POEMS

LONELY LEANING TREE

A lone tree for years

I never depended on others

Many passed this way

But none cared to stay.

Like summer you came

Covering my branches with spring.

I knew this will not last long

Better trees and brighter pastures will separate us

That sad mist in your eyes softened me

And in no time you were in my arms.

That stormy night, in the sudden darkness

I saw another face of your

A baffling transformation.

When morning came you have left me uprooted

Perhaps I was blind like all lovers,

My judgment wrong

Or have I failed to see the thin line

That divides the real thing and acting

Till this day I cannot discern

Why at all should you do this to me

Why did you love me and then leave me?

I suffered in silence, how long I do not know –

My roots are not totally out, the soil fertile and kind

In due time firmly embedded

I will face many a storms with confidence

But only as a lonely leaning tree.

LOVE NEVER LEAVES

If you love

Don’t leave.

If you leave

Don’t love.

Leave love

Alone

For –

Love never leaves

SOME CORNERS ARE EVER SO SOFT

Petals of fragile silver sun rays

Pressed between crumbling pages

Retains still the trace of a fragrance

That once was intoxicating.

Deep down lies moisture, even in deserts

For, water had flowed there once.

Unlike lave hearts do not harden

Some corners remain ever so soft

For, it had once experienced love.

Those are temples

Where gods take shelter

When storms of fire scorch their waxen wings

When floods wash away their feet of clay

Those are pillows

Where your chin rests in moments of thoughtfulness

Which you hug and sleep in the vast emptiness

Those are places

Where you hang your tears to dry

Where you bury your past

Where you sow seeds of hope

Those are gentle, warm and so soft

As the mother’s breast.

SOLD OUT TIME

Those who sell time,

When you have amassed wealth

And exhausted your stock

Where shall you buy more?

In time, on time and out of time

Where shall you find time?

Where shall you imprison

The clocks of the worlds

That which is running out

That which is not seen

That which shall be never stored

Where shall you find time

Again,

This time or next time?

DARING GAMES, DEADLY GAMES

Tunneled darkness –

Where light fears to penetrate

Words fail, thoughts paralyze

Purple shadowed cylindrical dreams

Chase ellipses of imagination

To extend games of hide and seek.

Seekers suffer the indignity of ignorance,

Agonies of absence,

And rarely the delights of discovery.

Abstained vision sensitize the senses

Sharpened perception demands further inspection.

Fingers feel the laminated skin

Of marble Venuses

In state of suspended animation.

Cold reality is hard, hollow.

Perceived presence is never felt

Silenced sounds and soundless silence

Orchestrate Symphony of the deaf.

Hunters and the hunted

Join the waltz of death,

Each avoiding the eyes of the other

For seeing is guaranteed death.

Death may be invisible

But it is quite impenetrable

It will have a natural death

When every living thing dies.

Wait for that day, if you can.

Reveal not your hiding place

Play dead if found

The game shall go on.

A TICKET PLEASE

Where have you gone, my Gods

Don’t hide behind stone idols

Come out of your temples

And speak to us.

We are not alive

Yet not so dead.

On the twilight regions

In a long queue

We await our turn for tickets.

I can’t see the face of others

Still I feel their presence

Milling around, above, below

And through me.

They carry many many suitcases,

All empty – their life’s endeavours.

I do not know

How many turned back

How many left

How many got their tickets.

Now,

Hand in the counter

I await an encounter

With the unknown.

A HAPPENING

It happens

When? Where?

No one knows

May be this moment

A month later

Or a million years after

You are lucky indeed!

It has happened

The trap is shut tight

In your cage the bars are golden.

The pleasures of imprisonment

Of restricted freedom

Of bondage

Can only be appreciated

Unless experienced.

To have some one to care

To have some one to care for

To have some one share

Your dreams and sorrows

To be part of some one

And some one part of you

- isn’t it just beautiful?

To hold that beauty in your hands

Is holding the spring breeze

Is fixing the fleeting clouds in the sky

A whisper swept away by the winds

A remembered fragrance.

My dear friend –

Love is a gift-wrapped soap bubble

Opened softly

Handled with care

It will last forever.

VACANT PLACES

My grave is vacant

I refuse to die on this starless night

To lie down with faceless companions

In the abyss of eternity,

I may or may not come this way,

A million years later

Meanwhile you can rest here

For a few moments, a few years, or ages

But only with a price, your life.