Tonight

What is this quest
at which you hint
with every irregularity
in the roundness
of my prayer beads?

Birdsong and cricket
colored pencil sketches
of flower and fruit.
Is that why
You string afresh
Your lonely guitar?

Your sounds hint
at some alien refrain
you comfort me
with sepia highlights
in leafy glades
of black and white.

Squirrels listen
past their bedtime
night birds hoot
and carry on
doing whatever it is
they usually do.

My prayer beads
have rough edges
and have acquired
immunity to touch.
So now I know
it is the night
of your light
your white night.

Ashok Niyogi is an Economics graduate from Presidency College, Calcutta. He made a career as an International Trader and has lived and worked in the Soviet Union, Europe and South East Asia in the ‘80s and ‘90s. At 52, he has been retired for some years and has been cashew farming, writing and traveling. He divides time between California, where his daughters live, Delhi and the Indian Himalayas. He is increasingly involved in his personal spiritual quest and has undertaken serious study of scripture. He has published a book of poems, TENTATIVELY, [iUniverse, Lincoln, NE ­ 1995] and has been extensively published in print and on-line magazines in the USA, UK, Australia and Canada. Numerous chap books of his poems have been brought out by SCARS Publications, UC-Davis, Slow Trains and others. Ashok writes about life.

Email: Ashok Niyogi

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