Posts tagged ‘Contemporary Poetry’
Paris
cascades magically as Life,
onto streets and sidewalks,
unfolding a kaleidoscope
of moments strung in quick succession, into a memento.
The journey is comfortable,
watching the Hindu Kush,
from thousands of feet high
inside the flying machine,
arriving at the hotel,
small, neat, contained.
Time spills into experiences
eager to be experienced,
to savor the City.
Funny, that past glories and deeds
of human thought and endeavor
are experienced only in the Today…
Living through
the veins and arteries
of the people, as
history,
wars,
culture,
art,
music,
literature,
architecture,
cuisine,
fashion,
the Melba toast and Peach
of numerous stories…of what
happens with the who’s who…
The cobbled stones carry
the imprint of walkers who have
laughed,
cried,
fought,
danced,
sung,
written,
painted,
imagined,
thieved,
loved,
romanced,
dreamed,
and contemplated.
Drunk and sober alike…
They now carry mine and
probably yours.
Oh Yes, the
Parisian air waltzes with –
opulence and chic,
churches and cathedrals,
palaces and catacombs,
politics and emperors,
bistros and tearooms,
museums and art houses,
symphonies and orchestras,
technology and inventions,
architecture and chimneys,
jazz and opera,
cinema and can-can,
lamp posts and rain,
sunsets and clouds,
trains and metro stations,
avenues and boulevards,
chinchilla and lipstick,
the trendy and the hip,
hard work and opportunity,
beauty and creative impulse,
a carousel of Life –
whirling around the Seine…
Breathing it all –
and of course, tasting
the coffee and crème brûlée,
seated on quaint little chairs, jammed together, in cafés,
facing the City.
Ah Beautiful Paris, maybe, I’ll return..
Maybe, I never left..
Soon this will be a memory,
then a single thought,
that too will vanish into the vastness,
leaving no trace at all.
Was I ever here?
Did all this happen? I will never know!
February 21st 2014
At the feet of Masters
from whom I learnt to appreciate the wonder of It everywhere.
Dear Jungle Jalebi
Tears fall with you
As you fell
Last night
In winds that revved
Up a mighty squall
Your roots uprooted
From the earth
Your branches entangled
In electric wires
Bit by bit you
Are dismantled
From all that upon
Which you rest
Your weary limbs
And taken away
The cat runs up your
Huge, sloping trunk
One last time
To flex his muscles
On Nature’s post
The parrots busy
Gobbling your summer-ripened
Red fruit – so much you
Showered this year….
You enriched my life
By your presence,
Doing nothing,
And yet so much
And soon I will have
To learn to live in your
Absence
This time there is no sorrow
Only acceptance of
Nature and her forces
Yes, my friend,
I will miss you
And so will the cats
And squirrels
And birds and all
Those who came
And sat in your shade
And tasted your beauty
New Delhi
May 15th 2013
The dear, old Jungle Jalebi had probably been around for over 50 years. Our house was built around it. Like a friend that must go, it went. Funnily enough, it is still lives on…
a tree never leaves you…
LISTEN
Listen to birds
Listen to children
Listen to words spoken
Listen to that which is unspoken
Listen to open skies
Listen to clouds
Listen to falling rain
Listen to the rhythm of the universe
Listen to the space inside you
Listen to the space inside others
Listen to that which is unheard
Listen to that which is not thought of
Listen to stillness
Listen to nothing at all
Listen with attention
Listen with sincerity
Listen with love
Listen to silence
For God’s sake
Just Listen
Every one wants to be heard
Let’s live in the silence between words
Let’s abide in the silence of knowing
Let’s be the silence of it all
Rupa Anand
March 29th 2011
At the feet of the Master by whose Grace we learn to truly listen!
Is
A movement
of images
A dance
of words
A ballet
of feelings
A kaleidoscope
of impressions
A cloudburst
of emotions
My naked
thoughts
in party attire
To delight
Amuse
Surprise
and render
speechless sometimes
A few words written
without music
Yet in tune
and always
an offering
April 14th 2011
(By the sheer Grace of my Teachers)
Tell me how not to be pliant like a willow
When winds of deceit and subterfuge blow?
To stand correct and straight amidst
Overwhelming corruption and hate?
Tell me how to fight war and strife
With a white glove and no knife?
To cry a little more now and then
On seeing killing, riots and mayhem?
Tell me how to tolerate and bear
The mindless destruction of Life everywhere?
How to feel a wrenching pain
As hunters shoot down for profit and gain?
Tell me how not to turn my face away
From gnawing poverty and hunger every day?
Tell me how to experience the same
Of those tortured and maimed?
Tell me how to be a lotus in the lagoon
Despite muddy waters, in full bloom?
Tell me how to revere and hold sublime
All Life in its variety Divine?
Tell me how, O Sage, to pray,
Bringing Compassion, Awareness and Oneness
Into our lives each day?
Feb 15th 2011
Written after the riots and chaos in Egypt, January 2011 and the multitude of scams breaking out in India.
Yet it seems perennially valid ….
The Quiet Sky 