POEMS
Page 4
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.