The Dark moon At Dawn

SOURCE

 

The black cuckoo

hidden among dense leaves-

seldom to be seen-

brings in its throat,

Diwali

in Spring dawn-

to make

a festival of lights

in the dark corners

of my core.

 

 

Posted for Susan’s Midweek Motif ~ Dark Moon, New Moon @ Poets United

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Angels

Noah’s Ark (1846), a painting by Edward Hicks

 

Once

in a jungle of high rises

alighted an angel-

in a dog form-

to save

from a garbage dump

a new born human

with umbilical cord still attached.

The angel hid the wings in its mouth

to gently carry the baby

to safety.

The same news of dog saving newborns

trickled in

From Brazil, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, India……..

These angels are all over the world

working hard……

In what Hell was framed

the human heart,

I wonder.

 

 

 

Posted for Susan’s Midweek Motif ~ Animals @ Poets United

Rising Above

Google Image

 

“Poverty’s child

He starts to grind the rice,

And gazes at the moon” — Matsuo Basho

 

 

I

 

there’s a phoenix

among those hapless souls

in the bobbing boat

 

II

 

a crocus peeps

breaking unyielding ice sheet

gleefully

 

III

 

a street urchin

builds a home with charcoal

on a pavement

 

IV

 

her* dream arose

from the dungeon of darkness

she was imprisoned into

 

 

*Helen Keller

 

 

 

Posted for Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Rising Above

Peace

 

SOURCE

 

Peace lives in the petals

that are plucked

off a flower

with the mantra

he loves me, he loves me not.

 

Peace hides in the dandelion

which the child blows

sending the seeds into the air

like so many tiny helicopters to return again

under a sapphire sky.

 

Peace becomes the blue lake

deep, placid, in my heart

reflecting Thy thoughts

in lotus shape,

in melting love.

 

Peace is that golden swan of light

outspreading its long wings…

flying away from the earth

into the Milky Way, in search of a home-

have we lost it forever?

 

 

Posted for Susan’s Midweek Motif ~ Peace @ Poets United

I Wish To Be Reunited With Her

Courtesy: Poets United

 

I sit

with a mute sea

in my heart

to be reunited

with you

 

I walk

on the path

of grief

only to rest

at your door

 

I craft now

with time-crystal

a chandelier

to be hung

on our reunion day

Posted for Susan’s Midweek Motif ~ Reunion @ Poets United

Memories

 

they rise like storms

with rain feet

trampling my heart-

they drown me-

I gasp, breathless-

they won’t leave

till I’m a soggy soul-

floral ones that once bloomed-

only once for a while

to light up my life-

I’ve kept them-

hidden-

pressed in between pages

of my dream.

 

Posted for my Midweek Motif ~ Memories @ Poets United

Respect

SOURCE

 

I want to tame

that feral child

living within

who often

sits on my tongue

or on those tapping fingers

and blurts out.

Shh, shh.

No hurt word child.

Be the lemon flower.

Play with the bees, sunbirds…

nestling in the flower-cup

sweetening their mouth.

That glint of light

in their eyes

is love, respect

for this white cup of petals.

Store nectar-words, dear child,

unfurl thy petals-

wait-

for your bees, sunbirds…..

 

Posted for Susan’s Midweek Motif ~ Respect @ Poets United

Bliss

 

On certain

moonlit nights-

I give my words,

my thoughts,

a break-

all go

while I am awash

with dappled darkness-

my soul attuned

to milky night

with an ear

catching the note

of Raga Abhogi*

birthing from the Sitar

inundating me in bliss.

 

 

*A raga or ragini is akin to a melodic mode in Indian classical music. Raga Abhogi is a night raga sung or played in early night.

 

 

 

Posted for dVerse Quadrille ~ Bliss hosted by Bjorn Rudberg

Dream

SOURCE

 

What was desert-reality

is fading away

in the foggy haze

of a dream.

What’s rising

is a little emerald oasis

of happy trees

where laughter

hangs like bunch of berries.

I have hunger-

I have thirst-

for I have been walking

in sandstorms since ages.

Yet they roam,

haunt the streets

to uproot dreams.

 

 

 

Posted for Poetry Pantry @ Poets United

 

Nature – A Haibun

 

A five year old me standing near the hedge fences on my first day for school: Photo taken by my father

 

 

In my bumble bee days I also had wings. I’d stealthily flee from study books and pour my soul on the hedge fences and watch the mother Bulbul incubating three tiny eggs with Kathamrita* eyes in their twiggy nest. The eggs were always three; never four or two, with purple sprinkles on off-white shell. When the teeny tiny hatchlings without eyes opened their mouths they were almost like baby Gopala’s** showing His Ma Yashoda the universe. I’d often fake their mother’s call when she wasn’t around just to see those large hunger-holes quiver for food. Their father, who would always be nearby in the mother’s absence, of course disapproved my curiosity. His angry alarms and flying over me flapping wings rather noisily sent me inside for fear of rousing my grandpa’s wrath. What hunger! What growth! Both parents fed them in such quick successions that I would often worry about their stomach. I took it upon my duty to shoo away the scheming cats whenever I happened to be there. Sometimes there would be nasty ever-hungry red ants in files and rows before it was time the fledglings could fly safely. Sometimes I would see one chick less and grieve over whatever had happened to the poor angel.

 

 

Those butterfly, firefly days did not last long. Change like the Bengal Tiger had me in its grip. I lost my wings to Time just as hedge fenced houses made rooms for the bigger housing-complexes with less greenery, lesser sky.

 

 

Carefree, bubbly stream

Will not stop till meets the sea

To lose all sweetness

 

 

*Kathamrita literally means ‘Word-Nectar’. It’s also a hagiography in five volumes on the life of Sri Ramakrishna, who often likened the eyes of yogis to the incubating mother bird’s eyes. He used to say that mother bird’s mind is in her eggs so it sees or hears nothing. Similarly when yogi’s mind is on God he is so immersed that he neither sees nor hears.

 

**Gopala is the God in His baby form in Hindu Mythology. It’s said that once while playing, Gopala put a little lump of earth into His mouth. So His mother Yashoda was very angry and wanted him to open His mouth. At first He would not listen but when His mother threatened to spank Him He opened His mouth and Yashoda saw the entire universe whirling there.

 

 

Posted for my Midweek Motif ~ Nature: Her Words @ Poets United