रत्नागिरी, सिंधुदुर्ग जिल्ह्यात आणि मुंबई येथे महापूर आला। त्याचा सर्वात जास्त फटका रांयगडला बसला। त्या पुरांत
एक गाव तर पाण्याखाली गेले।

श्री अरुण शिवकर आणि त्याच्या तरुण साथीदारानी कितीतरी लोकाना सहाय्य केले। आणि बेघर झालेल्या लोकाना आसरा देण्याची सोय केली। मुम्बईहून असंख्य लोकानी हरप्रकारे मदत केली।

पण जेव्हा त्याना पाच वारी साड्यांची मदत आली तेव्हा अरुणने साभारपूर्वक सुचवले की "आमच्या बाया नव वारी साड्या नसतात। शाक्य असल्यास द्याव्या। " तसेच तयार कपड्या ऐवजी कापड आणि शिलाईची मशीने दिली तर बायाना कामही मिळेल हे पण सुचवले। त्यामुळे देगणगीदर प्रसन्न झालेच पण बरोबरच त्यांच्या हे पण लक्षात आले की स्थानिक लोकांच्या गरजांची त्याना कल्पना पण नसते।

अरुण आणि देवळी गावाच्या लोकानी "साकव" नावाची सेवाभावी संस्था सुरु तर केलेली होतीच। ही संस्था पूर्णपणे स्थानिक लोकानी चालवलेली होती। अशा संस्था फार कमीच।



© Remigius de Souza।, All rights reserves.

धरतरी (The Land)

धरतरी

धरतरी झाली माझे माता पिता गुरु.

--- रेमी डिसोजा

गुरु पौर्णिमा १८.७.२००८

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© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

येईतो बोलावणे (Until Your Call) Marathi Poem

येईतो बोलावणे












© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

Surrender: समर्पण एक चकवा (Marathi Poem)

Surrender
Meera, in surrender
Consecrated,
You found Life.

Surrender –
One track,
One goal,
One mean,
One bond,
One end,
One liberation;

Surrender –
One personality,
One prop,
One power,
One end,
One Martyr;

Surrender –
An initiation,
A sect,
A favour,
A sacrifice;

Surrender –
One man,
One bed,
One sacrificial alter,
One gratifying pain;

Surrender –
One-way sweep of a swing,
That never returns.

Surrender –
An ember dying, buried
Under a thick layer of ashes;

Surrender –
A never-ending illusion.

(Meera, also called Meerabai, is a saint-poet of India. Meera, like Kabir and Tukaram, is rebellion and contented, and bestows joy and courage on people. Her sainthood is not ordained by any institutionalised religion.)
* * *
Remigius de Souza
11-05-2001
(Published on Poets India website

© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.