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Best Poems Written by Sitabz Garg

Below are the all-time best Sitabz Garg poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Sitabz Garg Poem

On My Death

To the gravedigger, dear sir
let the ivy grow and the rain fall in the stele
As a flower fall from Eden, I hear the angels sing
While I slightly twist and turn in the God’s acre, so deep.
Erstwhile a soldier of war, till kingdom come, I shall remain as such.
I am not a hero, just a son who never returned 
in foreign lands and in an alien time I sleep through days and nights
as the war ends and victory levitates I do not celebrate
Just mourn over broken promises.
As in the early morning there on the sepulcher 
A blackbird sits and cries
Down to the pavements and to the catacombs
it caws and caws in despair to wake the dead.
 And as the roads that lay out of the graveyard
And the thousand miles journey
That follows, shall never be trodden.
As the church bells ring
And the crowd that follows shall pray for me,
How as of upon a very fair time and of now I ask my mother
To take me to church and lay me down at divinity
A girl and her lover meets in the burial ground
And they speak of their love in secret
Hush now , the dead are listening
Of your tryst in the graveyard 
Of every night and the sweet parting kiss,
We wonder, we covet and remember our own despair
When we hear your love song in that strange tongue.
I weep in the depths for my own tattered love
Where my lover still weeps by the hillside
Or has she moved on.
the first drop of rain, or the first piece of snow,
The first beam of light of the first cover of darkness
Strike my bed first
And while the sun keeps the moss away
I wait and wait, not for my widow
Nor for some candles in a dark stormy night
I do not wish for flowers, for I cannot smell them
To days past and nights darkened by
All I wish and could wish lay by a thousand miles 
In distance, homeward bound.
Since I cannot follow, and never make haste
I shall lay here quietly, without a sound
And dream of the seas and oceans and of clouds passing by. 
4/4/15

Details | Sitabz Garg Poem

Soldiers

We ran deep into the woods 
 from the other side of the wire
 an enemy came with me. 
Stripping our uniforms bare 
we hid in the river
A mouthful of oxygen from an enemy's lung 
And in an embrace ,
We floated in the liquid sky 
Above us the fire flowered
With its thousand tongues 
raving in riot.

We ran deeper and in the night we made a fire huddled around it
I sang a song
I don't think he understood a word 
He liked it though 
I can tell .

Deep in the woods
The enemy slept peacefully
 as I kept guard
The fire weakened 
I let it wane 
And in a dim light
The movie started 
In the forest ,
By the lake
I watched for hours 
Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman dance.
Deep in the woods, 
We were all in Casablanca


(...
the fundamental things apply 
As time goes by...)

Details | Sitabz Garg Poem

Winter

The sleepy morning 
woke 
with a shiver 
in the coldest 
night of the year
The sleepless birds
 charged
 into the sky 
And a snake 
wheeled further
 into an unending
 cosmic circle
 on a twig
 (floating)
 in a languid
 bottomless well
Its crippled  tail 
 (with much tenderness) 
 steers the vessel further
 toward a hopeless mythical shore.

The well is deep and dark
The night has not yet left
And deep under the ground 
the snake forms an unearthly constellation 
With the few remaining stars reflected down 
In the deep 
Untamed  abyss.

One day
to the snake 
in its mystic duty
 fulfilled
Death will come 
as a peacock 
It will unfur its 
feathers and reveal
 all the freshly reaped souls
 attached
 in its tail 
(that strangely will look like eyes flickering in his qeer artful dance)

Details | Sitabz Garg Poem

For My Dog

...a flower 
For my 
Dog:
She sleeps 
 her dreams 
bring flower
To the
 Persian silk tree
Overhead

Sometimes,
After a long 
journey 
the winds 
rest there,
and sings
 to my dog
 their songs

She sends 
with the wind
a little ruff
a small woof,
it lingers 
by the steps
As I come home
and find
her voice,
fading softly

Details | Sitabz Garg Poem

A Visit To the Zoo

By the bedroom window
There is a photograph,
Of our family trip to the zoo.
my wife posing for a photo
with  my son and daughter
And me behind the camera,
They say cheese , and I click.
After all these years 
I lie in my bed , and see that photo
By the window,
the first ray of sun
 on my wife’s face
and the merry children 
with two zebras in the background.
A few  months ago,
I visited the zoo,
Alone,
With my wife gone
And my children well off and married
I looked around and saw 
What I came to see,
With the lions, tigers and chimpanzees,
Much has changed
And yet everything’s the same.
That night I went to bed
And dreamt of zebras
And my wife wearing stripes.
She asked me to take a picture
And as she posed,
I asked her to stop moving so 
I clicked the button,
 and took the shot
with zebras  in the background 
smiling.

Details | Sitabz Garg Poem

Anna

What do the heavenly eyes gaze upon?
A squall hurdles
 As silence, descend to rain
her temple doors rattle
Winds dim her temple lights,
Amid the thunder a vista 
 remains evanescent,
Reverberate, a flickering sight.

What does the darkness-the world of light conceal?
The prophetess,
Of heavenly light o blessed Asher
The rain rattles her temple roofs
The night darkens further
All voices deprived of sound 
It rains, retards the morning bright
Behold, a prayer that to the heavens
Flows and shakes the thundering clouds
What earthly rain, of gales and storms,      
 What forces in heavens could deprive
The lord her soul embraces.
An inferno embodies her spirit 
Ascertain him o true messiah
Tonight she stays awake
She fasts to the lord
Says his prayers
For the morning tomorrow
She shall stay, and lie awake the night
Tomorrow she shall drape the truth
For the good news is here 
Listen before it ebbs
Today she lies awake 
Not alone, her lord is not sleeping
In her womb her faith is born
And stays awake, and spends the night
With her it fasts and pray
The savior is coming, lord Jesus Christ
Waiting for him to come, for her to see the day
She stays awake… 
27/03/14

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Harvest

A feast on your honour 
Gold, silver and our first harvest 
I also give to you my only son, 
firstborn .
Treat him well
Paint your walls with
 flowers from his blood 
Leaves , buds and thorns in red. 
I give to you a white lamb , 
A first born too .

Details | Sitabz Garg Poem

An Early Morning Picnic By the Sea

Whose idea it was,
An early morning picnic by the beach!
The air is cold and the sea is loud
With the sea gulls all clattering
my husband fancies taking a dip
with the children all clamoring.
as the dog runs chasing rabbits 
the wind’s thick as soup.
	While I lay here in the picnic mat alone
	Brushing sand off my dress,
There is a click and I look up
And see my daughter with the camera.
I frown and send her away
Wondering  could it get any worse,
Before I could finish the thought
I look down , see the tiny ants,
Good, good ; the ants are here ,I say
 I didn’t even know there were ants in beaches
 I shake them off while I constantly wonder
Whose idea it was; whose indeed.

Twenty years later in the basement,
Going through some stuff, 
I find the old photograph 
Of the Sunday morning
In the photo ,  
I see my husband in his shorts
Ready for a swim,
My three children , the dog
Everything I remember clearly,
It was the one my 
daughter took;
of our early morning picnic by the sea.
My husband’s been gone four years now,
My kids are busy 
 making houses and memories
with wonderful families and happy lives,
all in their own new worlds

they all looked so happy
while I was galled
all of it a lifetime ago,
in that Sunday morning
of my life 
as I close my eyes
and go back there and reminisce, 
of that morning by the picnic mat,
with heavy baskets in my guard,
I feel the breeze and look ahead
In the fresh sun
I see my husband, young and happy
I look at the kids 
and see time flying away
With the sand 
Blowing in the wind
I look at them playing
And say, 
‘never grow up’
In the moment,
twenty years of  late,
by the Sunday morning 
I look at the  sea and smile 
on the beach, 
And I am happy for a while.

Details | Sitabz Garg Poem

Devotion

I am lifeless,
 coldest of the coldest 
Sculptures of stone  .
An alter lies barren
With my name 
No hymns are sung 
No flowers adorn
my halls.
Where once you came 
And prayed
Asked me for joy 
Love,  victory .
Great conqueror 
Hero of war, you
Came with faith
Washed my feet 
Ever so gently 
And you prayed 
And I gave, wholeheartedly. 
Only here, with your head bowed low I have seen you weep. 
I blessed your battle axe 
I let your tears wash away the blood in your hands graciously. 
And ever so softly you said your prayers
 with my name .
I was the god of war
And you were the hero,
King, mighty warrior, 
But I was the only one 
Who saw you at your weakest. 
When you cried with your head at my feet I felt your pain. 
Truly devoted , you were of faith
But I was the devoted.
Only in your presence was my temple holy
Only in your prayers I learned what faith was. 
I wished I could melt,
Stoop down and pray,
 cry with you. 
Wished to hold you close to my heart of stone.
You went to war 
And in some foreign land you fell. 
I couldn't protect you there , you were too far away. 
And they came for me.
I was never so helpless and alone,
Never so broken .
They stripped me off the gold you had me wear,
Of all the beautiful decorations they stripped  me naked.
Left me alone, twisted and broken.
I your deity no longer devine, fell.
O king,
Now you are a flower in some strange land
I am dust,
Lifeless and Grey.
Say one of your prayers son. 
Pray to the winds
Perhaps she will take me along and Spread me over your body

Details | Sitabz Garg Poem

After the Play

Lift the curtains high my bosom friend 
For beyond the darkness there is a place
 where dreams began ,
and life was born to the dead .
As merry actors dazzled and throbbed,
to walk off the stage one day
many a thespians played their parts
where nothing but ghosts remain,  
of an empty stage an empty world
which gazed straight to the empty lives beyond;
where storytellers looked at an empty mirror
Where silence soared from the world of dead ,
A goddess stood intransient in the center 
with tearful eyes 
for with two  bars of iron
she could not keep the curtains up 
and she watched with pain
as the curtains dropped dead 
to the face of the earth
nothing but a word unsaid. 
She stared at heaven’s gate,
with a shattered heart .
She looked up 
but didn’t see the eyes of her god 
staring back…24/3/14