To My Temple Of Poetry Poem by Jaydeep SARANGI

"If thou canst not ascend
These steps, die on that marble where thou art."
- John Keats

In the retreating light of the day
My prayers for the poets
Connect with the open sky

How does one lose things? By forgetfulness?
How does a poet die mounting the steps to an altar?
Figures arrive and go before the fated hour.

These bricks seem to be watching
The hard ways of love and loss
Devotees coming and going
Keeping our separate hopes

I see the wan smile, not pinned
By human fevers and frets, daily rust
Rains in my forest town whisper
Over the roadside fields, forests green.

Meaning of Her face lurks
In meaningless efforts to raise sterile desires
In the crowless silence
In search of another prayer day.

The endurable sight of Kanakdurga remains
A voice that heals all pains of the world
I sit down here after a Hamlet's song.
In old gestures in this reverent light

Hands folded for promises to mount some steps.