BEEHIVE IN GONDWANA | मधुकोष गोंडवनी

Firefly (Marathi Poem)

2012-01-22T11:30:00.007+05:30

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.

INFORMATION AGE

2012-01-18T11:30:00.002+05:30

INFORMATION AGE

In hogging without ruminating
I forgot my Fourth Need -
To release without polluting. …
Alas, to my help no Guru, no God.

* * *

19 – 03 – 2004
© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

Indian Budgets 12 years apart (2 Poems)

2012-01-12T11:30:00.023+05:30

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

WORLD WARS WITHOUT BANG

2011-12-31T11:30:00.066+05:30

iTECHNOMAN, Self-portrait, Remi de Souza

Arrogant Ego of hi-tech-man
mountain-high, with blinkers on,
makes PCs, satellites, metropolises
that leaves deeper craters
in the Earth, than meteors:
Without Bang World Wars.

* * *
Remigius de Souza | Mumbai | 28-12-2011

Read more>> 1. Missed Target of 9/11, 2. iTECHNOMAN

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

Song of an aborigine in our times

2011-10-11T13:45:00.006+05:30

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.

These Offspring of Kali

2011-09-30T11:30:00.016+05:30

By Remigius de Souza

Goddess Kali

Kali - Goddess of Destruction and Regeneration,
is one of the three expressions of Shakti or Energy.
The other two are Lakshmi - goddess of sustenance
and Sarasvati - Goddess of Learning.

I jump on an incoming evening seven thirteen train

to secure a window seat.

As I open 'Leaves of Grass' the first line noticed,

declares, 'Sing on there in the swamp' in

the 'Memoirs of President Lincoln'.

An urchin occupies the seat next to me

With harmonium on her lap;

Her fingers wide apart, search for a pitch across

on the bars, high low, high low,

from maintain picks to deep seas.

She settles on a pitch appropriate to the crowded train

in motion, plays a pop movie song.

On the threshold of sprouting youth, her dark face

And full eyes glowed divine grace;

She is sound personified.

Her wards, two little sisters, one recites the song lines;

The other with tiny folded hands;

They appeal to the softer edges of weary home-going crowd;

They, not belonging to the mundane, remain

Untouched by hostilities or sympathies.

The Time atomised; there is no yesterday, tomorrow neither.

The concert moves to the next compartment.

They have not lost either their fragrance of innocence

Or dignity of untimely adulthood,

In the energies creative to sustain.

The last straw of hope, yet for the Post-historic

Civilization of exploitation,

These offspring of Kali, until they open

The Third Eye imminent

To make way for regeneration.

(Written, 1980s)
Notes 1: 21st century is witnessing uprisings of the poor at many places. This has been happening in the past, but now it is simultaneously a Global Action, as a result of Global Oppression by invisible tentacles of invisible global Capitalist Powers.
2: Image of Goddess Kali is one of the popular versions that are mass-printed in various sizes, available in the market.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

COOL Legacy in the 21st Century (Poem)

2011-09-19T11:30:00.003+05:30


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

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

2011-09-12T11:30:00.007+05:30

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.

A Pawn

2011-08-22T13:00:00.013+05:30

pawn on chaseboard

A Pawn

Soul is priceless.
Mind is pawned.
Body is feeble.
How do I keep
Three together?

(27-07-03)

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

'Tentacles' of Octopus Remi: Art in Metafiction

2011-07-30T11:30:00.016+05:30

'Tentacles' of Octopus Remi: Art in Metafiction (Self-portrait) published on ARCHETYPES INDIA

Srishti – Mother Nature – has Plenty to share; Nothing for sell; Nothing to buy. That's 'Reunion with Mother Nature' – Srishtiyoga (SRISHTIYOGA July 7, 2011)

‘Tentacles’ | Remigius de Souza| 1987 | water colour on handmade paper

Octopus Paul one day suddenly came in limelight.

The cause? It predicted results of the international hockey tournament. That took the First World Nations by storm.

Twitter was crowded by some million twits.
That crowd blocked the site for few hours! Such a craze... blind faith! That too from so-called advance societies! Amazing!

A European nation was even ready to buy that animal.

'Tentacles', Remigius de Souza's self-portrait was published on Net, but none was moved. Not even his friends!

Remi generally does not look in to mirror. Because he notices 'octopus' in the mirror! What, then, could be his misery while wandering the streets of Mumbai metropolis?

He notices millions of people (his aborigine and peasant kinfolks) in the glass-clad multi-storied buildings mushrooming in the concrete jungle. But that never stops Mumbai!

Octopus Paul was a baby, lost to its community and natural environment. After a few months it died. Relieved!

Did anyone ask Octopus Paul before it died, "When this modern Industrial Civilization, which has become powerful within few centuries, will vanish?" We have not heard.

Oh, what do you ask!
The very strength of the powerful is their weakest point. There is a mythological Indian story of Bhasmasur that repeats again and again.

In reality the mighty industrial society has gone with the octopus.

In this self-portrait, 'Tentacles', Remi notices himself swallowing Natural Environment by his tentacles spreading and reaching across regions far and wide.

Call it is his misfortune, or call it his fate of unwanted share, or call it a ruthless criticism on Industrial Civilization.

Remi, however, laughs at himself at his cost.

Note. 1: As we write this post, there comes news about, Shuttle Atlantis docks with space station for last time! What a relief for the hungry masses of the world!! Better late than never!!!
2. Remi de Souza doesn’t watch cricket, hockey, football or such events as Olympics, World Cup etc. for he believes that any game must be played for leisure, and such mass events consolidate the centralized powers, and waste finite fossil energy.
~~~~~
© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

Writing on Waters: Epitaph by Remigius de Souza

2011-07-23T11:30:00.033+05:30

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

TRANSGRESSED

2011-06-27T11:30:00.004+05:30

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

WHEN SUNRAYS DID SHINE

2011-06-24T11:30:00.007+05:30

When sunrays did
    Shine on
        Winter due
When monsoon
    Showered
        Mother Earth
Word
    Soundless in depth
        Innermost
You were born
    Oh, my poem!

(5-12-1973)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

PRAYER POWER on WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY

2011-06-05T11:30:00.017+05:30

Save Plants to Save Life

Prayer, when, becomes Work
Nature becomes ugly liability.

Work, when, becomes Prayer
Nature becomes supreme serenity!

Here, Nature is within and outside, both.
There is no need of initiation to follow and practice work, any work, as prayer.
It indeed is a way out of conflict/s within a person, between persons or groups, or between Man and Nature.

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

Rain! Rain! Come again! - Six Painted Poems

2011-05-23T11:30:00.028+05:30

Rain! Rain! Come again! - Six Painted Poems (with original in Marathi)

By Remigius de Souza

Iamage - 1

ढग भारावलेला
काळाभोर जडावलेला
भरकटे पुढे —

अव्हेरलेली भुई.

* * *

Image - 2

काळा मेघ ओथंबलेला
करी उपड्या सरी —
पुनरूत्थान.

* * *

Image - 4

बी बियाण्यांची पेरी
हुकलेल्या सरी
थेंब थेंब ठिबके झरी
कृष्ण पक्षीं चंद्रकोर
आशा अधांतरी
सरकणाऱ्या मेघांवर.
* * *

Image -4

पावसाच्या येती सरी
पुनर्युवीत करिती ज्योती
वनराईच्या सदोदीत
झरे पाझरती खोलवरी
तृप्त होती बाळे तान्ही
धरतरीच्या अंगावरी.
* * *

Image - 5

पांढरा ढग पांघरे
आकर्षक रंग —
कोरडा.
* * *

Image - 6

वानसे मूक भाषी
भरुनी काढिती
अनेकपरी माझ्या क्षती.
* * *

1. These poems are taken from the original on ARCHETYPES INDIA, published on 16 May 2011. Read More >>

Matter of Life and Death

2011-05-09T11:30:00.002+05:30

Matter of Life and Death

I'm alive and awaiting
Death, till then
be utmost truly living
gift of Life in
all its fullness enjoying,
Nature-given.

Remigius de Souza | Mumbai | 04-03-2011

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

Lotus

2011-05-04T12:00:00.014+05:30

All Fools’ Day

2011-04-01T10:30:00.083+05:30

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.

व्यावसायिकाना रेमीचे सलाम!

2011-04-01T10:30:00.006+05:30

व्यावसायिकाना रेमीचे सलाम!

अर्जुनाला पोपटाचा फक्त डोळाच दिसत होता.

व्यावसायिकाना रेमीचे सलाम!

मला अभाग्याला
     डोळा दिसतो.
     पोपट दिसतो.
     फांदी दिसते.
     झाड दिसते.
     जमीन दिसते.
जी देते अन्न-पाणी.
मला दिसते प्रतिबिंब त्याच्या डोळ्यावर
    आकाशाचे
    पाऊस पाडणाऱ्या
    त्याच्या डोळ्यावर प्रतिबिंब दिसते.
डोळ्याच्या आतल्या अंधारात
     चित्र दिसते
     नेत्र पटलावर
     ढगांचे.

अर्जुनाचा तीर सुटला.
पोपट त्याच्या जन्मातून मुक्त झाला.
पण माझे तीर-धनुष्य गळून पडले.
मी माणसाच्या जन्मातून मुक्त झालो नाही.
(मला पुनर्जन्माचे वरदान मिळाले.)
----
बडोदे | नोव्हेंबर १९७०
(इंग्रजी भाषांतर पहा)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

POWERFUL I FALL

2011-03-23T12:30:00.009+05:30

I dedicate this poem, written on 03-03-2005, with deep reverence to the Tsunami that took place on March 11, 2011 at Japan, and the one that had touched India earlier. I wouldn't ever regret if I were hit by any natural phenomena. ― Remigius de Souza

The Great Wave by Japanese Master

powerful I fall

air water meekly move aside
from any obstacle on their way
yet their presence inside - outside
in my world
I don’t even ever take notice
as much as of my towering ego
take them always for granted or
add some aroma.
it’s pleasure to see them play
and sing photogenic as they seem
leisurely happily dancing together
at sea-shore
until suddenly they appear
in colossal shape size speed
a mighty dragon from the ocean
at my door
ransack everything on their way
as my nice world turns scary grey
I am stunned
in spite of all my might wickedest
of intellect and tools to dominate resist
powerless I fall.

- - - - -
Mumbai
03-03-2005
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

Tsunami! Tsunami!!

2011-03-12T12:15:00.001+05:30

Up a hill a stream to low lands finds its way down
through the rocks, cliffs, rough land runs down!
Nectar of earth runs down! Dark clouds pour down!
Accumulated knowledge acquired from the banks

of knowledge wants to go up, builds vaults more,
acquires more by refining, by splitting hair,
fragments wholesome life; very little trickles down.
Some water goes up by capillary attraction

in a congenial body, some evaporates to cool,
a lot percolates in lower strata in soil, in a pool,
runs down to rivers, to ocean to sustain life all.

In Tsunami it lashes ashore and cleanses land,
in cosy igloo gives loving warmth and shelter.

Knowledge has to go down to the ignorant;
and the educated who move in their grooves
of expertise ignorant of vital other areas
of their personal and the collective living.

Floods, earthquakes, Tsunami shatter lives,
Yet leave behind vital lessons: To be reborn.

The meek build from the debris. Why harp on
the limitations rather than take charge of self,
when the nature in abundance is there to help?

Leave all the external aids that corrupt.
Or the silent multitude hit back in Tsunami.

There’s a scramble among the learned to go up,
up the economic ladder, keep their knowledge
mummified in the safe custody of the specialist.

Who’s that, who memorizes scriptures by-heart,
has ever received salvation, a liberated soul?
At any point of time – place is a starting point.

When it rains we rarely ‘look’ at it and feel:
It needs some animal sense, vegetable instinct
in the unified holistic life, and some honesty.

Remigius de Souza
Mumbai (23-02-2005)
~~~~~~~
© Remigius de Souza., All rights reserves.

Maroon Veil

2011-02-19T13:30:00.002+05:30

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.)

LUCKY DOG ON VALENTINE DAY

2011-02-14T13:30:00.001+05:30

Poem 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!

By Remigius de Souza
Mumbai
12-02-2004

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

A Million Incarnations Now!

2011-02-10T10:30:00.001+05:30

A Million Incarnations Now!:

Tribute to Peoples' Uprisings everywhere

by Remigius de Souza

"My enemy within me" by Remigius de Souza

A night of million Incarnations NOW
in millions - faces,
eyes, limbs, yonis, phalluses,
tongues out hungry ―
Now a million stars show
The Way to million Incarnations imminent

Wake up O, Ruler!
For this dark night
is of a million uprising
of anonymous multitude
A Million Incarnations Now
A million Incarnations!

भारताची लोकसंख्या विना सेन्सॉर - India's Population - No Sensor

2011-02-07T10:30:00.009+05:30