Watching day passing and night returning
Standing, watching mirrors pretending
Losing beauty, watching life turning
Burning, watching my past erasing
Unbeing, unseeing what i’m seeing
Even as the mirrors are breaking – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
I’m walking down my night mind
Searching for what is mine
I have been running down passages
But all I see is the empty spaces
Did I see a shadow stir
I’m still waiting for an answer
Through the sandglass and into the sea
I’m waiting for the waves to bring myself back to me
– Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
You go down on your knee
Open your heart to the moon and the bottomless sea
Look up at the sky and sigh
Why this, why that, and why
White grows gray, gray grows black
Nothing to say, ricochet those dead years back
Look up at the sky and lie
Why this, why that, and why
Count your chances, a thousand to one,
An ear on your heart, eyes on an eclipsed sun
Look up at the sky and cry
Why this, why that, and why
Where is the Seraphim welcoming me in
Watch me pass through heaven’s gate
I can’t remember where I have been
I’m sorry darling it’s been so late
Where is the Seraphim welcoming me in
See the power of beauty one last time
All the fairy tales were wrong in the end
They made ugliness a virtue and beauty a crime
Where is the Seraphim welcoming me in
Those truths are gone those lies were a game
Your sins are a gift your virtues forgiven
You learnt praise and blame are all the same – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
– Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
Mirror mirror on the wall
What do we see before we fall
The poetry of memories and lust
Ashes to ashes dust to dust
We stumble between the blur and the after
We leave behind our breath on the mirror
The power of beauty
The beauty of power
– Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
Spend enough time in libraries and you find
that everything is related, everything is connected
Christ and crutches
Guilt and guillotines
Penises and propaganda
Erotica and enlightenment
Climate and constipation
Martyrs and masturbation
Woke and broke
Between rapture and ecstasy
Your breath feels like autumn to me
In the depths of your eyes the question lies
The answer waits, starves and dies
We are just peasants floundering in the snow
What colour is the wind we do not know
Between rapture and ecstasy
Everything seems like summer to me
And everything seems like fall
It matters more than you will ever see
And it matters nothing at all
My god is beautiful, strong, and naked
I kneel at Her sculpted alter
And worship at Her renaissance feet
And when the music stops and the mirror shatters
She reminds me why beauty matters.
I was standing watching worlds falling
I could hear words colliding
Beauty speaking through your eyes
Through the pores of your skin
Speaking truth to lies
Your sins are a gift
Your virtues are forgiven
You preach love but you justify hate
Feelings are facts and words are bait
Flagellate yourself with guilt and demand reparations
You are the saviour you say of desperate nations
You talk about one world but are blind to all others
There is comfort among sheep when others are ogres
You say it is a debate but you argue with labels
Best blur the lines between facts and fables
You see truths as opinions, and opinions as slurs
You are falling over like lemmings to out-woke your brothers
You choose Barabbas to go free and burn Joan at the stake
You stone the Semites as they kneel and call history a fake
Your kindness is your shield, being offended is your sword
Tell me who died and anointed you god
All the simple truths are false and all the complex ones are unusable.
When everyone is saving the world you are disposable
– Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
You worship your celluloid puppets
Your sports shows, your stereo heroes
I must atone for everything I have known
I just worship the beauty of skin
The beauty of stone
You worship your intoxications
Your bundles of green, your what-might-have-beens
I must atone for everything I have known
I just worship the beauty of skin
The beauty of stone
You worship your TV noose
Your games of win or loose
I must atone for everything I have known
I just worship the beauty of skin
The beauty of stone – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
Now put on your mask
And let the show begin
Your sins are a gift
Your virtues are forgiven
You dance with an angel, walk with a ghost
All versions of you end at the goalpost
Is it the sound of a shutter, the drum of a heart beat
Is it heaven above or the ground beneath her feet – Nausher
You are standing on the crosswalk
Listening to the crosstalk
Waiting to catch up with your past
And your future just passed
You catch your reflection
Kissing your assassin
Waiting to catch up with your past
And your future just passed
You pictures mildew on the floor
Your beauty ghosts out the door
Waiting to catch up with your past
And your future just passed
You dance with an angel, walk with a ghost
All versions of you end at the goalpost
Is it the sound of a shutter, the drum of a heart beat
Is it heaven above or the ground beneath her feet – Nausher
You’ve been faulted and you’ve been feted
You’ve been excluded you’ve been exalted
When seeking the sacred always be naked
You’ve been exhausted and you’ve been enchanted
You’ve been devoted and you’ve been detested
When seeking the sacred always be naked
You’ve been beloved and you’ve been blighted
You’ve been invited and you’ve been invaded
When seeking the sacred always be naked
You’ve been heralded and you’ve been hated
You’ve been trumpeted and you’ve been tormented
When seeking the sacred always be naked
You’ve been perverted and you’ve been perfected
You’ve been erected and you’ve been eroded
When seeking the sacred always be naked
You’ve been lambasted and you’ve been lamented
You’ve been garrotted and you’ve been garlanded
When seeking the sacred always be naked – Nausher
If life teaches you anything it is this
If it is not in frame it does not exist
Life and love are tightly braided
Beauty is sublime and the sublime sacred
The sacred, remember, is always naked – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
The gods created night
Thunder, lightning and twilight
Created the shine in your eyes
As you searched the skies
For the whys, the sighs, the fireflies
And this is your prayer
This is your hour
The power of beauty
The beauty of power – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
Mirror mirror on the wall
What do we see before we fall
The poetry of memories and lust
Ashes to ashes dust to dust
Kissed by the flame, we meander in a mist
If we’re not in frame we do not exist
We stumble between the blur and the after
We leave behind our breath on the mirror
i am a prophet in seas of insanity |
i am the head on a coin |
a message, a sign |
i am Nothing |
yet i am the messiah – N
You look up to the skies
And this is your prayer
The power of beauty
The beauty of power
This is your pain
This is your pleasure
The power of beauty
The beauty of power
Put on your face
This is your armour
The power of beauty
The beauty of power
This is the question
This is the answer
The power of beauty
The beauty of power
You are the book
You are it’s author
The power of beauty
The beauty of power
Daughter of lightning
You’re goddess of thunder
The power of beauty
The beauty of power
Mirror mirror on the wall
What do we see before we fall
The poetry of memories and lust
Ashes to ashes dust to dust
We stumble between the blur and the after
We leave behind our breath on the mirror – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
The house on the rock, the writing on the wall
Give me back my secrets before I fall
Inside of me, in spite of me
I have the key, I have the key
The wound I wear, look back and stare
Nobody cares darling, nobody cares
Fragile as glass, as reflections in glass
Put on your happy face and let it pass
I leave the mirror, I enter the room
I walk the path from bloom to tomb
I stumble between the blur and the after
I leave behind my breath on the mirror
– Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
Holding up the sky and I can feel the rain
Holding day to night, I can break the chain
A ear to the ground, my lips to your ear
It is not over yet but it’s getting near
– Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
Vanity of vanities, sayeth the preacher, all is vanity.
Me, myself, my eyes, the mirror never lies
Kissed by the flame, I meander in a mist
If I’m not in frame I do not exist – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
I have been walking a straight line
Searching for what is mine
I’m looking over my shoulder
Searching for the soul in sculpture
I have been running down passages
Can’t turn the page, I can’t turn the pages
Waiting in the dark for dawn to near
I’m waiting for an end, the end is clear
Through the sandglass and into the sea
I’m waiting for the waves to bring myself back to me
I love watching the city when it is raining
I watch it cry like its heart is breaking
I watch lights shimmer by my side
Watch shadows glow and glide
I’m standing watching people run
Watching them praying for the sun
Another one bites the dust
And another one bites the dust
I could hear words colliding
Beauty speaking through your eyes
Through the pores of your skin
Speaking truth to lies
All is forgiven – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
Achingly naked, seeking the sacred
All the love and all the hatred
You know, Odi et amo
In this year of grace, fallen from grace
Follow your heart to that secret place
You know, Odi et amo
Nothing is the same, its all a game
Start the day by laying blame
You know, Odi et amo
Dust to dust, the ache of lust,
Your blood resembles the color of rust
You know, Odi et amo – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
Achingly naked, seeking the sacred
All the love and all the hatred
You know, Odi et amo
In this year of grace, fallen from grace
Follow your heart to that secret place
You know, Odi et amo
Nothing is the same, its all a game
Start the day by laying blame
You know, Odi et amo
The ache of longing, the dust of lust,
Your blood resembles the color of rust
You know, Odi et amo
– Nausher Nash Banaji
Your hands don’t hold the answer
Hold it higher, she said, hold it higher
Higher so I can see the cross above the flames
Praise and blame, darling, are all the same
It’s not tears, it’s smoke in my eyes
I seek the heavens, I search the skies
Born of tempests, a warrior at the mouth of dawn
I am a child of beauty in a storm
Standing in the fire looking out to sea
Waiting for the waves to bring the water back to me – NausherNash
See my face beneath this mask, it is me
See the angel beneath the wings, it is me
I’m that face, I’m the skin, I am the girth beneath it
I’m the angel, I’m the wings, I’m the earth beneath it
I’m the bones beneath the clay
In the hours time swept away
I sit and wait for tomorrow
to remove the mask that I borrowed
– N|M
See my face beneath this mask, it is me
See the angel beneath the wings, it is me
I’m that face, I’m the skin, I am the girth beneath it
I’m the angel, I’m the wings, I’m the earth beneath it
I’m the bones beneath the clay
I’m the hours time swept away
Here I sit waiting for the morrow
Here today gone to sorrow
– Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
See my face beneath this mask, it is me
See the angel beneath the wings, it is me
I’m that face, I’m the skin, I am the girth beneath it
I’m the angel, I’m the wings, I’m the earth beneath it
I’m the bones beneath the clay
I’m the storm it swept away
Here I sit waiting for the morrow
Here today gone to sorrow
– Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
When we left the mirror and entered the room
When we walked the path from bloom to tomb
We stumbled between the blur and the after
We left behind our breath on the mirror
Your hands don’t hold the answer
Joan of arc said hold it higher, hold it higher
Higher so I can see the cross above the flames
Praise and blame, darling, are all the same
It’s not tears, it’s smoke in my eyes
I seek the heavens, I search the skies
Born of tempests, a warrior at the mouth of dawn
I am a child of beauty in a storm
Standing in the fire looking out to sea
Waiting for the waves to bring the water back to me
The house on the rock, the writing on the wall
Give me back my secrets before I fall
Inside of me, in spite of me
I have the key, I have the key
The wound I wear, look back and stare
Nobody cares darling, nobody cares
Fragile as glass, as reflections in glass
Put on your happy face and let it pass
Listen to the sound of the hourglass flow
Listen to the sound of your shadow
Throw back your head and feel the rain
Who drinks this water thirsts again – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
Divinity and nudity
The rubble of decline
God is in the stone
My god is beautiful, strong, and naked. I kneel at Her sculpted alter, And worship at Her renaissance feet. And when the music stops and the mirror shatters She reminds us why beauty matters.
When we left the mirror and entered the room
When we walked the path from bloom to tomb
We stumbled between the blur and the after
We left behind our breath on the mirror
We are just peasants floundering in the snow
Never knowing what we’ll never know
Standing naked in the fleeting rain
Thinking someday we’ll find salvation
Wandering the world’s tired denizen
Wondering what colour is the wind
This water, this rain on your skin
This fire, this lava in your heart
What do you love, what do you desire
This heart is an organ of fire
My god is beautiful, strong, and naked
I kneel at Her sculpted alter
And worship at Her renaissance feet
I raise my eyes and lay my weapons down
I hold onto heaven as the walls come down
And when the music stops and the mirror shatters
She reminds me why beauty matters
– Nausher Nash
Darkling you reach into the sky
Whoever said memories don’t lie
Your fingers clutch your shadows hand
You only survive because you don’t understand
The wind carries voices but there’s nobody there
The bush is burning but the mountain is bare
Was it paradise lost or paradise found,
Was it safety you sought in 6 feet of ground,
Were you tipping your eyes to make an impression,
Wearing a face with a borrowed expression,
Did the looking glass
look back at you in wonder,
Did you look through a mask
only to see a stranger – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
I was too young to understand
But too old to forget
Naked on shifting sand
Hanging on by a thread
Walking through the door
Between the heart and the head
Your face is a mirror
Of that stranger in your bed-Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
This water, this rain on your skin
This fire, this lava in your heart
What do you love, what do you desire
This heart is an organ of fire
My god is beautiful, strong, and naked
I kneel at Her sculpted alter
And worship at Her renaissance feet
And when the music stops and the mirror shatters
She reminds me why beauty matters. – Nausher Nash Banaji
It still looks like your world, but everything is different
Everything seems familiar, but oddly distant
What blink of an eye, whose tear, whose stare
What fork on which road has taken you where
You’re running down the track
The night burning down your back
You follow the ghost of you
And your ghosts are following you
Blinded by truth, enlightened by a lie
The die is cast in the blink of an eye – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
The night is done
Gone with the wind of the first sun
Dreams on ice, the river crossed twice
I want to be alone with me
A transparent layer in history
I knew this night would pass
That the love we lived could never last
Reflections blurred by shadows past
That silhouettes would still roam free
Beauty for a day, for a day of eternity
–Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
You muddle amidst murals
A promise and a prophesy in each hand
Sprawling on mirrors of frozen summer
You forget where your story began
Straining through the ebbs you fall
Grasping a fleeting embrace
The doors are peeling off the walls
Your heart is etched on your face-Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
Darkling you reach into the sky
Whoever said memories don’t lie
Your fingers clutch your shadows hand
You only survive because you don’t understand
The wind carries voices but there’s nobody there
The bush is burning but the mountain is bare
Was it paradise lost or paradise found,
Was it safety you sought in 6 feet of ground,
Were you tipping your eyes to make an impression,
Wearing a face with a borrowed expression,
Did the looking glass
look back at you in wonder,
Did you look through a mask
only to see a stranger – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
A dream and a memory in each hand
You mirror a mirage moving alone
You call out but it is gone
The road that brought you here
Is dragging you back
The light you thought was near
Is fading to black
The grotesque and the divine
Two sides of a coin
Through tunnels and doors
you ached you’d be free,
The doors lead to walls
And the labyrinth leads to me- Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
This is all that remains
When the smoke clears
And the embers die
The grotesque and the divine
Two sides of a coin
The sum total of a mans life
Is a bill of sale transferring ownership
You follow the truth of shadows naked
You are a pebble in the surge of drawing tide
You search the dark for something sacred
Darling can you look inside
Dancing past the chimes of midnight
What is right and what is true
Down the shore and into the starlight
! exchange my old world for the new
Naked now our skins are crawling
We sit in our bones looking out from the hill
Face pressed against the window
The snow is melting and the earth is still-Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
take the leaves back to the forest
and the water back to the sea,
turn the stone back to ashes
bring the dust back to me.
Carrying my past inside me
It’s the future I’m returning to
Wearing my mask inside me
What am I turning into?
There is a stranger in my head
Screaming naked in the rain
My mind is clear he says
But my soul is insane,
Sometimes I wish I could fly
but where can I go
Where can I hide
So my shadow won’t find me
Everything I am fleeing
is right here inside me – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
Starting and ending
Fading down pillared corridors into another world
Away from the trivial the inane the babble the trash
Away from life’s symmetry of madness
i have felt the warm breath of stormy seas
Removing the blindfold is pain
Because of what you might see
It’s easier to live in chains
Than it is to be free
Darkling you walk into the light
Staring blind wrong from right
Sweating palms clutching a shadow’s hand
You only survive because you don’t understand
The wind carries voices but there’s nobody there
The bush is burning but the mountain is bare-Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
My god is beautiful, strong, and naked.
I kneel at Her sculpted alter,
And worship at Her renaissance feet.
And when the music stops and the mirror shatters
She reminds me why beauty matters. Nausher
Separated by lightyears of silence and nightyears of stone
The words you speak to me are all unknown
In a crowded train on an empty line
I’m searching for someplace I can call mine
In the mirror of an hourglass naked I stand
My scars are hidden and safe in her hand
Dreams on ice, the river crossed twice
I want to be alone with me
A transparent layer in history
A ripple of gasps from behind a curtain
You part them only to enter oblivion = Nausher Nash Banaji
Lost in that space between my head and my face
Between stars and scars
Between mirrors and masks
Between truth and lullabies
Between skin and stone and disguise
Between fear and fate
Between love, indifference, and hate
It doesn’t matter what I say
It’s not going to go away
It’s the price I pay
Miles apart inches away – N
When we left the mirror and entered the room
When we walked the path from bloom to tomb
We stumbled between the blur and the after
We left behind our breath on the mirror – Nausher Nash
You hold it in your hand and watch it expire
Barbwires in the sand, the blackness of fire
Starting and ending
Between stars and scars
Between fear and fate
Between truth and lullabies
Fading down pillared corridors into another world
Away from the trivial the inane the babble the trash
Away from life’s symmetry of madness
The looking glass looks back at you in wonder
You look through the mask only to see a stranger
You peel off your skin and enter
– Nausher Nash Banaji
There goes the sower to sow the word
Some will fall in the water to be devoured by water
Some will fall on stones to be scorched by the sunless sun
There the sower sows the word
The word they’ll hear but will not hear
A world they’ll see but will not see
But I have felt the warm breath of stormy seas
Heard waves ebb and flow deep inside of me
Heard their heart beating like it was my own
Felt them turn, retreat and return
They will still be here
Long after I am gone
And the sower will sow the word
A soul at peace in a world of violence
And the word will be silence – Nausher
Here you are on the blue mountain
Halfway up, halfway down
Between the beauty and the pain
Between fear and fate
Between truth and lullabies
Between skin and stone and disguise
Walking down your old hunting ground
You come across all the people you used to be
You find the selves you lost and the selves you found
The ghost of you mirrored in eternity
Lifetimes in libraries
Around the world
Saved in an embrace
Of books and words
Pages I turned
Turned me and
Will still be here
After the flood
Your heart
will
Feel these words
Turn to ashes that
Linger in the blood
M|N
You follow the taillights in the sky
Starting and ending
Fading down pillared corridors into another world
Away from the trivial the inane the babble the trash
Away from life’s symmetry of madness
For whoever will save his life shall lose it
And whoever loses his life will find it
You know this day too will pass
The night we live can never last
The past is everpresent
The future is buried in the past
Let the living follow the living
And let the dead bury their dead-Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
I have spent lifetimes in libraries around the world
Embraced and saved by books and words
I had this thought
That all the pages I have turned
That all the pages that turned me
Will still be here long after the proverbial flood
That other hearts will feel the words I felt
And the pages now ashes will linger on in their blood-Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
The ire is consumed in the fire
The finger points to us
And we fall among them that fall
The moment has passed, the hour is ended, and we are not saved
There was so much we wanted to ask
We stepped out in the morning like morning dew
You hold it in your hand and watch it expire,
Barbwires in the sand, the blackness of fire,
Be careful what you allow into your mind,
Your life is changed on the toss of a dime,
You forget the things you should remember,
And you remember things you should forget-N
Here we are on the blue mountain
Halfway up, halfway down
Lost in that space between beauty and pain
Between stars and scars
Between fear and fate
Between truth and lullabies
Between skin and stone and disguise
Walking down our old hunting ground
We come across all the people we used to be
We find the selves we lost and the selves we found
The gods of us mirrored in eternity
There went the sower to sow the word
Some fell in the water devoured by water
Some fell on stone scorched by the sunless sun
There the sower sows the word
The word they heard but didn’t hear
A world they saw but did not see
But i have felt the warm breath of stormy seas
Heard waves ebb and flow deep inside of me
Heard their heart beating like it was my own
Felt them turn, retreat and return
They will still be here
Long after I am gone
And the sower will sow the word
A soul at peace in a world of violence
And the word will be silence – Nausher
We knew this day would pass
This night we lived would never last
We knew our future is buried in the past
So you let the living follow the living
And you let the dead bury their dead
For those you burnt and those you forgave
Too late you’ve learnt you’re only a slave
So the last shall be first, and the first last
For many be called, but few are chosen
The wind carries voices but there’s nobody there
The bush is burning but the mountain is bare-Nausher Nash Banaji Duo
1.
unmoved they stand these branches and trees
while memories are carried over the breeze
our scents meander and curl with air
and our shadows on cobblestones linger there
walking down our old hunting ground
we come across all the people we used to be
we find the selves we lost and the selves we found
the gods of us mirrored in eternity
the flesh is weak and the walls too long
we’ve been searching for someplace we can belong
waiting for the train we lie awake in bed
dreaming of the dreams to bring back the dead
M|N
2. [alternate rendering]
unmoved they stand these branches and trees
while memories are carried over the breeze
our scents meander and curl with the air
our shadows on cobblestone linger there
walk on down our old hunting ground
come across all the people we used to be
the selves we lost and the selves we found
the gods of us mirrored in eternity
the flesh is weak and the walls too long
we searched for a place where we belong
waiting for the train we lie awake in bed
to dream the dream that brings back the dead
– M|N
I see the moon in your eyes
hear the swoon of your sighs
hold you naked you dance in the rain
whisper your story sanity to the insane
where are you now where have you been
awaken this morning a butterfly in a dream
last night you dreamed the butterfly was me
I tear open my skin you enter my veins
swim to my heart break the chains
come tell me that this day will pass
the nights we live burn the past
the slow future is melting fast
here butterflies still roam free
eternally on a day of eternity
- M| N