by JAYDEEP SARANGI
My Father’s House
My dreams are lingering in the dusk.
I plant them in the garden of faith
behind the bedroom, next to the guava tree,
I see him sitting, reading and returning to my unsaid words for him.
Searching under these old books of Mathematics
for the last place where the long
journey with my father’s hopes is complete--
Ashoka, the great to Attila, the Hun
distinct nights snarl deep as I leave myself for the world.
Neruda to Seferis, Quasimodo to Jibananada
I feel the wind on my skin, bites of unfamiliar insects
takes the soul goes low and high in life’s second half.
acquired habits know to say nothing, the conch shell breaks.
I read Neruda each time I visit an ancient town
recollect them after light empting in a silent evening.
I return to the Nightingales each night when thoughts are deep
I built a home at Hampstead, I visit the clinic alone.
With him I follow time’s relentless wheel pressing for house gods
tracing back from Udayagiri caves to Barabati forte and the Kalinga kings.
Happy dress I wear is a false ceiling of my syllables.
Hungry wants flying in the whispering sky, searching for a good nest.
Today I have no more alphabets to return
only I wish wet-dreams of my father on my forehead.
More agonies I lift, lull the rough storms inside,
Learning to make fire under an empty sky
among the human ruins I rediscover my father’s house.
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ABOUT THE POET ~
Jaydeep Sarangi is an Indian poet poetry activist with ten poetry collections in English latest being Memories of Words ( 2023).and scholar on postcolonial studies and Indian Writings with forty one books anchored in Kolkata/Jhargram, . Widely anthologised and reviewed as a leading contemporary poet Sarangi is on the editorial boards for journals of repute, devoted to poetry and poetry criticism. With Rob Harle he has edited six anthologies of poems from Australia and India which are a wealthy literary link between the nations. With Amelia Walker, he has guest edited a special issue for TEXT, Australia. His recent book includes, Mapping the Mind, Minding The Map:Twenty Contemporary Indian English Poets, Sahitya Akademi, 2023 and A Life Uprooted: A Bengali Dalit Refugee Remembers, Sahitya Akademi, 2023. Mapping the Mind, Minding the Map ( 2023, Sahitya Akademi) is his latest book. Sarangi is currently the President of Guild of Indian English Writers, Editors and Critics (GIEWEC) and Vice President, EC, Intercultural Poetry and Performance Library, Kolkata. Living with poets and poetry, Sarangi is principal of New Alipore College, Kolkata. He may be reached at: jaydeepsarangi1@gmail.com Website : https://jaydeepsarangi.in/
Last updated April 11, 2025