Randhir Khare – LIGHT DANCE After Rumi

P Randhir Khare LE P&W Vol 1 2019

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LIGHT DANCE – After Rumi by Randhir Khare

Founding Contributor of Live Encounters

This poem sequence has been inspired by Rumi. It was first performed by the poet Randhir with the Indo-Iranian band AFTER RUMI that he recently founded. The band consists of a Duff player, a Sarangi player and a Tambu player. It was first performed at The Studio and later at French Window. In the photograph above: L to R – Arman Meri Mahani on the Sarinda, Mehdi Tebyanian on the Tanbur, Hamta Baghinejad on the Daf, and Randhir Khare – poet and lead vocalist. https://randhirkhare.in/


1.

When you love, there is no me, no we
says Rumi

You are my freedom,
The moment of morning before the first bird song
When dark and light entwine and our blood sings halleluiahs
And skin-pores fuse, lips dissolving;
Beloved moment of breath-dance, in the birthing sobs of the day,
I celebrate this meeting…
With touch, with sound, with word, with whirling bodies,
With lips that speak the language of ecstasy,
With thoughts that swirl one with the other,
With the harmony of feelings,
With love space-dancing,
With life and death in the dance of creation,
Meeting, merging, resurrecting.


2.

Lovers never meet, they are always one,
says Rumi

I celebrate this meeting of journeys, of languages, beliefs,
Customs, attitudes, feelings, sharings, tastes,
Ways of loving, hoping, remembering, the sacredness of spaces,
Path touching path in the green woods of afternoon,
Skies airbrushed with cloud wisps,
Rivers flowing into each other’s arms, coming home as one.
In the great world of forgetfulness my darling we are just stardust,
Floating, scattering, colliding, struggling, shattering,
Within, we are one and only one …
Veins, muscles, sinews, my breath fills your lungs,
We savour the union of distances in the beat of one heart,
We call each other’s names in a moment of becoming
In one voice, one voice, one voice.


3.

I give you a mirror, look at your reflection and you will remember me,
says Rumi

In you I see who I am, what I am, how I am, why I am,
I see myself flesh, mind, spirit, heart,
I accept my hurt, loss, my inconsistencies, my homelessness,
I embrace my blue sky crowded with dream swallows,
I die, dig my own grave, bury myself, resurrect myself,
Give myself wings that catch the winds of becoming
And fly to you…only you….my mirror;
I stand before you stripped to my soul, my nothingness,
And say to myself standing in the windows of your irises –
You are free, finally free…
Free to be, beautiful one, glowing one,
For I am you and you are me…
And we dissolve into each other,
Crying with voices of forever…


4.

The lover whirls like the birthing universe, in joy,
says Rumi

I rise as a child-kite lofted on skirt-hems of the wind
Rising and dipping, swinging and gliding,
Your joy in me, my joy in you,
Juices of morning light trickling on day’s skin, navel-singing,
Wet tongue and lips on throats,
Fingertips glowing in the soft fire of sacredness.
We are flame, pure flame,
Blue and red and soft and flowing in the winds of our breathing,
Whirling and whirling, swallow spirals, reborn comets,
Love light of the divine dissolving …
Our bodies in an effulgence of belonging,
Revolving revolving,
This is the beginning, this is the end,
This is forever, my love.


5.

When we make love, it is like God is with us,
says Rumi

We breathe into each other’s lungs, speak in each other’s voices,
See through each other’s eyes,
Palm on palm sharing destinies,
Sharing moments of morning before first bird songs,
Sharing tongues, sharing destinies,
You bathe me with the pure light of your moon-body
Singing of the Tree of Life,
Roots thrusting into the earth, deep and searching
For the spring waters of time,
Earth holding, clasping, throbbing.
We merge, we separate, drift, meet, fly,
Turning and turning, each in our own galaxy,
And yet as one…
Deep, so deep and drown in pure moon light,
Singing like angels.


6.

Dance, when you are perfectly free,
says Rumi

We dance the dance of love, within, without,
Inside each other and yet so different, we remain, become, entwined,
Vines climbing to the light above the canopy of trees,
Above the mud and bones and death and roots,
Above the work of worms and butterflies,
Above the busy-ness of maggots, above the fireflies of longing,
We dance entwined, with all our pain and bitterness resolved,
We dance the dance of light, rising and rising,
Rising to crystal rooftops to complete ourselves.


Randhir Khare is an award winning poet, artist, writer, playwright, folklorist and distinguished educationist who has published thirty-six volumes of poetry, short fiction, essays, novels and educational handbooks and has travelled widely, reading and presenting his work, nationally and internationally. He has presented his work at the Nehru Centre in London, at the Ubud Writers Festival in Bali, the India Festival In Bulgaria, at the Writers Union in the Czech Republic, in Bulgaria, Slovenia, the Pune International Literary Festival and at the Europalia Arts Festival in Belgium. In India, he has performed his poetry with various traditional and contemporary musicians and founded  (as well as leads) two poetry-music bands : MYSTIC and AFTER RUMI. Over the last year  he has published two path-breaking volumes of poetry and drawings, MOUNTAINS OF MY SILENCE and MEMORY LAND,  He is the recipient of The Sanskriti Award for Creative Writing, The Gold Medal for Poetry awarded by the Union of Bulgarian Writers, The Human Rights Award, The Residency Grant 2009 for his  lifetime contribution to literature in English  awarded by The Sahitya Akademi (The National Akademy Of Letters) and The Palash Award (for his lifetime contribution to education and culture) among others.

He has completed four and a half decades of distinguished services to education and special education and founded The RBA Centre For Special Education & The CSE Centre For Children With Special Needs.


© Randhir Khare