Ghazal (After Ghani)

Your love has made me forget stories so various!
who're pledged to obey garner worries so various!

not once in my dream could I dream up this treasury
of secrets that gleam with your glories so various

you too could resolve to go on holy pilgrimage
since thither wend planes & trains & lorries various

for sake of his Master Meher now old Ghani
what dubious scoundrels' friendship curries? various

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This new ghazal rendition is based on a literal translation of a poem wryly penned in the 1920s by Meher Baba's disciple Dr. Abdul Ghani Munsiff, as detailed in Ramjoo's Diaries.

"Ineffable fragrance" [rubai]

The anti-evangelism evangelist
was riding his steed amid the Mayavic mist
his proclamations delivered in lovely silence
the quietude by ineffable fragrance kissed

Burbank Bob Hope Airport

I landed in Burb
with little perturb
if God is a noun
is Maya a verb?

Villanelle (for Meheru)

Samadhi through the window
umbrella 'neath the trees
"I never come, I don't go"

each twiglet feels the wind blow
amid all change what peace?
Samadhi through the window

the minnow & the meadow
the wine despite the lees
"I never come, I don't go"

if life is but a shadow
where is the substance please?
Samadhi through the window

the silent weeping willow
the tinkle of the keys
"I never come, I don't go"

where pathways open follow
his subtle smile frees
Samadhi through the window
"I never come, I don't go"


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[photo credit:  Davana Brown]

a birthday verse

Happy birthday dear Jim MacKie
as we sing Meher Baba's jai
may we (lighting metaphorical tapers)
see you in the great bye-and-bye!

"Births" [gnomic verse]

As many more births are probable
we're prone to birthdays galore
may every birth prove so Babaful
we'll ask not "how many more?"

Four Similies [rubai]

It's all like a dream    but where does wakefulness dwell?
it's all like a tale    someone was eager to tell
the world is a myth    whose sense I've yet to discern
a plot-twisting play    whose end is apt to compel

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(on the occasion of my 56th birthday)

Quatrain in Answer to Shelley [rubai]

It's the Sadgurus     who are unacknowledged legislators
whereas poets are     (way-on-down-the-river) cogitators
if the truth can never be uttered     what's the gab all about?
are the poets utterly clueless?     or prevaricators?

Animal Locomotion [nonsense verse]

The typo was not hypothetical
the hippo was just typographical
the zoo might have been theoretical
best popsicle? try our girafficle

After Kalidasa (Addressing the Cloud, the poet muses on the tastelessness & tawdry appeal of commonplace cyber-communication, when compared with the subtle satisfactions of a proper Megadhuta-gram) [homage]

Do thou when trundling north O cloud
on winds of might that buffet you
note mortals clacking keyboards loud
till (glancing yon) they covet you?
who would (what maiden gold of mien)
prefer black clacking modes of speech
to dulcet whispers soft serene
in sundown hues: ocher & peach?

Megadhutam Riff [rubai]

The low-hanging cloud-mass was high enough tech    for me
the messenger tarried (if only a sec)    for me
when banished & distant from one whom the heart    adores
that heavenly email looked lovely as heck    for me

Robert Browning Riff [couplet]

Verse-making    was the least of my vices
long's the list!    a mere couplet suffices

"In my heart" [ghazal]

by Bhau Kalchuri



O Meher    since you gained sway in my heart
there's naught save     pain & dismay in my heart

your wine turned     into a blade in my heart
heartbroken! groovy!     I say in my heart

I'm facing     mountains of trouble & woe
Beloved!     where is your jai in my heart?

I wot not     whither my wander might wend
I merely     follow whim's way in my heart

with naught save     shipwreck & tumult O Bhau
you're ruined yet     somehow okay in your heart



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[re-rendered into English verse by David Raphael Israel]

Bhau's own literal English translation of his Hindi ghazal appears in the volume Meher Sarod.