Your name

Whenever I look at the stars
in the lonely nights...
they whisper your name
in my ears.

- Shilpa Desai

I seek your name
not in the distant stars,
but in fallen petals,
for them I gather and
grasp next to my heart.

- Raamesh Gowri Raghavan

Faceless feet

The chutney of gulmohar
leaves and soil ground by
faceless feet gets thick.

- Max

I'll never know if you ever existed

I'll never know if you ever existed,
Or reality might have been tight-fisted.
Should a fevered mind be credited?
Perhaps cerebral fecundity got twisted.

My shadow like some knowing cloud clung
To spacetime faults where, from past future sprung,
While brooks ajangle danced and tree-birds sung
Together they worked in harmony, my heart wrung.

You couldn't have been just an unfeeling pot
Dreams flower in sleep, untouched they rot.
Your eyes, windows to your soul, could spot
Frigid silences, leaping emotions and pauses hot.

Weren't we simply children playing on a warm beach
Or cynical adults mingling with simplicity out of reach?

- Max Babi

दिल की ख़ामोश धड़कनें

दिल की ख़ामोश धड़कनें,
होश ओ हवास गुमशुदा,
आँखों में अश्कों के सिलसिले,
सुबह ओ शाम ग़मज़ादा,
तेरा 'तन्हा' कर जाना था या
त क़यामत की सज़ा

- आशिक़ा 'तन्हा'

माना कि तुझे

माना कि तुझे पीने की आदत नहीं वाइज़,
मैख़ाने की रौनक़ ही बढ़ाने के लिये आ...

(A missing line from Ranjish hi sahi by Ahmed Faraz)

Soul

As all things are filled with my soul,
you emerge from the things,
filled with my soul.
You are like my soul,
a butterfly of dreams
and you are like the word Melancholy...
and you hear me from far away
and my voice does not reach you:
let me come to be still in your silence.

- Unattributed

चन्द सवालों, कुछ जवाबों

चन्द सवालों, कुछ जवाबों में लिपटी ज़िन्दगी मेरी,
कभी मन्दिरों, कभी मस्जिदों में सिमटी बन्दगी मेरी,
क़ुरबत रही कभी-कभी फ़ासला ख़ुद से 'तन्हा',
(अपूर्ण)

- आशिक़ा 'तन्हा'