The One Thing

The One Thing

Shall I return with His gifts?
Or stay here and hide?
I remember not
where I came from,
I know no outside.
Glory to His kingdom!
His grace is boundless wide.
The only things
I asked for -
Were the only ones denied.

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]

gnoS s'appiP

gnoS s'appiP

Aren't there monies
That arrive and fall
Like autumn rains
Which bring to all -

A certain incertitude
About desires unwanted.
Like prayers made
With beloved hatred.

O Moment!

O Moment!

O Moment! Why you were?
Why you came and split the worlds
In what could, and what were?
How you caused a sun so bright?
Where you found that perfect green?
How you made the time so right?
My ears that were to hear no more -
Why you played the morning music?
- Your last pity or a cruel chore?

And if you were and couldn't not be,
Could you not take my case
With the Gods of Destiny?
Could you not ask for mercy?
Or failing that, be less perfect -
Could you cause little less misery?
Could you beg my miser fate
Scrapes of love for my sake?
Or best, could you make the future wait?

Could you make the future wait?

Yes, O Moment! could you stop?
Right there, in my memory -
Could you please, would you stop?
I wish for you to never pass.
I wish for later to have never come.
It has come to later alas.
In my memory, how perfect you were -
Farewell Moment! You are past.
But O Moment! Why you were?

The Greed (Eldorado III)

My third poem on Eldorado. Links to Eldorado I and Eldorado II.

The Greed

Eldorado, my love,
I seek what's mine.
Why to me is love denied?
Eldorado, my love,
Why do you hide?

Do you not know
The pain of parting?
Oh, me fool!
You wouldn't know
How many hearts you rule ..

Do you not know
The anguish of greed?
The glitter of gold,
The want of gain,
The frenzy men hold ..

Do you not know
The desire you cause?
The magic you make,
How you stop -
The heart, the heartache ..

I cannot breathe -
You hold my eyes,
I cannot die -
You hold my heart.
Why do you hide? Why? Why?

Showing some skin
Then hiding behind
A show of smile -
You are, aren't you?
My love, all mine ..

Just beyond
My extended grasp
Just about to be mine -
You are, aren't you?
City of Gold, Only mine.

Who mourns them?

The men who died -
Who mourns them?

Who remembers they danced,
And laughed,
And got annoyed?

Who remembers they cared,
And cried,
And wrote songs?

And if some of them
Should care to want to live
And come back as one of us -
Who would recognize them?

Wouldn't they sing and dance
To our music?
Wouldn't they live and die
By our laws?

Who mourns them now
To remember their sounds?
Who remembers them now
To know their faces?

Who is to say
If they know?
Who remembers them
To care?

And who is to say
I haven't died
And come back again?

Addition to Niyati

This is an addition to the earlier Niyati poem. It already has two paras. I'd insert this one into the middle.

जब मैं थक सा जाता हूँ
वो दया ज़रा दिखलाती है -
"चल दिया खेलने, खेल तू"
कहती है, इतराती है ।

मैं मीलों पानी ढोता हूँ
वो धूप बड़ा चमकाती है -
मैं महीनों अंकुर बोता हूँ
वो पल में फसल जलाती है ।

हर सावन मैं भी बारिश की
पर आस लगाए रहता हूँ ।

पानी के नाज़ुक धागों से
मैं ख़ुशी बनाया करता हूँ ।