shining like the sun on a joyful noon,
on this autumnal night,
Without poetic seed there won't be prose. The entire network of branches, twigs, flowers, fruits and leaves is nothing but a commentary on the small poetic seed. So all ye wannabe writers, nurture the poet in you, who understands the value of pause in life, who moves slowly to watch everything, sight and smell everything. Brushstrokes of poetry softly touch the soul without disrupting its restful muse and bring out nuggets of love, compassion, harmony and peace. All content © Sandeep Dahiya
You broke me beyond repair,
each piece lying scattered in despair,
You, a child playing with a toy,
full of joy,
Then on a childish whim
suddenly went for the bud's beheading trim,
Giving it sorrows full to the brim,
Kicked it away
and moved with swagger and sway,
To make a fresh heart’s hay,
Away, away!
Here the broken toy lies,
Its each broken part separately dies,
Multiple deaths these are,
While you play again far, far,
With another toy,
With marvellous ease and joy,
While the broken toys aren't fit for love again,
Catch they no child's fancy chain,
They just keep the memories and the past
through sad nostalgic blast
lynching their broken parts,
Gain some unprofitable arts,
And then crumble
with silent rumble
and die finally with a sigh
and a sadly smiling bye
to the child far away
playing with full heart's sway
with another toy,
All joy, all joy!
Anger should mellow down a bit,
and melt later to turn sorrow,
then change into forgiveness,
followed by acceptance.
And maybe then dear friends
we can afford a gentle smile,
And welcome a new day;
anchor the bruised self in a safe bay,
And remember the past with a painless nostalgia,
And move on.
Journeyman, that's how we ought to
proceed on our path.
There I walk in a little hill forest,
A sad heart broken beyond repair,
Broken dreams and soul in despair,
Everything seems just a futile glimpse of shifting mists,
Big questions stare in my face,
is it light embracing darkness?
Or darkness welcoming light?
Loss, longing and love
brewing a mist in the morning forest,
I walk on a lone path,
Then the sunrays streak in,
Everything turns into love,
Loss and longing glide away with misty vapours,
Love is nothing but all the lesser emotions sublimated fully.
Each word is incomplete,
just an abstract, broken fragment born of
thoughts arising in the mind.
And the mind itself a grainy fragment
of the overall consciousness,
Words are mere grains of sand,
With sandgrains we try to make castles,
huge castles that we cast in pursuance
of the ever-missing meaning of life,
And then the sand slips,
we go for awkward flips.
Words are mere broken arrows,
How will one even win a battle with broken arrows?
Words are mere sparks,
temporary flashes coming out of the endless coffers of silence,
They just give a little flash of light around our feet
as we grope in the darkness,
seeking a way out of our puzzles.
Words are mere temporary twinklings
on the vast canvas of silence,
They themselves tell their story of incompleteness,
their own meaninglessness
behind all the meanings ascribed to them,
And the moment we listen to their story,
we arrive at the moral of the final story,--
The moral of their story is silence;
Silence and emptiness behind all this noise and happening.
As I write this,
huge rumblings of megh naad,
the rumblings of clouds,
buzz across my head:
A booming cosmic storm
that chucks out the outer shell of words,
crushes the stones to spread the sand
to go flying with the winds,
The words getting sucked into
a cosmic cascade and whirlpool of energy,
And beyond that silence, stillness and emptiness.
Rains and more rains,
Mold in the pickle jar,
White coral mushroom on the rotting plank,
Potatoes with spikey sprouts,
Baby frogs everywhere,
Lots of nests in the trees and plants,
The sky laden with flying insects,
Well-fed serpents and croaky long-limbed toads,
Thickly overgrown trees and promiscuous creepers,
The air with a musty smell,
The railings more rusty,
The sky just a cloudy canvas,
Hot teas and spicy pakoras,
Smiles,
Gossips,
Love and loss in the season of moss,
Well-bathed caravan looking to sneak in
and take a shelter in the autumnal camp,
Well, it has been too damp,
Welcome now the sunny lamp.
Eat all your pains yourself,
Be utmost gluttinous in it,
Don't share them,
And then take long-long sips
of all the insults hurled at you,
Don't share them as well,
Believe me fed on this cattle feed
you will emerge as a
strong, gutsy, thick-skinned human-animal.
Little hills,
A verdant small valley,
And a curvaceous beauty,--
A stream rippling across the stones,
Its unchained notes singing a song
for the tired traveller who stops by it,
Its divine fluidity melting
the stony pain in his heart,
Its free will flowing joyfully,
setting him free from the
prison of fears, worries and tension.
A gloomy grey dawn with shades deep,
All silence except the lonely katydid
who still kept its hopes alive for a mate
through its unhurried breep breep.
The sky hung spent,
Looking forlorn with languorous bent,
Discharmed after overexerting itself in
breaking September rain record,
The earth below soaked full
and lay sleepy like an overfed bull.
No rockchats for their pre-dawn birdy chatter,
Things are always supposed to be better,
Then the faint traces of a new day
filtered across the clouds with a new ray.
A handsome oriental magpie Robin
took over the chorus from the tired katydid
and the dandy black and white bird's
teasing, naughty chitter broke the ice.
Instantly a couple of peacocks gave gruffy hoots,
A crow cawed,
A dove sent its docile notes,
A white wagtail chipped in,
A few sparrows gossiped across the branches.
The morning chorus singers
increased in number and variety,
It's the birds who announce
a new day most beautifully,
Listen to their announcement,
They always seem wishing you
the best of a morning!
I'm a common man with modest means,
and common people have to be
conscious of their deeds
that may justify
their philanthropic conscience.
They have their limitations
and need to look for small avenues
to satisfy the good spirit.
I am no exception,
I collect my tiny grains of good deeds,--
A potted rose feeling extremely thirsty,
its buds and top leaves drooping despiritedly,
I pour water with care and consideration,
Within fifteen minutes I see the results,
The branches straighten and leaves turn taut,
the buds raise their heads again,
They will smile fully tomorrow.
Now who says that
good deeds don't fetch beautiful results?
A richly yellow, thick, grand old
guava leaf lets go of its grip
on the branch and tumbles down
to create a soft tonk on the car's roof.
The completion of a journey!
Well, I believe some stately wise old man
also died peacefully in sleep,
after completing a joyful, meaningful life,
in some corner of the world
at exactly the same time.
The day
holding its last ray,
The dusk
at its mellifluous cusp,
The breeze stops
to welcome dew drops,
To the nest
birds return for rest,
The leech
also has to reach
a place safe,
To crawl
cling and brawl
on a new day.
Embraced by the pining silence
and stillness of these mute hours,
my detached self grows more detached
and aloof like those misty distances
virginally spread out under the star light.
Thus, the lone pine
felt absolutely fine.
I carried the load of victory
and the next time
when I lined up for the run
I lagged behind like a burdened beast.
I carried the baggage of defeat
and perspiring under the load sat down,
gasping for breath,
and could just manage to see
others lining up for the run.