April Poems 2

8/7/2019 April Poems 2

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April 8

Everything will be all right. Dont worry.Thanks for everything. Words that put my

Mind to sleep. He walked away, she chose

Not to return.Given you trouble at this age.

We are with you, my dear.

Years ago,She walked away; I chose not to ask why.

Those times I slept well. Now there are

Nights without sleep.

I walk through the dayTelling a hundred stories

To myself with the same ending

Going away.

April 9

All our philosophy

Of millennia vintage

Turns its backOn injustice of centuries.

The lone lama wanders

Through the worldAttracting attention

To the occupation of his homeland.There is space for him in our heart,And we lose sleep if tribals refuse

To make way for mines

leaving their forest land.We have time for messengers of peace,

for strong men of development,

for weak men hankering after nuclear power

and for middlemen talking weaponry.We lose no sleep when

Ragpickers slums are gutted;

the city got cleaned up.We have discovered a formula

To get rid of poverty.

Recruit the poor in the police forceAnd get them finished in the jungles of Dantewada

At the hands of the militant poor.

Its their destiny. Theres nothing

More practical than philosophy.


2/12

April 10

Power supply went off again.

There was no water in the tank.We could not run the washing machine.

We waited and when power came again

The water wasnt sufficientto feed the machine.

These things happen here

and we are used to it now,so dont fret and fume about it.

Instead watch the match on the TV.

My team lost there too.

This morning I chose to read thenewspaper from front to back after

many years. It only carried

stories of women and their grit,

determination, kindness and beauty.---

I have never seen an oasis;I dont need to.

April 11

The heat is getting on to me.

Been trying to openMy mind

With the usual key

Of solitude.The lever turns

But the inside latch is on.

Never happened before.Need help the keys man cometh.

Open I must, its now or never.

I will be an outsider for eternity.

There is plenty of helpComing without asking.

Try another key, they suggest.

It doesnt work.Nothing now remains but

To climb up, open the door

To the upper reaches and get in.I cant, but there is my Krishna to do it.

Its so peaceful to be helpless!


3/12

April 12

Not happy withThe way things turned out

You tried to change

The world.Nobody took note.

Then tried to

change your ways.Nobody was interested.

Screamed and shouted.

Some turned to look.

You then got tattooedOn arms, legs, back and

Lower back.

They now feature you

unpaid in their columns.The ultimate unclaimed

death.

April 13

I am intrigued

By the sheer idea.

Releasing ancestorsFrom the psyche

And setting them

on the path of liberation.

I am already lodged

In the deep recessesof the mind of my

children.

How will I get releaseIf they dont even know

I am there?

I dont buy this,

Not on the 97th birth anniversary

of my father.He passed away 24 years ago.


4/12

April 14

The fruit is in the making

even when

it is not seen.Sometimes the wind

cheats

to blow the tiny oneaway.

It could be the clouds

that play truant

to roast the young 'un.Or the rains

that cause

an early fall.

If it lives to ripenand fall into your lap

it is trulyNature's gift.

A gift is not something

you earn by

the sweat of your brow.It's from a love in the heart

to a heart in love.

Then life is in the making.

April 15

I am waiting to walk,

But you need the money

At the end of the day, you know.The mind that spins

illusions

has an urge to create or destroy

but no resolve to take consequences.It hides the fear

underneath

the illusion, the verbal gymnasticsand the scholarly search,

without moving.

He moved, he spent the moneyand walked away.

(Suhas T, Sandeep A)


5/12

April 16

Here I was

going through

every synapsein the brain

to prepare

a short presentationon

the future of humankind;

there he was asking

if the food would befrom my native cuisine

and if

the audience

would havea fair

sprinkling of fair sex- his major incentives.

He had 'finished'

the future of mankindin a jiffy.

April 17

There is this thing..

about lifethat stops

you from stepping out;

makes me feelguilty

to miss my exercises,

to stay a little longer

in bed,to have another cup.

I hear a stern voice

from the pastthat says

Miss your meals

if you missyour studies.

I miss that voice,

for it never meant

literal.


6/12

Love and care...

give a little of itto yourself

and add

a little respect.

April 18

They spoke of the injusticeI meted out to them

over the centuries.

Any history in which

We dont figureIs not our history.

They made it simple and clear.

Its like all your floors

uprooted and hurled

over back of beyond.I cling to the only thing

available

The walls.All my life

I put up walls

To mark my ground -My ground.

Here come the yuppiesTo question my

Foundations speaking

Some alien language.

They cant take a locationHa! Theres no floor left.

I make a suggestion Lets pull the walls down

And see if we can make a floor

Out of those.

The yuppies are still thinking

With their stuckness,

I have become the wallclock.


7/12

April 19

What better thing

to do

on a weekend

than

to clean up

your masks?

I took them out

and while

doing it,a faded

newspaper fell out

too

showing

the faded dolls on it.

A cord floated in

from nowhere

with words

strung into it.

Even faded dolls

can be attractive

to children,

it said.

I couldn't stand

it, but then

one of the masks

said,

hey let it hang

in there;it livens up

the room.

April 20

Its the place

that pulled us downand now

we are going

to pull it down.

A clean breakdoesnt come

easily

to either the youngor the old.

Only a cold

calculating machinecan do it.


8/12

But theres something

out there

and there is some placein the mind.

Mind is what we carry

and mind is not whatI want to lose.

April 21

Have I lost it?

I want to get over it

- be done with it.

Its gone too deep,

you know.

Will make sense of it

later. Let time take

care of it.I will take care of it

and may pain flower

to bear the fruit of wisdom.

But no more words for now.

Just silence.

April 22I am stranded this side

not able to reach out

to him and to her;

you are already on

the other bank.

Did you acquirethe power of walkingon water?

Anything is possible

for you -

the milk of kindness

flows

through

your veins.

I check fromtime to time

if my heart is

still in place.

April 23

Not here,the mind says

searching for

a stable footing

its all sand.


9/12

All my houses

were of sand.

It was fun for

the waves,

for the sand,for others.

Not for me.This big thing

About building

Why not simply

Be sand?

April 24

Its by accident

That I discovered

I am an artist.

I want my work

To be just so,Not a line here

Not a line there.

I dont have time

For others ideasIn my work. Its my

Creation and let me

Have the freedom

To do it my way.

Its a work of art

After all and not

The days work.

All my lifeI have swallowed

Your irritations

And carpings.

Agreed, but arent

Artistes to be pampered?

Every detail has to be in place,

If it has to fetch appreciation.

The purpose of art is to

Imitate God in controlling

Ones creation. My lifes story.

April 25

You asked me to get

a better mask

for myself

and

I have been shopping.

What will

I do with the old one?


10/12

You'd throw it

away,

but who knows?

I might need it again.

I wonder,if between you and me

we never needed them,why should I need

one to face

the world?

Shops for masks

don't close.

April 26

Always taunted for

not being practicalI repair appliances

by telling the repairmanwhere the fault lies.

This morning

I mistook

in the market

gourd for

cucumberonly because

the paper slip was

not written legibly.

It's quite

practical not to read

what you once

wrote

famously.

Poet it is whose

finger moveson having written...

April 27

With the morning breeze

float in memories of

Home, far away, distant.

Her pace quickens

with the rays of the sunto meet the day ahead.

She has to sweep

Wash

Clean

Cook.

Winding her waythrough the lanes

she has to mind


11/12

the stray dogs

that stir at her footstep.

Suddenly words

drop on her

like a summer shower Words spoken in her tongue

in this distant land;She looks up

someone her age

but in t-shirt and pants

and shoes, going for

her morning walk,

briskly, talking on the cell

disappearing

in the morning mist.

There is heat

after a summer shower.

April 28When he started and kept up barking

at her

I was stabbed to my past -

heartless, drunken with hubris,

insensitive, dictatorial.And she, a picture of composure

firmly centred, not paying

heed to the commands;quite unlike mine.

Then he lectures on

the harm doneby higher education

and empowerment.

At least I supported

liberation by wordif not deed.

Here was future

callingfor liberation of the past.

Men too

shall rise

and followwomen on march.


12/12

April 29

The sun has scorched

some and not otherplants on the terrace.

Not more waterbut more shade

they ask for.

I am that old tree

on the road

giving shade to

passers by.

I am scorched.

I am free

with a big hug

to anyone who brings

water to me.

What a little bit of lovecannot do?

April 30

What a weak will

can do

with a little help

from friends?

To the parched earth

first showers

of summerdo very little

but mean so much.

I was lost

in wilderness

of dried dreams

with broken backs

and then

suddenly

a downpour

without warningswept me

to the edge.Its clear

Blue

Sky

Now

All around.

April Poems 2

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