I Cannot But Write These Lines

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As smog of hate blankets this earth

Elephants storm out of jungles

Ravaging towns of ours*

The black night smiles with starry dimples

I cannot but write these lines

 

As soldiers fly abroad to kill and be killed

Death’s talon picks up starving laborers one by one

In the silent Red Bank Tea-garden**

White Jasmine makes the night fragrant

I cannot but write these lines

 

As darkness breeds darkness in living

This planet starves for a drop of light

Malala rises singing aloud the change

"One child, one teacher, one pen, one book" makes

I cannot but write these lines

 

 

*Recently the incident took place in the State where I live. Shortage of food is driving the poor Pachyderms mad.

**Another recent incident in our State

 

Posted for Poetry Pantry @ Poets United

Design

courtesy: PU

We have been open

To all the patterns around us

From precision of the season’s pirouette,

To the orbital dance of the cosmic orbs

To each cell’s magical journey

From Birth to death

If there is ‘tyger’*

There is also ‘lamb’

An absolute heaven everywhere

No chaos anywhere at all

We are given a bit of free will too

The choice is ours

The Designer is not without humor

                     

*I used Blake’s spelling of tiger

 

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

Arundhati- Vashishtha

courtesy: google image

At night

When Holy Fire is lit

The newlyweds take seven steps

Around it

They look up at you

For your blessings

O Arundhati and Vashishtha*

Now that the knot has been tied with love

Ages pass

You are there forever

So is the benediction

 

 

*Mizar and Alcor form a naked eye double star in the handle of the Big Dipper asterism in the constellation Ursa Major. Mizar is known as Vasistha and Alcor is known as Arundhati in traditional Indian astronomy.^[8] The pair is considered to symbolize marriage (Vashishtha and Arundhati were a married couple) and, in some Hindu communities, priests conducting a wedding ceremony allude to or point out the constellation as a symbol of the closeness marriage brings to a couple.-- Wikipedia

 

 

Posted for Star Light Star Bright – dVerse Poetics 

Come Winter

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Cheers to the soft feathery winter clouds

Wrapping me up with their nippy breath

My burnt skin longs for their cool caress

And my eyes for the chrysanthemum smile

 

The sun’s tender downs with the silken touch

Apologize for the rough summer’s rage

I forgive, forget the haughty sun

While my ears catch the note of exotic birds

 

My Neem tree leaves bid me goodbye

Frogs and geckos’ eyes be heavy with sleep

Serpents are home with droopy eyes

Golden mustered field delightfully sways

 

Come winter, stay and before you part

Nurture and cool my burnt heart

 

 

Posted for Poetry Pantry #282 @ Poets United

 

Red & White

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The six colors of the huge bow in the sky

Shifted to the Red band

Staining them with the hue

Then came down on this Earth

As one red butterfly

Sitting on a white rose

 

I was amazed to see

 

How the bright red wings

Were slowly transforming them into alphabets

Until a word was formed:

GARISSA!*

O Lord!

 

How to change those stony hearts

Into the soft petals

Of a fragrant love

To turn this nightmare

Of a world

Into a honeyed cote

Of the White Dove?

 

 

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*A total of 147 people were shot dead in a terror attack at Garrisa University, Kenya, this year. Most of the victims were students. It’s a gruesome sight to see the walls of the rooms stained with their dried up blood. Many of whom were first generation university goers with the rainbow-dreams of supporting their family in future.

 

Posted for Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Colors

Man

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I smell blood

Everywhere

Mother Earth is bleeding profusely

So are Her children

 

I hear the frightening footsteps

Of the Frankenstein Monster

All over the world

Squashing Beauty under feet

 

My food is salty, wet

With tears of our farmers

Who are crushed and crunched

With iron teeth of debt

 

I see the violent rage

Of El Nino

Drowning Chennai

 

Yet

Despite all this

 

My hand

Craves that soft touch

Of the Babe of Light

Our future Man

 

Who will be

A Man

 

A true Human

 

Posted for Poetry Pantry @ Poets United

Energy

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The consciousness that dances

In the tiniest feet of the ant

To carry its food triple its size

Is given to me also

I build my home

And also my food

With words

“Praise be to God

Praise be, praise be praise be”*

 

 

*The lines are from the lyrics of the national anthem of Zambia.

 

Posted for Susan’s Midweek Motif ~ Energy, Vitality @ Poets United