The crests of innocence

Both when life reveres
The first light and bears the last,
Innocence is most;
In no span it veers from glee
And candor to guise and plea!

Feb 4, 2013

Barren pursuits?

As pupils of science
Toil unto construe and clone
The essence of blooms,
A humble bumblebee gleans
Springtime nectars through its genes.

So were heirs of art
Scrambling to mimic the bliss
That nature begot,
Whilst winged miniatures soared
And untutored skylarks scored.

Feb 2, 2013

A ransom for bliss

Truths were buried deep
In bargain for happiness
Held hostage by clans;
But alas when it got back
The soul had marooned my shack.

Jan 19, 2013

At temple's gate

A nobler soul at gate awaits
In faith for alms from men,
Who come to deify the one
That sits beyond her ken.

To whatsoever flung her way
A cheer imbues her face,
And eyes, though groping unto end,
Abide to beam a grace.

What whets such acts in passersby -
A bid to better pride?
A trammeled warmth that sneaks awhile?
Or guilt that plagues inside?

Of all designs none nears the shrine,
For every tribe, which pleads
In here to fill a void or greed,
Is drawn by own proceeds.

Jan 16, 2013

The spring contest

A dewy sunday morn I hiked
The hills and vales afar
To winnow spring's sublimest tree -
Of beauty none on par.

What must have borne intent of mine?
For decked in bridal best
Each ripe it seemed with potpourri
To charm my sense with zest.

A redbud flush with purplish pink
At once bestrew a spell
Of such celestial bliss as matched
By speckless silverbell.

Amid this rich tableau I stood
With sense of beauty blurred
For hues in such proportions sweet
Had not so far occurred.

In time a breeze perfumed arrived
And waft my sight athwart
Toward a sweet magnolia tree
Of granduer nothing short.

And then a squirrel pair alit
A palm that bore no bloom
But rose so humbly high - the sun
Appeared to be her plume.

From nowhere reigned a midday tune
And led me into glee -
A hawthorn, whereon songbirds perched,
Performed to soul's decree.

Unhooked from time I basked in tunes
And strolled along a stream
Befringed with mellow apricots
That reveled spring's regime.

But soon the skies above the pine
Prepared to shine the moon,
So there I lay at banyan's base
Engrossed in nature's croon.

A splendid day in woods it was -
I chanced on all I sought,
And mused on how I could adjudge
The best amongst the lot.

The one that glowed with merry shades
Or one which waved her balms?
The one that bowed its dearest yields
Or one which nested psalms?

Allured by forms akin in grace
How could I tell apart?
Perhaps I might discern the prime
When autumn springs her art.

Jan 4, 2013

In memory of Pandit Ravi Shankar

A robin which chirped
At the Sun's first peep in east
Soared along to west;
Through, he piped many a song
That to universe belong.

Dec 13, 2012

Butterfly: A miniature on the wing

With flush of new rays
She comes along ever prompt
And greets my first sights -
Perching softly on my pane,
Waving fondly to morn's reign.

Veiled by mist, she stills,
Letting the virgin hues calm
In their assigned metes;
Soon a plush canvas she flaps -
A dreamscape that lets time lapse!

Each day art anew -
Splashed at times in raspberries,
Oft lilacs or gold;
Each tone a rarest tender -
No man perhaps could render.

Whose art I wonder
And what grand vistas beholds,
Wherefrom this palette
Abound with nuance is drawn,
And how strokes get fine thereon.

Whilst quest meandered,
A mild breeze bears her away
From streams and dales nigh
To skies, where dewy moonbeams
Prime her canvas for new themes.

Sep 30, 2012

Hope

Back many a night
Left I was, when at fate's foot,
In his arms alone
A warmth I felt so akin,
Softened at once my sore din.

In my meanders
All along since, he recurred
Like mellow melons
Bore to desert by Unseen,
As if close was Lake Pristine.

On paths I once loped,
As I lean on cane so meek
And trudge unto ken
I see him once more burgeon
And wonder: Who did summon?

What birthed him in me -
The celestial decrees or
Mere mortal instincts?
Thanks to whatever it be,
Sheen in darkest I could see.

Sep 17, 2012

Mother nature's truth

What's the word for Truth?
Keen, I leafed Her lexicon;
On chancing no term,
I donned my glass so none might
Dupe my rather humble sight.

O dear, why this toil?
Let me a secret unveil -
She said - I abridged
So none my Tribe, shall for sure,
Unto its Antonym tour.

What Life can be - where
Sun feigns to illume the day,
Rain cons a parched tree,
Wind tricks a bee's blossom chase
And Earth betrays a starved face!

Sep 8, 2012

Poet and his Pride embraced

Many a thought lush
Knocked at your door, but oft left
Disdained, trampled, stained.
In waning, some took to heart -
What fell the pilgrim of art.

Who tell you sagely,
The feel whose fondness you keep
For it adores you,
Cloaks a wily face that swears
To your absolute disgrace.

Do you not behold
Oneself be found in barrens -
Where no art occurs,
For no tulips blossom fain
And no phesants dance in rain.

Step out - I beseech -
From your realm suffused with self
Into the outdoors,
Where, in its forms lot, Beauty
Beckons your truest duty.

Sep 1, 2012

Sweet vibrations unheard

What's not harmony
for none told me how it sounds;
wish i could show thee -
in my island of repose,
all that thrives is a cliff rose.

With manmade forbade
in here, each song is vestal.
dawn to dusk to dawn -
birds chirp to sea's percussives,
notes coddled by swaying trees.

I am beholden
to Him, for this ensemble
exclusive to me;
every melody ensued by,
deaf thou call me, don't know why.

Aug 21, 2012

Dancing off stage

As you stepped off stage
Soft dropped the movements gracious.
Men and kings linger,
Their sagas fading from view
Into past, that vows to slew.

There, where you last danced,
The art droops with languished self.
Only He, not content
With divine glee, looks pleased as
You, who reified Him, returns.

Aug 9, 2012

Bring me the music

I do not know
What may be your nature,
And I do not desire
Who may be your source.

But in your silence
I feel A shadow dawning far and wide,
And a farness to something splendid,
The absence of an exquisite sacrament!

Jul 1, 2012

A poetry of light

Without ye how would I surmise
The heavenly hues of summer trees
And the sparkling dew on their leaves
With the amber glow of the morning sun

Without ye I wonder
How’s a rose that breathes so sweet
What’s in the sapphire luster of the sea
How lovely is a baby’s smile

With ye poetry of light
And symphony of shadows I behold the life’s bliss
A creation of magical thee!

Aug 26, 2011

A tribute to Pandit Bhimsen

Yet again death walks off with another treasured
Leaving behind the soulful trails
Of blissful melodic scales
All to enrich the spirits for time unbounded.

Jan 31, 2011

Road trip

Now and again I long
to ride away
where not a soul has gone
but some place none felt alone

Now and again I long
to sneak away
from the crowd to wilds
seeking solace far and away

Now and again I wonder
why I run away
is it for blissful solitude
or awful loneliness from which to hide away?

Now and again I long
to ride away..

Oct 22, 2007

Streets of broken dreams

As I walk down the roadway
Hopes pass by
I ask if
No one can or no one may?
And I ask how
Can I just walk away?

As I walk down the roadway
I wonder how
In a skimpy pathway
One lives with a castle in the sky
And I ponder how
With a mountain in their view
One is cast away in the fateful plains

As I walk down the roadway
Hopes pass by
But I convince myself again
With a ceremonial pray
There must be a rainbow
A few miles away

Oct 26, 2007