The Waiting Poem by Debasis Chatterjee

An unknown place
Without a single known face
Cold deep silence
Complete absence
Of any sounds, nor even a whisper
Of air; everything withouta murmur

Starless obscure aphotic sky
Drab gloomy misty calignosity
Choking me up in all its sooty
Stygian saturninity;
Never ever did I feel so lonely
Never ever did I stay in such alienation
So isolated, so empty

Wherever is this place, full of formless sighs
With no sign of humans, none of even any life
Around…...only airless stillness, faint hum of cries
Hushed poignancy, obsidian wispy smokiness rife!


Is it then the brink of the Last Departure
That Dante crossed over
And journeyed across sights full of wonder
Reached finally the Great Gate of
‘Paradiso', the ever blissful Kingdom?
The ever happy abode of wisdom?


So this is the first notation on
The abyssal, darkest, soulless, lifeless loneliest journey -
Songs just the first welcoming call
Of rapturous delight, supreme Felicity!

I am listening, tuning in to this celestial intonation -
Besieged, inundated in the musty gloom around
For Acceptance…for Salvation…in abject capitulation
For the final Entrance…with throbbing joy abound.


- 17th November 2017, Kolkata, INDIA