Be Wise

Be Wise

Love dreams, and builds,
And bets, and wins,
Prays, and lives,
And slips, and sins -
To barter the forbidden
For virgin morality -
To throw for an illusion
All the reality.

Be wise.

Forever is not worth
Naive morality.
Don't throw for an illusion
All the reality.

I wanted to give this poem another title - बचो युधिष्ठिर! (Bacho Yudhisthir) but not many people would have understood the reference to Dinkar's Kurukshetra. Of course, Dinkar's lines have nothing to do with my theme here.

'Be wise' can never have the same sound as 'bacho yudhisthir' but I'll make do. For reference, here is what Dinkar wrote in a completely different context:
आनन सरल, वचन मधुमय है,
तन पर शुभ्र वसन है,
बचो युधिष्ठिर! इस नागिन का
विष से भरा दशन है ।
Dinkar was talking about the illusion of Peace which comes at the cost of an individual's liberty.

P and S

P and S

All problems
Have a solution.

All problems
Have an unpleasant solution.

P and S,
let's call them -
A pleasant S let's construe.

I tried. It's not happening.
There is no option.

P and S, both as enduring,
I could trade for an option.

I'd give a lot
For a world where -
S and !S could both be true.

Hope

Hope

Though unprepared they find me

And stealthily they come,

So softly they remind me

So gently they blossom -

The flowers of Hope -

Meet despair like old friends.

Leaves of champa in shades of rose

They grow at unexpected ends.

[Despair]

Despair

Despair

Though unprepared it finds me

And stealthily it comes,

So softly it reminds me

And so kindly it numbs -

The season of Despair -

Meets unwelcome with courtesy.

Cruel, deaf and unfair

It has its ways of Mercy.


[Hope]