The Orchard Of Eternal Fire (Sonnet Sequence) Poem by Dipankar Sadhukhan

Sonnet I - The First Glance

I cherished him from that first gentle gaze,
His eyes like orbs where tender lightning played;
A smile that set my trembling heart ablaze,
And in my soul a secret altar made.

I watched him move, the world became his throne,
The breath of Spring was curling round his hair;
I longed to call his beating heart my own,
And taste the music dwelling deeply there.

Each passing hour did weave a sweeter chain,
I dreamt of whispers floating through the night;
His absence fed the furnace of my pain,
Till Hope arose to crown my dark with light.

For Love had grown as blossoms climb the sky,
And vowed to bloom, though all the world deny.


Sonnet II - The Whispered Confession

One day I dared to meet his conquering eyes,
To bare the fervent secret of my soul;
My heart, a bird, broke free and sought the skies,
Yet trembled lest his silence prove the goal.

He pondered long, as winds around him played,
And leaves kept murmuring their gentle prayer;
Yet soon his voice, like music softly laid,
Declared my dream no longer lone despair.

O thrilling hour! When lips first shaped my name,
The air grew warm though Winter ruled the glen;
The pulse of life became a leaping flame,
And Earth was Heaven touched by mortal men.

What joy to hear, beneath the boundless blue,
His heart respond, "I love as deep as you."


Sonnet III - The Garden of Desire

Amidst the orchard where the apples hung,
We wandered close as dusk embraced the ground;
The North wind's harp across the branches rung,
Yet in his arms no frost could e'er be found.

His kisses fell like petals from the rose,
And thawed the crystal silence of the air;
My soul unclosed as trembling lilies close,
To feel the warmth his burning lips did bear.

The heavens leaned and poured their silver gleam,
While passion whispered secrets to the breeze;
Each moment blent with some immortal dream,
And Time grew jealous of such hours as these.

O Eden's gate swung wide for Love's command,
And laid its fruit within his eager hand.


Sonnet IV - The Apple Beneath My Heart

Then gently moved his hand with tender art,
And pressed beneath the haven of my sigh;
As if to hold an apple from its start,
That loosed its sweetness ere it learned to die.

The tree of life seemed rooted in my frame,
Its laden boughs were bowing in the storm;
And Love, that ancient gardener, softly came,
To shape its branches to his perfect form.

What music flowed! What nectar thrilled the sense!
What perfumed fire did through my bosom stray!
No frost could mar such blossoms of incense,
No night efface the rapture of that day.

For when his palm received that tender prize,
I saw new suns awaken in his eyes.


Sonnet V - When Eden Stooped to Kiss

How fair the dawn that followed passion's night,
When stars withdrew yet lingered in our veins;
The garden slept beneath its veils of white,
Yet Love awoke and sang in soft refrains.

No sound was heard but trembling leaves of thought,
No dream remained but what his lips had sealed;
The world was rich with all the joy we wrought,
And pain lay slain where blissful lights revealed.

Though years may weave their shadows on the hill,
Though North winds roam and freeze the orchard bare;
One memory blooms, unyielding to their will—
The hour when first his breath consumed my air.

And still my soul repeats that tender play,
When Eden stooped and gave my flesh away.


Sonnet VI - The North Wind's Defeat

The North Wind roared and shook the orchard bare,
Yet in his arms no winter touched my soul;
Though frost was weaving crystals in the air,
His breath was fire that melted every goal.

The moon looked down with envy on the ground,
Where passion wrote its scripture in the snow;
The leaves lay still, yet in my veins there bound
A river crimson, wild with burning flow.

No storm could quench the altar of my breast,
No darkness drown the lamps his lips had lit;
For in his eyes I saw the East's red crest,
And felt the Earth for our dominion fit.

O Love, that mocked the icy tyrant's reign,
And carved its empire on a field of pain.


Sonnet VII - The Kiss Eternal

His kisses fell like rain on thirsty clay,
And woke the blossoms sleeping in my skin;
The stars grew pale before their golden play,
And night confessed its holiest secret sin.

Each breath became a hymn, each touch a prayer,
As though the gods were peering from above;
The garden thrilled beneath that raptured air,
And heard the chime of consecrated love.

No temple roof could sanctify the hour,
No psalm could match the music of his tone;
For we had tasted Eden's primal flower,
And claimed a throne no monarch ever known.

When lips became the covenant of flame,
The universe was bound to Love's high name.


Sonnet VIII - The Falling Apple

At last he moved his hand with secret art,
And touched the fruit that glimmered like a star;
I felt the trembling orchard of my heart,
And knew its boughs would never stand afar.

It seemed a tree of myth where serpents hide,
Yet angels watched and hushed the breath of time;
Its crimson weight was love's immortal pride,
A silent psalm, a sacrament sublime.

O moment ripe with peril and delight!
When heaven stooped to kiss the mortal ground;
When all the suns withdrew their jealous light,
And passion's pulse became the only sound.

He caught the fruit, and all the worlds grew still,
As if to watch one hand fulfill Love's will.


Sonnet IX - The Sacred Orchard

The orchard blooms again within my thought,
Though years have piled their shadows on the hill;
The winds return with all the scents they brought,
And every leaf is breathing passion still.

No withered branch, no ruin can efface
The golden hour that made the trees divine;
For memory guards the consecrated place,
And seals its gates with symbols of a shrine.

The North Wind knocks, yet cannot enter there,
Its storm is hushed by whispers from the past;
That sacred ground no winter dares to tear,
No frost can bind its roses overcast.

O Love, whose orchard spreads beyond decay,
Thy roots are set where time must melt away.


Sonnet X - After the First Ecstasy

The dawn arose like blush upon a bride,
And strewed with gold the pathway of our sin;
The sky bent low as if it sought to hide
The holy fire that burned so deep within.

No voice was heard save whispers faint and fond,
The hush of joy that trembled on the grass;
The brook grew bright as though some spell beyond
Had turned its tears to crystal, clear as glass.

O tender morn! How swift thy feet have flown,
Yet in my veins thy music lingers still;
Though suns may fade, though kingdoms be o'erthrown,
That hour survives, and mocks the years of ill.

When first he laid his hand where apples sleep,
My soul was his, to hold, to wound, to keep.


Sonnet XI - Love and Sin

They call it sin, that ecstasy of fire,
Where flesh and soul in trembling concord meet;
Yet who can name as guilt that pure desire
Which makes the dust a throne for God's own feet?

If sin it be, then let me never rise
From out the flames that crown my mortal head;
For in his eyes I saw the Paradise
Where seraphs walk and holy prophets tread.

No law can bind the tempest of the heart,
No creed can cage the eagle of the skies;
When love has struck with its immortal dart,
The soul ascends though all the world denies.

O sin divine! O bliss beyond control!
Thy brand is Heaven's signature on soul.


Sonnet XII - The Eternal Vow

And now when silence broods upon the land,
I hear his voice like music from the deep;
It wakes the chords no mortal could command,
And stirs the roses passion dared to keep.

Though death may pluck the blossoms from our day,
Though time may grind the mountains to the plain;
Yet love shall mock the tyrant and his sway,
And bloom anew when dust forgets its pain.

For in the orchard where the apples gleam,
I set my soul, a fruit for him to take;
And in his palm it glows, an endless dream,
A jewel wrought for no dull worm to break.

So till the stars shall fall and seas be dry,
My love shall burn though worlds and suns shall die.


By Dipankar Sadhukhan
Kolkata, India.
Copyrights@June30 2025.