Go Slow Part 2

 Sunset at Dalhousie

What wars fought, what battles cry?

What prizes won, what soldiers die?

He stands alone from dawn till dusk

A few hours smile, a few days brusk

What heavens behold, what winds obey

What waters run to, in cloaks of grey

The eve brings a beginning to the end of this story

The warrior sleeps in all his glory....

Musings..

हसरतों  की  कब्र  में , एक  रूह  दफन  हो  गयी ..

वोह  आग  को  लगा  गले , एक  आह  ओढ़े  सो  गयी ...

आंसुओं  से  आसमान  के , धुल  गयी  ज़मीन  तेरी ..

कि बादलों की  साजिशों  में , घुल  गयी  ज़मीन  तेरी ...

किस  फ़कीर  कि  मज़ार  पे , अब  चादरें  चधाऊँ  मैं ?

किस  शौख के  बाज़ार  में , दिलचस्पियाँ  जताऊँ  मैं ?

पुछा  जो  कल  कि रात  से , वोह  बोली  क्या  बताऊँ  मैं ?

क्यूँ  इस  सवेरे  के  आगे , फिर  आज  सर  झुकाऊँ  मैं ?

क्यूँ  आज  जलती  लौ  से  लड़  पड़ी  हैं  यह  हवाएं  फिर ?

क्यूँ  अब  दुआ   की  राह  देखती  हैं  यह  दवाएं  फिर ?

 भूले  हुए  गुनाहों  की , क्यूँ  मिल  रहीं  सजाएं  फिर ?

क्यूँ  हंस  रहीं  हैं  आज  रेगिस्तान  की  फिज़ाएं फिर ?

एक  आस  मेरी  थी  कभी , तनहाइयों  में  खो  गयी ,

एक  सांस  मेरी  थी  कभी , गवाहियों  में  खो  गयी ,

एक  रात  कि जो  बात  थी , कहानियों  में  खो  गयी ,

एक  अक्स  है , छुपाने  को , परछाइयों में  खो  गयी .

Fallen

What remains of me

Does not belong to you

I breathe no prayers in your name

What remains of me

Does not seek you

Rest all of it is just the same

My songs never reached the sunset

It drowned in the waters before

My prayers never reached its Lord

They were swept away to some grey shore

You could not see my hope

I could not see your smile

You couldn’t love before

I couldn’t all the while

I couldn’t let you pass

You couldn’t fail the test

In the midst of push and pull

We killed the grieving nest

You never knew my name

I never knew your words

I spoke to silent walls

You sang to lonely birds.

Queries of Anonymity

To whom shall I bare

my little piece of earth?

Dedicate my humble prayer

to whose blessed birth?

Shall I proceed to drown

In salty oceans grim?

Or should again set sail

Through the winds of purple whim?

Should I lose once more

To the wars fought within?

Or tell my raging core

To make a virtue of every sin?

Shall I stand on this cliff

To wake up the drowsy land?

Shall you never know my if

And the tremors of my hand?

What keeps me from you,

These dreams and the rest?

Then will they burn my wings

And push me from my nest?

 Am I the letter you never sent?

Am I the unopened book?

Am I the forgotten home,

You never turned back to look?

Are these my veins

With breathless blood

Those in haste run to my heart?

Beseech you to let me

Love yet again

Before we to oblivion depart…

One Day in March

Today she sang to anonymous shores...
beloved waters sang along...
together in the symphony of their solitudes..
their souls back to where they belong.  
             
Today she sketched across the canvas..
the love of longing skies...
they knit the arc with seven wet hues..
to laugh and shine in her eyes.  
                                              
Today she wrote for her blessed book...
wrote a thousand verses divine...
scattered them across the starry skies..
and dissolved them in every wine.
                                 
Today she danced for the spring..
and allowed no bloom to wither.
Today the world beheld her smile.
Today you would have fallen in love with her. :) 

The Accident

Hurt and bruised and blue and black
With angry neck and swearing back
Walking stick and medicine rack
Funny bone without caprice crack! ;)

Half a dozen worried chairs
Maternal cries, paternal cares
Bandages in three hundred layers
We hope nothing happened to the stairs! :/

Good that there are fractures few
Good that she can happily chew
Arthropod with purple hue?
Wonders the bewildered nephew (3 YRS OLD)

Plaster adorns the best wishes now
Cousins at incredible clumsiness bow
They still cant really make out how
With "Holy Christ!" and "Holy Cow!"

Brandy thinks I should die soon
"One way to get rid of the buffoon!
In disguise let this be a boon
By Dog! she is such a loon!"

Pa thinks I hit my head too hard
Besides then, there is too much lard
Hence the madness of the Bard
Chases all phantoms in the graveyard

(source-Google)

Purpose was the mindless rhyme
Sincere apologies for wasting your time
I know this is a serious crime
but then is most of Solitude Sublime!

:D (EVIL LAUGHTER)

The Ghost

The question she never asked

Hovers in the dark with me

While she sleeps on our bed

Beside a crease less left

I play with velvet curtains

Before the hours of morning

She wakes up to grey dreams

Stares at the bewildered hour

Lies back into the void

I play the chimes for her

Beseech the winds to sing

Blinded by salty sorrow

She calls my name again

I touch her lonely breath

Kiss her bruises away

Weave myself into her quilt

Seep into her pillow

Spread onto the sheets

Cradle her tired soul

Brush every pain away

And gently on her lips

Crawl back the pieces of her smile

"You're here" she whispers "with me"

The silence whispers back

"Always".

Unreal

Between the lands of you and me

There lies forgotten the road

The steps you take no footprints leave

How then shall I find your abode?

  Night descends frowning and complains

Of the promise I did not keep

My heavens in grey of silent pains

On my grass the ceaseless weep

The numbness of my lonely palms

Prays for the warmth of you

To you reach all my longing psalms

Before the heavens in blue

Letters I did not write and send

Yet every word resounds

Tales began but had no end

Of graves on velvet grounds

Memory haunts the wreck of my ship

You embrace the cracks of my soul

The Sadhu takes the holy dip

To release himself from the Whole

Your tower sits beyond my reach

They clipped my wings last spring

And then to fly come who will teach

No winds to thee can bring

On hope of you, the dream I weave

And Oblivion writes the Ode

The steps you take no footprints leave

How then shall I find your abode?

By the child...

When balming all my hundred pains

When mending quilts of warmth

When writing tales of unlit lanes

When winters play in North.

When trying to boon the haughty banes

When lighting young candles aloud

When thunder sings in dancing drains

When waters wash me proud.

When birds bring home the golden grains

When squirrels sketch delight

When meaning ceases to embrace the chains

When solitary walks the night.

When in love the happy rains

With the tall grey lofty clouds

When thunder sings in dancing drains

When waters wash me proud.

Purple

One of the most awesome poetry battles with the legendary knight, Kunal Mathur on the awesomest site for collaborative poetry,Black River Poets. Its a conversation between a musing solitary merman and a philosopher knight. :) 

In the realms of the depths unfound

The solemn merman dives

To find the remains of his glory. (R)

And each dive of his,somnambulistic

Search for that pearl,Oh so Majestic

It will soon become a Legend,This story .(K)

Bound in the ocean's purple curse

The salty waters destined to his breath

Escaping the hunting sights of the dorey (R)

Blues of life, The red of his passion

Mix the two and he beats the purple curse

He doesn't care, if fight is smooth or gets gory! (K)

Whirlpools dancing in his turbulent unearthly insides

Since ages unknown he rides the foamy tides

In his golden crown that now is hoary. (R)

O somnambullistic Pearl Diver, so hard u tried

Red, Blue and the purple, All colors they've dried

What do u strive for? You're alone now in this category. (K)

In this weeping solitude, my being survives

In it I drown, in it I rise

Wins and losses are for the Liberal and Tory .(R)

What rips your heart,I wonder? 

Oblivious to tranquility and thunder

Swim on, let go of past glory. (K)

They sink fatal poisons in my kingdom kind

Tell me dear Sapien , what shall i move on to find?

the piteous treasures of your Quarry? (R)

Some seek peace, some wealth sans restriction

A few seek nothing, clinging on to their addiction

Purple Diver, I hope you got the allegory! (K)

The sea is my morphine, it takes away the pain

in dying morality lies no lasting gain

for this shall the spirit be sorry? (R)

Your tranquility, intrigues me

Can heaven really be in the sea?

If that's the case, let it be my cemetory. (K)

Your Heaven is where your peace shall be

be it your your land or my drowsy sea

to seek the white of ebony or the black of ivory. (R)

What gives you the licence to preach 

Those who hide can seldom teach

Come out once O diver, You'll make history. (K)

Licence and history are the words of man

That thou shall end what I began

I have no feet young man, to end your worry. (R)

Can't come out, can't drown

All you can do is make me frown

How abt you, some formaldehyde and a laboratory? (K)

You brought a smile to my lips in decay

Lighting up the lanterns in the dark of my day

Nothing in the likes of sickening adulatory.  (R)

Wake me Up

         

Wake me up, Take my hand, Help me rise

Lead me east

Hold my pen, Read my word, Love my lie

Lead me east

Let me sink, Let me gasp, Let me cry

Lead me east

Paint me blue, Paint me black, Paint me white

Lead me east

Kill my hope, Shut my breath, Hide my light

Lead me east

Cut me up, Burn me down, Take these pieces

Lead me east

Warm my cheeks, Cup my heart, Slay my beast

Lead me east

Take my grief, Take my love, Take my heart

Lead me east

Crack my smile , Slash my soul, Crush my right

Lead me east

Help me lie, Help me die, Help me fight

Lead me east

Take my corpse, To the saint, Tell him why

Lead me east

Take the oath, Take the sand

Lead me east

Lead me east

Absence

Seized by nightmares
My hand reaches to feel the assurance of your beating heart
But finds none
For a hundredth night
I lie beside a crease less left
Wrapped in despair and longing
And I wake up to another nightmare
Of having to breathe in your absence

Some yesterdays haunt my corridors

Some yesterdays have said farewell

Some yesterdays had blessed my coldness away

Some yesterdays chase me to hell

Your laughter echoes in my hollow insides

Your words are scattered all over the place
Its a strange grieving quiet in this house
Like a shore abandoned by the sea

Doors still wait unopened

Rains ask for you
Your poems bleed every night
In my sweaty palms

Your guitar has refused to sing

It does not like my tune

The birds don't come home now

Even when worried by June

The drawers are filled with you

And I stand here, looking at them
Like a shipwreck
In the solace of oblivion.

Clothes smell of your smiles

Walls chose to be bare

 I never look at them

For the fear of their stinging stare

I lie back into the void
When the chimes sing with the wind
The curtains dance
And blinded by warm, salty sorrow
I call out for you

I can feel you touch my lonely breath
I can feel you kiss my bruises away
I can feel you the warmth of this quilt
In the pillow cradling my head
On the sheets

And gently on my lips
You place back the pieces of a smile
"You are here", I whisper, "with me"

The silence whispers back
"Always"

A Longing

There is a longing

in this poisoned heart

While it is Shellying and Keatsing

And Donning and Yeatsing

When it is acknowledging

The chivalry of a knight

The love of an heiress

The smile of a poetess

The embrace of a stranger

There is a longing 

in this poisoned heart

When it is promising

Love to a despised soul

Care to an ailing body

Trust to a doubted thought

Faith to a dying belief

And prayer to a lonely God

There is a longing 

in this poisoned heart

When it is weeping

Tears of happy sorrow

Tears of grieving joy 

Tears of numb hurt

Tears of selfish guilt

And tears of you

There is a longing 

in this poisoned heart

When it lies

And tells the truth

When it dies

And is reborn

When if fails

And happily succeeds

When it falls

And rises

When it despises

And falls in love again

There is a longing 

in this poisoned heart

When it holds a hand

When it gifts a smile

When it lets go

When it lingers a while

There is a longing

in this poisoned heart

A longing to feel

What it seems to feel

A longing to be lost

In oblivions unknown

A longing to become the Sun's last ray

A longing to to conspire with the Moon

A longing to belong only to me 

A longing to become you.

The Curse

It sank in the haunted loneliness

In merciless gloom of the divorce

It shrank into the limitless void 

Wondering at unforgiving wrongs

Weeping in dead burning tears

Lies crept under into its warmth

And dug the sacred scar

It bled till it could love no more

Silence revolted

The cottage was burnt down

The witch escaped

Placed upon the Waking Tomb

The curse of slumber

It slept through the plague

And answered no prayers.

Written in Early December.

Hands that pray for warmth

Come together to whisper

A silent wish of her being

The moon becomes the master

And she the willing slave

On nights of his silver glory

She hides in a trembling cave

The ghosts recite their tales

The lovers long to smile

She drowns in the weeping waters 

of an inconsolable Nile.

Ahead she never moves

Before she never loves

Draws the curtains of smiles

And listens to lonely doves

In blue she breathes her days

In grey she sings the nights

Away from herself in truth

Away from laughing lights

  From different worlds she rises

And sinks in the eager sands

All that remains behind

Are her prayers in a pair of hands.

What shall

The silent stare of the the night

Winds waltzing around with dust

Spirits singing to earthly mates

Burning in haunted lust

A fire breathing its last

In the midst of mocking ashes

A song from the womb of whiskey

Into his numbness crashes

A frown upon a forehead

The scent of evening prayers

Driving away an evil

That often pulls the chairs

The lamps that light for nobody

But for the whistling man

His family sleeps in his quarters

All of them who can

The bareness of a page

I clad with weeping ink

What will become of it

After the darkness shall sink?

A tragedy to be alive?

Or some comedy to pass away

In the middle of loving and laughing

One maddening November or May.

With Myself

Unwritten words are the best I write

Unsaid words are the truest I speak

Unseen sunsets are the loveliest of all

Unsung melodies are my masterpieces

An old wound decides to bleed once more

A spirit wants to sing along

A cloud longs to turn into grey

A wind whims into a storm

Then her prayers touch my skin

Through a bracelet of sacred threads

Her sleep she wishes off

Into my slumber less eyes

And from a place far off

I get a message that I am

And will always be dearly loved

And she who was given her breath

In the same womb as I

Holds my hand, or plants a kiss

On my mosquito devoured cheeks.

Or gives a hug  that warms my soul.

He doesn’t often say it

But I come to know

When he gifts me a book

And quotes lines from a page

And wipes off a tear

The lines that say

“Our daughter. Meanwhile was fast

asleep herself, one little hand showing

Above the bedclothes. Clenched in it

was my heart”

And this, what mortals call Love

Brims my being

And I smile and laugh into tears

Tonight when I met the mirror.

It smiled back at me

and said “You’re beautiful”.

Shades

The temple bells announce the morn

I lie awake through the night

Out of darkness the light is born

I behold the blessed sight

Orange and red, yellow and white

After the grey, blue and black

The presence and the absence of light

An open door, a seething crack

Unread people unread books

Scattered in chaos

In sleepy mirror the stranger looks

Empty worlds across

Peep into the darkness

But take a candle along

Bring a prayer to bless me

Sing a little song

Love with all my white

Hate with all my green

Dancing with wrong and right

Flirting with selfless and mean

I told her I have tied me up

She pulled out the same card

Sipping  bitterness from a cup

Wondering if I was scarred

Closing my eyes to numbness mauve

I questioned my musing shades

We agreed we both love Anton Chekhov

A curious content invades

We thought and spoke and cried

In Californication and Hodo

Like two tramps in the middle of happy nowhere

Smiling while waiting for Godot.

Never know

What should I write

That pleases your wit

My weak words anaemic

Sink in my humble existence

A moment you thought of a masterpiece

It did not inspire me enough

But I would remain silent

For i cannot face your hurt

Opting to be shallow or deep

You taught me thats the world

I wondered what I really was

A dying root or a withering leaf

You once laid a flower in that young book

It is now forever yours to be

And i in painful envy stand

To be decided upon another day

On quiet nights you wish for rains

And hum old dear love songs

And then I fall in love again

And pray to mocking Gods

I'll never know where we really belong

Perhaps i should not try

For where you say your peace shall be

Is where I shall call it home.

LOST

What did leave and what did not

What is left behind is lost

Why to weep these waters hot

Why to think you loved it most

Of that bloom that withered young

Of that star that fell tonight

Of that song that died unsung

In the shades of whispering light

In despair lies the broken glass

In numbness lies the wine

A time that doth refuse to pass

In pain two world entwine

And slumber shall not visit thy bed

For on silken sheets is agony spread