(Published in “Boundaries Of  The Heart” by Galaxy Publications)

  Saaki!  Just your look is so intoxicating! 

What will happen when you pour wine in my glass? 

A small lamp is enough to see you my beloved! 

I don’t care for a glittering row of light

Yes! my Death! here and now  you are so beautiful like heaven. 

What will happen  when I really reach heaven? 

Down in this world, all are friends 

All leave me with sweet memory 

and I dream about meeting them again 

many times without fulfilment.    

Even this mirage is so entertaining 

What will happen when I reach satisfaction 

Even enemy makes me alert 

when I make a move haphazardly  

Lo! I see angel hidden in  the villain even 

What will happen when angel himself appears in the end? 

Even the thorns defend me 

They are ready and alert to protect my farm and house 

Why would I need this whole garden full of flowers 

When every single bud is so much full of fragrance  

Even twinkling of the firebug is quite beautiful 

What will happen in the shining night of full-moon?

Saaki!  Just your look is so intoxicating.

What will happen when you  pour wine in my glass?

-Harihar Jha

compassion dripping from drops
cool water flows down a slope
to induce revolt I try
evaporation flaming
water upwards to the sky

flowers in the garden are
looking at the dancing birds
I too want to chirp and fly
to pick pollen floating free
then push some seeds on the earth
to compete with a tall tree.

swinging branches, wingspread birds
sneering on my strain
I want to ‘possess’ the bliss
not able to deal with pain
I lose veins in the darkness
tension in life and no fun
Death comes just for a second
flame of lamp to merge in Sun.

Harihar Rai Jha

Copyright ©2007 Harihar Rai Jha

getting worst of nausea
on slow road of the time and beyond
just like playful water
turning muddy with mosquitos around

No tree has dried
standing in lonely containment
birds, animals, stars and planets
no one is hungry of entertainment

but me, an intellectual
a provider of nice edge
for my flowing instinct so blind
why do I listen in this dead moment
the noise from the ghost of my mind?

an obstacle in meditation
a barrier in running is my hovering brood
full of wounds from animal instincts
harassing and turning me into a thief, so crude
caught red handed in the thread of perversion,
in the garb of daydreaming
yet nude, simply nude

Harihar Rai Jha

Copyright ©2007 Harihar Rai Jha

Hungry dogs keep barking
Moon sneaking away behind the horizon
In this city
A few corpses bury human beings alive
A few chairs catch the neck of people
Sit over them haughtily
I don’t know why
budding flowers are being crushed
My soul is furious, enraged
And cries my fuming speech

In response
Angered by not able to crush me
the hungry dogs
catch me with their big forceps
push me in a dog-vehicle
and leave me in a dreaded forest.

Harihar Rai Jha

Copyright ©2007 Harihar Rai Jha

My friend! we came here
away from that mechanical life
happy on the bike with speed double
now look at the thorns in tube and tyre
how to cope with this trouble?

My friend! on the way we had put
lust of inner life in musical dress
shouting third rate songs, beat and rhythm in mess
now if we sing or cry on the bank of lonely river
our own shadow will tease and laugh at us

now enough of the tune of the singing birds
enough of the praise for the open sky
enough hypocrisy of the mental peace
Claim to be one with the nature so lie

with dust flying around our mouth and nose
Push thorny bicycle, on the filthy narrow track
with fit of anger, enraged in our heart
Oh my friend! let us speedily return back

Harihar Rai Jha

Copyright ©2007 Harihar Rai Jha

It is dawn, the Sun feeling shy to meet the world!

yesterday the moon was boasting
how gorgeous am I
Me, metaphor for the beauty
no poet would deny
but helpless before my black spot
disgusting, makes me cry

filled with humility, and ashamed in the heart
hiding its face under the cloud, moon feeling shy

cupid with its bow and arrow
boasting on youthful run
with splash soaked vigour in body
makes helpless everyone
at anytime with garland wrapped
enjoying squeeze in love

still when faced with the rules in human society
hiding face in his curly hair feeling so shy

It is dawn, the Sun feeling shy to meet the world!

Harihar Rai Jha

Copyright ©2007 Harihar Rai Jha

hide and seek with the death
Be it Kargil or Gallipoli

The truth in the chess of war
No one is king or pawn
when hit by a bullet in the chest
Be it Kargil or Gallipoli

One who is martyr in the war
hailed as a champion in the history
after dying in the bloodbath
Be it Kargil or Gallipoli

everyone respects the martyr
man in the street and the noble
sacrifice, the paradigm of society
Be it Kargil or Gallipoli

Deceit with their own life
sympathy with the crying wife
the little girl still very innocent
Be it Kargil or Gallipoli
-Harihar Rai Jha

Copyright ©2006 Harihar Rai Jha

Agony churns my heart
and lo! a poem emerges with a smile!

 All weapons are silent
Who is this crazy fellow
Singing peace in the battlefield?
The world is shocked

 How come a canon used to throw fireballs
Now peacefully blossoming the flowers?
When agony surrounds my lips
A poem of love comes out!

Men are reduced to insects
In torture-camps
Then the poem reminds about the martyrs
Sings their praise hand-folded

It gives inspiration and decorates
Noble souls with a garland of flames

Agony churns my heart
and lo! a poem emerges with a smile!    

Harihar Rai Jha  

Copyright ©2006 Harihar Rai Jha

Hungry dogs keep barking

Moon sneaking away behind the horizon

In this city

A few corpses bury human beings alive

A few chairs catch the neck of people

Sit over them haughtily

why

budding flowers are being crushed

My soul is furious, enraged

And cries my fuming speech

In response

Angered by not able to crush me

the hungry dogs

catch me with  their big forceps 

push me in a dog-vehicle

and leave me in a dreaded forest.

                    -Harihar Rai Jha

 Last but one poem at

http://www.kritya.in/0201/En/poetry_at_our_time.html

You are a bore darling!

 I throw on you beautiful colours of Holi

You tell me boring  wavelength of these colours

My idiot Einstein!

What a wonderful occasion of Holi!

I throw a siring of colours

You  lecture on ‘atmospheric pressure’

A bit of wood gathered by friends

Amid sacrad fire of Holi

Why don’t  you  keep with you

 your ranting about ‘Save environment’

You are a bore darling!

I keep telling you

It is victory of truth over the evil

Holika blazed and Prahlad is saved

You bring fire-proof cloths in between

Bore, You are a bore darling!

What a beautiful dance of Radha-Krishna in Mathura

My bore darling!

You detail on excavation of Dwarka!

-Harihar Jha

4th poem on

http://www.kritya.in/0201/En/poetry_at_our_time11.html

Lured me to make like you

You snatched away my ‘self’

On excuse to  lighten me

on my body you added shackles

Engrossed with  relation in family

 full of leaves and flowers  

 rootless as I was

You chose to give me power

To give me my own personality

 Me nude tree at your request

 With the lotion of Beauty-saloon

glued   dummy  flowers on my breast

 Veils after veils I was covered 

  by my Lord, the stone-age guy

 You turned me into a bar-girl

For liberation, I couldn’t cry

You  removed my clothes, layer after layer

 For freedom I was keen

 What a shame on tragic joy

you peeled off even my skin.

-Harihar Jha

2nd poem on

http://www.kritya.in/0201/En/poetry_at_our_time11.html

Theme : Silence 

Since my birth when I cried heartily
Tried so hard again but still I am silent

Great style my sweetheart! ? Who killed your soul??
You dared to ask me and I am silent

Me hungry of love, you asked me to be far away
Not to show wounds in my heart I am silent

Tears of sorrow to sip with smile on face
Ocean of sorrow in line and I am silent

River of love flowing in my heart
You ask me to shed tears, I am silent

You rubbed salt on injury instead of ointment
Isn?t that too much that I am silent ?

Love is sin - I went for crime after crime
Trapped in the mud of guilt I am silent

On death-bed, God asking the truth behind my guilt
The truth and the only truth is : I am silent.  

by Hari Har Rai Jha

http://boloji.com/poetry/3101-3200/3145.htm

I see a crying hungry child
My hands dip in a philosophical puzzle
What is hunger and what is pain?
What is body and what is a soul?

I see a woman being dragged by a sinner
My eyes searching for the answer.
Who is victim here and who is a culprit?
What is love and what is lust?

Live knives and crying dead bodies
In a communal riot
My ears only want to listen
Who is Hindu here and who is Muslim
Who are my own?
And the rest are aliens.

I don’t know why?
My eyes, ears , hands and legs
Have turned into Mind
And where is my Mind?
Dancing like a puppet
To the tune of these cunning snake-charmers.

Harihar Rai Jha

Copyright ©2006 Harihar Rai Jha

http://www.kritya.in/0201/En/poetry_at_our_time11.html

Theme :  Pretension

Make a move from this hypocritical world
away from the mechanical life
for a picnic with friends and wife
Throw your formal dresses
and laugh in a jolly mood
Nicely arrange our lunch and diner
but a gimmick in search for food.

Let’s go shouting songs
rhythm from collective consciousness
like nomads going global,
Pretending to lose our ways on a bush-walk
then jump to contact on mobile

Let’s go and appreciate
trees, forest and stars
Boast of creating peace in mind
the magic of healing scars

Then how come we start fights
angered over trivial matters
Hot discussion, war of words
tranquility to shatter…  

by Harihar Rai Jha

http://boloji.com/poetry/2801-2900/2896.htm

Theme :  Optimism

My heart has turned into a stone
some rocks hit against and break
to flow in the river
but still desire to see the seedling sprouting
is alive
Hope to hear melodious songs from birds
is active
and dreams of fragrance from the flowers
yet remains…

Someone has plunged his sword
into intestine of the wasteland Earth
and yet,
in these threatening and roaring clouds,
the desire for showering compassion is still alive.
Hope from the heartless earth
to grow passionate sensitivity is still active.
Appeal to the dead sky
to rain the life-force yet remains…

There is no place for platonic love now
What is Love? But just a deal
an equation in Mathematics
or a computer program
flowing chemicals of a few organic compounds
In spread of the mud,
Hope to lotus blossom
yet remains… 

by Harihar Rai Jha

http://boloji.com/poetry/2801-2900/2897.htm

Theme : Heartache

How to quench the heart strongly flaming in
Fire-balls in ashes burning me within
Heart speaks and body blazes
“Doh Re Me…” from the limbs
Breathing is mute, the soul is frightened.
Silently expressive!

Silent stars in cosmos rebirth
Who listens to the tiny earth?
Poor man is shedding tears
Silently expressive!

Emotional poem composed in rhyme
Walked through the ladder, dancing in rhythm
melted in a divine meditation
Silently expressive!

Roads from life lead to death
Shrill voice of consciousness, hard to breathe
Silently expressive! 

by Harihar Rai Jha 

 http://boloji.com/poetry/2701-2800/2745.htm