Clarity

A petal
So delicate
Droplets of water on it
Each reflects in its own
A version
A mirror solitary
A view of its
Own perception
Of reality
Shake the petal
Watch the droplets fall
The visions are gone
Destroyed
They splatter on the floor
And they're gone
Forever
Yet
While they fall
One gets a distortion
A bent view
In and of each bubble-shell
Of fantasy
And they all
In their own twisted way
Depict what is
And what will be
For change and its effect
Are universal
And so even in loss
There is gain
For a little while
We get a view
Of that beyond all
Of eternity
In a solitary perspective
And in all its crystal
Clarity

The Lamp post

I walked the roads alone at night
The shadows of the trees washed over me
I saw you golden ebulliently bright
As you stood like a watchful sentry
There is something eerie about this time
Half-formed fears chase around ones mind
And the heart races of its own accord
Without regard to rhythm or rhyme
The shadows deepen in the reaches beyond
Your goodly golden glowing light
And one fears to stray very far from
Your light glowing brilliantly bright

Why do my thoughts circle around so?
Why do so many answers I not know?
Where are the questions formed inside the mind?
Why does dark the mortal brain excite?

Do we retain some dark fears unformed
From the years spent in caves long ago?
Through centuries of progress are men being born
Yet in the dark, once again we do not know
What silent fear yet stalks us still?
It's deadly breath on our neck forms chill
Yet as protection from the guiles of the night
Are you long-standing friend golden bright.

You and your kind have sheltered us long
Through the darkness both within and without
In the cold darkness of chaos you hold order strong
Through the creeping chills of fear and doubt

Light is thought and thought is light
Order in the chaos of the night
Yet as order must from chaos spring
Yet chaos again shall forth from order bring
And the circle without beginning cannot end
Yet light will always be a comfort in the night...

The Travellers

They came walking down the dusty road

Crowned with flowers long faded in their hair

Uncounted, long and lonely paths perhaps they trode

And some parts of them still linger there

They look tired and and they look shaken

Crowned with the dust of many years

What toll from them have the memories taken?

Or perhaps awoken ancient fears...

Where does our road lead?

Whence the travelers return

What unknown path do we tread?

From what perils will we have to turn? 

Before we can return to our abode

Or shall we willing or not, have to linger there

Like them who came walking down the dusty road

Crowned with flowers long faded in their hair

Drops

Pittering-pattering drops of rain
Running down the window pane
In tiny meandering streams
Reflecting iridescent beams
Of light many hued and shaded
The colour on the walls has faded
Yet now it's tinted by the rain
From once-dull to wet-again
By the pittering-pattering drops of rain...

Dust

Where it all began
And where it all shall end
Flying and whirling
Settling and swirling
In clouds and puffs
Whether engendered by rocks
From mountains forgotten
Or metal precious mined
Human skin or river skim
It all melds into one
Dust is levelled
It is no leveller
And dust is omnipresent
It was before all
It will be after
The futility of the in-between
A cosmic joke
Or a hidden truth?

Destiny beckons us all

He walks along the seashore
His dancing feet leave little print upon
The sandy seaside sparkling before
His eyes they scan the far horizon
He looks to the waves crashing-swirling
Upon the banks of Ocean unbound
He looks to still the sea-fire burning
Withing his heart hence hidden, now newly found...

He dances to a little boat moored upon the shore
His eyes look longingly seeking the sea
For upon land they shall turn no more
For he has at last found his way to be free
Not of pain nor burdens of which  he has few
But free of a longing within his boy-bright heart
Since childhood he has seen birds that flew
And never to return once they depart


His heart dances with the waves
His little boat dances out to meet
The great ocean: mysterious and grave
His joyous laugh greets the spray-salt-sea
And his longing is stilled at last
Now he looks to the approaching horizon with glee
And the oars his hands hold fast
For he is rushing to greet his destiny...

A thing few of us can ever meet
And fewer far can greet
The boy bids no farewell
For of return he cannot tell
And the birds fly above and greet
The boy who ran to his destiny meet....

If I could

If I could wipe that tear from your eye
And  for you a hundredfold cry
If I could once see you smile
I would walk a thousand miles
I would give my life at once to gain
What hurts you most, I'll steal your pain
And so that it troubles you never again...

The Mingling of the Lights

It is evening and the westward Sun bids goodbye
Colouring the sky with spreading red
Brilliant orange and blue fill the darkening sky
As the day speeds in glory to its death
Dawn and dusk the times of death
Twice in a day and night they come
For days end and night's last breath
Are known by these names to some
At both these times the most wondrous sights
Of this world and the next  are seen
For the time of the Mingling of the Lights
Is the time of what is and what has been
One such hour on a darkening eve
I beheld two beautiful trees
Taller than all and fairer than I could believe
They swayed gently in the breeze
One was green and of golden sheen
With trunk of brown-golden wood
The other sparkled with a silver sheen
And both mighty and tall they stood
Could it be that beholden to me
Were the Ancient trees of old?
Could it be in my fantasy
I saw the trees of silver and gold?
As soon as it came, the vision went
Replaced by the dust-scored day
But for a moment the dusty present was rent
And in my sight fair visions stay'd.

The bells don't ring anymore

The bells sound in the distant village
Rung by the restless wind
Trod not by the foot of man since an age
Rarely do they now ring
Yet that place was once fair and green
When children played in the once-lush hills
Many stories these trees have seen
And many more the rocks-resting uncounted still
What happened so long ago?
That it seems now the beginning of time
What little do mortal men now know
Of those wondrous bells that chime
Once they were rung by lusty hands
To proclaim great victories or warn
Of danger stalking through the lands
All erased now by the ever running sands
Of time: the greatest leveller

What do men now know
Of the race that lived and loved
Here in this valley, in the shadow
Of the hills a refuge from the heavens above.
Dead men they tell no tales
And none indeed are sung
Yet the sound echoes among the vales
When the bells the wind has rung
That wondrous chime recalls to them
The times that passed away
The hills remember about those men
When they were in their glory days
Tales indeed are many and more
Of forts besieged of battles won
Yet what of that might does now endure
When the last songs have been sung.

The bells ring once again
And strangely stir my heart
Of what and why I do not know
Yet I cannot depart
The shades of men yet linger here
The traces of love and sorrow
I sense their presence very near
I wish the hills memory to borrow
But the speech of stone
No man can speak and none can sing
For known to the rocks alone
Are tales of those wondrous things...

Riddle of the dreamer

I am from yonder mountain range
I am he whom men call strange
I am the bringer of sorrowful laughter
I am the tears that joy runs after

I am the night moonlit so bright
I am the darkness shrouded day
I am He who arises in might
I walked when Time in his crib still lay

I am the coolness of burning fire
I am the heat in the crystals of snow
I am the indifference in every desire
I am the future dreamt so long ago

I am one and I am all
I am one and I am none
I am legion
I am untraceable
I am intangible
I am legion
I am fire born from ashes
I am waterfall in ice enslaved
I am energy
I am all
But most of all
I am none
And I am nothing

Purpose

Aimless feet wonderingly wander along the winding path
Aimless for the eyes glittering guide the forward way

When the eyes refuse to seek to see
Then the purpose has no right to be

For vision leads purpose along the way
For vision of the sightless grabs sightless night from blinding day

When vision is gone it's desire yet remains
The sense-void filled by those that remain

When vision is lost naught is left
And of it's purpose, it's guide the mind bereft

None so blind as those that seek not to see
None so dead as those who choose not to be

For the dead yet live on in the minds of men
From there they may choose to rule hearts again

Dead men tell no tales to the living
If they could what sorrow it would bring!

For vision essential to purposeful life
Some things when seen can lead to naught but strife

Strife of the mind and the heart since ages begun
It shall remain unto the last, until mankind is done

The void
The sightless gap
Of holes in mind
Of the eye-closers among all mortals...
None so blind

Lightless dark
Darkless light
Yet none so dark as light ignored
None so foolish as reason scorned

None shall live when purpose leaves
None be who merely are
In the darkening moonless night
The black is rent by the last falling star

To my love

Forget me not...

The Laments

They don't sing of the rain anymore
Hollow strains tease the air
Burdened with the smoke of passing generations
Where are the clouds?
Indistinct shadows where once
They were aloof and menacing
Their bite dulled
Will nothing cut anymore?
Even sadness is sensation, a flash of fire, of pain...
But this?
Grey? Is drabness the new order?
Or are we just at the fringes of the canvas?

The world is flat?

Where will the boat sail if the world is flat and cracking...
And the sea boils over?

Fruitless yet fulfilling

And we chase shadows all our lives
Looking for neither the source: the object
Nor the cause: the light
Whose path when crossed leads
To the thing we chase across
The sepia-stained surface of life

For we can neither touch the shadows
Nor feel them as they graze us
Neither capture them nor free them
From their canvas, this Wall
Why then do we chase?
Why do we seek?
What do we find ultimately?
In the end... what mattered?

The shadows colour not the wall
Yet the wall is coloured innately
And the shift of stains occur
As meaninglessly as the passage of time
And the shadows flit from stain to stain
Here: lost amidst darker stains
There: darkening a brighter patch

They are levellers
They are untouchable
Indomitable, inextinguishable save
For if their source or cause be lost
And that cannot be for no one seeks
Thus it becomes known
Why we chase shadows

We are unequal all of us
We need levelling, we seek levellers
We are mortal, we seek the immortals
We do not know our source
So we seek that whose source cannot be seen
We are the shadows
And the shadows chase us
Across the wall
Across our lives
Across our world

And this is our quest
It bears no fruit
For we cannot hold what we find
Occupation bears no result
Yet we continue
For it is fulfilling
Though fruitless

To the world- "I observe and I learn"
To me- "I live"
To all else- "Why?"

Halcyon

These are thy Halcyon days
Live them with something
To last thee when thy winter prey
Upon thee and youth taketh wing

Touchwood

Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood Touchwood

A Tribute

She-

I thought it was your smile,
the beautiful outlet of your honesty.
Then I thought it was your determination to listen and absorb,
and your choice to open to only a few.
Then I gave up thinking,
mulling over how you are, why you are, considering what you are.

He-

I thought it was your eyes,
flashing fire and glowing simplicity.
Then I thought it was your child-like innocence and clarity,
and your choice to see only the good.
Then I gave up thinking,
mulling over how you are, why you are, considering what you are.

Us-

We are one
Bright as the sun
Better for there is no night
To still the brightness of our light
For though limited days our bodies shall endure
Yet forever shall our love grow, each day more and more...

ASMT

For My Love

I'm on a boat in a wide-choppy sea
Rowing into the distance, towards what I see
Amidst raging, rising-towering waves
And each one may well be my Fate-chosen grave
But one thought in my mind runs free
Wilder than even this most tameless of seas
Ah! This joy that I feel it to be true
Oh my love! I row to you!

For beyond the reaches of Destiny
Shall I come and find you... My LOVE


The waves are coming now thick and fast
I fear not their fury, but my boat will not last
For being of but wood it doesn't have love nor memory
It has naught of the strength that sustains me
The rain keeps pouring down in wrath unabated
I fear you not death! To embrace you are all men fated
I fear only delay that keeps me from her
For if my boat downs, I will swim thither...

For beyond the reaches of Destiny
Shall I come and be with you... My LOVE!


O ocean! In your impetuos force indulged without thinking
You have struck home at last, my boat is now sinking
Shedding all but my closest of garments I leap
From the safety of my bark, into the Deep
Alone in the ocean, fast I have to swim to shore
My love waits for me, I can tarry no more
For she too holds her breath, waiting under the trees
And wondering-wandering, questions the breeze

For beyond the depth of the deepest sea
Shall I swim to you My LOVE...


Ah the ocean so grim and dark it seems
Yet it contains all rivers and bubbling streams
It's depths house lore and black-secrets unknown to all
Save the Weavers of Fate in their dark-brooding halls
Yet it is not alone a place of mystery, it's alive
Life is here, as on shore, older perhaps but yet life
For far before the fathers of men trode the paths on shore
Life has been here from yet centuries before

I cannot fathom the myteries of the sea
Yet I shall come to you My LOVE...


Down and down I seem to go
Yet which is up I cannot know
The icy darkness embraces me
Not yet death, it is the clasp of the sea
Far down below, where human souls dare not tread
Lies an ancient forest, trees with fishes in birds stead
What lies inside this mysterious wood?
Forces of darkness? Or yet some hope of good?

I enter this forest unwillingly
Yet I shall return to you My LOVE


Inside the seaweed-wood lies an ancient throne
On it sits the Sea-King, the Earthshaker Lord Unknown
He looks at me with a cold glazed eye and booms
"What be your truck mortal?" and his long-dark shadow looms
He asks me why I travel where none dare to tread
I tell him of my greatest need
I tell him I promised her not long ago
That I will come to her, come rain, come snow.

I shake before the King of the Sea
Will I see you again My LOVE?


"Your love is long gone and lost, she awaits you no more!
She has been lost and perhaps has floated to some distant shore!"
Ah! Swords of ice do pierce my heart when I hear that fearsome doom
Oh! Icy darkness threatens as his Dark voice thus booms
I speak out:"I shall go nonetheless and see with my own eyes"
"This rumour that you have put forth of my love's demise...
I fear not your darkness, nor this wet-slimy grave
For my love and for me I can all this brave!"

Thus I defy Poseidon the Mighty
I hope I shall find you again My LOVE...


"Mortal man with death as doom, foolishly you defy
The wisdom of the ageless sea, the God who does not die!
Yet valour yours hitherto unseen from one of your short-lived race
To thus answer with such rashness, Poseidon to his face!
Come stay here with me, as Lord of my Dominions
And all knowledge of the sea, yours as are my minions
Forsake your foolish love-lorn quest, I give you eternal life
If only you forsake your land, your love, your wife."

The Earthshaker with gifts tempts me
Yet it affects me not My LOVE!


"What value does your knowledge have O King bereft of soul?
Will your minions scour the sea and make my broken whole?
Nay, tempt me not O glorious god, much honour you bestow
This despite, I'll keep on till I see my love once more..."

"Then Begone from here cursed man, beloved of Death alone
Your love is lost and gone, forever in agony you shall moan!"
The Sea King shook his trident, and threw me from the Deep
I opened my eyes on a shore well known, wakened from my sleep

At last I have reached free!
I shall see you now My LOVE!!!

I reached the trysted meeting-spot and saw you were not there
The scarf that once your head adorned, along with a lock of scented hair
Lay on the sandy beach, I heard a wise-white gull exclaim
"She's gone from here, she waited long, the ocean has now claimed
There is naught else left of her, save your memory..."
I wept then my love, I felt at last a grief for you were lost to me
But I gathered my wits at last, and dived into the Deeps once more
I will not rest till I find you, my love awaits me now at the Forbidden Shores

Even death shall not steal you from me
I shall now be with you for ETERNITY...

Writers block

I've hit writer's block it seems. Can't think of a single thing to write about.

If

I wish I could take your hand and pull you away from all this. I wish I could come inside your heart and fight away your demons for you. If only you'd let me...

But because you don't need it, because you don't want it, it is that strength that gives you what you have, that makes you what you are.

It is what you are. Who you are. I know. I see. And I am awed.

I am yours.

Shpongle? Maybe...

Dancing dancing light-bar-waves
Colours of music generate
And in the midst of melody
Do the dancing-joyous celebrate!

One note from a woodland tree
One bar from a flowing spring
All notes in concordant harmony!
My great-joyous-bones do ring!

Melody melody flowing pure
Like water from the river-music gold
Of your taste I am unsure
Yet of your joy a thousandfold!

Good music like good wine
Has to have a darker taste
Yet in that depth so fine
Does run the joy-spring with lovely-haste!

Ringing, running, holding tight!
In torrid day or sleepless night.
Those golden notes of joy unfold
Like pure-poured strands of molten-gold.

Questions

Life goes on. It really does. Someone who's never been sad, can s/he ever be happy? Is that a stupid question? I saw this on a dusty spring evening, some answers create more questions...

Lie lie lie in the wind's arms
Oh tiny leaf! Where do you go?
Blown hither and thither...

Why are you?
Who are you?
Will you be?
Were you ever?

Are you free little leaf?

Were you not happier in the arms
of your mother? With your kin?

Now you blow through fields and farms
And grief you all weathers bring?

Were you content to grow in your stem...
Be a good big leaf and feed Grandfather?

What of your kin? Do you think of them?
As you drift farther and farther?

Do you know where you go?
Why you go?
Do you go?

Or are you carried
By forces mightier
Endlessly harried
Till your approaching-end near?

Closer to you than your leaf-brother
And dear than your aunt-flower
Tiny droplets of water that gather
And wet-rain-water they empower

They like you were once part
of a whole greater than them
But unlike you they will depart
to that same whence they came

You will return too, for sure
But you will go to a greater whole
will be dust once more
From whence came your whole
And whence all will go
When the tale of Time is told.

So is the drop or are you...
Fortunate?
If fortune can be applied to such as you?

Can it?
Is it?
Will it?

Is.
If.
Why...?

Depression

A cold grey haze seems all that can be seen of the landscape. Perhaps one's corporeal environment mirrors the scape of one's mind. Even colours die, choking to their gasping demise as they straggle towards the infinite tunnels of my vision. The world is a bright place, just unfortunate that the only light is a dull gray. All colours are white they say, and no colour? Black or white? Or is any monochrome a monotone?

And music? Does the mind still dance with once-loved strains or does past happiness become just a reminder of loss? A stark contrast or momentary relief? How does one look at it? How SHOULD one look at it? SHOULD one? Is there a should? Should there be a should? Is that statement a loop?

For if shoulds shouldn't be, then in shouldn't i.e 'not should' the should already exists...

Hence shoulds exist. Or should exist.

Ok. Back to life... Or un-life.

Winter: The arrival!

As if on cue, the famed Delhi fog arrived white and cold on the 1st of January. The cold changed from being an honest, biting, straightforward old fella to being this insidious, creeping sneak who manages to get under the skin and in your clothes. Damp. And to think this is the month I was born in!