For Better or For Verse...

2012-02-05T08:05:00.000-08:00

A sense of equilibrium

Balanced on the tightrope with her toes.
A stick to hold…and a height to fear.
But she stood fearless…with poise.
Balancing marriage, aspirations and motherhood, oh dear!
That instills more fear,she wobbled.

2012-02-05T07:57:00.001-08:00

A wife and a mother…

A tangled ball of wool, and one big knot.
One end in his hand…Other end in her tiny clasp.
None ready to let go…as I try to free the tethers.

2011-09-24T09:49:00.000-07:00

In Latin, "Ego" is I..
In life, I am but an ego

2011-09-24T09:44:00.001-07:00

Does the grass know that it is dancing to the wind...

Does the earth know that it rotates around the sun.

Do dreams know they are not real

Do you know I love you.

2011-06-21T05:07:00.000-07:00

Crutches of bondage

The amputated limb feels like a part of me.
A part of me just drifted away.
Like a broken limb of a tree,
Carried down by torrid streams.
Like it, I long to be free.

2011-03-03T08:40:00.000-08:00

2 LINE HAIKUS...

The blade of grass stood up to the gale,
The willowy tree gave in.

Mist writes letters on my window-pane
If only his handwriting was a little sane.

Silent contempt,a matchless enemy,
Loud resentment, I can befriend.

The past like layers of oil on water,
Remains immiscible with my future.

In the curve of his neck, nestled my dreams
In the breadth of his shoulders, rested my worries.

In his loud snores, I found peace
Peace, I never found in silence.

2011-03-03T08:35:00.000-08:00

Three cheers for sobriety

A bottle of wine,
And for me, you pine.
The morning hangover...
And it is all over

2010-03-05T21:22:00.000-08:00

Was it just a ruse...?

The morning breeze visited me enroute to her destiny...
She murmured sweet nothings in my ear...
To her, I gently replied...Don't wake me yet
I am no morning person, dear.

The rising sun called out to me in haste
Shining his torchlight at my eyes....
To him, I strongly replied...Don't wake me yet
Let me be with my morning dreams and it's lies.

The waking baby just gave one whimper
Calling out to my heart in hunger or was it just a ruse...?
To her, I swiftly woke up...
For motherhood knows no excuse

2010-03-05T21:15:00.000-08:00

To my daughter...

Her frail limbs can overpower me
Her limp cries can beckon me
Her helplessness - so powerful
I am enslaved forever...

- A mother

2008-08-18T01:10:00.001-07:00

During my visit to Paro, Bhutan...

================
Amidst the chants of Buddhist monks,
and the hesitant murmurs of the flowing river,
I heard the silence of GOD..
=============

2008-08-18T01:02:00.000-07:00

Scrawls of an unsteady hand...
==============================

Two lines of attempted poetry...
==============================
Sunbeams reach their destined end
Casting shadows of their death.
=======================================
The carpet of grass beckons your feet
Ever willing to be crushed at your whims
=======================================
The waves rush to the calling of Mother earth
The heartless rocks deny their reunion
=======================================
Man builds structures to reach the sky
The sky evades man's ugly hands.
=======================================
Shyness curled her toes,
Love stretched her arms.
=======================================
A feather floated to her destiny,
A rock fell to its end.
=======================================
Dark clouds in a coterie,
Decided to shroud the moon.
=======================================
The blind see the music
The deaf hear the music
It is you and I, who see nor hear
=======================================
His voice booms in thunder
His caress felt in breeze
His anger felt in wind's fury
His tears felt in rain drops
He lives.
=======================================
Time has no end,
It lives in my memories of you.
=======================================

2007-06-20T20:20:00.001-07:00

She and He...

She walks the path destined,
Evening parties where celebrities dined,
Jewels, feather beds and rich silks with lace
A beach house, a summer home and a palace
And yet for him, she pined.

He - an artist with just brushes in his pockets,
Who slept by roadside pickets,
With clothes that were stained with paint
And the sully poverty's taint
Yet, her memories never grew faint.

How I wish the tale was thus..
Life however is too practical to fuss
She lived happy to dine and wine
He was better off with out her and her whine.
Life ain't no fairy tale to pine.

2007-04-05T21:50:00.000-07:00

Being his wife...
The golden beam escaped through the heavy curtains.
The tiny glimmer dispelled the morning blues.
The windows spoke tales of yesterday's rains.
The hint of his familiar, rythmic breath .
The perfect morning with all its hues.

The unspent anger,the travails of my arduous life,
The tear that always hid at the corner of my eye,
The mistakes of my careless youth with all its strife,
All erased with a single masterstroke of his love.
Makes me live again, Being his wife...

2007-03-18T10:46:00.000-07:00

The emptiness of being...

In the well, the bored toad...
The light from above just lights up the well.
The promise of ignorance delivers.
Enlightenment hides in dark silence .

The donkey relentlessly carries its load..
The empty soul feels heavy.
Bedraggled feet, tired of dragging the soul.
The path to the dark ages is well-lit.

2006-12-15T20:17:00.000-08:00

The Ostrich

The bars of the window part me from the world outside.
The ugly world at my doorstep.
While the mighty succumb to power,
The poor succumb to hunger.
I am the Ostrich that buries its head in the sand,
hiding in my cozy cocoon.
I see it and yet pretend not to see
I ignore the world that peeps into my window.
To me, the window is a looking glass
and the world, my image of my beautiful self.

2006-06-14T05:52:00.000-07:00

My Mind - My Battle

An ode to Schizophrenia

A zillion demons within,
Staging their plays within.
A faint line parts reality....
A line erased in my mental frailty.

The world outside calls me insane,
But I just have a question so inane
These men who mock me for my bane,
Are they sane?

2006-06-14T05:45:00.000-07:00

All I am...
Just a tear drop from your eyes,
Just a thought on some idle morns
Just a scream in the silence of your mind
Just a memory in your life.

2006-06-10T23:19:00.000-07:00

She was but, a Doctor's wife...

He did take the Hippocratic Oath,
He swore by the name of Apollo and Aesculapius,
And so did he take the hypocritic oath,"I do"
Justice to one and all, but her.

She waited at the door,
The clock got bored of her longing looks
Fell asleep alongside his cold dinner,
Beside another's sick wife, he was caring.

Many a night alone in the cold bed,
Many a day together with loneliness.
Till Death do us part, was the Oath she took
True to her oath, she chose death

2006-04-17T08:20:00.000-07:00

Dreams
The pearls of our dreams strung together,
Our aspirations deep under the shells.
The threads of our dreams woven together
With the yarn of our memories.

Like a feather floating in the wind
Knowing not its way down
The dazed feelings our dreams leave us in
The maze of knowing our dreams and yet not knowing them

The soft feeling of cotton candy in the mouth
Melting to leave a sweet, sticky feeling.
Waking up to a lazy morning,
half asleep with the after-taste of a pleasant dream.

2005-12-20T04:07:00.000-08:00

I seek
The divine they say
God do some call Him
Him or Her..None can say
Prostrate to Him, Prayers onto Him

Prayers for love, for peace
For money, for power
Prayers for life, for release
Many are the arrows from this quiver

To some He is carved in stone and culture
To others ,a relic in history , aN often retold myth
The order in chaos , The pattern in nature
The inner conscience's untold story

To a few, the truth held dear,
To love the supreme with fear,
To love all of humanity dear
And to some ,the gospel of the seer

The agnostic wonders if god does exist
The atheist wills that god does not exist
The religious believe that, to god's will , they exist
For God ,a zillion interpretation does exist
My own interpretations...I seek

2005-12-20T03:48:00.000-08:00

To live...
The soaring eagle reaching onto the cerulean heights
The whispers of the eucalyptus trees carried safely by the wind
The chill of the December air with its misty morning
Amidst this peace lives humanity in all its chaos
A thousand dreams with every heartbeat
For every dream unfulfilled, a yearning lingers
Every breath in a scramble to make dreams come true
Life becomes the respite between the rush
Trampling life, dream tries to live
Only to realize it needs life to live.
Lifelessly we live on

2005-12-20T03:45:00.000-08:00

It has been sometime since I wrote poems that were personalized to people in my life...Here is one to my better half

You
The freedom to be myself , with all my quirks
To be loved for my faults and my musings
The happiness to share my crazy whims and moods
To dance with you to a sum total of four left-foot
To croak aloud with you at the pretense of singing
The reckless abandon with which we forget the world
To live every minute in the moment
The safety of your warm secure arms
To dispel tears , life brought me
The liberty to bring back the kid in me
To the smiles that your naughty pranks bring
The fake fights fought with no real reason
To the tussle for the blanket at night
The incentive to wake up to another dawn - You

2005-12-20T03:43:00.000-08:00

Entwined Worlds.

Amidst the metallic clatter of dishes washed,
And the tottering of feet on the freshly mopped floor
The maid from the slums and the erudite dame from the metropolis,
Exchanged mid-afternoon tales , smiles, woe and their souls
Fables from the world unknown to the other.
The world met, but for one instant

Amidst the pungent smoke of traffic
And the pedestrians trying to dodge death
The busy software whiz and the tramp in tatters
Exchanged a smile with a parting of the penny
Their eyes speaking the language of humanity
Two worlds met, but for one instant

Amidst the tall skyscrapers and grey polluted skies
And street kids playing cricket in a sandwiched alley
The retired colonel and the scruffy lad
Exchanged a game played by the imperial English
The spirit of the young met the youth of the aged
The worlds met, but for one instant.

2005-06-11T22:30:00.000-07:00

An encounter with eternity

In the grains of sand that slip through my fingers...
In the gush of winds that gently caress my skin...
In the dance of waves that tease my toes...
I met Eternity.

In the scent of earth , that beckoned me to welcome the monsoon...
In the whispers of crickets, that narrated to me night's dark tales ...
In the chirps of the birds , that gently woke me to the shy sun at dawn...
I met Eternity.

2005-05-29T00:52:00.000-07:00

Just Another Morn...

A melange of colours coming alive...The darkness of the night slowly but meekly hiding with the break of dawn. The sun gracefully climbing aloft the staircase to heaven, knowing very well the descent that awaited its mighty ascent.The play of shadows with light. The trees and their branches swaying to the silent lilting melodies of the wind. Amidst such peace the sun-beam that escaped through the curtains chose to wake me from my dreamy slumber.Gently pushing his still-asleep hands away, and away from the cozy warmth of the blankets ..I rose to greet another day..
The cold ground welcomed my feet. Stretching my arms in an attempt to wake the sleepy maiden in me, I stomped to kitchen to brew some coffee. The aroma wafted through my nostrils...A cup in my hand..I made my way to the balcony where nature promised me, a performance. I watched the patterns in the sky and the birds in flight...The vagrant cuckoo's call for its mate ... Suddenly his arms entwined me from the back and together in silence , we watched the new born day.
A perfect beginning to an imperfect day..Who cares? A sip of coffee and his arms around.. The world for this moment ceased to exist...and for a minute , the moment became free of time's long reaching hands....Peace!

2005-05-02T08:24:00.000-07:00

In every eye...a drop of tear
In every mind...a shade of fear
In every heart...is sorrow's endless kiss
In every thought... a search
In every life...something amiss
For answers...I search
For every tear, hope to turn life's every page
For every fear, a pillar of courage
For every sorrow, a smile to dispell
For every thought, a purpose
For every life...contentment in the simple
For answers...more questions to pose

2005-04-29T23:41:00.000-07:00

A call from the yonder

Across the imposing mountains of opposition
Against the currents of life's wild ways
Along the rays of the sun, shining like an apparition
Along the path of the vagrant wind, not sure of its ways
Something beckons, A call from the yonder...

Hanging on the cliff ,tied by strands of every bond
Something still says "Let go!"..A call from the yonder
To fall freely onto the abyss of freedom beyond
Float like a feather,on an infinite flight of wonder
Something beckons, A call from the yonder...

2005-04-19T04:32:00.001-07:00

Bejwelled Fate

Bejewelled bride, her thoughts afloat
On to her world of wonder and dreams
Jasmine tresses and vermilion annointed forehead
Bangled wrists and a hint of blush enar those lips
More beautiful is she or her tempestuous thoughts
The ear-rings dangling to her every sway
Her toes sketching patterns on the observant ground
On her toe rings, her glance and a shy smile it invokes
The minute's hand torments her with its slow pace
Her heart thuds as she hears the awaited foot-steps near the door
Will the doors hark unknown happiness?

The doors open to Fate that walks in
Fate was then a princely groom
Today he is a wizened old man
The coals of the cooking oven, crimson red
-the only light in her face decorated with wrinkles
Each fold telling many tales of her tears
Frail and Famished, she feeds her offsprings four
The dreams she dreamt now reduced to haunting cries
Her haunting cries as the man of her dreams does her torment
Her daily earnings vanquished over a bottle of wine
aAs she sobs over her silent fate
He calls to her with drunken passion
To fate, she succumbs, yet another bride.

2005-04-19T04:32:00.000-07:00

TO PRIDE, DID HE YIELD

In the winds , her fragrance
As she treads, her gentle feet
The flowers, she tramples with grace
The branches still in a trance
Thoughts of her anxious lover with every beat
Youth and love play together viciously
The light through her tresses plays hide and seek
From the woes of the world , her face unfazed
No wonder , the sky does this treasure shield
The visions of her bold ..yet meek
The sun slowly set as HE gazed
His creation, His work, and for a moment to pride,did He yield.

2005-04-19T04:29:00.000-07:00

To the Tsunami

Calm placid waters
In anger rose, waves of death
From within earth's craters
To whom does this disaster bequeath?
In the eyes of those who saw the rage
And lived dying a thousand deaths
You see the fear beyond this time and age
In hopes of peace they place those wreaths
But those living themselves see not peace
For the water reminds them in every breath
And for them those memories never ease
For the living dead, there is no funeral wreath.

2005-04-19T04:24:00.000-07:00

TRYST WITH DESTINY

Slowly the old legs climbed to the attic
Treasures & mold ,that old toy and that single mitten
Amidst all the clutter and the old clock's tick
Hoping to remain as her broom did threaten

In lost thought she swept past
Mindless worries and bills to pay
Till her eyes met her past
Her past that peeped from the trunk on the way

To a time long ago, when her eyes were kinder
And her laughter rippled across
Time to her had then been kinder
Her mind travelled to that time far across

Frenzied hands worked on the trunk,vying to unlock
And within, The pretty red dress that stole all eyes
The paintings she drew, of mountains and sheepflock
Then on a sheaf of letters that lit her eyes

With a gush of feeling, the letters she clasped
To her bosom she held them dear,
Her first love he was,and in his memories she gasped
Those time when she loved and lost without fear.

His childish scrawls declaring love undying,behoten
Now remained in yellowing tatters; This love had aged
Those oaths forgotten still remain unforgotten
A tear ,at the corner of the eye, a war waged

A call was heard from the floors below
It was The man who to her swore " I do"
Some trifle of a thing he couldn't find below
For without her , he knew not whatever to do

A smile curled up at her lips, love had her conned
The love that was,might have been
But the love that is, to her beckoned
Beckoned to her with love from which she could never wean

The sheaf of letters lay on the floor, from her separated
A thud of footsteps resounded as she ran to destiny
Destiny waited downstairs, without her,exasperated
In an embrace , she hugged him...happy with destiny.

2005-04-19T04:22:00.000-07:00

Pansy love

Proclamations of love declared
In witness of the earthly skies
Now in flames of deceit flared
In that flame , the flicker dies

To the man who swore I do
Pretend she did of love untold
Soon came another man with all ado
A pack of new lies, she added to her old

Truly wicked , she never was
The wind she was, she just changed
But to hell , she sure had a pass
Feelings of guilt in her unchanged

The stars she cant reach in the yonder
The clouds she could never hold
In those lived her desires of wonder
So much more vice of her could be told

The wild lily once usurped with so much glee
Now in her clasp, did not hold her fancy
On the floor it lay, as with her whims she did flee
Yes her love was just a little pansy..

A chase like a hunter she cherished
The prey once caught, lay forgotten
This tale told and retold by many who perished
with her love ill-begotten

2004-07-05T16:40:00.000-07:00

A tale it tells...

The vagabond river ,Its journey I followed
It crept along the ravines, along the rocks
Seeped through crevices,and along some pebbles,mellowed
Here and There,a gush of rhythm ,against the rocks

A music it plays on my ears
I wonder what tales it must tell
Of woe,laughters and tears
of the many who haunted this dell

Of the maiden who swayed her ankles in its dance
Of her lover who loved her reflection in its mirror
Of the village men who spotted their nuances
Of the separation they went through in terror

Of the old man who sat by the river everyday
Of his loneliness at home and his soul alone
Of his sons back home who lived their way
Of his urges to drown in his companion lone

Of a passer by who found the magic in the river
Of the thoughts in her head as she gazed into the depth
Of the tales she conjured,like arrows from her quiver
Of the poetry she attempted sans depths.

2004-07-01T12:24:00.002-07:00

I looked through the window and saw the world pass by...Thoughts cluttered my mind like leaves rustling,whispering in my head...I looked back at life and saw where my thread of thoughts took me...From childhood I had aspirations and the will to be somewhere..but life always took me elsewhere..In a way I chose not the best...the best chose me..
In love and friendships..I have faltered and found my way ,lost them again only to find it again.There are people with whom I have lost touch,some I remain in touch..with whom my life had at a point formed an interwoven braid...At that point,time and place,the braid was the very rope of my existence.With time the braids loosened and set us free...But in us..the soul of the other remains and will remain till or beyond the last breath.People who have shared magic with you,seen the dreams you see,shared them...can they just become yet another person in your life?
No they shall remain like the mist on the window pane that the morning dew leaves...You wipe it only for it to appear again on another morn...In the mist I shall write the names of those near and dear..keep them close...

On a different note ,I read this quote by Rabindranath Tagore on the shadow
The Shadow, with her veil drawn, follows Light in secret meekness, with her silent steps of love.

Tagore weaves words into Magic carpets and lets you float into a ethereal level...Let me float!

2004-06-28T18:12:00.000-07:00

Getting a smile from an unknown person...
A happiness untold...

Yesterday I just took a walk by the garden (an excuse of a garden) that my apartment complex faces.There was this old Chinese lady taking her grandson for a walk.She smiled at me...Just another smile...but it remains in my memory..because it was a smile for no reason...and was very beautiful...

There are some things I cherish which most people find wierd.I love watching the sky,..I can watch it for hours..form patterns on the sky.The sky in its beauty has an unfathomable depth to it.The more I look into it..the more beauty it effuses.A true beauty which I cant hold onto....but will just flow through me.More like the sand which slips through the finger...the beauty of watching the sand dance to the tunes of the wind..To watch waves ripple and listen in the hush to the waves...Too much beauty..Yes the world has too much beauty..It is so obvious that it is not noticed.

2004-06-24T18:20:00.000-07:00

In a tiny glimmer of a dew drop ,today I lost myself.As I looked at ,I saw the world ... A moment to look at the beauty around...But in a hurry we are...all in a hurry chasing dreams.The dew drop appeared in vain...The autumn leaf resplendent in its color lies forgotten on the sidewalk.Yes..In vain we chase the world,forgetting the world that exists in front of our eyes...

2004-06-24T09:21:00.000-07:00

I have come far far away to this distant land..New friends I made,old friends I left behind...When I looked back through the window into the past,I see the road I took,the many friends I left waiting for me at crossroads.I thought I will walk back someday to them.But life takes me further and further and more friends I leave at cross roads.