Keatsian Mimicry: Fine Fall Feast

 

                                                                                              By Gerard Sarnat 

 "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness..."

                      -- John Keats, To Autumn

 

If nice to elope during frigid winter

then spring is the time cantaloupe peaks

plus, summer for sumptuous watermelon.

 

Autumn’s when you and I get best honeydew

that results in oversized, slightly overripe fruits

which ooze sweet juice – unless like me, eagerness

 

overcomes prudence to wait just another hour or two…

so as even though well-seasoned, we cut into our not quite yet

ready for primetime’s unseasonably cheap, lovely, mellowest most verdant meat.

 

 About the Author:

Gerard Sarnat has won prizes and is a multiple Pushcart/Best of Net Award nominee. Including four collections of poems Gerry's works have been widely published by Brooklyn Review, Tokyo Poetry Journal, Gargoyle, Buddhist Review, New York Times; Oberlin, Northwestern, Yale, Pomona, Harvard, Stanford, Dartmouth, Penn, Columbia, Johns Hopkins, NYU, Brown North Dakota, McMaster, Maine, British Columbia/ Toronto/ Chicago and Virginia university presses. He’s a Harvard College/Medical School-trained physician, Stanford professor, and healthcare CEO. More details can be found here.

You Will Never Know (A Lyric)

 

I can’t write no more lyrics

I can’t play with no more beats

Nor can I hold back the howling shrieks

Heart’s gonna take on no more tricks

My words are turning sighs of dew

Without you… without you…

 

Now…

The Sun is sinking in the ocean bleu

I’m falling apart in such a lovely view

My words are turning sighs of dew

Without you… without you…

 

But you will never know

How painful is this

To miss you in such a color bliss;

You will never know

My memory lane:

It's you, just you and nothing else.

 

And you will never know

How heavy it feels

The burden of my untold words

You will never know

My freezing soul

With the wailing of my inner bards.

 

Now…

The Sun is sinking in the ocean bleu

I’m falling apart in such a lovely view

My words are turning sighs of dew

Without you… without you…

 

But you will never know

How I keep searching

The monsoon rain.

You will never know

How hard it is to hide 

My flowing pain.

 

And you will never know

The thousand dreams

I kept weaving

In all my prays… In all my hymns;

You will never know

The thousand lies,

I’m telling my heart

To wake up again in the summer beams…

 

Now…

The Sun is sinking in the ocean bleu

I’m falling apart in such a lovely view

My words are turning sighs of dew

Without you… without you…

 

In all those lost and loving days

I felt you, just you around me.

You had always been

The soothing beauty,

What my aching heart

Would ever want to see…

 

But, you left me by an ocean

My heart could never foresee

My soul got tied to a bleeding thorn

And I can’t just set it free…

Though you left me for a reason unknown

I never stopped loving you…

Though my life got trapped in a winter rain

I just can’t stop loving you…

 

But, the Sun is sinking in the ocean bleu

I’m falling apart in such a lovely view

My words are turning sighs of dew

Without you… without you…

© Atique R.

My Flowing Dreams

 

I haven’t seen you for quite a long time:

Seems like a couple of decades

Have gone by

Since that sinking afternoon

In a shadowed light.

Or it was at the end of my earlier life

I abandoned a century ago 

With an adoring plight.

 

I can recall the look

I got my heart drowned in 

For the last time.

It was a hot summer day

At the middle of the year

With the splashes of a derailed monsoon,

Taking a break somewhere near.

And you were in black with the beauty,

Sparkling enough to ignite 

My bohemian fervor.

 

However; I can see you more often now

Better than those wayward days

When I kept squandering my dreams

In search of your late autumn eyes.

 

And I still talk to you a lot

In the carefully woven layers

Of my flowing dreams;

Like I was talking to you 

In the last light year

While picking up some drops of moon

Splattered carelessly in a flooded sphere.

Like you asked me: 

 

-What do you want?

-I don't know.

May be a ride with you,

On a train...

-Where?

-Heading for somewhere

In the monsoon, full of rains,

Passing through the woods

And the windy ways

Along a forest mountain...

 

Ah! The vision of a lovely mountain

With a stream to dive in, flung open

And I shut my eyes to make a short tour

Through my happy-go-lucky layer.

But the maddening look beat that

Once again to take me back to the eyes

I ever care.

 

-And then?

-I'll not sit beside you,

But the one facing you,

Beside the window,

Straight to your eyes.

-Why?

-I want to look into the Blue Ocean

In your eyes,

To dive deep down the beauty

And to see the reason

Behind my soul erosion...

 

And then the Moon went into hiding

Under the winging petals of clouds,

Forcing me to crash-land 

Onto the melting darkness.

But, it’s just what I love to swim across

With all my flowing dreams in a mess…

© Atique R.  

One Winter...(A Lyric)

I see summers raining past me...

With autumns in the eyes of lovers;

I see springs in a blooming spree

With the petals of dancing colours…

But my heart got stuck in one winter

To fly along a misty wing for ever and ever…

 

I was all alone in my lonely lawn

Watching carelessly

The shy drops of Moon,

When I met her eyes

In a sudden sweep of rain

On a derailed monsoon...

 

The white misty layer

Sprang up out of nowhere

Just after the twilight

In that early winter night.

 

The Moon was on its ninth,

Picking up the pace

To be in full bloom,

Amidst the shuttered rays of light.

 

Oh! Dear! I see summers raining past me...

With autumns in the eyes of lovers;

I see springs in a blooming spree

With the petals of dancing colours…

But my heart got stuck in one winter

To fly along a misty wing for ever and ever…

 

She was drifting in

Like a bunch of foamy clouds

With a sweet autumn breeze;

And I got my mind seized in a spell

To see my fall in a pair of blue eyes

Floating past my heart ringing a bell…

 

Now, with all the maddening feelings

Brimming out of my mind

I keep looking at my empty manuscript

In a mess of failed words

In a mess of colours to find

To paint a passion flowing like hell…

 

I loved to weave dreams

With winters fluting the summer rains;

Bridging morning dews

With the lonely nocturnal pains.

Now my heart keeps flowing on

In the layers of my dreams

Looking for a pair of eyes

In the shades of lunar beams...

 

Oh! Dear! I see summers raining past me...

With autumns in the eyes of lovers;

I see springs in a blooming spree

With the petals of dancing colours…

But my heart got stuck in one winter

To fly along a misty wing for ever and ever…

 

At the end of one winter

There will be no sign of

The long-forgotten spring.

The trail of fallen leaves

Will get drier and heavier

With no trace of greening…

 

All the tales of the world

Will come to an end,

With all the colours fading out

In a devouring bend…

 

And there will be just dreams

Over the ashen blue sky,

Floating like bubbles

In the faded layers of streams…

 

And in one of those dreams

There will be my empty manuscript…

Riding with a pair of blue eyes:

The eyes with a straight look

And a blank smile

With the mystery of the Forgotten Isle.

 

Oh! Dear! I see summers raining past me...

With autumns in the eyes of lovers;

I see springs in a blooming spree

With the petals of dancing colours…

But my heart got stuck in one winter

To fly along a misty wing for ever and ever…

 

© Atique R.

But I Won’t Be There…(A Lyric)

 

Maybe someday,

Few years from today

The Moon will be shining

The same on its 9th

With its maddening silver ray.

But, I won't be there…my love

I won’t be there

As the lonely Moon Rider…

 

Night, may be a winter one,

Will seize the colors of the sky,

Letting some lunar drops

Fall into the ground,

But, I won’t be there

To wander around.

 

Maybe like the night when

I quench my feet and soul together

With the drizzles of mist

And the dream of a smile

Once you sowed carelessly 

To flicker my heart forever…

 

But, I won't be there…my love

I won’t be there

As the lonely Moon Rider…

 

I won’t be there

Garnering the drops of Moon

Playing with the shades of night

Hiding along

The dreamy hazy layers…

I won't be there 

Drawing the lunar dreams

Blending the colors of the spring,

Imaging a pair of eyes

Through my frozen tears...

 

I won’t be there

Letting my winging soul

Dance with the flowing fireflies;

I won’t be there

Listening to the floating songs

Of a nostalgic cuckoo

In a melancholic flair.

 

I won’t be there

With my every little prayers

In the shades of hopes and despairs

And the unearthed love I ever care.

I won't be there…my love

I won’t be there

As the lonely Moon Rider…

 

Though I’m not sure

If I will see from above

The glowing dews

In the nocturnal breeze,

The wild lovely flowers

At the top of the ridge.

 

But I wish to see you, dear

Sitting alone by a window

With the splashes of drizzling.

I wish to see your apathetic look

And a smile hardly traceable,

Watching the meaningless Moon

Through the music of raining.

 

Though I won't be there…anymore 

As the lonely Moon Rider…

The Moon will be

Shining the same on its 9th

With its maddening silver ray.

And I'll be losing beneath the time

On the other side of the bay...

© Atique R.

Lost Neighbor (A Lyric)

 

With a few bottles of beers

Under the shades of lunar layers

Will you like to hear

The untold story

Of my lovely neighbor

That I love to remember

In my lonely leisure…

 

Sometimes I wonder

If she ever remembers

How I used to feel her

In those brutal winter morns,

If she ever remembers 

The way I felt her…

With the moaning dew drops

On the misty wheat corns;

 

And I keep wondering

Once in a full Moon

With the warmth of my pains

If she ever remembers

The way I felt her

In those grey summer rains…

 

With a few bottles of beers

Under the shades of lunar layers

Will you like to hear

The silent story

Of my lovely neighbor

That I love to remember

In my lonely leisure…

 

She was my cutest neighbor

In the far west corner

From my open balcony,

Under a white ginger lily.

As the lonely wanderer

Along our Little Run river

I kept taking my breather

Near her home close to the valley.

And I used to wait for hours

With my heart beating so harder

For a glimpse of her eyes.

In those tameless young days

 

And I loved to watch her

Taking lonely lunar showers,

With the music of the night

In the melting moon rays,

 

In those warm autumn days

I saw her gliding like the fays

In a blast of color beams

By the lake and the streams…

Though she might've never seen 

A boy fetching all the blues,

Kept squandering all his noons;

Kept drawing summer dreams...

 

With a few bottles of beers

Under the shades of lunar layers

Will you like to hear

The silent story

Of my lovely neighbor

That I love to remember

In my lonely leisure…

 

She left one day

With a million untold words

That I had to hide and cover

In my heart forever….

 

And she left

In a late autumn morn

Before I could greet the waking dawn…

With a million unborn dreams

That I had to hide and cover

In the wild green grass

With a few frozen layers…

 

With a few bottles of beers

Under the shades of lunar layers

Will you still wanna hear

The untold story

Of my Lovely neighbor

For whom I still wonder

If she ever remembers

The boy in love with her…

 

Will you still wanna hear

The unsung story

Of my Lovely neighbor

For whom I still wonder

If she ever remembers

The boy from Moonrevoir

Who was once in love with her…

 

© Atique R.