Friday 31 October 2014

The Things We See

image source here


I am amazed

At the perpetual festivity

All around us

The moment a lonely shy bud

Hidden from the beholders

Slowly blooms

Opening out her

Hesitant petals

There’s honeyed joy

Everywhere

 

Even in death

There’s no dearth

Of jubilation

The excited ants run

To and fro

With a death news

Hundreds celebrate

And drag a defeated

Dragonfly for a feast

All the blanks

Are duly filled up

 

When my heart turns to stone

The sun still shines

When a mother loses her son in bomb blast

Quietly flows the Ganges

When the air of mistrusts breed enmity

The fragrant lotus blooms

Our loss is only our loss

There’s no scarcity of joy

In this paradise of life

 


Written for dVerse MTB – The ThingsWe See

Tuesday 28 October 2014

Broken

image source here


Those iridescent pearl drops

Shoot rainbow

Each one a memory

Of the wave

That rose once upon a time

In a heart

That hid an emerald sea

Where a water nymph

Spoke in the language

Of promise

A twine of love

Labored hard

To string each dream piece

Building up takes a life time

Not breaking

Almost like the snipping

Of a stray lock of hair

Within minutes

The cord is pieced

But iridescent memories

Remain forever

 


Posted for Mary’s prompt Broken @ Poetry Jam

Thursday 23 October 2014

I've Got a Little List for Vegetable Biriyani

image source here


It’s a traditional Mughlai main course

All you need is Basmati, vegetables,

Spices, saffron, dry fruits, ghee

And the most important of all

Is your love, love and love

Love for the ingredients

Love for culinary art

Love for those whom you serve

If one of the items in the list is missing

Mughlai aroma will flit

With it the taste

And you are done for

 

 


Written for MTB @ dVerse PoetsPub where we are to write ‘a list poem’

Wednesday 22 October 2014

One Day in the Life of.....

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Glint of stars in eyes

A whole sky in two hearts

Today is a rose

 

 


Posted for Susan’s Midweek Motif ~ One Day in the life of…..@ Poets United

Tuesday 21 October 2014

Your Favorites

image source here


It’s not true that I never played with dolls

It’s also true that I played with bats and balls

A wild child with unkempt hair was me

Who loved climbing a special mango tree

Spoilsport red ants would declare war

Taking the gazelle form we’d jump afar

Limbs were in place but if the news got home by some dolt

Spanks were not spared to make sure the child wasn’t spoilt

Long time ago all this took place

Seems yesterday as I ride time’s crest

I’ve kept that child secured inside me

Who often whispers about that magical tree

Where that childhood still hangs like fronds

And inspires with Nature to make bonds

 

 


Written for Peggy’s prompt YourFavorites @ Poetry Jam

News

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                               Sleepless eyes                     

                    Work harder for a scoop

          To feed thousand minds drooling in wait

The more spicy the happenings the more is the sale

           Drunkard causes Princess D’s demise?

                 Beehive world’s busy for

                             Breaking news

                                         

                          Sleepless eyes

                    Guard us on frontier

       Desert storms and blizzards blow over

    Enemy bullets often snuff out these lives

      Unsung they return home in coffin

               No news channels for them

                         Our heroes

 

 
image source here

 

 

The poem is written in Triquain. Syllable division per line is as follows:

3 - 6 - 9 - 12 - 9 - 6 - 3   (and so on)


 Written for Mary’s prompt News @ dVersePoetics

Saturday 18 October 2014

A Grain of Wisdom

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Sound of heavy boots plundered sleep

Explosives are fallow land’s reap

Shadowy figures weaving net

A huge haul of life’s the target

We sink into the quagmire deep

 

A grain of wisdom is time’s need

To uproot this blood hungry weed

But blame-game is rending the air

All ears are deaf to our peace-prayer

Selfies reap the yield of their seed*

 

 

 

*We are now living in constant threat of terrorism. Military forces everyday are busting the militants’ dens and discovering explosives. Rulers & oppositions are engaged in exchanging expletives while the criminals are making good their escape. Commoners are suffocating in this political quagmire.

 

The poem is written in Quintilla / Spanish Quintain form with eight syllables in each line and 5 lines a stanza & the rhyme scheme is a. a. b. b. a.

 

The poem is written for Kerry’s Sunday Mini-Challenge: In Other Words @ Real Toads where we are to select one of the two given titles from two books and substitute our own words in place of those indicated below and write a new poem under the title we’ve created. The books were: a) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a mystery novel by British writer Mark Haddon. b) A Grain of Wheat, a novel by Kenyan novelist NgÅ©gÄ© wa Thiong'o 

 

1.       The --- Incident of the ---in the ---time.

2.      A --- of wheat

3.      A grain of---

&

 


I am also sharing this with Poetry Pantry @ Poets United

Thursday 16 October 2014

Supernovas

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Shiny green changes mind

Surely yellows and reds

Sudden burst of colors

Spells a catastrophe

Silence slowly descends

Supernovas in trees

 

 


Written for MTB & Vandana’s prompt Pleiades 

Wednesday 15 October 2014

Trees / Water / Life

image source here


So much nourishment, refuge, forbearance, forgiveness yet we care not

Mother being stripped, violated, strangled to death yet we care not

Sand tongues are growing longer and lapping up our life yet we care not

Motherless children wail for a droplet of mercy yet clouds care not

 


Written for Susan’s Midweek Motif ~ Tree(s) @ Poets United

Tuesday 14 October 2014

Graveyards

image source here


The leaves are still

Air quiet

Sighs are granite here

Words frozen

Shadows move about

Hearts are empty

 

A cuckoo’s song fills the void

The pink sun greets a blue star

Sequined night sky looks festive

The sleeping angel

Is in the new home

Of peaceful rest

 

 


Written for Laurie’s prompt Graveyard @ Poetry Jam

Saturday 11 October 2014

And Walking in the Dazzling Sun

image source here


We rarely see the moon

Our eyes are heavy

Even before darkness has set in

What can keep us awake?

Words from his mouth

Alphabets from the pages

Even dark ink

Is our moonlight

Kailash Satyarthy* is our sun

And we love

Walking in the dazzling sun

 

* Kailash Satyarthi is an electrical engineer and an Indian children's rights activist and a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. He founded the Bachpan Bachao Andolan in 1980 and has acted to protect the rights of more than 83,000 children from 144 countries. Wikipedia


Posted for Grace’s hosting Sunday’s Mini Challenge: Eugenio Montale @ Real Toads

 


I have used the first line of the final stanza of the poem “To Rest In The Shade” by  Eugenio Montale in the title and in the last line of my poem.

Malala Yousafzai

image source here


The soft dewdrop eyes

Reflect the dreamy light

The sun is hidden in the heart

Who can put out the life

In whose veins rush the bright stars?

Flame of the sacred fire

Touches the frozen desires

And melts the fear

Of thousand butterflies

To rise higher and reach the sky

 

 


Posted for Poetry Pantry @ Poets United

Thursday 9 October 2014

A Chance Missed

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Four mighty beaks

Of velvet ravens

Dug into the soft mud

And flew away

With the pond

Holding its four corners

The Ganges dolphin sighed

Not to find Joel Robinson there

 

 

Posted for Bjorn’s prompt @ MTBdVerse


 

Wednesday 8 October 2014

Exploring

image source here

Stems twist towards light

While the roots scoop life

From darkness

A sage once taught

That expansion is life

Contraction death

Like the universe expanding

We venture out towards growth

Through bright, black and blurred paths

Each step assures us

Of the sweet or bitter fruits

Of knowledge and perceptions

We are wise

Before that eternal slumber

In the cold earth chamber

Or on the fiery pyre bed

 

 

 

 


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

Tuesday 7 October 2014

If I Were

Neem Tree source



The tall Neem tree

Lovingly let the crow

Caw and clean its beak

On her dappled limb

If I were the Neem

Would I allow the scavenger

Come near me?

I wonder…..

 

The emerald pond

Beneath the Neem grieves

As he sees his sky pieced

By a sharp net of strings to trap birds

Hanging a few feet above him

If I were him would I ever let

The humans steal the bird-meal?

I wonder…..

 

Omnipotent humans

Know how to harness Nature

To meet all his demands

And cast Her away to silent tears

If I were Her

Would I ever let

These audacious worms live?

I wonder…..

 

 


Posted for Gabriella’s prompt “If I were Poems” @ Poetry Jam

Saturday 4 October 2014

Alzheimer’s

image source here


Those lackluster eyes

Live in a void

Trembling lips twitch

But that childlike smile

Is lost like the rivulet

Consumed by the hungry grains

Of the desert

The tongue bleeds

As broken pieces of speech

Pierce through

Curse of senility

Has blown up the knife-edge bridge

Between the two

Solid rocks of the past

And the present

The deep gorge of oblivion

Flows towards

The infinite ocean of despair

                         

 


Posted for Poetry Pantry @ Poets United

&
Linking to Real Toads

Thursday 2 October 2014

Aviary (N + 7)

image source here


Her lethal workforce

That always hit the bullion’s eyelid

Are missing their tart

Each single strategy of her triathlon

Is hissing towards her needle woman

To pour venue

Medusa is trapped

In her own quietism of sticky life

Fragrant tuba blooms

                                  

As you sow so you reap

Addictions are not so cheap

 


Posted for MTB where the prompt is to write Oulipo poems


The original poem:


Autocrat

Her lethal words

That always hit the bull’s eye

Are missing targets

Each single strand of her tress

Is hissing towards her neck

To pour venom

Medusa is trapped

In her own quicksand of sticky lies

Fragrant truth blooms

                      

As you sow so you reap

Adages are not so cheap