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Tapan Nath Poem
In the midst of a wet night,
Discovered myself upon a viaduct.
Straggled or vagrant, uncertain.
Not petrified by the dark, rumbling sky,
Amazed to find the place familiar.
I perceived the faintest advancing steps,
On turning back, delighted with her presence.
The cold, shivering breeze,
Waved her black long hair.
I insisted not to blink.
She ambled,
At my fore now, only whispered.
I apologize greatly, for concealment, for eons.
I was denied your presence: a shadow's grace.
Only welcoming death set my soul free.
Fate unveiled its script,
Offering me a last goodbye.
Imparting my truth before the noose claims me.
My world knows no dawn since....
Now gone, shine bright, bring me dawn once more.
Conveying my farewell,
I plunged into the water.
Bewildered-reincarnated.
Faced....
My damp eyes.
Copyright © Tapan Nath | Year Posted 2024
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Tapan Nath Poem
Lying on the grass carpet,
I met myself,
A kid from the past oblivion.
Sought my assistance,
Questioned the path I travelled.
We both talked an hour,
Despite our dissimilarities,
The faces were the same.
It left me in awe initially,
Calmed knowing it's me.
The road I travelled,
Not less a disappointment,
Now I look back, it screams at me,
They say I'm a hypocrite.
You indeed enjoy the journey.
Black skies hover the lost path,
A blurred image I can't see through.
Is this the cataract on my eyes?
"Let the sun shine again"
But child, what’s changed if ghosts remain?
Why drag me back to that old pain?
He spoke of summers, bright and free,
Yet stirred the graves inside of me.
I relived, though vague,
His words were de-ja-vu.
Grave screeches, woke the dead.
Revived past.
Now they raise questions too,
Contradicting my every statement.
Don't get curious kid, it backs downfall
People would judge you.
They spare none,
Be a hero, a fool, a king, a clown...
Raise the shield, prepare for the battle
Let the war come.
You remember, don't you?
So, you harbour the grudges?
Did you fight back, or just hold pain?
I apologise, it must be early.
I wish I could make them stop.
Do me this favour.
I drew a line between justice and revenge,
You should too.
The line I once crossed, hardships manipulated,
Caused me a war, and left me blind.
The life you live, I can't recall,
We share the name, but no such life.
Copyright © Tapan Nath | Year Posted 2025
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Tapan Nath Poem
The wild wind plays its part.
Orchids on my Lord's yard
Blown and thrown apart.
They were meant to fall?
Before coming of age?
The suspects were to be summoned at once.
"No such intentions I carry, oh Lord...."
Wild wind presents, an alibi persuading.
"I was hurled by these towering trees."
The court, bewildered.
Yet, advocated his statement.
"It was not just me, a whole bunch of us.
I? Merely a pawn swayed by an arrogant king, Sire?
I take no part in this massacre...."
Not even a warlord made my king sweat.
Apprehension of injustice it is.
Suppressing the murmurs, my King speaks.
"Oh mighty wind, brutal nature force,
Why assist destruction of the old man's blossom?
Tell me, oh lofty tree.
You bear children of your own,
Why kill mine? "
"Why flowers bloom?
When destined to wither only.
We relish and embrace them,
Refer- beauty, innocence and sanctity.
Why gather them here?
A corpse lying on a pyre...."
Copyright © Tapan Nath | Year Posted 2025
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Tapan Nath Poem
Consider my grave your resting place too,
An empathetic soul who rests here.
Worry not poet, it haunts no more,
Covered with maggots, I've rotted here for a while.
These sockets are now emptied, I see nothing to judge.
With my brains swallowed,
I am no critique.
Only bones adorning dirt and bugs.
Justitia, you can call me.
Lend me your ears and I'll spit the truth.
They cherished me when lived,
Now left in a churchyard to rot and suffocate.
Did I not serve them well?
Recall the fights I fought, for our pride poet.
Yet, lie here, with mates, died in my lap.
Never craved for this grave,
But a life, unafraid.
Early, wasn't it?
My beard never turned grey, in fact.
Celebrate my story, in a poem in your next birth.
Copyright © Tapan Nath | Year Posted 2025
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Tapan Nath Poem
Reclined under the shade of a snag tree,
A babbler piqued my curiosity.
Staggered by the companionship, initially.
Then pleased.
I discerned a lamenting warble...
The massif offered commiserations to him,
With an echo.
A lorikeet adjoined him, ensuingly
And, she twittered a novel...
Which was beyond my comprehension.
Nefarious humans are certainly not shaped,
To perceive this heavenly beauty.
His agonised warble was altered;
Now sings a euphonious trill.
Fare-thee-well, they exclaimed to the departing sun.
Much obliged, sings the song of love.
Copyright © Tapan Nath | Year Posted 2024
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Tapan Nath Poem
Reflecting its neighbourhood,
The lake water shone yellow.
Resembling a synchronisation of saturation
With the setting sun.
Seizing green colour of the grasses
The sun painted them gold.
Engrossed gazing pines dance spectacularly,
Only awakened with sparrows' chirps,
And Robins' melodious songs.
Perched on the edge of a dead tree,
Abrupt thoughts hovered my consciousness.
Despite a gust, the dead tree stayed firm.
Nighbours swayed, relished,
Departing sun of the beautiful evening.
It rests and rests....
The landscape mirrored delight,
It grieved its own death.
Incompetent to sense, the scorching sun,
The white sheet of snow, dusk and dawn.
It rests and rests....
Observed the ambience twice .
No mournings! no sorrow!
Nothing ceased their pace.
Infact , they moved on.
It rests and rests....
Copyright © Tapan Nath | Year Posted 2024
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Tapan Nath Poem
Dear old man,
My quill quivers.
How do I glorify you,
With only ink, not gold?
Oh lady Calliope,
Lift my soul.
A pin drowned in an ocean of words.
Guide my conscience with notions,
Dearth of words I face,
To sculpt my father's grandeur.
A shrunken, grainy face is all that's left.
Struggles, unparalleled for eternity
Spine bows, for the weight he bears.
A warrior bending his knees to fate.
Wounds he has procured,
A soldier indisputably.
Laments the injustice once and twice,
Yet, prefers seclusion.
No more wars he seeks to wage,
On his own kinds.
The past shoots arrows at him,
Bleeding eyes and shattered bones.
How can one slip such agony?
And forgive his enemy.
Yet, still, Calliope,
Though you guide.
The shaking of my hand,
Hardly lets me carve his story.
Despite your hand over mine,
How do I shape an epic?
Copyright © Tapan Nath | Year Posted 2025
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Tapan Nath Poem
A new dawn,
Unveiled hopes and surreal ecstatic.
The smiles on their faces,
Heralded news,
The folks were delighted.
It was worth every ounce of struggle.
Though, a dilemma.
Afraid of separation.
Yet, desperate to experience the journey.
The ambience compelled me.
I was finally seen off,
I was on a voyage to satisfy nature's balance.
Now I learned the way of flying.
They had fed me once, now the tables had turned.
The man I was had been called a coward.
They celebrated my bravery now.
Decorated badges shone and made them proud.
I lost one and two things to earn it.
Was it really worth it?
The grasp of my anxiety grew.
On a bright sunny day,
I was summoned by a great war.
The fallen heroes' cries haunted me,
They never let me close my eyes.
Though I dodged death, the mates didn't.
When consciousness returned.
A stream of blood filled my sight.
Decapitated bodies, blasted arms,
Eyes bulging out of their sockets,
The fallen were the luckiest,
One who lived was burning in hell.
Men begged me to put an end to their agony.
Our eyes shed blood,
Tears dried out.
I wished to shoot my brains out too.
The nefarious haunted site was too much to bear.
"I couldn't" I cried ....
A bullet shell dropped beside me.
I had killed my own man, or had I helped him?
His heart wide opened, and my shank.
My shin mangled, my eardrums burst.
"Medic! Medic! Medic!" cried my allies.
A few men rushed and took me away.
I only saw them talking but heard no word.
Certainly they would cut it.
The pain fainted me right away.
And now a chunk of metal cost me a leg.
What would a hurt man do?
Run away to his folks.
So did I.
The smile on their faces now faded.
They hardly talked about their dream again.
Blames encompassed a loop.
Still celebrated as a hero.
The shell-shock and the vivid imagery of the war,
Ran through my mind every now and then.
I never slept again.
Trapped inside a war I had never waged.
It had now changed my periphery of life.
I despised it.
The fallen were the luckiest.
I couldn't even stand on my own.
I barely opened my mouth, only to be fed.
There it hangs, my great achievement,
So the folks claimed.
Why did I live in guilt then?
Was it to hide my sins,
Or to make me feel proud?
The barrage of questions and bullets never left my conscience.
I may have quit the war,
It still ran inside my head.
Copyright © Tapan Nath | Year Posted 2025
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