Poems

Our Heart Melts Down On This Sheet In The Form Of Ink, We Write To Spread The Fragrance Of Our Verses....

Shame on you, dear God...
                                                      Mithun Murali
       Dear God, are you really a problem child
       Who likes making havoc every week?
       Or are you just a spoilt brat
       Who loves playing hide and seek?
       Are floods your idea of throwing tantrums?
       Are tornadoes a sign that you crave attention?
      Are we mere puppets for you to play?
      Without any strings attached, we continue to slay
      So you like playing dress up with your multiple avatar?
      We’ve joined that many sides and we've gone to war
      We kill, we maim
      All in your name
      While you pick apart Nepal
      Like your private jigsaw game 
     We savour your legacy,
     While we slaughter your children
     We leave behind a trail
     Of death and destruction 
     We give you gold, gold,
     And yes, more gold
     While starving children
     Are dying many fold
     This is no time to hide,
     And we're in no mood to seek
     Shame on you! But all the same...

This long way nowhere!!!
                                                                                                       Akhila Ajith

It's been a while
Walking is tedious
Still I walked
It's been a while
Crying is useless
I do cry
It's been a while
Thinking is monstrous
Yet I thought
It's been a while
Love is corrupted
But I loved...
Faith turned wild
Fate turned mild
Sword for word
Storm for Om
Death for love
Tax for lax
And what not??
Sickening semantic revolution
It's been a while
I have been treading
This way,this long way
This long way to nowhere!!! 
From Survivor
                                                                                                       Leenu Lenus
Tell me...
Can you?
Perfect being sees imperfections!
Slaves of our own visions .

Show me...
Can you?
Nothingness for goodness!
Witness of our own missions .

Long lost what had been prime!
Long lived what had been crime!
Sustained, survived,  and stopped.
Globe turned into blaze.

If you can make out
Just try or just cry
A bit of compassion
For the confusion.

  

Stream of Red

Sruthi Suthesan


I saw blood gushing out
Spurting blood form a stream
Gooey stream, thick dark red
Droplet falling heavy upon another

It surged ghastly
As chased by some spectral being
That nipped open
The threshold to exultance

The reeks of blood enticed
It oozed out slowly with snug
The incipient pain soon vanished
Giving chimes of bliss

The cosmos of red blood
Formed a lane to ultimate rapture
Through the turbulent passage
And the trudging blood vein clogged




Being an umbrella
Ananthan S

The smile beneath that umbrella
I saw through the window pane,
Is so pure as the sun that shines
Through a thick frozen morning dew.
The umbrella passed the rusty gate
It turned round the curve it passed,
But still I sat at the window pane
Hoping for a gentle breeze
To toss that umbrella up in the air
And direct it to that rusty gate.
But, then I reviewed my selfish hopes
And thought about the purpose of
That grace driven pretty umbrella.
I like it.
I like its role.
I like being that umbrella.



The Illumination
Ananthan S

The seat that's left unoccupied
The room that's left deserted
My spirits that's left abandoned.
The pen that plays flipping
My tear that never comes dripping,
Unable to put my mind
On a piece of paper,
Unable to pull it up, from
Dark wells of melancholy waters.
Sitting somewhere in this vastness,
Contemplating only on my sadness,
Waiting for the knock on the door,
For the light to sweep through, to
Illuminate this little space
And my little mind
And my little hopes.




On The Second Thought

Ananthan S

The darkness outside seems to be silent
And here I am in the light of commotion.
I intend to leap out
To the ignorant dark of bliss,
But hesitated at the second thought
Because that is what thought always does.
Light is disturbing, I know,
But darkness is too hollow.
You can't see in dark your loved ones,
Their emotions that create the commotions.
Also, an escape from difficulties
Is also a route to apathetic indifference.
This illuminated space hurts me,
Coz, this is where hearts are connected.
I don't want to elude into the gloom.
I don't want to run away.
Now I intend to stay
Till the light goes out.




ETERNAL MIRAGE

Akhila Ajith

The sublimity that remains unachieved
Seems to wound through and through
The mystery that remains unbelievd
Seems to fight within and out

Life and desire in their humble chariots
Ruling quick heads and slow hearts
Pestered thoughts and hibernating riots
Failing to heed the echo of good

Duality being the essence of existence
Embraces confusion unreachable
Doubts being victims of persistence
Gits questions unanswerable

Life like a glimmering star
Fakingly shines and hopelessly fades
The real purpose being far
Majesty lies it its mortality



Lovely Shadows
Ananthan S

The morning light gleams
Tyndally through the backyard trees,
And searching for nothing
I was in for a stroll.
I joined the familiar trees
That stood enjoying the fog,
And my silent companion fell
With those of the familiar trees.
There is something special about
The light of morning sun.
Like love that enhances
The virtues of loved one,
The morning flames enlarges
The shadows of earthly props.
May be, sun is deeply in love
With earth after a yearning night.
And I wonder looking at
The size of my own shadow,
Whether love enhances the
Virtues of one's own self.
May be it does.


Tomorrow's Anxiety

Ananthan S


The twilight is on its way
And evening horizon seems dark.
Sitting at the dusk of separation
Pondering over the dawn of rejoining,
Not rejoiced at the thought of it
But anxious at the way of it.
This is the end of a journey, where
All are back with or without a yearning,
Every journey teach us something
And every something makes us something.
The mud on our traveling boots
That we all gather unknowingly,
Sticks right in our heart
Which still stays clean unwashed.
This may change the person we are
And can transform everything about us.
A friend with no longer a pat
A lover with no longer a heart
A foe with long lost hatred
I foresee a whole lot of confusion.
So here I am, a foe, a lover, a friend
Staring at the horizon as darkness fell.



Invisible

Sruthi Suthesan


Who are you talking to?
There’s no one
Shadow less, I stand

You can’t see me
With your eyes opened or closed

Ey, you hear me?
You don’t, nobody does

I speak, with no words
I walk, I run, with no footsteps
I scream, with no noise
I cry, with no tears

Breathless, I breathe
Like the fragrantless flower I bloom,
Like the flightless bird I fly,
Like the colorless butterfly I flutter

The wind touching my skin,
The water rinsing my body,
The grain of sand under my feet,
All oblivious of my being.

I begin from nothingness
I shall end in nothingness

Anonymity spells my name,
Hostility, ignominy, destitute, isolation,
Addresses me

Like the isolated little bird in the vast sky,
Like the musical note out of harmony,
I search for myself,
Like an invisible, I exist.





The Women in My Family

Patricia Jabbeh Wesley

The women in my family were supposed
to be men. Heavy body men, brawny
arms and legs, thick muscular chests and the heart,
smaller than a speck of dirt.

They come ready with muscled arms and legs,
big feet, big hands, big bones,

a temper that's hot enough to start World War Three.
We pride our scattered strings
of beards under left chins
as if we had anything to do with creating ourselves.
The women outnumber the men
in my father's family, leaving our fathers roaming

wild nights in search of baby-spitting concubines
to save the family name.
It is an abomination when there are no boy children.

At the birth of each one of us girls, a father sat prostrate
in the earth, in sackcloth and ash,
wailing.
It is abomination when there are no men
in the family, when mothers can't bring forth
boy children in my clan. 


[Copyright ©: Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, first Published in The River is Rising, Autumn House Press, 2007 & 2014]


A Note To Death

Akhila Ajith


Hey, wild emperor of shadows
Pridely hiding behind the meadows
Faithfully Hunting in angst for life
An inevitable companion in rife

Wild are your walks and ways
Pounding second never sways
Spinning and chaining in vain
Leaving many souls in pain
Like a villain amidst heroes
Soothingly tearing into zeroes
The man of ruthless fame
For your cruel vision sees all same

An encounter with you chasing spirit
Is an encounter with mortality
To fight you is fairly foolish
To live you is unfairly wise

Your art knowingly unknown
Your ways feebly questioned
Your path humbly cleared
Remember, you count on me



The One Within

Nikhil V P


I sank down into the depth of the crystal clear furnished with black, one sided.
It wasn’t me, but the one within, narrowed path and the pain abided.
The only blaze, the moon, concealed behind the dark clouds of my past,
The silent tears, the loud screams dwelled within the bottled heart until last.

The trace steep, bends sharp, shadows followed by the back,
Moments so fast, the earth sped, I ran until I was stark.
Black set down, a new sun rise and I was all asleep
The new power, the one within, lay ahead and deep.

Dawn to dusk, bright to dark, hidden by the edge of the cage,
difference, not the real, the one within took over with the age.
The pain, the suffer, it was all but dead,
Rain in the desert, came the one within, comforted and led.


The Thought Of A Good-Bye

Ananthan S


Nothing lasts in this shabby place
No one stays in this filthy world,
What we see and what we hear
Are memories of the coming hour.
We are all a bunch of birds
Resting together on a broken trunk,
Some may share their even thoughts
And some may share the fruits of life,
Put out their hearts to others' hands
And fill their mind with others' thoughts
And stay merry in the togetherness
Until the day they wave out their hands.
At the break of a dawn,
In the morning sun,
We will flap our little wings
And fly for different horizon
Looking for a new lease of life
Looking for the love of our minds.
But there are still some winged ones
Perching on this browny branch
Having polar notions between
Their brain that forgets and heart that won't.

SMILE

Ameena Kabeer


How can I hide my pain,
With a smile?
But my face don’t tell lie;
It reflects my feelings.

How can I hide my pain,
With a smile?
But my eyes don’t tell lie;
Tears roll down from it.

How can I hide my pain,
With a smile?
Oh, no! but my heart
Beats like drum,
And I feel like broken.

How can I hide my pain,
With a smile?
But my brain don’t allow,
Memories arise and makes me mad.

When my face reflects my feelings,
My lips try to hide it.

When my eyes spread tears,
My hands try to wipe it.

When my heart beats like drum,
my thoughts try to stop it.

When my brain and memories makes me mad,
Some advice try to end it.

Oh, God! Thank you
For giving me
Such a wonderful talent…




MY PARADISE
Nikhil V P

There I was, in the dense dark Heaven
Rotten flowers, driven accent of the skeletons degraded
Isolated, the dark clouds thundering deprived of rain
Sweat and drained, draught was all around.

The leaves shed with the spell bound winter
Waiting for the unknown diluted summer,
Dead! The leaves were; starved, chilled and froze
Unborn, undead lay the wishes so ahead.

Following the path did seem followed by the path
Awakens the unholy immortals with the dusk that may spark.
The smoke, diluted into the thick husky air,
Cried down into the earth with no one to hear.



I Now Wander

Patricia Jabbeh Wesley
I raised ducks, pigs, dogs, barking watchdogs.
Wild chickens loose, dancing, flapping old wings.

Red and white American roosters, meant to be sheltered
And fed with vitamins until they grow dumb;

In our yard I set them loose among African breeds
That pecked at them until they, too, grew wild and free.

I planted papayas, fat belly papayas, elongated papayas,
Tiny papayas, hanging. I planted pineapples, mangoes,

Long juicy sugar canes, wild coco-yams. From our bedroom
Window I saw plantain and bananas bloom, again and again,

Take on flesh and ripeness. And then the war came, and the rebels
Slaughtered my pigs, my strong roosters, my hens,

My heavy, squawking ducks. Now I wander among strangers,
Looking for new ducks, new hen, new coco-yams, new wars.



[Copyright ©: SIU Press and Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, Published in Becoming Ebony: Poems, 2003, Crab Orchard Awards Series]



REMINISCENCE

Sruthi Suthesan
With those swollen sore eyes she strolled in the dark,
For a thread of light to guide her

Her bruised body pained
The wind blowing prodded her tender skin

She wanted to crept into her mother’s womb
Where she is secluded in the watery walls

Days passed, months showed and years followed her
The world inside sunk and the roots came along

The deceitful world had rendered her enough
And stealthily slung her off into darkness
The frail and naïve heart could swallow no more
Of the crookedness shown to her

She looked around for some answers,
But the wilderness sunk her completely

She remembered the warmth of her mother’s bosom
The safe masculine hands of her father

She had long forgotten, in that big world
What it meant to her 

She clambered hard to get out of the mire
She knew it had blemished all over her

She peered out again finding for a way
In profound thought of her existence

The darkness finally showed her the path
To that disguised life, life disguised



SERENITY
NIKHIL V P

The dawn, the hug, the shivering body, the pain
My heart writes them down, the ink, may that be blue or red
The love, care, sacrifice and those waves that wiped our feet
Memories, those remembered and some not

My mother, the one within, my companion,
All there resting in that peaceful house, dug some foots beneath
The flowers on top, some spread; the colors of white and rest-the love,
The touch, feel and sight, immortal,
I was there and always there she was.



The Nomadic Feline

K N Pillai


It now and then hares
in to our veranda.
Eats and licks up from a dish
which I have laid aside for it.
Afterwards it meditates as if in a trance.
Then climbs atop our chair’s cushion
to doze off for a while snug and nestled.
Is it the same Cheshire cat
on its perennial roaming?
A Mona Lisa smile flashed.
And uttering Delphic pronouncements.
Or a reborn Van Dyck cat
of the St. Peters’ museum?
(Where ‘Declaration of the museum cats’ rights’ was drafted)
Or just another cat nomadic.
Certainly, not a diamond eyed one
like that of Thai King Ramon V’s.

Our house is not in its itinerary
for its night halt and sleep.
It skulks out into the Stygian dark.
Who knows to where, may be to pursue its adventures amorous.
At times it suddenly scoots from our premises.
To resurface only after a few days.
(A puzzle uncanny that is still ticking over).
I would always then gawk at our gate.
Rake around and crane my neck.
For the sight of any feline shadow
creeping through its bars.
Quite fetishistic and whacky!?

On occasions bruises and gashes
and sores fester through its face.
And head. (perhaps bitten or mauled
by others of its own ilk.
Or lashed at by some unkind bipeds
here and there). But my assortments
of antidotes (all dates expired)
do heal the quadruped in speed.
How long the bonhomie
between this curmudgeon frail
and the animals stray could last?
(Anytime one or both of them
could end up rotting under the sod).
Why can’t we humans cotton up
to these hapless and dumb creatures as our own co-inhabitants
and drip a wee bit of compassion up on them.
I have gone bonkers and unctuous!



Songs of Meera - 7

Anuradha Panikar


My eyes fill again stung by tear drops.
My lord did not come again to hear Meera's song
Meera sang throughout the day
hoping her Lord will come to hear her pray
and now that the sun slips down the sky
Meera's heart in despair is about to cry.
But why is the sky glowing red
and stretching a like a hand towards Meera's head?
Dark God! its you! the red sky kissing Meera's forehead
and blanketing Meera within your kisses red!
The dusk that follows the day is You!
This is for Meera a revelation new.
Kissing Meera's body with that vibrant hue
but why does it fade? the red that is you?
Stop teasing Meera embracing suddenly from behind!
When the red vanished what followed was You!
The darkness of night spreads
and Meera melts in your dark embrace,
a kiss of dusk before your all embracing darkness
as Meera sings to all her bhajans.
And when the morn comes Meera now sees
how with another departing red kiss you melt into the sea.
Meera's dark God is a mischievous soul
kissing Meera when he comes and before he is gone.
But now Meera's heart is light
knowing that He is dusk, dawn and night.



Song – Unheard

Jacintha Morris
Alone she sang among the vessels
Lying behind a hut not well thatched.
Like the Snow White from the fairy tales
With little yellow chicks just hatched.
No one knew she could sing with such grace
A few saw her hut, none heard her voice
AHer hut could hardly be called a home
Owner of some land she’ll never become
She wasn’t blessed with the care of a mother,
Even at teens with lesson to gather,
A time when guidance does much matter,
She had lost her battle, none did bother
She was blessed with two brothers to be fed
Her decrepit father was as good as dead
No breast milk to put the babes to sleep,
Their whine and bawl did make her weep,
From the depth of her heart came the saddest songs
She was mom to them, a broken old chalice
Ripened corn- waiting to be reaped.
At times her wails flowed unhindered,
Her lonesome lament became a melody,
Babes’ weak cries added the chorus
Father’s dry cough a tattered base drum
No stage within the bamboo leaf roof
No blasting music to support that solo,
None gave a big hand or lent a little hand,
No awards t all for her unpopular band
Unheard chorus circled with the smoke,
Unheard laments clanged with the vessels,
And unheard verses remained as Songs Unheard.



A Lamentation

Priyada Kochukudy


I fought with life
But it held back
Momentarily to reveal
Sharp pangs of woes
Sweat mixed with tears
Oozed out from the pores
Ruefully I was aware
Of my opponent high-handed
Beaten and lifeless
In between gasps of terror
There is the tragic wail of heart
‘I surrender, I surrender’




HURL THE SHROUD

Gopika Krishnan


It was a dazzling barrier,
In between you and me;
Just like a pillow amidst
my heavy head and bed;
That had concealed your
callousness and crookedness!
Now I could see it
waning albeit vex me,
Squeezing and sucking in
my hot tears that slither,
Timidly down my cheeks.
It encourages the vane in you,
To vandalize me forever;
Strives to smother me
for the sake of you!
And that barrier is
My sacred love for you;
That enlivens my days of
yesteryear by frozen memories,
Knowingly longingly for a niche
within your heart to reside.
Nevertheless a curb is there;
My eyes now bleed,
Reflecting my reluctance
to come apart again,
Which come to nothing!
So hurl that shroud of commitment,
which makes you numb…



Appreciation, A Myth

Jacintha Morris
The voluminous ship sailed at peace
The efficient captain steered it with ease
Hard working co-captain stood to please
Others as a team to cheer the voyagers

Mishaps came like bolt from the blue
The captain passed away with infectious flu
The co-captain lay with paralytic stroke
The crew sided with the voyagers as a rock

The ship tossed and turned without the head
The storm forced it to hit the hard rock bed
“The ship should be saved and safely be led”
The bold crew rose up and joined the crowd

To hold the sail was tough for the naive hands
Tides and sharks too played rough sea-bands
Damage did happen until the ship saw land
Done by the crew and the voyagers at hand

At last the damaged ship anchored at the shore
But the relief of the crew lingered no more
Allegations and accusations for untactful steer
Pelted by onlookers and voyagers in the rear
Words of advice and criticisms aplenty
Cheap and easy lip service like a bounty
Made the Saviours think over and swear
“Shouldn’t have saved the lives of the unfair”



The Fishmonger and the Feline

K N Pillai

I

The bicycle-fishmonger pedals
every morn to the teashop
just close to our house-gate-east
on his enroute to Thakazhi
(who knows to which other places?).
Stoked by a frisson of hunger
every dawn, his bicycle is escorted
by a fourlegged denizen
right from our west front-culvert
to the teashop where the fishmonger halts
his two wheeler, ramshackle and rickety.

II

The tomcat stray, coalblack, scraggy
and famished but broadeared and
gimlet eyed (but soulful), every dawn hopefully
lies in wait among the hedges and thickets
of grass, mushrooming on our frontroad’s
outer periphery. Hungering and yearning
for the sight and sound of some fishmonger’s speeding bicycle and its screeching to a halt
at the teashop’s front.

III

The fishmonger wizened in his sunset years, lanky, barrel chested, waspwaisted, gaunt and haggard,
a scarecrow in tattered, grimy and matted cloth,
bedraggled and grubby and gingy shirt, goaty beard
(looking wispy and stranggly), mutton-chop whiskers
tinged with grey, courting on to his chapped cheeks,
capacious forehead, bugeyed but puffed up,
grizzled eyebrows dangling above the eyes,
buck teeth protruded, face pock-marked and
wrinkled, dour and grumpy, a mop of sandy
and flaxen hair, frizzy and tousled but
spiky and silverleonine, secured by a reddish band
and wrapped with an yellow towel. A megawatt
but saturine and insouciant smile, spindly legs,
limping in his bone’s frame. He opnes his large box
fixed to the rear seat of his bicycle, unfolds
his towel, hangs it loose upon his one shoulder.
Then starts his trade, haggling of his fish.
His face then wreaths in a puff
of some of his favourite beedi’s smoke.


IV

The cat wildly thumps its pencil-thin tail,
circles feverishly around the fishmonger’s legs.
In a tissy, it pathetically looks upon him,
frenetically mews and mews and whines and
whines and yowls and yowls at the fishmongers
who on occasions throws down one or two whits
of fishes from his box (which it ravenously
gorges and gobbles down in a traice). But
sometimes, livid, in his husky voice, he yells
and screams at the poor creature and in fury
kicks it away. When it writhes and groans
and moans and in a jiffy, flees from there for its life.

V

Who knows, by next day’s morn
or a few days hence, both the fishmonger
and the cat wont end up mangles under the sod,
rolled over by some speeding vehicles ( a common
occurrence nowadays). When a few kith and kin
of the fishmonger somewhere might lament for him.
But who will mourn for a dead stray feline.
What’s there to script and scrawl about it?
When human beings themselves get forgotten in toto even by
their own siblings and offsprings soon after their
obsequies end or for a few years more remembered during
their annual rituals when their names and birthday-stars
are chanted amidst hymns and bells in the temples or
in their homes or at the beaches of rivers during holy festivals.
Or in the churches during consecrations and supplications and
genuflexions or ablations. Nevertheless, a few forebears are
exceptions (lucky?). They continue to outlive their contemporaries
dead by appearing themselves inside many an obituary column
of print-media in their old pose even a quarter or half a century
or more after their deaths. How long these great grand progenitors
now deluged in their prelapsarian equipoise, will continue
to be remembered through these ‘in-memoriam’- columns of newspapers,
inserted by their descendants still endeared to them and now alive
in this earth? Just to treasure, cherish and nourish and to perpetuate
the reminiscences of their ancestors and to celebrate
the ephemeral and the eternal and the immanent and
the intranscendent bond and bondage and its mystique,
I have waffled only bits of ordure and bilge!


[ Composed over the span of 4 months from August 12- December 15, 2008 ]



TO THE DEAD MOTH

Gayathri Jayakumar


Fly dead moth,
flap again those powdery wings.
Dead in this world,
but alive in my dreams.
Relive in my dream’s clasp
I toss your carrion to the winds.
In my dreams your wings unfurl,
follow these silvery streams
that like diamonds dazzle
under the silver moon in my dreams.
It’ll lead you to my crystal castle
Each tower, a frozen tear
that was shed for a memory dear.
There you can flap again
into eternity till you tire your veins
and rest on the dewy moonflowers that line
my garden of blooming dreams and desires.
Flap again your powdery wings,
No death would dare to kiss you there.
Let me toss your carrion to the winds,
Live again in my dreamy lair…



Songs of Meera - 6

Anuradha Panikar
Meera can't see Oh Dark God,
her entire world is spinning beyond control!
Meera has no fear, as everything is drenched in black
like your beautiful skin, dark.
Meera strand in this darkness flowers of verses for her God
and waits by his feet at this humble abode.
The temple bells cling and clang insane
while Meera chants her dark God's name.
The winds rush in from all directions seeking Meera's place
to chime the bells for Dark God as Meera sings his name.



Boulders

Jacintha Morris


Boulders on the Earth square or round
Fine or crude, but strong they hold
Forts and tombs, walls and pillars
Chiselled caves and tunnels through hills

Boulders, those well-founded wave-breakers
Save the shores from the sea-water’s shears.
Boulders as rooted and seeded boundaries
From enemy’s fleet do save the countries

Boulders in the heart of an insensitive man
Block the instinctive flow of love so often
Boulders that erupt in the mind of man
Groom up the ego which leads him to ruin

Boulders we see in the common man’s eyes
Blind the gifts that another possess
Boulders of power corrupt their hand
They narrow the prosperity of our land

Let’s roll off the boulders in our mind
As they make us the cannibal’s own kind
Be not the boulders on other folk’s life
For we are all the same with only one life.



Reversion

Gopika Krishnan


I’m unaware of the day from which,
I started my journey being clinched
In a vehicle which carried me,
Moved with utmost care without dislodging me.
Through the half opened hallowed window,
One portion of the world was seen;
Through which the breeze was being bestowed
And leapt my mind from reverie scene.
Once I had the urge to brim over
By leaving behind my comfort zone;
Now I could see the angels hover
And could hear a weary screaming tone!
Remaining as a vagabond in the prevailing world,
I came across the fact that;
It sparkles as an odd gold!
The very first vehicle which was the best and apt.



Ode on her Eyes

S H Shankar


Of glowing dark brownish hue
Sing honesty and voice the truth
I know heaven,
Having seen it in you
Glistening and splendid, the morning dew

Strong and powerful
But Calm, like an ocean
Voiceless, they cry and speak a thousand tales

Ravishing, enticing and intense deep
Oh, do I need to recite them through poetry?

Wide eyed innocence and curious look
Meandering like a crystal clear brook

When I look in to you, I m a book lost in a shelf
I go blind, senseless, I forget myself

There is love in them, which cannot be bought
But earned, its worth
Every time I look into those provocative eyes
All I hear are a million sighs

Enchanting, bewitching like violet sunset sky
I turn around restless in my bed all night



Songs of Meera - 4

Anuradha Panikar
Meera sleeps peacefully dreaming her God.
The moon shines upon the Rajput Princess of yore
and as sand pours down in time
and as stars course the sky
Meera wakes by a whisper by her bed,
There stares at Meera two shiny serpent eyes
and hisses to Meera his fangs’ desire
whence he shall pierce Meera’s skin with his fangs
to spray venomous jets into Meera’s veins.
Meera, in waves of devotion sways
chants to Siva; but the serpent still stays!
Meera chants the Asthika slok
the serpent hisses contempt, sticks out his tongue long!
Meera in tears prays to her God
her lover, her beloved, her dark Lord,
revokes in her mind how as a child
he crushed the prideful hood of kaaliy,
how, he in the rushful waters that day
rose dancing upon the serpent, his prey.
With her heart swelling with love and pride
and tears and devotion overflowing her eyes
Meera lets out a deep sigh of love and devotion
chants her dark Lord’s name “ Oh Krishnaa”.
Her lungs explode in a wave of love
that powerfully like a last breath escapes
from each sweat pores of her soft skin
and her lips trembling chant his name,
"Krishna..." once more, and like lightning struck,
recoils a terrified fearsome serpent
no more fearsome, begging at my feet
pleads to Meera to let it leave
and never return to plunge its fangs
onto bhakt Meera’s skin or heart
and to spare it from my Dark Lord’s wrath
Kaaliyamardana Krishna’s hands.
Here, flees the serpent at the name of my lord,
at Krishna’s name flees the cold-blooded form.



THE LIFE OF A SCRIBBLER
Nikhil V P

The line is the way to my success
That I could never see over my sprinkled luck.
Thorns and Stones gave me those bruises
Torn leg, I walked with my blood to the life I’d ducked.

The sins washed away by the blood I’d shed
Still making a line with the pain I wore.
The more I walked, the harder became the bread
The memories were my dream and hope seemed ashore.



TOUCH

Sruthi Suthesan
The burning blaze of your touch
That like a molten lava inside my sinews
It dissolved into my nerves
Intoxicating like a drug
I flutter into ecstasy

Your touch
Like the chilliest snowfall inside my stomach
A twinge so soothing
It took every inch of me in its grip

The burning sensation of two bodies
That kindles a fire inextinguishable
A deep commotion of desires
That could never be quenched

That touch, that took the whole of me
Into that paradise I know nothing of
Where dwells the spirit of insatiability

Drifted apart by that touch
A feeling so novel to my body
Wanting more and more of it
My body transforming to the cadence of my emotions
Becoming mere witnesses of the chaos

I could cherish every second of it for a lifetime
Wanting to feel it a hundred of times
Getting lost in ecstasy of it
The mysterious lustful body
Unable to understand any reason
Stirs slowly consuming every bit of it



Songs of Meera - 3

Anuradha Panikar


The rains my lord, my beautiful God
that showers on me like your divine grace
pouring from high heavens
to dance to Meera's song
soothing the land and my heart.
Cold sweeps the green and aid Meera's art
Meera sings drenched in rain to you
my dark, dark God, Meera dances for you
My Lord who once danced with the Gopis at night
dance with Meera in this rain tonight.
Meera sings to her lord, a lovelorn heart
rain upon Meera your heavenly charm.



Is Suzainna A Sinner?

Jacintha Morris
Suzainna strode bold like the models,
Cat-walked in high heeled sandals,
Golden curls bounced at her nods,
And lay cascading around her face.
Bosom straight, hips swayed,
All men cheered and waved.

No wrinkles or freckles,
Shiny, clear skin of a teen.
She greeted all in a husky voice,
Old men melted to their youth,
All of them breathed through their mouth,
With sudden blood gush only to sooth

Her fragrance got them mesmerized,
Even dames of every age felt hypnotized,
Awe-struck by her evergreen charm
Though she had covered half a century,
Flair at fifty, still a flamboyant flamingo,
Her confidence made many ladies scorn.

Lasses once her school-mates whispered
“Is this our Suzy who moved like a lamb?
Innocent, shy with monosyllabic talk
Not bothered about her look or walk
Fear of God, so intense and strong
And so afraid of boys, even when young”.

College pals who had become grandmas
Placed their hands upon their mouths
To hush the quotes they cited about her
“As a teen she never had any affair
Now a flirt! How can she be
A dare devil not bothered of any?”

The nuns and teachers who had taught
And aided to make her become an adult
Asked in unison to the creator above
“Why change this angel so dear?
Her prayers she had never forgotten
But she is now the foul talk of the Town “

Is Suzainna really a sinner?
The transformation of Jesus to Judas
As picturised by Leonardo Da Vinci?
Have situations betrayed her?
Or circumstances cajoled her?
Once a butterfly, now a toad
None read her heart, all along her road



Parch

Ameet Anand Unnithan
Still holding on tight, to her clay pot,
She stood, lost deep in some thought,
Swaying, as she felt the sting of pulsing heat,
From the scorched earth, under her naked feet,
She peered again, into that dark hollow shell,
The air seemed cooler, within that empty well.



Songs of Meera -2

Anuradha Panikar
I open my eyes and see my God
i close them, there is my God again
this darkness of the night is his skin
and this darkness i feel is to me akin,
he resides within every cell that is me
as I sing these verse for him free
Meera here sings to her lovely God
Oh dark marvel, hear her song.
she sings to you through rain and snow
she reads here on her small lute
and sways in passionate devotion to you
Meera is here my enticing God
hear her sing on your accord.



Omen

Ameet Anand Unnithan


Specters, Silent and grim
Within the mist, they loom,
Shadows pale and dim,
Forebearers of impending doom.

Remnants of time, long gone,
They appear, within mists borne,
To warn, the living and unborn,
That cometh, times grave and forlorn.



Songs of Meera - 1

Anuradha Panikar
Ecstatic bliss in the guise of dark nimbus
reminds me of my eternal love
that dark form, like his dark body
a playful soul resides under his matted curls
ripened lips imploring my soul
to sing in praise of this lovely God
as he springs around in the forest floor
like a spritely hare, like a playful doe
and the thought alights my human heart
with deepaks, brightens my darkened past
marriage to none but my only God.
I'll string garlands of verses for my dark God
hear shyaamavarna, enticing deity
Meera will sing for you till eternity.



The Vanishing Face

Nada Rajan
My mind was full of sparkling dreams of future
It was then i noticed a face somewhere
The face was much familiar to me
But i couldn’t recall where i saw it
Whether it was in my dreams, i never knew
I always remained lost in your thoughts
Whenever i saw you, i felt as if my dreams flourished
You were making an immense influence in my life
Whenever you went out of sight, i felt as if going mad
You were occupying a place in some corner of my heart
You were the one i thought day and night

Days passed by without me knowing anything
Whether you were aware of all these, i never knew
But i began to enjoy a new spirit
And that was the spirit of love
I should say- at least i think so!



Serpentine

Gayathri Jayakumar
I slither amidst the debris squirt and spewed by the worlds,
Textured skin, scarred and charred by demonic herds.
I coil around galaxies-spinning gyres of dust and fire,
Absorbing and absolving the melting heat of many births and desire.
I slither through the ancient remnants of creation, body ablaze by poison,
That radiate throughout the world merging into the one in padma pose,
His shikha and throat clotted with the deadly waves of the universe.
My veins and fangs throb in the heat as I share the vile of the world,
I slither across to that pinnacle where he sits lost and meditates,
And silently coils around my Lord, unwanted, sharing all his pains....



Moment

Ameet Anand Unnithan
We walk, across the moon lit moist sand,
Tears leak her eyes, as we breach shore’s brink,
Wading into the awaiting dark sea, hand in hand,
Leaving deep foot prints behind, into the depth we sink.



The Cry Of Vehemence

Gayathri Jayakumar
The weight of a passing moment
Pressing against my crumbling heart
Embarrassment at a dice play event!
Here melts a King who failed his part…
My brothers! All laid with guilt and shame
All our heads bowed down in pain
A crooked smile from the Master of the Game
My pride still keeps bellowing insane!
He drags in our wife, scantily dressed
Our last priced possession, the Glory of our Crest.
She cries, begging for mercy, for justice
But I’ve robbed her off all her claim to it!
The ground seems to shift under the weight of my sin
I’ve made mere objects of my wife and kin…
What frenzy binds my heart?
For this spin of dice lull me to dart,
To catch that rolling dice in my hand
And with a spin and throw turn fortune’s art.
But alas! Look at me; pledging what is not mine,
No more is my pride before the devil and the divine.
I sit helpless, hopeless, homeless,
Melting under the accusing glare of their eyes…
Here begins a chapter that will end in war
The fire in her eyes, inferno of our clan!
Let my bones melt first in that fire
I sit, pawned from head to toe; an unworthy heir.
I’ve heard that he who sells himself have no soul,
And here I’ve pawned six of my own!
My actions have forced all mouths into silence
Only her scream breaks through my conscience…
Her cry for revenge…Her cry of vehemence.



RAIN

NIKHIL V P
That white crystal drop fell on my feet that I noticed it rain.
Thunder, storm and cloudy did that lovely day had changed.
Facing down the floor with reminiscences caged
All that rain could do was wipe the city clean.

There I sat by the closed window, gazing through the glass
Black umbrellas walking over my street with blur scenes of all that I would hate.
It has always been raining since that day I could remember.
What is it that in this world that rain may come again?

Those rains, the beautiful once are the pains of my unwanted memories
Hatred, struggles and disrespect were all that mixed with drops
Past made floods, future disgust, so rain would always be
It’s my life, rain the tears that flooded down my feet.



Love- an abstract Noun

Nada Rajan
Love
they teach,
is an abstract noun.
So is
all our feelings...
I wonder,
can abstract
define
you, me & us too???
For,
a clarity
in
our feeling
of what really ‘love’ is
seems
inevitable...
To define
‘love’
seems an absurd task.
For,
as abstract
a noun it is,
only as a verb
does it
attain
the consummation
of our lost souls!



Breathe ones last

Shehan S Salam
Twenty-first century magazine star,porn beauty.
Seduced everything,delicious food of everyone once.. .
Toasted like a bread now,dried like a barren land.. .
Her breasts stay now only a mere skin..
No more the sound of pleasure is uttered from her glutton mouth.. .
Stayed on her bed,waited long for that winding sheet to come..
Dreamt of a winding sheet made of sins.
Now on the death bed,sleeping nude to hear knell..
Young boys are too happy,another slut going to vanish they thought.
But forgot the nights of joy they had.. .
All this happens when woman turns flesh only .
Needles started stinging under her fingers..
The pain bound her bosom like she embraced her men..
Once the sperm filled bed and kiss killed pillow have turned blood filled meadow and tears filled willow. .
Sleazy men are running after fresh fruits,they know this barren land can give them nothing more..
A hot river once used to flow through this land..
Men enjoyed the warmth of river and celebrated the months of joy..
They can't step on to this land anymore,it can't share the rings of pleasure..



MEMORY

Nikhil V P
I remember those days when i grew up,
with all those smiles and love that i fetched from them,
seconds, minutes, hours and days and sometimes years
is what it takes to understand the lost soul of your childhood....

my finger locked by the heat of my father's palm,
my head pressed against the love of my mother's heart
the smile that grew the laughter out of my granny's face
now i think how a mere age could dissolve everything into the smell of air....

those independence that gave me wings to fly
snatched all those wealth that lay behind
a look upon my past makes me write it out,
"MEMORY" is all i wish and penned that down......



The Astral Home

Gayathri Jayakumar
Tonight the stars will rain down once again
As in my soundless slumber I slip into the astral plane
The wild drum beats will pump again,
My putrid blood into the Astral Plane.
As I float along like a lonely shade
And put up with the omnipotent gaze,
My mind shall reel into my past
Desperately grapping clues of the future
And pick the fallen stars that at my feet cast
A meek glow that the Gods once nurtured.
Once again I shall walk along the lane
Where my dear dead ones reside in the Astral Plane.
I will gift them the elixir of thought
And the meek, glowing stars brought.
I shall stride again as a spirit or lair,
Softly trudge through the Astral Layer
And weave with the fallen stars dreamy quilts
With which I shall layer my words and build
Verses upon verses, into a shimmering dome
Where I shall house my dear dead ones…
A home, far from home…



The smile she smiled.

Anna Maria
She smiled
always.

I remember when she did.
Always.

And I would know
nothing was right
Always.

But nevertheless she smiled,
desperately,
as if it was the thin thread
that connected herself with life,
with things
and people that mattered to her.

I have cried her tears when she did so.

For me, I saw the tears not shed
the creases around her mouth
the patience of her gait.

One day:
must have been a moment
when her smile just said to her
no more of this, sit down and weep
and she could not,
she looked up:
the ceiling was so close,
the blue sky within her reach she spied
from the broken tiles,

(Her saree was strong,
that beautiful saree
she loved so well,
full of flowers,
" like a garden",
she always used to say).
she draped the end on the fan
smiled like a child on a swing.
They found her like that:
roses draped, smiling, swinging.

Yesterday:
with the breeze
the fragrance of roses

filled the room .
She came in gently,
smiling, as a child on a swing.

I see her smile,
Always.
I never smile.


[Dr Mary Annie A.V,(M,Sc., Ph.D),India writes under the pen name Anna Maria. She has been recipient of several acclamations on line and her poems have been published in the Illustrated Weekly of India , Mirror, several anthologies,and e-zine magazines in USA, U.K, and India, like Muse India, Indian Ruminations, Nothing. No One. Nowhere. Thanal Online, Gulmohar, Destiny Poet's, featured in The Camel Saloon, In Acerbic, In Inklinks, Taj Mahal Review,In Musings a Mosaic ,The Significant anthology, Happy Isle, and many more in addition to being featured by Niamh Clune, Jes Mert, Melvina Germaine, and in many other reputed sites. At present she works in the University of Kerala and resides in Trivandrum with her husband and three children. She has two collections of poems published My Beads Unstrung (2006) and More Beads Unstrung, 2012. Her third collection will be out shortly.]



Reminiscence

Ameet Anand Unnithan


Into oblivion, they shall not fade,
Nor shall be deserted to rust,
Consumed by that pervasive shade,
They shall not be lost to dust,

Immortal Memories are these,
From eternity, that I have chosen,
Only for you to cherish, when I cease,
Pearls of time, for you, that lay, forever frozen,




Daughter of Earth

Gayathri Jayakumar
I empty oceans out of my eyes
as I fold back into the womb of Earth.
I will no more grieve away for my love
For grievance was his love…
Regardless that our children took birth
and regardless I followed his stride…

Why did mother cast me out in an ornate chest?
Why did it tumble out when the plough struck?
Married to the best in the land, best in the world, best among Man.
When he was exiled, I followed his stride
walked bare foot over thorn and vine..
When the demon mesmerized me as a shimmering fawn,
How could I resist this luxury in a forest floor?
And then, when he came asking for alms,
How could a woman’s tender heart resist to feed a feeble man?
But there I was deceived! Tossed and torn in the wind
Dragged and drawn on a flying chariot!
I screamed………………!
I did scream his name……………
Silence.

Hours passed, days passed, in the sky the moon waned,
I sat, weak, below the ancient tree, meditating his name…
My breath, my each cell vibrating to his name…
I waited in hope, but help came…. late!
Late enough to chastise me, come to stain my name!
And for his pride I took the test, a test to save his name…
I took the Test Of Fire –
There is no end to a man’s doubt
And no end to his pride or fame
And so for the sake of keeping his name,
---------- Sigh!

But rescued was I, yes, My full belly
Not cut open by the wild beasts!
A roof for me under the Great Sage
Who brought up my twins and me.

I sink into the womb of my mother,
My bones melt into her core.
Perhaps it is not the heat of the core,
But, my anger that melts my Bone!
How could he, the best among Men test again my chastity!
What’s to him if I mate with a beast
Or a demon or the travelling wind?
I’m no arrow, to be shot, and brought back,
And shot again to make a kill!
But I am too, a woman with a soul,
That, sadly … loves him still !



Survival
Nikhil V P 
The way I dream of this world
Seems to be the illusion of my mirror
That reflects myself in the loveliest passionate way
That others find difficult to understand...
I say, I feel and I dream
The world I want to make of myself
Eaten up by the universe of blackness
That sucks me into the thoughts of wildness...
I was born in this land with all those hopes
That they did try to snatch and rule
I did succeed in dreaming
But that part of me failed to live the want in me...



Whisper

Ameet Anand Unnithan
My beloved, just for you,
A gentle rush, so tender, so few,
From hearts depth, unchained, unbound,
And hidden from the world all around,
Betraying naught to the unblinking nights stare,
Nor to the eavesdropping chill air,

Leaving my lips,cast with a spell,
So they blossom, only in your ears, when they fell.



Love
Nada Rajan 

the time before we met
nothing seemed to exist,
i wandered along,
not knowing
any name,
any one...
the world seemed to be ashes,
abandoned, withered, i were,
but
nothing seemed to matter
for ever, i didn't seem to have a name...
but then,
You came along...
It was like the sun rising from a tunnel.
the darkness seemed to vanish...
and in my sky, you were the only star.but
for you,
i, a mere toy
every time you lied,
my heart was torn apart...
i could feel the crack...
but, i tried not to show it...
when you said you love me,
through the pain
of my broken heart
i tried to smile...
when you said i'm the only one,
my heart shattered away...
Still, i managed to smile...
even though my existence is now at stake,
i cannot but stop loving you...
now,
living with those cracks
is what i call life...
or is it Love?




Phoenix

[a sequel to Ameet Anand Unnithan's short story, Morpheus]

Gayathri Jayakumar
The battle was fought, the corpses rotted,
But I alone lay burnt and distorted.
Death was not easy, waiting by the banks,
Of that perfect world where dreams larked,
But harken, there treads, a silent fleeting,
The wind that moves with it betrays the feet.
The cold chill, embracing my withering body
Moonlight, sole witness to this final allay,
Is it Death, or Dream that comes claiming this flesh,
With promises to ease the woe, that commences afresh.
A wordless whisper, a torturing dream
And here I’m pushed in to see me scream...
Into a dream I twirl and fall
Twist and shape to scream and moan,
And after the fit when conscience dawns
I open my eyes to still find the moons
And the chill by my side, cold as ice
That shoots in arrows, which burn my insides.
The eyes, a kaleidoscope, a new image every time
A play of colours and worlds and luminous chimes...
I wonder what it speaks, what it sees, what it feels
But surely it sees just the charred out me...
And not see a flaming soul inside,
That yearns to break free of its body and stride
Into what lays unknown beyond the night and skies
And gauge the unfathomed depth of oceans and heights.
Into a flame my body explodes, and blooms
A thousand flowers and groves.
Just a glance more at that flaming form
And he walks away lightly whispering a song.
Walks away...lost in the song, lost in the thought, lost in the dark
While here twirls my ashes, hark!
The wind rattles the dust which mingles with the scent.
The scent of the blossoms that blooms with the moon,
The fragrance that spreads into the misty morn,
The aroma of a fallen flower being reborn.
And here from the ashes that twirl in the wind,
Stately spreads two enchanting wings.
And out of the formless dusty grey
Spreads in grandeur, a fiery spray.
A fire, born of a burning soul
An unquenchable flame, that is full, that is whole.
And into the night it flaps its wings
To lift its fiery frame into flight
And fly away, not a glance back into the dark,
Where the Chill wandered off, misled and astray...



Before I Perish

Nasrin Sha

[A Final year B.A English Language and Literature student at MSM College, kayamkulam]
A mere bare statue,
frozen I stand
Decaying into despondency
Its up to you,Wait!Protect me,
From the wrath of rains
From the fury of frosts.
Or,just keep moving
ahead, unnoticing

Providing me to the unknown...


Holy mother & The Mermaid

[Lamentation of my dear friend's premature death.We will always remember you]

Shehan Salam

[Currently perusing his Masters Degree in English Language and Literature]

I swear by the black of death,
that he is living somewhere,
somewhere in the Ganges.
Oh.. The revered river once was violent,
Violent by the sighs and tears of that mermaid,
the most beautiful..
Searched a lot,
a lot on the shores of the Ganges.
Finally, found my brother,
the most handsome by soul,bathing...
bathing in the Ganges..
Oh..This is the man, the man of finer soul;
like a springwind who carries the perfume of nature.
The mermaid wept, wept of joy.
Tears rumbled the river,
the river of love, the holy mother of my land.
Hastily gifted my brother to her daughter, the mermaid;
a retreat was possible not..
Brother... bid farewell to the onlookers.
They dried their lashes with salt from the heart like I do now.
The mermaid held his hands, touched his lips, evanescent...
evanescent to the world of beauty.
The stubbornness of the Ganges, love for her daughter, failed us,
like messiah failed by his disciple..
We believed, loved, kissed, but the Holy mother failed us..
Sapiens are bound to marry a mermaid, or a merman,
the beautiful, takes your breathe away, soul away, home far, brothers departed.





To You far...Far away
Shaik Ahmmed

[Principal, M.S.M College, Kayamkulam]


Where has your love gone
Withered away in the flicker of time
As candle shed away its flame
In just a gust of wind.
Where has gone your
Unflinching vows of love
Which you used to profess
In the days of yore
Was it that our love
a mere shimmering gaze
in the desert of my feelings.
Am I to deem that
our love was so shallow
that the boat of trust
could not sail over it
Still like a man
In his deathbed
Groping for his last gasp
Me pleads for
Your presence beside (yodel of sparrows).




The Chain

Nikhil V P


I walked like a soul to the depth of that life,
I could bear those pain, still struck with that knife.
Chained like a dead, still breathing was I,
Life got hell with my soul pass by.

Young was me like a bird with the wings,
Days were dark, the heart still stings.
I dreamed, I paid, I wished, I loved,
Still was chained, kneed and bowed.

Road was split with two ways down,
The one I took did turn me lone.
The chain did crush, but I didn’t turn,
Walked that way for the love of a dawn.
The more I walked, pained me to hell,
I did care, never rang that bell.
Hands pawed me down like crushed in a mill,
I had to walk, so I did by my will.
I walked that road that no one did,
They pulled me off but I did bid.
I could see the light, so had to reach,
I ran, I walked, I knelt, I crawled,
I begged for it that they would preach.

I walked like a soul to the depth of that life,
I could bear the pain, still struck with that knife.
Chained like a dead, still breathing was I,
It was my will, I did pass by.




ALZHEIMER'S
Dr. Zeenath Mohamed Kunhi
[Assistant Professor in English Farook College, Calicut] 

Memories clash head on
Fragments fling in flashes
A montage of remembrances
Of things past and present
Magnified towards the yore,
Familiar faces sucked by Lethe
Draw a tributary of tears
For the ‘stranger’ in the house.
A psychedelic progression or
Juvenile regression?
The mind that mapped the globe
Gropes for the two steps to the loo
Tummy scornful of time
Resets the biological clock.
Words bled of sense
Coalesce into meaningful incoherence
Taking the listener aghast
With pity, fear
Sometimes even a smirk?
Man’s insolence humbled
Not just by Nature’s fury
But mind’s own gallows.
An abstract painting
That tells a million tales,
The onlooker judges you
As the colours fade in retrograde
Till a white canvas tells another tale.
Copyright © 2012 Zeenath 

[her poem has been included in Significant Anthology]


Weeping Minds

Julban K.P
Great terror! Uproar! Gunshots!
The world around stinks
Can “all the perfumes of Arabia”
Diffuse these to aroma?
Can those little minds
Be bought back to life again?
Those little buds to bloom
Who crawl inside the womb too
Shudder out of fear.
What could a mother say,
Oh no child you are safe?”!!
Safe until you are inside???
What else a teacher could say
To those blooming buds,
That the words I teach are of no use
To the World blind of egoism?
Or that you are safe
Until I doom to ashes??
The time is not to shed
Our tears –the mere saltwater!
It Is to raise the final droplet
Of Mankind [though seems little],
To light its candle,
And light our world; darkness veiled.

No comments:

Post a Comment