PORTRAITS OF PASSION

PORTRAITS OF PASSION
ENGLISH POEMS
PRAVEEN KUMAR
Year of Publication: 1997
for my darling daughter

PRATHEEKSHA
FOREWORD
Writing foreword to a collection of poems itself is a difficult job.If the author of the book is a near and dear one, the job becomes mor sensitive and complex. And if writing the foreword to a book of one's husband, the sensitivity of the job only can be imagined. I am put to such a challenging task in writing this foreword. I can write more confidently about the author of this book as a husband, a friend and a police officer than as a poet. Though I am closely associated with his poetic creations in discussing contents and forms and suggesting improvements, I must be ingenuous to submit that I am yet confounded about the source of his poetic creativity. He, indeed, is sensitive and passionate within. He, as a police officer, struggles hard to hide the incony facet of his persona by acting tough and meticulously rational. Unsteady inter-action of passion and reason interpretes the nuances of his personality and outwardly expressions of all kinds including poetry. His poems are expression of his life and personality in more than this sense. Poetry is self-expression for him. No doubt, skill in the use of language and natural rhythms of music in soul helped the process. His poems are passionate in nature with an edge of occasional flash of rationality. Read following lines in the poem " Portraits of Passion ". Gold-edged clouds filter aureate sunshine And refract to portraits of passionSoft woolly poems Of sweet reflections of turbulent moments; It is a reflected glory In contrast to hard realities That makes life a dream and dream, a life I know that what the poet sings here is true of his life. He is open for the temptations of both the passion and the reason. When they act together, we find the person at his best in life with the strengths of purpose and will; we find the poet at his best in poetry with sweet ironies, spliced with the power of language when, " The wind of passion and the barriers of reason, pull apart from sides,". Thus, the author gained from both his strength and weakness. Poetry to this poet is an integrated expression of personality. His conception of poetry is beautifully expressed in the following stanza in the poem "Poetry ". You, the gentle queen on inspiration's throne In splendours of words, rhythms, colours, Musics and passions in unending layers; Come, sit on heart, build bridges to the mind, Bring light to the eyes to choose a carriage To carry your muse to gentle souls.
It is significant of this poet that the utility of poetry for him lies in carrying her 'muse to gentle souls'. He is deeply subjective and inward-looking in nature. This subjective and inward-looking tendency makes him a proud and self-assured individual. Read following lines in the poem,'The Path of Life '. Whatever may come, whatever may go, Whatever on the path is in store as fate, I must walk as always I am; Proud of self and diligent of walk, I tread the path that comes in front; Whatever at back, bears my print, Whatever in front, conforms to inner strength. The poet has tried to portray the widening gulf betwixt rich and poor in the poem,' Humanity ' wherein an image of poverty is laid in following lines: A hapless mother Offers her to greed To save her child from the hunger's death ; No roof to hide, no cloth to cover, No fire in heart to save honour ; Dirt and filth, sickness everywhere, Dirt and filth, sickness everywhere, The sufferings of the people touch the poet while writing about Bangladesh cyclone in the poem,' Bangladesh Cyclone; he describes how a famished man appears after the devastation. God-forsaken man sits in the middle And knows not whether he is dead or alive. 'Portraits of Passion is primarily a portrait of passion- passion in its varied and verdant forms and hues; passion for life, passion of love and passion to know the world around. The collection has a few love portraits in both meeting and parting frames of mind. Read following lines of the poem,' That Day': She held the portrait close to her heart And drank his form to the brim of eyes; What a gentle shine, what contentment, Her eyes spread in expression of her heart! What depth it had, what immortal warmth That he felt at loss to pierce far enow; Parting is the more intense form of love.The foretaste of the impending separation how withers souls and brings them closer in the milieu of climacteric gloom and silence is portrayed in the poem,' Gulf of Life and Death':
Face to face, they sat in silence, No word to speak, no shine in eyes, Both blankly stared beyond each other; No world to smile, no light or sunshine, They sought each other for hope and comfort In the eye of high tide of the time's drift. There are a few poems on the nature in this fascicle. Following three lines describe the full-moon in motion in her full glory through the demi-jour of the heaven in a mise en scene: The golden queen in the stride of royal grace Ascended heaven with gold dusts splayed On the fading silk-carpet of the thin sunshine ; The aureate beauty of the fullmoon day is painted in following lines : The night is full with beauty's sweet contrasts Of peace and passions, stillness and motion With shades and twiligfits of sensuous quietude! A conflict of life and death and desperate waiting for something eerie and loveful are lurking in many of the poet's writings and give his poems an arcane touch. Each poem in this collection gives a keek to the poet's thoughts, ideas, values, sensibiilities, emotions and approach to various aspects of life and its issues in various situations and this anthology as a whole definitely gives the holistic portrayal of his philosophy of life and exceptionally brilliant traits and strengths of his personality as he abundantly proved in his career against all odds. Though basically a poet and a police officer, he writes articles for newspapers on current subjects and his articles have appeared in newspapers like The Hindu, Indian Express, The Times of India and Deccan Herald. His articles in The Hindu on police subjects are widely appreciated and popular. I wish the poet all success in his poetic endeavour. Bangalore-560 025,
Jayashree
PREFACE
PREFACE
Life and poetry aemule each other: they are different forms of the same process with sensibilities functioning as the umblical chord between them. The realities of life intenerate to incony imageries and pleasing expressions when pass through the creative being of a poet and spawn a new world of delightful experience. In this sense, poetry is life: poetry is poetic experience of the life,and poetry is the spirit of life in its transcendent form. It reflects life not only in form, but also in spirit and soul. A good poetry soars with lurking nuances of suggestive meanings beneath the outer form, pendentously opens up new worlds of meaning every time it is read. Only a sensitive, imaginative and resourceful mind can fully comprehend all the finer aspects of a poetry. A great reader, in this sense, makes a poetry, great. A poetry sans a good reader is as dumb as a wild flower. This is why poetry needs good readership. The natural desire for wider and good readership prompted me to seek the publication of this work as my fourth volume of poems. My wife, Smt.Jayashree who is the first reader and most argute critic of all my literary works, brought dignity to this volume by her wise and analytic foreword. She willingly and single-handedly took up the arduous responsibility of correcting both the manuscript and proof of this volume and I must say that she has done a creditable job. I thank her for the patience, devotion and erudition shown in carrying out this work. My profound gratitude is due to my son Pratheek for all the help I received from him in more than one ways in spawning this work. I gratefully acknowledge the part of my father Shri. R.D.Suvarna and mother Smt. B.Sarojini in initiating me to the art of writing and selfexpression Through poetry. I would never have been anywhere near literary field without their valuable encouragement and support. Some poems of this book figured in literary programmes of Bangalore Doordarshan while I was interviewed in ' Sanchaya ' literary slot on 8.6.92 and again on 22.8.94 and otherwhere. I thank Shri.Anees-Ul-Haq, former Director, Bangalore Doordarshan, for providing the opportunity. My thanks are due also to national; level magazines like 'Alive' which first published some of the poeifos figured in this collection. Readers are invited to address me with their views and opinions about the poems in this work at 'B-3, Senior Police Officers' Residential Complex, Shoolay Circle, Hosur Road, BANGALORE-560 025'. Their valuable views would-be my guide in future works and duly responded to. Bangalore, December 20, 1995.
CONTENTS 1. SAPNA 2. RECOLLECTIONS 3. MY LOVE 4. LIFE IS WHAT YOU MAKE OF IT 5. MARATHON RACE 6. PORTRAITS OF PASSION 7. LOVEBIRDS 8. IN CAGE 9. ALONG THE VENNELS OF YORE 10. GULF OF LIFE AND DEATH 11. THAT DAY 12. TIMELESS SONG. 13. PARTING 14. LOVE SONG 15. ACROSS THE HILL 16: HEPLESSMEN 17. I LOVE YOU FOR WHAT YOU ARE 18. I HEAR HER SING 19. PRISTINE WORLD 20; STOP COMING 21. LOVE 22. DISCOVERY 23. IMMORTAL LIGHT 24. BITING BACK 25. CYCLES 26. UNEQUALLED IN HUMAN RACE 27. BEAUTY 28. SOUL OF BEAUTY 29: LOVE AND LIFE 30. THE NATURE 31.FULLMOONDAY 32. FLOWERS 33. SUPREME JOY 34. THE PATH OF LIFE 35.POETRY 36. POET'S PRIDE 37. BUDDHA 38. BANGLADESH CYCLONE 39. HUMANITY 40. TERRORISTS 41. STAMP OF LIFE 42.OPEN WORLD 43.SHACKLES 44.BEYOND COMMON REACH
45.ALLOY 46.RHYTHMS OF LIFE 47.COMPROMISE 48.THE NATURE'S RICHES 49. WHERE ARE WE HEADING ? 50.POETIC INSPIRATION 51.LIFEANDCOSMOS 52.COSMIC GAME 53.COSMIC DANCE 54.INSIDE 55.FREE WORLD 56.A STORY 57.KNOW YOURSELF 58.MOTHER INDIA 59.THOSE CAREFREE DAYS 60.AN INVINCIBLE SPIRIT 61.TULU NADU 62.AGE IN RUNS 63:THUGS 64.I KNOW MY PATH 65.SELF-RESPECT 66.THE SUN IN CLOUDS 67.WINNOCKS OF BEAUTY 68.WHO CREATED THIS BEAUTIFUL WORLD ? 69.YOUNG ROMANCE 70.I KNOW HER 71.BYGONES ARE BYGONES 72.TEMPLE OF WORDS 73.SHE SMILES FROM A MYSTIC LAND 74.ETERNAL SEARCH 75.DESIRE 76.RIGHT PATH 77.LAMP 78.YOUR WORLD 79.HOLD HEAD HIGH 80.A GIANT ROCK 81.ONHAMPI 82.SAD MEMORIES
ONE SAPNA Sapna was her lovely name, The only daughter of the country's king Whose world over spread good name and fame For being kind and ruthless for wrong; Sapna, the gentle lovely princess, Fair and tall with gleaming eyes, Stalked the hallways of the splendid palace Like colossus of the royal house. Her bearings, an indomitable grace, Her presence, forever, gentle fragrance, That glow, in her form, spell-bound all; Her shapely vales and dulcet dales, Those pinks of youth like a spring of ale, Her undulous frame, brimming with charm Stroked rare joy, full, gay and warm; Indeed was heaven, to inhaust her all, Oh, what a celestial spring of joy, A feminine charm, while lush, can be! The king and his queen loved the daughter, More than the moon, his moon-lit night; In the wilderness of life, she was the only succour To the ageing couple in the majesty's midst; Not a day they could bear, while Sapna, not near, Every hour did they fear while her words they couldn't hear, She was their all, she was soul's soul, They lived for her joy and yearned for her smile. Glorious tidings, the royal couple dreamed For their dear daughter, on the throne, they adorned; Princes after princes falling for her charms, Kings for her grace, racing in wild swarms And Sapna striking summit as the leader of all kings. Sapna came to youth like god in sweet charms, Kindest in kind heart and love for all in soul, Incisive noble mind and sweet refrain in all, No anger she ever had, no scorn, no reproach, She was very god, but human in approach ; A beauty in and out, she inspired joy all over, She showed, not a thorn, but, life, a gentle flower.
PRAVEEN KUMAR
One day, leisurely she, strolling on garden paths, A flower among flowers,' neath giant colourful wreaths, Steering thro ' fragrant breeze, wrapped in silken cloths, Found a noble man, tending a young green plant; Young like the pretty princess, intelligent in deep eyes, Fresh like mom dews, poised, he stirred her heart; She saw him in innocent charm, eyes met eyes, Heart spoke to heart and soul entwined to soul, Their inner warm glows met and engulfed them in whole ; A desire for each deepened their sense of gulf, A raging fire of longing smothered each sad self, Though new to each other, lo, they built love's bridge. He was Prakash, the poet's son. A dear to the king, an honoured one, Who, noble and good and gentle to all; He loved gentle beauty, he loved the nature's bounty, He loved irresitible charm, pours out of feminine form ; He loved the glow of youth, sparkling, fresh and warm, He loved lonely souls, rich in inner worths ; He had that rare gift of reaching heart's 'neath And sifting chaffs and grains from life's messy hearths. He saw the lovely princess, very venus in midst of green, Bespeaking to his heart and splicing with his soul; A subtle spring of warmth, wrapped him in happy swoon ; Lost to all sense and restraint, he walked to the little queen, Bent his knees in her front, paid obeisance from his soul, And said, he works in royal garden ; He sought her orders to carry out by all his eager heart In entreatment of his reverence, due to royal respect. Grateful gentle Sapna sought A rare rose, dangling from a plant And eager Prakash offered it, Writ with his love's hymns; Now, the time to part for them, For, they were not ordained to love; Now, the hearts must tear, for, They could not live so near, The love-borne hearts turned away With bitterness creeping in soul. Princess Sapna astir as she, Could neither sleep nor keep awake ; A gentle fire engulfed her,
She couldn't call it pain or pleasure; A dull sweet swell in heart's heart Tilled her limbs with painful yoke, Her blank sad eyes fixed at nought, Languid she lay, still with sad yearnings. Prakash invaded her soul and mind And her being's every pore, He spread his tentacles wide over her Young and fresh and innocent heart ; Like sunshine he spread, Like midnight he weighed ; She could bear no more the pain, She could bear no more the weight, The princess' dire helplessness Swelled as streams of tears in eyes. The king and the queen saw the sour sorrow Sitting on the face of dear daughter; Sapna wouldn't say what it were all, Nor they had any means to know ; Sapna, a happy endearment ever, Like this sad state, they found her never; The dear parents would bargain their state To make their daughter happy and sweet, The king and queen would upturn all hell To fulfil dear Sapna's whatever will, But, alas, Sapna wouldn't anything them tell. The queen thought to snatch Sapna from her shell To endearing world outside, expose her soul, She begged dear Sapna for a leisurely stroll With her, in royal garden, for a short while ; Reluctant though she was, Sapna followed mother, Hiding her sorrow 'neath morning fragrant air ; Sunshine coudn't stir, no flowers tempted her, Cool fresh air, she found drab and squab ; Though she was there, she was not there, Though with her mother, she was all herself, Nothing touched her to fill her inner gulf. Like an arithmetic rule, she shadowed her mother, Like night following day, a motion followed the other; Lo, Prakash, she saw, tending a tender tree, A glut of pleasant lights, ran through her sad soul, Shone her dull eyes, rose up her withered features,
PRAVEEN KUMAR
A thousand blooms blossomed a thousand sweet colours Deep inside heart's heart and she shook in mild tremors Of the shock of unearthly unexpected pleasures; Oblivious who she was and where she was then, That she was in stroll with the dear mother, queen, Like a possessed winged angel, beloved Sapna ran And stood beside the poet's gardener son ;. Now, relieved lovely Sapna, of all her oppressive gloom, All the world's precious joy in face in full bloom. Prakash saw his adorable Sapna, Saw the joyous shine in her glittering eyes, Stood up, he in perfect reverence, He bowed to her royal reference And sought her orders for him to obey ; She spoke no words, she made no signs, But looked to his eyes in stirred passions ; Barriers fell and distances liquesced, Beings of two souls wide opened their doors; Passions spread passsions, Desires stirred desires, They drowned in reciprocal warmth; Silent though outward, they pined for each, A common flame of emotion welded them to each; Neither could they part, nor each other reach, Neither could they bridge, nor ever they could breach, They lost in that eerie aureate dream, Like a babe lost in a candy's stream And stood facing each, feeling love's flame. The queen-mother saw from afar this all And knew reasons for the daughter's sad soul, She stalked her honour near young Prakash And stroked her daughter's quivering sweet frame, Sought what was the gardener's dear name And since when his soul knew her lovely daughter; Prakash said it all with awe and due honour, Called the princess a goddess, descended on the earth To grace and bless mortals by her immortal birth; Brewed like age-old wine, the gracious queen, Saw for her daughter, the gardener's passion, Wide like space and deep like time, Burning his world in celestial rhyme; Queen knew not how to respond to the tide, For, the princess scaled high for this lay ride And the king had plans and she had dreams For the princess' long future, to be nobler and prime.
Princess Sapna adores you in heart, Come, and grace the king tonight, A greater honour, the king may grant To the beloved of his beloved daughter Said the queen to the love-drenched lover; Prakash desired no more honour Than his Sapna so close and near; His garden stood next to the royal home, There he could see her in leisurely roam; What more for his life, he could desire? What treasure than this, he could aspire? Yet, he said yea for Sapna's sake; Lo, Sapna strayed in her joyous peak To hear her beloved accede to the tryst To smoothen their path to love's fulfilling post; Eyes gleaming in joy, heart thumping wild, Sapna dear bid adieu, like a comforted child. The queen-mother, deeply sad in heart, For her dear daughter's lovelorn state; Neither the queen nor the king could ever meet To a humble poet's son to be a noble mate To Sapna, the princess, their love's sole seat; She whispered the knotty strait to the unsuspecting kins And together they contrived an ingenious plot To fence passions and sperre the immature bond; They both firmed up to the task in hand, Though, for Sapna, the parental hearts did bleed. Prakash, the poet's son, called on the king at night, Alas, nowhere, his Sapna was at sight; He bowed to the king, stood in staid silence, Seeking ordinance in obedient reverence; The king saw Prakash, his daughter's sunshine, Parched was his tongue, within he felt a pain, Gently quivered his limbs and sweats streamed out, Never was he so weak, yet he spoke out: Prakash, dear, the honourable poet's son, My daughter, princess Sapna, assigns you this mission, That you enrol in royal infantry And rise to fit in to royal entry, My daughter decided to wait till you rise in rank, She forbade you meeting her, till you meet the goal; So speaking falsehood, he dismissed the poet's son.
PRAVEEN KUMAR
Never Prakash shied a career in war, But parting from his love, how could he ever bear? Years in a career in a distant border How help his steady progress to gentle love's chamber, Figured not out the humble distraught lover; How the gentlest queen of his heart's throne Could throw those severe terms at his sweet soul, He strove to reason it all, but, alas, in vain; It was the royal order to follow at all cost, Though couched in Sapna's name by the royal host; Prakash pined to meet beloved Sapna at least once, But, no way for him since the royal forbiddance, Gloom all the way, Prakash, enrolled in royal force. Sapna waited all night to hear about his tryst with the king, With starry eyes in sky and wakeful dreams in wild swing: The queen-mother next morn came to Sapna's bed, Fully aware she was, her daughter's anxious state; Uncertain of own soul, she began her fell part And said, Prakash, the poet's son, let Sapna dearly down When the king the previous night, sought him to choose from Sapna as his bride and an infantry rank for him; She said, Prakash, the poet's son. Chose not Sapna's hand And hurried that night itself to join an elite band. Sapna couldn't it believe, nor she it disbelieve; A voice inside cried, the things refuse to behove; Starry eyes hid in clouds, her wakeful dreams shattered, Tears streamed out as helplessness swelled inside; How of all, dear Prakash, could reject her and part, How could her dear Prakash, could be so mean to her in heart, Sapna brooded alone in uncertain mental state; No light could light up her, all looked bleak and dull, No food for her had taste, royal glitters for her were waste, Loathed she talk and smile and rooted in a dark lonely cell, Withered her youth and figure, languished mind and soul In the bottomless steep despair, fogged her life in whole. She loved to visit the royal garden And brood where she met face to face her man And talk aloud her grief in open air Where he once tended plants with care; For, the place, for her, was Prakash's symbol, Visiting that spot was despair's short withdrawal, A secret store-house of her hopes and dreams, A spot from where her nostalgic fancies streamed; Like temple, she visited it, spent long periods.
A day, she found her Prakash's poet father, Tending plants like his son in the palace garden; She stood near him and enquired about his son; The poet saw the lonely princess, couldn't say who she was, For, brimmed with tears, his eyes were without shine, He stared at her and cursed his fate And said her enquiries came too late; Entered, his dear son, the royal infantry To oblige the will, the king had imposed And killed himself while serving as sentry As distressed he was, why he couldn't say, he said; He visited the place where his son loved to toil, As his last respects to his son's soul; The broken old poet could speak no more, With tears in eyes, he attended the garden's chore. Sapna now knew all the tmth 'neath the play, The games her parents played to throttle her love, How her sweet love's life was worked like clay And shattered to oblivion for her royal sake; Tidegate of remorse took over her soul; She lured him to her and brought him to that make; It was her first love and he was her all, But, plucked was his precious life, the fate's crudest joke; She and her love for him, conspired for his end, The albatross of his loss lay on her innocent head; In pain, her heart broke,her soul cried for him, A desire to flee the insensitive world And join her love in another world And do her all to comfort him there For the accurst past, both of them share Seized her soul like a torrential rain; Her desire to live now ebbed low, Her life-force began to churn slow, No passions, no emotions, no griefs, no pleasures, An intense white sunshine warmed her being, She grew in strength of soul and resolve, She felt her worldly ties, untie and dissolve. She entered her abode, where once she was born, Now, her ties of past and future being shorn, Like a possessed indifferent soul, she took a little knife, A hundred intense scenes of her sixteen year life, A thousand lovely beings who made her as she was, Seized her soul and burst out as tears; She thought of her parents, who gave her all they had,
PRAVEEN KUMAR
Her soul prayed god for the parents' pleasant future; She remembered her Prakash, who gave her his soul, She knew not for sure, she might meet him ever at all; She looked then around and saw her own world, Which she would part forever in a while, Perchance to dissolve in unknown cosmic clouds In an unending probe of Prakash's dulcet being; She slashed her wrist and bled to death, The pink of her life had faded to pale, She fell on the floor with no trace of pain, For, the pain inside was no match for it; She bled and bled alone and breathed last, Alas, the world, an infinite beauty, forever lost. Oh, how a thing of beauty, breeds that much pain! How gentle love throttles joy, brings misfortunes! Perchance, the world is yet imperfect for great things, While like colossus, treads perfection, destruction it brings.
TWO RECOLLECTIONS You are still beautiful, you are still bountiful In evocating thoughts, gentle and noble; You are still inspiring, you are still enduring In my grateful soul, you comforted years long. Barriers of time or barriers of distance Withered not feelings, our hearts squeezed to splice, Weatherings of life and fortuitous zigzag turns Torn not bonds, our lives earnestly have sewn. In the darkness of lonely life, you are my lodestar, You break-out from the self, spread sparkles of the hope; In the maelstrom of rush and brush, you, my diligent protector, Leash-in me to circumspection, guide me, step by step. Your intense kind eyes, penetrating time's layers, Rouse my vigil for the righteous course here, Your yearning intense soul, reaching thro' love's features, Awakens my spirit to love's rousing pleasures. Thro' moon and clouds and birds and stars, We build our bridges across thousand worlds To reach each other in breach of rigid natures, For, beyond the earthly bounds, stalks the love's gentle moulds. The gentle sweet streams, you prod in recollections, Of hopes and day-dreams, live creeps of confidence, Of fulfilling intense past and prospective league again, Make life a vaulting heaven, this world, a joy's holy shrine.
PRAVEEN KUMAR
THREE MY LOVE I love her deep and thick, More than bums my soul's wick ; I adore her whole and still, More than my graces fill. She lives in an inner cave Where easy walk none can have ; Woods and creeps abound there, Wild beasts, their presence, mark there. A lodestar, bright and clear, She leads me forth without fear In blinding nights, dark and dense, To the dawn of sparkling rinse. She is my lamp, the inner flame, The warmth that prods me forth; She is my rhythm, the perfect rhyme, The cosmic dance that bounces worth. The world is a desert without her presence, A void is life, devoid of essence; The spin of time, a whine of hollowness, Cool and dull, whimpers of shallowness. She brought me half-way here, But, my home is not yet near, I need her warmth more than ever, Her love and care, to lead forever. Her intense eyes and gentle hands Invisible though, glide me through time ; Alas, time is short, 'twixt us stands, And part we all, while time makes claim.
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FOUR LIFE IS WHAT YOU MAKE OF IT Life is what you make of it, Like raw clay, lithe, soft and wet And waits your hand to play on it With the labour of creative flight To carve new directions Of unparalleled notions, To fight for new heights Of irrefragable mights. It's deep churning of the sprite within, It's deep burning in the soul's kiln For the metamorphosis of invisible kind To surface new heavens in innermost mind. Life is not a mendicant's pleasure, Life is a vision, an intense selfs treasure, It's hard tilling of far-stretching horizons. It's wild sowing one's dreams and visions And illuming high sky with the inner-light And walking selfs path algate steadfast To new field of an awakened soul To devolve in pomp to experience the whole. Life is not what others make you Nor it is what others think you are, Life is that what you truly are and make of it, How deep and far, you bare your sprite.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
FIVE MARATHON RACE My life is like a marathon race, A run for hope On an unending stretch To reach a far away dream. It is a run on a blind alley Along a dreadfully narrow valley, Rising uphill sometimes, Falling downhill most of the times To invisible morrows In the thick fog of uncertainties. It is a restless race In a confusing maze, Though resting places are aplenty On both sides of the road, No mood to break the inspired race, No patience to brook and look back, For, the race once began, To the end, must be run. The path is long, far and lonely, With roses and thorns and slippery surface; But, I am here to run that far, But, I am here to run that far Till legs fail and I go still In the sweet nectar of lush darkness.
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SIX PORTRAITS OF PASSION Life is an eternal triangle Where two sides spawn the third And delivers fulfilment; Caught is my soul 'tween heart and mind, And churned like curds in a tug of war; I yield to fate like a prisoner-of-war And hope an accord 'tween the warring sides To bring sweet peace and freedom for soul And settle my fate for both the sides With heart for heart and mind for mind ; One is in shades, the other, in light And I am caught tween shade and light; One is past, the other is present And I am caught tween the past and the present In a tasteless void and mindless welter In weightless state between two worlds. I am lost in a feelless ocean, No fulcrum to revolve around ; I am lost in an endless heaven, No signboard to guide me along. The vennels of far sunshine of peace Play hide and seek through clouds And rouse me with the patches of the past In the cool complacence of the present And I wonder where I am : In warm sunshine or cool shades? Gold-edged clouds filter aureate sunshine And refract to portraits of passionSoft woolly poems Of sweet reflections of turbulent moments ; It is a reflected glory In contrast to hard realities That makes life a dream and dream, a life And me, a torn rag, Soaked in bitter joy ; Passions drip like blood And coagulate to unknown words To paint colourful portraits Of the twin opposite worlds.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
This is how I am today, This is how I am today, Neither here, nor there, nowhere, Yet everywhere, in splintered passions. The wind of passion and the barriers of reason Pull apart from sides, The heat of the past is at the back And I run forward Like a mad dog, Eyes shut, All senses excised from now and here, Somewhere, I know not where. In hope of meeting the past In the circular world. The world revolves round and round And all the times are eternally bound In unending cycle of the rise and fall Where all, influx, yet immobile and still. Where it all began, where it will lead, Where the process passes, where it will stop, I, in blinkers, cannot foretell, But grope like an amblyope in night; Warm sunshine hid from sight Like dusk Spread gloom around Till the vennels of warm sunshine Reappear in horizons Like divinity opening winnocks To flush the out darkness within To the drains of the past. The night is cool and beautiful, Cairn and still, while all asleep; Full-moon smiles in reflected verve And soothes sprained uneasy nerves. Dawn and sunshine are warm and bright Like live and eager spirit; It awaken from the age-old sleep And fledge the sprite for sky-high rise To absolute divinity Of joy, peace and contentment; Opens up new horizons
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Of thrills of explorations Of new worlds of experience and growth To supermanhood; I am neither asleep nor awake, But in confounded state Of uncertainties. Sometimes here, sometimes there, Always in shuffling feet Like one on the balancing act; How long this state, Uncertain myself In this wasted exercise? It all must end someday And pave a royal way To the passion's sweet world. I must patiently wait, I must patiently wait, I must patiently wait For the dawn of the golden age.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
SEVEN LOVE BIRDS They brought her there with hands tied, Wrapped in coarse, torn old sacks And dumped in front of his shocked eyes; She was calm and irresistible in charm, Gentle, sweet, solicitous and kind; She knew her love, who loved her most, She loved to be there, where she was brought; No sack or silk shakes his trust in her; He raised his head, embraced in eyes And laid his warmth on her sweet self. With a bowl of black juice, held in hand, They danced around her with savage pleasure; Hands outstretched to disgrace her face With muddy black juice to dim her charm, To blunt her spell on his love-filled soul; They mocked and laughed and pounced on her, Called her names, poured several shames, Ugly crow, swarthy lad, her they called; Hapless, she looked her love with grief, Her eyes begged him for strength and warmth. He bore no more his darling's sad state, He begged them all to spare foul calls; She is stately queen on the most valiant throne, On daily rounds in disguise, he said; He sang her charm that no sack could hold, He kissed her sweet grace with eager eyes; No more black juice may cloud the sweet face, Spare her the travails of a wash, he prayed; His love-laden plea and bright intense eyes Cut short those hands from the envious task. Gratitude shone in her gentle sweet eyes, Her heart spoke in eyes, her love and care; She dwelled in his soul and he, in her, Both dissolved to one in silence in distance; Their eyes met, their hearts spoke The common passion that held them in one; Whatever be I, call me like him, For, he is my goal, desire, she said; He swelled in joy for what she said, For, he too knew her, his life and goal.
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They untied her, set to fly to love's world; She fledged her wings and flew like wind To love's warm nest in his eager heart; The two hugged each and danced in joy, They necked each and looked each While passions flew from heart to heart Like long bright flames of divine light; The birds on wings that reach each other, Flew high, far, afar to unknown horizons Where none fence them nor disturb their love.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
EIGHT IN CAGE Young she was, pretty like jasmine, Fresh, pure, sweet, eager like dawn; Impaled in nest, she looked for him Through a tiny foramen, open for her, Her ears agog for footsteps of him, Heartbeats and mind unsteady, unkind; Impatient of time, reasons or rhyme, She waited for him like a newly-wed bride To lay her self on his eager self And light her cage with love's sacred lamp. She heard him come, look outside, Saw him with fast thumping heartbeats; Emotions swelled high, streamed to her blood, Contentment and joy stirred her heart; Her face lit bright, expectations rose high, She waited for him, eyes struck on door; He broke-in like warmth, dissolved in her, They smiled and spoke small endearments; I came straight here, dear, he said, Though you are afar and oblivious of my world. Oh, no, she said, I know your world, What you do, when you come and go; How come, my love, you, bound inside, Nowhere outside, visible, he said; She raised her head, smiled at him With steady sunshine rioting in eyes, Like love in heart, swelling over eyes; Bound inside, I, indeed, she said, In ways of world, in bones and flesh, Only shallow eyes do see me in cage. Do you think I am here, she quipped in style, No doubt, I am here, yet, I am not here, Except this shell, bound in this cold cage; I belong not to shell, nor to this cage, But, wherever you are, wherever you go, There, I belong algate in mind and sprite, There follow my soul, breath and heartbeats; I know while you come, I know while you go,
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Even eyes shut, she said by her eyes; He heard dumb-bound, those entreaties of heart. His passions swelled high, he spoke not a word, For, she is too high for all words in this world; He looked at her with unbound gratitude With tears of joy, blurring eye-sight; He spread his arms, gathered her inside, Held her there, seeking her forever; She was in cage, it was bad fate, Neither he nor she could change it in age; Yet, they remain for each, in cage or outside In and beyond all subtle time and space.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
NINE ALONG THE VENNELS OF YORE When I walk along the vennels of yore, Strange tides rise and stop me somewhere; Cool breeze soothes, warmth gladdens heart, Sunshine awakens soul, fragrance fills air, Divine sweet music hangs all over there; I open eyes with the shock of numb joy: What a sight to see, what a world to be, Ripples of pleasure in maddening riot, I see in air, on ground, in clouds, Knocking my heart to open up to the past. I see her in the centre with the love's halo around That lits her face with soft golden light; Shy is she like fragrant, pretty, white flower, Yet, firm and fast in love's sweet glamour; What dance in her eyes, sparkles of thousand stars That speak thousand truths of her heart and soul, What depth in those wells, how intense those flames, Her eyes stir passions, swell-up innate feelings; Frames of coloured portraits unreel from the past Like dreams surface from the seat of a broken soul. She caught me in her eyes, invited to her heart, I followed her within, to love's warm ocean; I had several charms, held firm in my hands, I offered her to pick, whatever she thought fit; She was so shy, you know, she ran, I followed, I pleaded, I offered, I knew, she desired all; Yet, she looked aside, pulled out from there afar, With eager eyes and heart, laid on my open hand, Like hapless gentle cow, while pulled away from her calf; She was torn in her love, I could not figure how. Why this run from me, do I scare you love? You accept not little charms of my innocent gifts, I sadly said in pain, to her love-torn self; She held her back in shock, to me she turned back, With tears filled eyes, she ran and held my hands; Oh, speak not thus, darling, you are all for me, Nothing I care, none scare ever me from you, Look envious eyes around, to pounce on our love, Follow us like shadows, wherever we go or hide, I fear them for our love, bitterly me, she said.
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She opened her soft palm, held in stretched hand, Give me whatever you have, I receive all, she said; Overjoyed like a child, I gave her all I had And heaped all my charms on her solicitous palm; She accepted all of them, like a desert, water drops, In glittering silent eyes, drenched in love's sacred water; She inhausted all of them, deep and deep to her soul In joyous indulgence, dancing all over her face; She wanted more from me, but I gave her all of me; She shut her steady eyes and hid me deep inside. Envies raised heads like snake's thousand hoods And stood between us with poison spewing eyes; Give us too your charms, we too need, they said; She held me close to heart with fear of losing all, And laid her hapless eyes on me to find my resolve; I coolly distanced them, you had enough, I said, Take what reliquiae I have, you deserve not more; Her fear disappeared, she caught a gentle glow, Her eyes in gratitude, shone like a thousand suns And held me fast to her for all ages to come.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
TEN GULF OF LIFE AND DEATH It was a sad and sweet rainy day, Calm, chill, dumb like black clouds; It was a bad, funless, grim day, All was dull with unknown forebodings; Face to face, they sat in silence, No word to speak, no shine in eyes, Both blankly stared beyond each other; No world to smile, no light or sunshine, They sought each other for hope and comfort In the eye of high tide of the time's drift. She stole his sight, he, her in turn, Their hearts spoke, though they could not; Chill was too deep to bear for them, For, they must part, part forever On divided roads to loathsome future; How could they part, none of they know, How could they live, bereft of each ? They met each other in gloom's deep pond And found rare warmth, exclusive for them That stirred all cool and thawed their moods. She threw her dice to defreeze the ice, To build a bridge through the dreary gulf; She said, she knows how deep is his love, As bright, constant as the sun itself; Yet, sets, rises, the sun in cycles On eternal course on the nature's dictates; Who knows, she said, what in store for them Along the uncertain zigzags of the life, Some may fill my place by better right And relegate me soon to oblivion's pits. When we part, all will be chill and nought, No more, I, I, nor you, ever you; I just pass on to the endless sky And sink, he said, in bottomless death; She stared at him with breath held a while, Yes, she said, I too will be lost, A dead-end I reach and perish forever; They saw sad gulf, wide open, not far, Where coursed accurst divided future To drift them apart to distant horizons.
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The air was thick with sad forebodings, Thick gloom around, blind days ahead; They knew not how to face and fight Or yield and part to bleed their hearts; No glimmer of light inside or outside To lay their hopes to survive the tides; Inside, outside, everywhere darkness, Inside, outside, everywhere darkness, Life was darkness, death was darkness, They loved to plunge to death's darkness. Days rolled like black waves of hell And tore them apart in distant swirls; They silently wept and begged for each, Cried aloud 'neath the deafening waves; No will they had to swim or float, Deeper and deep, they sank like dead-weights, In parted worlds of shattered hopes; A giant wave while washed ashore Carried the man aland and gone; On shore, he waited for his love's advent. Days came, passed, nowhere she was, No tides whispered her whereabouts; True to promise, she sank to calm death, In hope to meet her love somewhere; He on shore, in the glare of sunshine Honed for her in impossible esperance, That she may break-out somewhere some day, From clouds, horizons, water or air, Here or there, anywhere, somewhere; Aye, who bridge the gulf between life and death?
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
ELEVEN THAT DAY He broke-in like breeze with a portrait; She was there in wait, all in smiles, With gleaming eyes and thumping heart; He ignored all, gave her the portrait, Sought her to mark him from a group; She held his gift, close to her heart, Lighted the portrait with flashes of eyes; Lo, she got him straight, marked him there And kissed his figure with her velvet touch. His eyes widened, his heart liquesced, Her lasy marking him shook deep his soul; He was in her heart, he was in her eyes, He was in every drop of blood in her veins; Her eyes breathed light, her soul breathed joy While eyes caught him in midst of the group; Like life to sunshine, soul to sweet notes, Her heart danced wild in his warm presence; This is you, she said, this is that you, Wherever you be, I find you there always. Oh, how strange, he said in deep wonderment, I thought, how you try, mark me not; Me, not you, for all my lives? How absurd, she wondered at heart; Engraved in soul, heart, smallest small veins, You sit deep in me, like the king on a throne; You fill all me like air,bare space, My dreams, thoughts, and wakeful hours; You are my joy, hope, you are pain, pinings, I am bare nought, without you to stir. She held the portrait close to her heart And drank his form to the brim of eyes; What a gentle shine, what contentment, Her eyes spread in expression of her heart! What depth it had, what immortal warmth That he felt at loss to pierce far enow; Layers of lives of love and cravings Coalesced to subtle light in those deep eyes; No more he could bear the swell of her lure And submitted himself in silent gratitude.
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TWELVE TIMELESS SONG You know not what you are for me, How deep and wide you fill my self, How bright you light my eyes and soul And what a swell of joy you instill in me. Across the pall of unending night, You send happy signs of love and hope From the sunny land of lustrous light, Where you sit like god in stoic charm. While I fill my soul with joyous snug past To forget the scars inflicted by fate, You rise from the heaps of time's grey ash Like medicated fumes to soothe my strains. I hear all day, your timeless song That blends sad past with unbound future In the nature's subtle rhythms and rhymes That time to time must bring us to meet. No yearning dissolves in time's cauldron, No beauty gets lost in the love's horizon, Beauty must discover its self some day In rhythms of hearts that beat for each. You are there and I am here, We do not know how far we are, What separate hearts that weep for each; Yet, I hear you, you, definitely me. Your songs there, move my soul here, My songs here, move yours, there, Our songs a'where, live forever, For, my songs live in you, yours, in me. When I live in you, and you, in me, How I and you be here and there? Love makes here, there, and there, here And the hearts in love, everywhere.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
THIRTEEN PARTING He opened his innermost door And she walked straight inside To the backyard of his inviting heart; There she sat in front of the fireside And cooked a broth for his languorous heart While dwelled in love's heat and light With pleasantly trickling dulcet warmth ; She cast her lustrous eyes sideways From where he enjoyed her sedulous swink; Those eyes met, love roared like sea. Yet, silent she was, indolent and dull With tears welling to the brim of eyes Like layers of cloud impale sunshine ; She turned to him and met him in eyes With all the gloom, the world can speak of, Spoke her torments through two dull eyes; He caught her gloom, his heart came apart, He brought his heart to dissolve in the grief That her eyes spoke and embraced her And sought what made her soul so sad. A coconut sapling, fate planted for her On the foot of her home was dry and lifeless; She found deep love and watered that plant, She carried it in heart, cared day and night. Tendered with passion, gave all her love Till a bright dawn saw it bore life's signs; It thrilled her and she swelled with joy When the sapling bore tempting flowers and fruits; Her joy knew no bounds, her life bloomed too, She found everywhere colour, dance and fragrance. She had to part from there, alas, the plant bore fruits, She felt heart broke to leave her dear plant In uncared rude hands of the savage bad world; Had I bore him in heart, she insufferably moaned, To give him away, so that I live forever alone? These eyes be lost before I part to breach my heart, I myself leave this world before it occur all, She wailed in sad tone, covered her sad face, Imbrued with tears that trickled from red eyes.
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He knew her deep pain, for it was his own too, He knew how hard to wrench apart a true love That bound so close two souls to intrenchant sweet blend, That fraught innocent hearts with eager care for each; The two hearts grieved for their accurst bad fate That opened up in their front like the hell's horrid gulf With the loves on either side by the fate's cruel joke; They stared each across the time's widening gulf And stared each other like staring a distant star Till both grew indistinct and dissolved in distant space.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
FOURTEEN LOVE SONG O darling of my god-forsaken soul, Never you ever leave my side; For, no soul exists, no life exists Away from one's heart's darling. You sit in heart with heart-beats And shine in eyes as heaven's sparkles; You spread around like a mystic fragrance And drop in tears of dulcet longing. In moments of calm reflections, I build long flights of tearing emotions To the unknown hole where you sit alone And transport me to spates of fancies. Like blue in the sky, you sit always there, But algate distant and uncertain as ever; I hear and see and touch you and breathe, Yet, the pain within, undiminished as ever. You are my torch of conscience, A fortress of pride and beauty of joy, A vast play ground of intellectual splay And a fount of heart's unending warmth. The confining trammel of time and space Can never probe enough your depth, Can never wear away our diamond bond That shines fulgent like still pole star. Who divide an ocean, who divide the sky, Who part the flame of mutual passion ? You sit in that end and I, in this, With an ocean of emotions churning between. The flashes of colours, you throw on me, The dazzles of light, I throw across on you. In kaleidoscopic arches in the new-moon night, Hark, how transforms the hell to joyous heaven. You, the life and death, my joy and grief, Live within and beyond horizons;
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You, far and near, forever and never, For, you are my light, you are my shadow. Like a sacred temple, filled with holy hymns, Like a noble heart, crowned with a wise brain, You bring subtle height to my simple thoughts, You stir my soul with joyous quietude.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
FIFTEEN ACROSS THE HILL She lives there, across the hill, In a lonely hut, hidden 'neath the wood; No soul for warmth, anywhere near; Chill breeze and overcast sky above That freeze zeal and douse human feel; The divider hill is as tall as the sky, No path ever leads to the top of the hill Nor takes downwards, across the hill, Where awaits her life's warmth and hope, Like the early dawn that waits for sunshine in the east. The speck of life in the blanket of green 'Neath the winter sky, searches for a chance To shed wilderness, to reach wider world, Where hearts meet, where souls rollick In the ultimate joy of pure fulfillment; The road is not long, but full of hurdles: Thick trees, wild creepers, beasts, wildfires, Cold waves, hot waves, cyclones, heavy rains And time's steep slope of fate's divider hill, How let the lonely soul to pass across to the blissful land? She is not quiescent, she is not complacent, Restless is her mind, restless is her heart, Restlessness is high path to reach genuine rest; She is a lively glow of unfulfilled cravings, She is a deep ocean of colourful emotions; The glow of her desires stir the stars in the sky, The force of her passions sweeps across like a tempest; Wherever she may stand, miles around stir with life, For, she is a little pack of incony gentle passions That make life, life and heaven, great heaven. Lo, flashes of light, right across the divider hill, Lo, patches of colours, spread bright atop the hill; The happy sweet stirrings that stir the air across, The stillness deep in the wilderness, lying low in grace, The serene simplitude of the bright shades of hues Raise billows of dreams from across the little heaven Where she sits like queen in lonely sweet splendour; Her fragrance in billows, sweetest grace in waves Fill the world across, with joyous expectations Of the heaven filling the earth with unearthly soft light.
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Warm breeze across the infrangible hill Carries missives of hope and good tides; It calms cravings and soothes ruffled souls And illumes unknown future with warm sunshine, For, she is the only future , she is the warm sunshine, The mysterious hill, bathed in indistinct twilight, Too tall and dull and abstruse to common souls To conquer and stand atop and absorb all truths Where darkness and sunshine meet and blend. She will climb the slopes some day, not far And disclimb the slope of times for the divine tryst When the hill no more parts the past and the present, When her anguish to cross scales all heights.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
SIXTEEN HAPLESS MAN A feeble speck in a raging deep ocean, A faint little gleam among glittering lights is man, Facing infinite worlds of endless hard struggles Which sink his soul or lift to new heights. He is a gentle flower in a wild sand-storm, While pushed around, leaves his own fragrance On his track for all the ages to come To fill the world with rich grace and peace. He pursues his path to reach nowhere, He goes standstill to reach a dozen worlds, He soars in joy and ends up in deep sorrow, For none, can foresee what makes his morrow. He, all all alone, in a jungle of men, He is sad and silent in a maddening din, An island, in sheath, while plays his role In unending strange games, the nature unrolls. He gropes in dark for unexisting streaks of rays And knows not where lies sunshine's smooth ways, Back and forth he swings in despair and hope In unending sufferance for lady-luck's sudden crop. Unknown to himself and environs around is he, Nor knows his past nor what the future will be, A rudderless boat in uprising fierce sea, He dreams of paradise on the shores, he doesn't see. A harmless bolt of a spacecraft, He gives his mite to evolution's big thrust, He fancies he is all, but really he is small, A blind little soul that creeps along a narrrow tunnel.
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SEVENTEEN I LOVE YOU FOR WHAT YOU ARE I love you for what you are, Not for what you ought to be, Nor for what you some day be ; You, as you are now, here and near, Is what is dear, What I desire; I know you now, That is how I love you for all your worth With a heart that beats and calls you Now, hear With a soul that drinks and shares your charm At this very minute; I know the past Of what, you are a part, What too I loved; I know not the future Where you may reach some day, Nor I bother to know, For love is just felt, Not assessed nor foreseen. Love sprouts in heart and sits in soul, Love bounces from the soul to light up loved things, Love lights steady flame of heavenly bliss And melts all pride and binds loved ones. Love is pure bliss, Love is pure feel Of the loved ones in self and soul, In eyes and heart, In flesh and bone to blend to one And discover forever dulcet wonders; Love knows no time nor any place, Love transcends death ; Love only knows now, Unending movements of now and here, Love only knows now, For, love is real like now and here; Only love knows what is loveA flood of sweet emotions That ravages life, uproots self To bring loved ones nearer god.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
EIGHTEEN I HEAR HER SING I hear her sing from a far woodland In joyous solitude in full-moon light, Her soulful calls in unworldly fluid rhythms Come across horizons, across thousand stars. The thick pack of quietude in the night all-round Carries her passionate song like light slow breeze, Stars dance to the rhythms, the moon brightly smiles, Night glitters in the sweet passions of the song. Divine is pure beauty, immortal, beauty's joy, Beauty transcends the fences of time and place, I feel her in the woodland, sing like a winged angel And spell my being by an eerie magical swell. The song carries love, the song carries beauty, Love and beauty carry the song from soul to soul In passion's incony rhythms across over here, So the two hearts beat algate in the same rhythms and rhymes. How far away she may sing, that reaches right me here; Through the light of the moon or the sparkles of the stars, Through the dance of the shades of the silvery clouds Or the flutters of the leaves, she reaches my soul. The moods of the night sings songs for her, Numb broods and dreams, deep in the night's woods Whisper her tunes to being's alert ears And I see her presence in sweet musical forms. She sits alone in solitude's splendour And sings soulful song in natural pleasure, She fills in songs, in its tunes and rhythms And reaches all alone, far comers of the world. Mind, heart and soul blend in her subtle song, And cross across the vast time and space And make beauty, beauty and love, simple love, However far the world may keep them apart.
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NINETEEN PRISTINE WORLD Layers 'neath layers, far deep inside, Breathes an old pristine world In glassy glow of colourless splandour ; Cool and calm like dusk's twilight, It breaks wild into passion's riots In coloury spectres when you delve into it. Far deep in years' myriad foliage, Passions metamorphosed to pure diamonds Of unmatched sparkles of love and warmth ; Old memories rise through the pores of years And shock the numb soul with the age old warmth And stream out in tears for the long lost age. The gracious queen of that pristine world Yet sits in the centre of a golden halo In aureate splendour with a wand in hand That conjured that word of yore with love ; Now, still like god in time's retreat, is she, Still embalmed with love's incony fragrance. You dig each layer and reach the world, A magic land unfolds with splendid colours ; Wherever you look, there is passion, Wherever you turn, there is fragrance, Shades and hues of infinite joy Play a riot in the heaven on the earth. It is a great world of divine joy Where divinity spreads in fluid opulence, Where love cries in unbound joy, Where love makes world a hive of beauty; It is here, gods desire to come, It is here, gods desire to live. It is a love's sacred temple Where gods come to worship the queen Who created the world with her pristine charm And lord over it all over since then; The hymns of love and dim temple light Come across to reach only graceful souls.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
No dusts and smokes of forlorn years Ever ravage her pristine form, No heats and cracks of swink't life Ever disturb her unworldly love, She lives and lives forever and ever In the old world, in all new worlds too.
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TWENTY STOPCOMING Like tides, you rise and fall, Like waves, you sweep the shore In recurring strokes To recede again to the watery grave; You sweep the shore And level the sand; No more footprints On the time's wet floor; Yet, the game goes on and on From the known past to unknown future By the time's sacred law. You sweep like god in haste Till you recede to the time's womb; How long this hide and seek? How far this unsteady keek? Why this piggyback On the cusps of hope and despair? You either sweep to stay On the parched sandy shore Or stop coming And jetsam all cares to fate; No more I bear the unsteady passions, No more I bear the unsteady passions And the soul cries for peace and sleep. Life is a long wait of a far dream Till I sink in unknown horizons, Life is a long wait of a far dream Till limbs go dull and being goes still.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
TWENTY-ONE LOVE She sprang from the time's tapestry, Like full-moon, from the spread of night sky, And streamed soft light all over him; She blew over his heart's barrenness Like the gust of westerly wind do to clouds And poured sprightly rain of joy. Rise and fall in time's cycles In unceasing rhythms is life; A skyward climb discovers descend, A fall to a gulf signals upswing; Rise and fall go hand in hand To the horrors of love-struck souls; Unknown hopes and unknown fears Deepen passions and strengthen bonds. Dawn and dusk are not far afar And ill-luck struck the love laden souls; The lovers met the dusk in dawn And shattered in pain of parting so soon. The ill-struck souls lost each other And felt a fall from heaven to hell; All beauty was shattered, all joy, lost, All hope was squeezed, contentment, crushed; For, love does not wait for time's swing, But bides on steadfast patient growth, Day after day and age after age. They now sit across the gulf of time And crave for each other, Oblivious of what is in store ahead, For, they see nothing beyond each other.
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TWENTY-TWO DISCOVERY I probe your shades and ripples of passions, Sty your hills, delve deep to dales, Fulfil your needs of love and joy And raise a new world of lonely fulgour Where you, for me and I, for you Live like gods of supreme benison. You bare yourself, bear all my odds And carry me inside to reach your core, Where I reach my height with all your warmth While you give yourself in silent openness; We meet each other in the innermost layers And give up ourselves to blend in sweet pleasure. You broke your fence to let me in And built a steel ring 'tween us; You constrained real world, constrained your dreams To the constricted little world of you and me; You abjured safe consuetudes and past And walked straight to your beats of heart. The stir of desires, we have for each, Roused subtle dreams of wish-fulfilment; We, for each, 'neath the glare of harsh heat Did hide in the cool of inner comforts And played a little tricks of graceful love To sparge our hearts with mutual warmth. How you sought to heap your gifts on me And show in abundance your inner charms And discover me in true shades and hues ! Why you wrought such spell on my inner core And brought our souls so close to each That no death nor life really part us ever. No god, no world, we had beyond us, No joy, no truth, we had beyond us, We lived a world beyond all worlds, Where our hearts held the utmost sway; No customs to bar, no jealousies to block, No harsh realities to shatter our dreams.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
You beckoned me from countless heads And installed on the most divine throne, You had in all your lives, Where I have you at my heart's hests, In plain form, none dare see you ever, Where hearts meet, bind souls and blend lives forever.
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TWENTY-THREE IMMORTAL LIGHT Like a breeze you came, like a whirlwind you fled; What flood of passions, you brought in-between! What an immortal joy, you carried on you! No more I remain what I was till then, No more I ever cease seeking you, darling, In things of love and things of joy. You brought sweet dreams to my barren life, You carried new life to the dying sprite While I was hanging alone in mid-air With floor 'neath feet, too low to land And heaven above crown, too high to reach; You broke-in there and comforted me; Here, all is a mirage and an uncertain wait Till I find you rise again from distant horizons. You are an invisible lamp, of divine light That light life with love, care and trust; You are the breeze that whispers comfort Of warmth in lonely still silence; The dazzle of light you spread around me Blinds my eyes to the lesser worlds; You came and you went, but the light persists all over. Wherever you be, however far be, I revolve around you in invisible orbit In midst of the twinkles of countless stars, Spread over the blank space of long deep sleep, There nothing stirs, but the streams of immortal light, You flood me with from unknown horizons.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
TWENTY-FOUR BITING BACK Wise is meeting back while you deal with logic, While mad dogs bite,you wouldn't bite back. While wise men scorn, you condition them to reason, While learned mind trips, you guide it by conviction, While an enlightened heart falters, you light up its emotion, With crazy temper aroar, you see nothing but confusion. A seasoned soul seeks a place, a cause and a time, Whatever it does, has a refrain, a sense and rhyme, But, alas,deranged sour souls, as free as mad dogs, Run amuck as take legs, lie in filth like hogs. Mad dogs may infect rabies, infest blood stream, But, biting back mad dog, brings not back former frame, Fighting back a sickening night, an unwise labour lost, For, night is hollow darkness, haunted by senseless ghost. You bask in daylight while live in awakened world, Where all is fair and right and in reason's mould; You sink in evil night while live with outrage in silence, Where all is mad and foul and a den of evil's licence. Something must be met back and negotiated with, Some others must be suffered in silent pain 'neath; For, the world is good and bad's inseparable broth And you meet whatever comes on your uncertain path.
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TWENTY-FIVE CYCLES Day passes to night, night, to bright day, Spring, to dull autumn, to spring autumn gives way; Death follows life, while life, perchance death, Struggles to beat off, inscrutable world's neath; For, all, everywhere, move in little cycles, Cycles 'neath cycles, in cosmic giant clock And old breeds new, new recycles to old, Swings nature's soul, incessantly back and forth. Are these cosmic games, what the nature plays in cycles, Or litttle crafty tricks in the giant cosmic process Of cycles winding cycles to higher energy levels To navigate the cosmos to its ultimate recess? In cycles 'neath cycles, how they come to cosmic dictated stop? How they all come to terms with the final hop To the inscrutable and subtle divine cosmic will, Where all move in cohesion in uncanny cosmic drill? Where this procession moves, none therein know, Where this train crawls, no clues anywhere show; Who set the cosmic will, who set the cosmic drill, What soul oversees all, who set the ball to roll, What cosmic mind behind, for what that ultimate end, Cycles 'neath cycles revolve in larger rounds And a giant cosmic journey all these so compound, Knows, only the ring-master, who lives above all bounds. Ceaseless the journey proceeds, to reach the inscrutable goal In unending vacuum space, where no time or space exist, Where no direction-signs exist, all is all and whole there, No right or wrong has a place, no motion ever count, A motionless sojourn in gradient infinite space Embraces all processes in evolution's eerie race Where the present bearing the future, evolves to newer spheres And leads the cosmos ever nearer to the divine master.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
TWENTY-SIX UNEQUALLED IN HUMAN RACE A live fulcrum to fall upon, Rammed deep to the selfs mould, Around which all worlds revolved, Be it joy or grief or fear, Was he that, for them, all along his life. He stood tall like a banyan tree And protected from rain, heat and wind, Shed branches and leaves, dried himself In quiet patience of a mammoth self To keep his off springs in cool restful shade. Winds and floods did ravage his face And dint confidence, Winds and floods did ravage his face And dint confidence, But never his resolve to guard his chicks. Upright like white, Soft like full-moon light, He stood like a fence of wrought-iron sturdiness Tween good and bad and right and wrong With himself as the cynosure to guide forward. A noble height in the ladder of honour, A sacred depth of awe and love from all, He bartered pelf for grace and self, He bartered comforts to guard his world And shone very bright in rectitude's sunshine. He stalked like a lion in royal grace In a land of little savage beasts, He walked along in measured gaits Not to hurt even an innocent soul And stood all alone like a beacon and shed light. He, a sacred temple, Where all came for peace and comfort And a valued pleasent friendship too; No low or high ever touched him, He gave what he had and won them all.
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He might have now crossed seven seas And traversed across to good judgment; But he is always he, Unequalled in all human race Across the time's myriad barriers.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
TWENTY-SEVEN BEAUTY Face to face with enthralling beauty, Words go dumb and limbs, lithe; All senses dwell on the divine charm And balk from the world that sorrounds it. While beauty floods, breathless I go, Joy swells inside and bursts outside; I, in the beauty and the beauty, in me, We merge in each, and live goes sweet beauty. Beauty breathes and talks, dances too, Beauty reaches and touches, seizes too; Beauty is a force, none can resist with ease, Beauty is a place where god sits with grace. Wherever I look, there is beauty, Wherever I look, there is beauty, It invites to reach the subtle core And builds bridges to the secrets of god. What makes beauty, beauty, a gentle force, A seat of joy and grace and peace? What makes beauty rise like a magical spell And liquate whole being to rhythmic soft music? Is it formless god devolved on the earth Or wisdom of holy sages in rebirth In aureate splendour, reaching our earth? Or a glisk of the nature's innocent smile? What is beauty, but a communion of souls? What is beauty, but an expression of the whole? Beauty reaches god and drinks his glory And brings his grace to the lower world. posted by praveen kumar at 12:07 AM
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TWENTY-EIGHT SOUL OF BEAUTY See her not with eyes, see her by insight, Eyes are dull to pierce her form, Eyes are weak to catch her fragrant soul; She is too deep for the shallow little eyes, Cup after cup, eyes measure her form, An infinite spring of charm, she is. See her not with eyes shut too, Open both eyes and drink her contours, Those form, charm, shapes and slopes, Those face, grace, poise and peace; Feast the eyes to trust it all, Feast the eyes to trust it all; Miss not a piece of the masterly craft, Miss not the soul of the exquisite art; Each stroke of her shape, unequalled in joy; Each sweep of her form, a divine sway; Only soulful eyes feel the gentle charm, Dissolve in the form and dwell in the frame. See her by insight with open eyes, Grab her inside with eyes and insight; A jewel of beauty in the nature's treasure, A precious piece of immortal pleasure, Divinity, devolved on the earth, she is; Seek her soul with all your soul, Inhaust her whole to reach your soul, See every form in her sweet frame; Beauty, she is wherever you meet, Joy, she is, wherever you reach; Open your senses, keep open your heart, She enters the soul like an incony gentle bride. What subtle contours make her graceful soul? What magic juice flows in her veins And makes her rare splendour, what it is? What is that sweet fluid grace That streams out of her delightful moves? What concinnous soft organic orchestra Creates this wonder in the name of soul? She is not just beauty, the soul of beauty; She is charm in human frame
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
That devolved on the earth to make all happy; Divine, her beauty, divine, she is, A soulful music, a fragrance from the graceful heavan.
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TWENTY-NINE LOVE AND LIFE Love and life pull the poetic cart To the inner gates of the dreamer's hearts; Breeze of life with the fragrance of love Makes dreamland a gardener's paradise Where tiddy seedlings and tiddy saplings, Plants and trees and long creepers, Some with fruits, some with lovely flowers Of myriad hues and eyeful colours Enchant hearts and awaken souls To the lush real world of love and life. Drummers of life and flautists of love Blend their tunes to soulful music; Rhythms of life, gentle rhymes of love, Deep silence of grief, sweet whispers of joy, Sublimes of epics, light creeps of lyrics Weave a fabric of unworldly wonders, Where heat of realities meet the cool of thoughts To spawn a warm world of creative charm; Life is sweet melody, love is deep stir, Thay together make poems of sweet endearments. Love and life in rhythmic words Fly on fancy like little birds; New visions appear, new imageries arise To create a heaven more divine that full-moon; Love is alive and life is loveable while Poetic soft flight touches in all sides And indistinct goes the real world; It is a hive of sweet love and life, It is a hive of sweet love and life, Fresh honey there drips if gently flipped. Bones of life and flesh of love. Sprout what a grace of feminine charm! Stones of life and mortars of love. Edges of life and corners of love, Create what wonders of architectural designs! Warps, of life and woofs of love Texture what designs of artistic pleasures! In dance of words, in rhythms of pregnant words In shades, hues and nuances of words, Worlds are built of fragrance and music.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
THIRTY THE NATURE Beauty is the nature's natural name, The nature is poet's soulful game; Her moods, rhythms and colours frame Heaven on the earth in poet's dream. Picturesque orchestra of the nature's rhyme Stirs subtle sweet passion's flame; The nature sings in silence for all souls, Dawns new feel of devotional whole. Blue in the sky and green all round How change in mood with the passing time! Cool of breeze and warmth of sunshine How weave rare joy in the nature's womb! Musics of streams and chirpings of birds Rise like hymns from the nature's trove, Clouds afloat and smiling sweet flowers Swing in wind to greet all souls. Air is thick with relaxed mood, What a thrill, what an inspiring stir Hangs in air like the heaven's benison And blends onlookers with the nature's soul! The grace of god as heavenly light Diffracts as kaleidoscopic spectrum, A spell everywhere, arcane vibrations, The nature's music catches like fire. What a sweet soft madness inside, What a sweet soft madness inside In the nature's calm rise and fall, In the still quietude, in the quiet simple mood! Those simple forms, those gentle hues, Those quiet moves, those silent songs, Those magic spells of sweet fragrance, What a blend, what a shocking grace! The nature, not the nature, a cradle of beauty, A ladder for all divine gifts,
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An open keek to the streaks of heaven In untouched lively virgin form. The nature is a clean mirror of the soul Where the soul itself reflects for real, Bright like the sun, yet soft like the moon And refreshingly pure like the morning dews.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
THIRTY-ONE THE FULL- MOON DAY The moon rose on the vast twilight stage Like a bride walking-in for the first night tryst; Twilight in the east caught the jasmine-white riot Around the huge glow of the giant cosmic lamp; Divinity flowed all over the earth's crust And trickled on the world through ethereal layers; It carried numb dreams, soothed tired souls While the heavenly milky flow soaked every human mind With desires for joy and enduring soft warmth. The golden queen in the stride of royal grace Ascended heaven with gold dusts splayed On the fading silk-carpet of the thin sunshine; As night fell, the nature lit the heavenly lamp And the world went abright with joy afloat in air; Cool breeze whispered warmth, night carried a new world, Bright winnocks of heaven let-out divine light; The queen of numb joy, strode along the night sky With poppied sloth, left all over the milky path And the world was awash with pure glow of joy. Hills and buildings broke out through darkness 'Neath the thick layers of fleeting silver clouds; Trees and lakes, wet with soft white light Raised a new world from the nocturnal old world, Where no more is fiery night, but bright soft delight, No more is dread, but transpicious transcendent vision Of what is beauty, what is peace and bliss; The night is full with beauty's sweet contrasts Of peace and passions, stillness and motions With shades and twilights of sensuous quietude! The moon with full bloom of her bright smiles Feasted the world with sweet magic all round; Cool brought warmth and warmth brought cool While the world was wrapped in full-moon light; Whirls of sweet madness whispered in air, Sweet pain of pining was carried from horizons And the intense joyous brooding hung mind in stillness; A total joy it was, the nature's road to god That made the dull earth, a beauty's holy temple, Once every month from the long lost ages.
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THIRTY-TWO FLOWERS Gentle, fragrant flowers, we are, In delightful, vast garden of the heaven; We , rhythmic colours, swinging in cool breeze, Create moods and shape our world; We bask in sunshine, dip in cold night, We breathe fresh air, dwell in smoke and dust, We wither and blossom to the nature's dictates; Yet, sweet always, soft, fragrant algate, Like the tunes of sweet songs and the joy of love; We are the nature's art, the creation's rare craft. All is rare creation in the nature's treasures, We are each distinct creation's pleasures; Each paves own road to walk his path, Sweeps his path and removes road-blocks, Settles dust and fog and lays welcome arch; The lanes we lay through the joys of heaven To lead to the posts where we happen to be we, In dreams, thoughts, hearts and acts, Is as smooth as fur that brings lush warmth, Where a walk is a joy, an absorbing sweet game. We swing with breeze and throb with colours, Breathe fragrance that wraps our world; We change our shapes to conform to needs, To dreams, desires and noble goals; Bright like dawn's light, fresh like morning breeze, We enthuse live spirit, everywhere, always; Soft and warm, we are, tough and firm in core, We build bridges to the hearts we need; We, the soft paintings, the sad musics, Live like lyrics in the rhythms of life. No dream is unreal, no goal, impossible, If right door is found and pathway is sound; We live to the brim of the highest vision And bind loose ends of inside and outside To have this there and that brought here And bind all threads to a consummate whole; The stride to be gentle with eyes on the ground While the heart in far land of peace and joy And the mind in open sky in search of horizons Where soul may smile with fuller contentment.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
No moisture wets, no weight holds down, But the moisture and weight add to our grace; No heat ever sears, no strain ever tears, But the heat and strain add to inner richness; In cloud, sunshine, in smoke, limelight, We find our time to act and rest, lie low and rise, As unforeseen force contrives to fix; We sail with wind and move with waves, But, we, algate we, with all the joy of rise and fall And seek to keep us in joyous move.
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THIRTY-THREE SUPREME JOY Several steps I climbed, some more to climb Along the course of the timeless time, Doors are open to lead in blind blinkers Through the jigsaw-paths of the dreary future; Deadly vipers and beasts infest the wilderness, Thorns tear, creepers shear the resigned sojourn, Heart bleeds, soul weeps while limbs labour While mind gropes for the refuge of light; Weather is stormy, grimy, darkness everywhere, Where lightening breaks like seld windfalls. Esurient eyes stare at the wrap of the blankness, For the rare flashes of the momentary profulgence That dissolves to far dreams as soon as it comes; Eyes are tired, for, very dark is this night, No streaks of light, anywhere on the horizons And gloom frosts in mind and heart and soul; I know not where I go upward or downward, Or go round and round in unending roundures For the motion's sake in savage blinkers Till the heart sears and the soul withers. More I climb, less I see my root, Less calm, less warm, less peaceful I become, Less contentment with the past and life; Grit glissades, grip loosens with the thickening night And vultures in the sky hover for prey; What bolts may fall from what part of the world, What shocks are in store while I breakout from the smoke, How long to climb, for what ultimate goal, The eyes miss in the maelstrom of the survival's flight And I disclimb while climb, to the despair's pit. All is not lost yet, in the cool and still night, Stars aplenty sparkle as specks in heaven; Each is a distant dream, a new world to be won If sight is right and heart is of right zeal; They follow me, they guide all along the path, They sprinkle bright lights on the frozen dark night; I raise tired eyes from the womb of dark hell And search each twinkle with an unknown hope; Lo, a thousand suns flash from each of the star, A flood of supreme joy dissolves me to life.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
THIRTY-FOUR THE PATH OF LIFE The road is indeed endless Though runs straight and indefinite, Where I must walk all my life; All is not well along the path, Yet, the sojourn must pass unperturbed Day and night, in rain and heat; Narrow lanes, inroads, sudden turns, Rises and falls are the twists of the tryst; Mud roads, road-blocks and hard surfaces Come and go along the path; Why curse the course, why berate fate For distinct characters that mould the world? A path is a means to traverse with time, An accessible means that carries to a goal; Till limbs are in hold and will sticks still, " I" only matters and 'distance' matters Though the vagaries of path do bring some mirth And spur to haste and run sometimes. Nothing stunt sojourn , nothing block smooth ride, Nor shorten nor lengthen the path of goal, Nor build within, nor crackle confidence, Nor refresh the life, nor bring new light; Why dawdle away days on immament features? Why weep while fall, why laugh while climb? Why twist in discomfort of rain and heat? Walk insulated from outside with trust in self, Tis the path for contented walk. Whatever may come, whatever may go, Whatever on the path is in store as fate, I must walk as always I am; Proud of self and diligent of walk, I tread the path that comes in front; Whatever at back, bears my print, Whatever in front, conforms to inner strength. No fog flags, no road-blocks sag Calm and contented steady stride; Dust and sweat may cover my form, Rain and heat may weather the frame,
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But calm confidence forever zooms, Pride and courage, larger loom In soul, while I walk all alone In own strength, on own road, Where I am the king on own right, Where I am right on own thought; A dear little devil in evil world, A rare little angel in free world, I grow not without commitment To grow in peaceful compromise. No hops, no shakes, no dazzles and winds Weaken roots deep neath the ground, No hopes, no plaudits, no spurs for smooth sail Do or fordo the stoic balance, For, I know my path and know my goal And ride in steady stride to my tryst. A humble walk in simple tread Meets its tryst in pride indeed; A prompted march to race ahead Meets its Waterloo in shattered mind.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
THIRTY-FIVE POETRY On what can I invoke your muse, On life or the nature, on self or stray creatures, On love or passion, on joy or woe? On what can I build wordy dreams, On beauty or valour, on past or future, On strife or pelf, on angel or devil? The ocean of mind springs myriad waves, Each rises like a hill and recedes to its hole In unending succession, all the time; What can I hold to impale you in words, What can I wind with arcane hues To unwind your charms with the shocks of joy? You wait on the side-stage to dance to tunes To enter centre-stage, to create new realms While I choose right backdrop on the stage for you, Whatever be the scene for you, Sad or glad, concrete or abstract Or bare truths of all life and self. Whatever I catch, slips like live fish, Whatever I snatch, alas, thins in air And raises its head at miles' distance; All is there, yet nothing anywhere; All runs like a mirage, ahead of me Till you delve on it with flutters of muse. You, the gentle queen on inspiration's throne In splendours of words, rhythms, colours, Musics and passions in unending layers; Come, sit on heart, build bridges to the mind, Bring light to the eyes to choose a carriage To carry your muse to gentle souls. Each thing is subtle, each game inveigles, Each move is new, each whim has a rhyme While inner sight spurs to warm up with muse; Torn rags reveal cosmic game's feat, Dried leaves reveal evolution's secrets To eyes those pierce dull mechanical sheath.
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You pour live words of myriad hues In forms and shapes and rhythms and depths That bind each to create a new world; Thoughts dance to passion's sweet tunes And rise to life in distinct words; Lo, poetry surfaces from discontented soul. The outside world in the inner cauldron Sublimates to hot soothing vapour That lingers in soul like poetic notes; Trivials of the world, while churned in self, Coagulate soft and sweet precipitates That raise this world to enlightenment.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
THIRTY-SIX POET'S PRIDE Oh, it is a quiet harmless pride Of simple and innocent poet's heart; It is the heat inside a hearth That is cool and calm outward. It can bum and engulf the steel, Dissolve the earth to fluid dreams While sits upright on the golden throne Of the poet's safe candescent heart. The poet's pride is on a tripped ride While exposed on an open road, Like a patient from a mental ward With inward versus outward fight. While expanding to far off horizons, Poet's pride is light like birds; While grim like clouds, It cools and pours confidence around. It is a strange candescence inside That exposes nuances of the self; It is a strange candescence inside That seizes shams from its shades. Poet's pride is frozen enlightenment, Pure and thick fog of innocence; Poet's pride is a cleansing holy fire That melts gold to give it shine. Warm like a dear darling's hug, Cold like Antarctic ice-shelf, Soft like gold and hard like steel, The poet's pride is humility in disguise. It creeps like cool breeze Or sweeps like a tempest; It spreads sweet fragrance Or leaves back sad wreck. A rare grace of imbalance is pride In the deepest caves of a poet's mind,
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The eerie smoke of the poetic brood Fills the air with a soothing indolence. Poet's pride soars like a kite in the sky While calm reflections delve to the self; Poet's pride dips deep when hurt While the sham world ignores his worth. Pride is a wall that blocks path Of easy virtues for a speedy flourish, A riddle of likes and dislikes is pride, Where walks a poet with royal grace. The poet's pride, his strength and worth, A protective sheath that absorbs shocks; The poet's pride, his being's depth, Whence uprises his poetic breadth.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
THIRTY-SEVEN BUDDHA Like the milky glow of Buddha Poornima, He soaked darkness with soft light Of knowledge, reason and experience; Buddha scattered clouds, spread the life's truths From the infinite depths of the spiritual light. Compassion moved his sensitive soul, Decays and despairs unsettled his whole, Illusions and ignorance soured his heart To reach upward and know the world To liberate life from the shackles of pain. He wove with reason an exquisite fabric From the warps and woofs of ancient thoughts; He rose from the ruins of vedic rituals Like a glorious rose in an unkempt garden With the fragrance of the joy of deliverance. The pain of transience and the despair of decay Begged Siddhartha for light and peace; Illumination came thro' dedicated meditation, Wisdom dawned in solitude's calm And dharma chakra opened horizons. He tore the skin of complacence To dip into human experience; He probed sufferings and fleeting joy Thro' the rare world of contemplations And illumed human mind with the pure light of sacred knowledge. He renounced cravings and affectations In pursuit of peace and permanence And stumbled on ultimate deliverance, In overcoming flux by eight-fold path That brings soul nearer to eternal goal. He left his wife, he left his child, He left palace and love and ease; For, he loved them all, he loved the world, He loved comforts, peace and ease, Free from transcience, for all human race.
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Tathagatha, the pith of truth and discipline, The brimful bowl of sacred wisdom, The fount of all liberated arhattas, Strung Indian thoughts to a compact diamond strand To still the struggle of spirit and mind. His concerted thought, his detached spirit Pierced grim subtleties of the cosmic order; In clear doctrines, in suspended judgements, Buddha illumed the dark secrets of life And laid the path of liberation. He dug sufferings, found decay and change, Billows of change and yawning death; He dug transience, found causation, The wheel of law and fatalistic life; And shed the light of spiritual dawn. The lamp of soul is a chain of little sparkles, The self, like a sea, is a succession of waves, Life is a stream of endless becoming From birth to death with the miseries of flux In cycles of causation that hold us in leash. Living and nonliving, life and being, Mind and the nature and time and space Evolve to new forms in continual flux; Nothing is constant, nothing is permanent, Change is what the cosmos is all about. Buddha encountered the sad dance of void 'Neath the sheath of complacent ignorance; Nothing is real, nothing is forever, All is fleeting impressions like midnight dreams, Like a sea, we fancy the fleeting waves. Buddha sought to withstand the gust of flux, He saw himself in the middle of a gulf That caused the present to surface a chain of futures In succession of sorrows and pains of decay; He cried for a halt of the kindless wheel. For the cessation of the ceaseless chain of change, In nirvana, he found, the supreme tool; He attained awareness, he sought all his life; Gouthama, the sakyamuni, found abstinence, The cure for all the pain and sorrow.
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He suffered for all, sacrificed all, To find the path of deliverance; He sought and lit the spiritual light That illumed and liberated self and world And cast gentle rays on the human race.
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THIRTY-EIGHT BANGLADESH CYCLONE Tall walls of water In the fierce night of the screaming winds Broke into god-forsaken Bangladesh; The destructive dance of the killer gales, The sweep and roll of the mountainous water In unending roar of the nature's fury Struck the land Like the death's wanton game, With bloated carcasses of men and cattle, Of hapless babies and shattered mothers, Scattered in heaps Like plague-infested rats In fields, streets, rubbles and gutters. Blown-off roofs, Collapsed walls, Upturned trees and ruined crops, Not a life that could save itself! Not a structure that stood itself! All blown and rolled in watery mass That still groped like esurient death, Still blood-thirsty, Still, for more lives; Death, misery, fear, Disease and hunger Filled the air, A hope for future And instinct to survive Fought on the ground, a losing battle. No warmth anywhere, No smile anywhere, No love and hate, No pride or kindness; Common sorrow flattened all, Like the fall of night on a desert tract, Like the fall of bomb on Hiroshima; The human mass of Bangladesh Like hapless cold pebbles of hell, Lo, plead the world to save their souls From the cruel nature's unabated gruel.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
How hapless is man in face of the natur! A mere human mass like any other creature! What a struggle, somehow to survive! What a fight to save near and dears! What a courage in the face of odds! To withstand a demoniac force! Lo, mothers with babies in upraised hands, Carried by floods to the death's holes; Fathers huddled with kins on roof-tops Collapsed with walls to watery graves; Young loves braved oncoming giant waves With passionate clasps Around each other To drown together in the gaping certain death. Wind and water sped everywhere there In death's ferocious hunger; There, death rode on the wild tidal waves, Destruction blew with fatal cyclones And grappled Chittagong and Cox Bazar, Big and tiddy country-sides, In a quiet night of restful sleep With untold knocks of the death's foul tools; Nowhere could they go to save their lives, No friends be of help, no elders could help; Nowhere they could go to save their lives, But, shut their eyes and pray the almighty. Water there rained, like dirty hell, Water rushed from all the sides, Winds blew, The watery world is in watery turmoil; No soul is safe, No glimmer of hope; Virtual darkness in day itself With demoniac clouds Yet hurrying in the sky ; The flares of hunger In painful chill, The fear of life In helplessness Brought unseen hell down on the earth. The nature showed her invincible strength, The nature revealed her suppressed anger And proved to the world who is the master,
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The ultimate winner in the historical struggle Of the man to control the nature's powers; No science rescued man In the worst disastar While lakhs died and crores, helpless, While crores wept for the life's sake, While they went mad with fear and disease, With loss, grief and hunger's stabs And doomed to nought in a few hours. What a tragic disaster in human life! A reminder that none in this world is safe; All is right now, what next, who knows? What brings what, when, why and how, No stars predict, no scientists derive; Disasters in mad flares of the discontented nature Shoot in mysterious forms and vibrations With panic on toes and deaths on heels And havoc at the back like the Satan's shadows That fall on the earth to squeeze life out. Old sun is there, Old moon and stars are there, The unending sky is also there, But, how changed the world overnight! The babies who smiled a day back Rot as corpse in deep waters! Sons, daughters, fathers and mothers, Alive then, Forlorn or dead now! Busy streets, Today, watery graves! Living quarters, Dreary watery holes! No street-lining shops, No age-old giant trees, No schools, mosques, markets, hospitals, But, water, water, water all round; Black clouds in the sky, Deep water on the land, Unending gust of cyclone all round; God-forsaken man sits in the middle And knows not whether he is dead or alive.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
THIRTY-NINE HUMANITY Why make this world A graveyard Of dust, smoke and dying fires, Of hunger and oppressive sufferings? All is aplenty to feed all here; Then, why this greed to apportion all And bum alive in the pain of living, The unfortunate souls: Brothers, sisters, babies and neighbours, Who too have blood as thick as all. A farthing hole can sink a gigantic ship, A spark can set a house on fire ; The pain and grief of a hapless soul Can wash this earth with a sea of blood. Open your heart, open your eyes, An innocent child in cadaverous frame Cries for food on the roadside : A hapless mother Offers her to greed To save her child from the hunger's death; No roof to hide, no cloth to cover, No fire in heart to save honour; Dirt and filth, sickness everywhere, Dirt and filth, sickness everywhere, Night is cold, day is hot, All pain is suppressed in cheap liquors; No job to work, no food to eat While earful cries of hungry lads In dirty shreds of torn rags Shake the souls; No future ahead, But unending hunger and failing hopes; Why this curse on some of us? Why this farce on humanity? Demons eat the mankind By rich and poor's cruel divide, Satan enthrones on the divided earth And rains the fires of hunger and death.
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Gloom of pain pervades somewhere, Sunshine of joy filters otherwhere, How to build a bridge between? Pain is pain for rich and poor, Hunger burns inside all, Comfort and ease are needs all seek ; Why one, in north and the other, in south? Why both never meet and share all they have? Awaken conscience, Feel the lifeless life of numberless souls That tear the peace of sensitive hearts And revolt against the unjust god. Let all live without pain, Let a new peaceful age dawn, No hunger, grief, unfulfilled needs, Nor sickening pelf may ever it reach.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
FORTY TERRORISTS They surface from roadside pot-holes, From cracks of walls and street corners, From mysterious creeks With fire-spewing guns in hand And fire-spitting zeal in heart To set the land on fire Of strife and fear. Terrorists know no territories, No religion and compassion; They strike for a case, They borrowed as a cause'. They strike like a devil To serve a borrowed cause, Indistinct in confusion, though; They reach not roots, In search of a tool Of ultimate deliverance; Like wild fire, they spread and ingulf the peace To reduce all to strife and terror. They lay down life for their dreams, They lay themselves as stray bricks To build a bridge to their dreams Whereon, they hope to walk someday. They live in past, they live for future, But know not how to live for the present; They disown the present To soothe the fire that seethes in hearts; They live for a vision, they die for a vision, But know not how to work for a vision ; They live in terms with instant death In struggle for a vision; They live for a vision That carries them across To a world of fulfilment. The legion of violence Seizes peace and shears confidence,
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Shakes senses with jolts of shocks And spreads the virus of terror ; Their merciless strikes On the carefree and defenceless world Make them beasts that prey on each. The agents of death and destruction Force a change by threat and terror And bleed the world for a new order. Terrorists' is a parallel world, Terrorists are their own laws; They live to die and die to destroy, But, never live life as life to be lived.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
FORTY-ONE STAMP OF LIFE All come and go like actors And do bits in own sectors On the huge stage of the life's play And stamp themselves on time's clay. Some inscribe by the life's thick milk And drape their names in soft silk, While many write by gory blood And stamp wrath and hatred in red. Confused scenes and acts make life Of love, hate, friendship and strife, Confused moves, emotions and intellects Weave plots of abstract novel crafts. Thrills, horrors, upheavals and tragedies, Deep Passions, romance and comedies Play side by side on the live stage With play within play in unending maze. Bonds are made, bonds are unmade, Histrionics are in-between played In blinding glare of the artificial light While backstage is dark, still and silent. Today he is king, tomorrow, plays villain, Next day, he may play the role of a demon; He is, simple he, while goes to side-wings, And sheds false complexes of his role-plays. All are almost the same inside, All are almost the same inside, But for the skill of playing a part, While all go as per script and dim goes light. This or that, or big or small, They are all, unknown fate 's call, Whatever is there, take on that role, What meets on road, act that all well. Not what is played, but how it is played, Marks the stamp of distinction;
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Not how long is played, but how intense, played Makes dints on the long histories of men. While on the stage, all is bright and loud, Talks, fights, actions and songs, Ceaseless haste, nerve-wrecking sound, All go dunny when curtain down wrings. Some play their part, ignore all the rest, Some follow story-line till the very end; Role-play makes man, what part he played; In pedetentous moves, it forms his mould. Nothing loses on the open stage, Nothing misses from the nature's gaze; Everything is there at all the times And adds to the endless evolution 's boom. Bonds of heart and the bridges of soul, The feel of love's umblical chord, Survive the open stage to the pitch-dark hole Where roles are recast and plots are made. An unseen bond binds time and place, An unseen hand coordinates all; It is not an unbound mad race, But a mysterious game of who knows all. It is how is human drama, It is what makes human drama Where backstage and front-stage, intermingled, One out of sight, one, open on the ground.
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FORTY-TWO OPEN WORLD Why build walls around you, Why this love to live in tall towers While open air is fresh and warm? Why tie down the life to four little walls, Why hide from warm sunshine outside And breathe still air in self-centred cell? Open your eyes and pull outside, Open your heart to varied gust of passions, To streams and seas of dazzling colours; Crack walls and break-out thro' barriers To reach the open sky of thousand stars Where every breath brings a new world of joy. Wipe out stillness and remove cobwebs, Shed old sloth and come out of fear And light inside the cosmic lamp, Wherefore you belong to all And all belong to your joy And you reap all the riches, the world offers. The still air inside the four walls Gives space to refreshing breeze When you fledge wings to reach far horizons; The nature's bounty And fresh tides of sweet schemes Cross your path and meet your course. The world is vast, rise above rat-holes, The world is sweet, come out and taste, Eager hands, there, wait, welcome and hug; Choose your taste from the infinite lot, Be one with the world that opens her all, For, nothing is like the joy of free world. Break barriers and reach outside, Feel the rare joy of relief and release And the refreshing warmth of the mother nature; No fences stop, no ropes pull back, No doors shut, no trenches to cross, And you reach anywhere in absolute sunshine.
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No walls ever make you safe and secure, No mental barrier makes happier you; Fences obstruct sight, tie down the limbs to space, Barriers fog the mind with unknown strange fears; It dulls wit and clouds intellect And breeds foul stings of doubts and hatred. Add your some, take back more from And be one with the nature's infinite charm, There is your root, life and end; Hide not from the world, calling you to open arms, Yet, lose not roots in the inviting open world And lose not yourself like flowers in wilderness. Keep open and wait, all come to door; Smile and invite, all sneak inside And fill your soul with smile and joy; All colours, yours all musics, yours, Twinkles of eyes and glows of smiles, Loves and warm touches, all yours. Cold or hot outside is warm, Pain or pleasure, outside brings joy, Ups and downs bring strength to life; It be rise or fall, rest or toil, Peace of turbulence, soft or hard, The world outside is infinite joy.
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FORTY-THREE SHACKLES Man is in shackles everywhere, Within, without, near and afar; Man is in strife and constant fear Of own, of men, of the present and future. He is a lonely fly Caught in an intricate web; He forces his pace, Wings shut, Will whittled, With doom in perpetual wait At left, right, up and down; In mysterious zigzag puzzles, In crossroads With no signboards anywhere, But wrong signals Of frailties and deceptions; He pursues his path Of rise and fall In blinkers. No choice but to follow, what all must, Smell chances and pursue instinct In disguised bondage of the unknown fate, What makes man unliberated and mute. Fences, walls and trenches outside Stunt and shock the quietude of the walk; Ropes, smokes and darkness inside Halt the spurs to run ariot to miles; The war is afoot To straff and kill free instinct, The field is riven with smoke screens That make indistinct inner sight. The world is wide, but nowhere to go, Roads are many, but barricades, everywhere; The nature is bountiful, but little is to choose, Man is free like a bird, yet, unsure how to fly. Men create barriers, Men fight each other;
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They raise dust-storms That blind the world And leave back disorder, Where freedom is swept away And all is in bad shackles Of fear, jealous, anger and hate, Of greed, arrogance and indifference; Each is a shackle And the world is a bundle of bad shackles, Where each is against all, And all, against each. This is how we live in the world! This is how we safeguard us! Each makes this world less free for all, To make the world more free for him.
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FORTY-FOUR BEYOND COMMON REACH Inbuilt height, depth and breadth inside, Light the rare fire of self-confidence; Deep and calm warmth of trust in self, Raises lonely soul from the trifles of the world; One who nestles in own concrete cell Of warmth and rare impassable treasures, Least envy the worlds of rise and fall, Of strife, struggle, rat race and deceit; He shines on own like the sun in the sky And subdues nether world with his dazzling light. The sun has care for all hills, moles and dales, For the vast deserts and sylvan green lanes At his great height and endless dazzling prowess; He is an all-levelling fierce source of might; He is a self-luminous life-bestower for all; He touches all the world with no passion stirred As it reaches him in the nature's patient cycle; Nothing shakes his world of the rarest rare treasures, Nothing swells the pride of his luxurious golden shine, For, he lives on his riches, beyond common reach. No prism can resolve his candent pure glow, No chameleonic shifts strain his face; His lamp streams light in overpowering voltage That blinds weak eyes to grope for light; His sack is full with rare magical tools, His bag is heavy with bright precious stones, All, in compact pack, inside his golden cage, Where none have a peek except himself, Where none have a peek except himself; He sits in confidence, within, in carefree joy. The courage of weight that warms inside Paves the smooth path of calm confidence Through the gulfs of hell and the heights of paradise; Strides of grace in dignified pace Roll the carriage in undisturbed course To unknown horizons where it sets its goal While the nether world indulges in internecine fight; He moves on own like a celestial giant In measured even pace of own inner force Till reaches distant goal for all times to come.
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Why wait for small gifts while riches sit within? Why fight for a foot-hold while lord over an imperium? How shallow dents can move a mammoth imperious giant? How tiny wavelets can hold a sea's fierce course? He is a vast ocean, an imperious mountain, He is an imperium of inexhaustible riches, He is too tall, vast, deep and bright To be held in the farthings of an earthly container; He lives on own, in infinite bright light And knows the shady world and knows his proud course.
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FORTY-FIVE ALLOY Soft and sweet fmit lures insects, Hard and sour stuff is safe in distaste; Smile and kind heart shares sufferings, But, fails to build a safe and sturdy fence. Have fire in heart to match cool and decisive mind And incinerate shams in inner cauldron; Have forts built and trenches dug To trip the inflow of intruders. Have a gentle core in a hard thick shell, To suffer the access of playful lazy bugs; Disguise noble strains in a handy little pill, For worthy souls to distil and imbibe. Shine like the sun with a hot corona, To stall space-flights at safe distance; Look for signs with an incisive open mind To previse and prepare for unwanted intrusions. Defenceless treasure is a looters' paradise; An, innocent young girl, left on the open street, Dissolves in misuse of the immoral greedy world; For, the world is made to strike easy marks. Bind conscience in a steel-rimmed frame Till ripe time comes for conscience to stand up; Mount your heart on untamed savage horse Until you find right place to dismount from it. Mix noble gold with baser mean copper, Fix gentle charm with ruthless stick of power To make noble strains hard, gentle and firm And hard while noble and firm while gentle. Like a water spring on a rocky terrain, Let warm clear soul spring sudden pleasures To illume the dour world with lasting streams of joy Thro' the hard and firm facade of sweat and tears. Build walls, post guards round the clock, Screen strangers for honest motives; Brief right men and lead right inside, Where the spectre of god sits in faint divine light.
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FORTY-SIX RHYTHMS OF LIFE Wherever be imbalance, There is nature's dance Of emotions, evolution and emergence Of new heights and new horizons. Wherever be cravings, There are strivings To reach higher and wider And reap nature's fuller subtleties. Perfection is stillness, Distance brings motion That strains strength to pleasant fatigue With sweet hopes of fresh blooms. Contentment is quietus, Discontent is life That draws being out of shell To drown in nature's limitless treasures. Disturbance is sunrise, Calm peace is sunset; While one leads to brightness, The other broods to quite sleep. Fullness is open sky, Reachless and characterless; No shape and shade to stir, No cloud, no warm breeze to stir. Spotless white and straight? It is tasteless twilight; No warmth, no chill, no smile, no wrath, No hooks, no crooks, no lively twists. No urge, no thrust, No relief of release? Life is dull, heavy, painful tedium, A repeat run on a forfairn course. Nothing it holds? Nothing it moulds;
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Like a layer of sand on a seabed, It lives itself for existence's sake. Contentment's thick hide Hides inner world From the joys of tumultuous growth And uncertainties that brighten the life. The rhythms of life, The musics of nature, Shut to the shell of dunny self That dwells itself in perfectitude. No dim and dip, No shocks of sparks, No maddening dance, no joyous whirls, But a constant glimmer of dull twilight. It is neither left, Nor ever be right; But algate straight on its path In a saturnine lightless brood. Give it some strains, Bring some features; Break the white brood of perfectitude, Drive a hole to let some light inside. Give twists to straight lines To create new shapes; . Guide life through the joy of shocks Of the nature's strange fitful dance. Stir the inner pendulum To pace with time Along the infinite cosmic clock With shocks and thrills all along. Rise and fall is joy, Light and shade is beauty, Uncertainties bring hope, Change infuses health and strength. Perfection is imperfect, Imperfection, perfect; This is how the world is trapped, This is how life is warped.
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Curvatures deviate algate, It move and meet somewhere, While in ceaseless isolation run The lines, straight and featureless. Incompleteness invites, Completeness withdraws; Incompleteness attracts While completeness cools all warmth. Imbalance brings beauty, Imbalance brings taste; Imbalance gives life strength and form, Imbalance moves algate to a goal. It be music or dance, The nature or an artists piece, Imbalance always sits in womb To stir passions to artistic mood. Craving is beauty, Striving is art; No beauty or joy lies in fullness, No dream ever stir in completeness. No day, without night; No dream, without desires; Life is an urge of upward surge, No rise, if no dip to imperfectitude. Uncertainty is god, Uncertainty is youth, Certainty brings cold old age, The plateau that falls to desuetude.
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FORTY-SEVEN COMPROMISE Pay the price of pride To rise high to dizzy heights, To reap riches and joy; Unwind conscience To compromise with of life And win the life's game. Self-imposed fences Of right and wrong and good and bad Bind to a blind fulcrum; No caged bird Flies in sky and in freedom To catch and eat worms. Man loses to gain, Falls to rise and bends to standup, For, the world is made so; His blind moves In tandem with only what heart dictates End in loss, fall and final break. Man is a prisoner Of the time and space that spawned him And obeys its rules always; None can hope to outlive And rise to timeless and spaceless milieu, And yet have a smooth passage.
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FORTY-EIGHT THE NATURE'S RICHES Beauty is here, and now, If you have insight to engage; Pleasure is in every move, If you have eager heart, to seize. Every warp and woof In the nature, an enthralling wonder; Every rise and fall, Here, a heavenly splendour. Wherever fall the eager eyes, There is beauty, joy and riches; Wherever passion stirs action, There are hundred roads open. The nature is an open world, Where valiant seekers can pick anything; Nothing there is beyond human reach, Only if one pay the right earnest. Have the right taste and zeal in heart, Everything then falls in line; Keep both eyes open, shun not interaction And see the nature's treasures surface and shine. The nature seeks the flames of zeal, She adores her treasure's ardent seekers; She lies scattered, all exposed, To rouse interests and stir passions. Have courage to reach, To meet, rip and pierce within; Lo, flows she from all sides Like the early glow of the refreshing dawn. Her every inch is a subtle charm, It be sky, the earth, a hill or a dale, A man, a woman, a bird or a tree, It be love, labour, hate or rest. Open your eyes to the tempting charms, Open up the soul to the natures fragrance ;
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Open up to the riches of her touches And open the self to the heaven of her music. Keep open yourself, The nature willingly bares herself ; Shut not the heart While she seeks you in all her splendour. Love the nature for all her worth, Love the men and women around you ; The little acts and mischiefs they do, Bare the riches of the nature's charm. All joy, riches and rare charm, For those who seek and act; Blame not the nature, blame yourself, If you find no water in an ocean trough. Riches are scattered around you, Choose and pick what you desire ; Train eyes and sharpen ears, Run and work the hands to grab. All are there for each of us, To meet each man's individual needs; Listen inside and then you decide And eat from her inexhaustible treasure. Be honest in desire, No shy or fear let bewilder you ; The riches, joy and all the beauty, All day and night, just wait for you. Have glow in eyes To find the worth of all you meet; Have fire in heart To win and bear all you want. Cravings aye deepen cravings To deepen the subtle pleasures within, Cravings aye meet cravings To bring in the nature, fulfilment. Yield to cravings To rip and reap the joy aheap ; You waste not the nature's rare blessings, But, show her how precious she is.
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Though live in the dazzle, Why you look so dull and gloomy? Yours all, go, grab and hug, None stop, if you rise to the occasion. Dig the earth and have water, Rip the sheath and have the soft core ; Fight your path to meet your post, For, the valiant alone deserves rare fare. Play and please the playful nature, Play hide and seek and have her all; When she comes, she comes in full In all her hues, in all her beauty. When you win the nature, You win this life, you win this world; All charm and joy lie on your feet, Come and have her, all for you. The nature is there, always there, She must reach you some day ; You build a soft passion's bridge To meet and drink all her charm. It be here or there or somewhere, The nature craves as you for her; Reach for her and melt with her And feel the nature's joy stream in you.
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FORTY-NINE WHERE ARE WE HEADING? Where are we heading with this crazy run? To a new world or an imminent end? Or is this an endless run for the running's sake? No signboards anywhere For speeds, turns and distance ahead, Nor anybody knows the starling-line From where it all once began. Twilight spreads on the path of the run And passionate colours lit the sky, Long shadows fall ahead of the run; Is this dawn or dusk, none of us know; Hollow within, breaks to loud clamours, Dust and sweat sit on tired faces, No lights within, This is an impatient blind run. Miles and miles we cover a day And leave behind long-winding roads; Is this labour worth our sweat, Does this take us anywhere at all? Directions are uncertain,destination, uncertain, Of terminal confusion. Does this run take back or forth, Or keep in mad rounds around the self, Or mark-time on a constant spot? Endless run weathers freshness, Cracks endurance and tires sprite; Miles of roads do wait us ahead, But, does this run take us anywhere? Is this evolution's natural cradle? Do the cracks in our tired souls Show sudden jumps in the evolution's scale? None have an answer, none know an answer, Nor we need to know the celestial secret, Nor it concerns us for ages to come; But, we must run, run like all, As condemned to run from birth to death As the sports of the grand universal scheme Which always does what always is right;
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Let us run as we must, With lights within and eyes open And ears held close to hearts And souls intact; Only then we win the evolution's race.
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FIFTY POETIC INSPIRATION She pours in spasms Like sunshine through the patches of clouds, She pours uncalled In majestic cascades, Sometimes, just refuses to show up And bides to her own feminine mood; The lady charm loves her hide and seek Like a proud and pretty damsel; She hides while sought And seeks while you hide To tune your world to her deeper treasures; While you need her most, She thins in air and teases your cool; While you resign to her spells In leisurely lull of lush slumber, She lurks through the soul; She shoots from mind in graceful words And strikes the soul with a bright glow And rolls down in wonders of new shapes To rock the mood and shock the soul; She blows like wind and purs like rain And soaks the heart to sprout poems; She flows from self like silk bits of cocoon And weaves pretty bits in warps and woofs. She is molten self And streams from the inner fount 'Neath thick pack of pains and pleasures, 'Neath the weight of strain and stresses That heat red-hot and mould the soul; She cracks reason and shatters prejudices And kicks through the walls of sensibilities womb To be born in the poet's world In fluid words with passion's wings To spread rhythms of peace in passion's riots While all is calm and strangely still; She is her own, like her feminine mood, Unpredictable, unsure. Yet, calm and wet.
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FIFTY-ONE LIFE AND COSMOS Life is a speck of light In the womb of infinite darkness, Life is a chance movement In the ocean of ceaseless stillness. Life is a celestial pinhole, Where matter rocks in endless cycle, In and out of consciousness In isolation of cosmic stillness. A breach in still darkness is life, A winnock to the depths of the unknown cosmos; Life is matter's animated form, The stage, where played all cosmic games. Life is a great white-hole That expells all matters as bright light, Life is a weightless mole That unravels secrets of the cosmic womb. A lonely island of wonders is life In monotonous expanse of still matter; Life is green in dull blue mass, The tip of evolution in the celestial process. Life is an accident of space, A cosmic chance eruption in infinity, A self-sustaining glow of spirit That comes from and dissolves to endless mass. The subtle rhythms of life That rises and dips in endless space Thro' the layers of still dark matter, A creative dance of the restless cosmos. Like a lonely little star On a newmoon rainy sky, Life twinkles in lonely splendour In ever-expanding heath of darkness. Life is a bright relief Where cosmos breathes end and means,
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Where breeds time and space And sprouts fresh thoughts in eternal continuum. Life is the cosmic nerve-centre, Though a minute pack of illumination; It casts invisible subtle light Through the length and breadth of the cosmos.
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FIFTY-TWO COSMIC GAME All is an uncertain changing phase In the endless stream of cosmic game; All are ignorant, mute swimmers In the endless tides of cosmic rhythm . People and places come and go In strange frames of time ; Events rise in unknown sequence And sink then back as it has come. New worlds rise in place of old To grow as old themselves ; The unending flux in the cosmic womb Yields to imperceptible evolution. Who created cosmos, for what purpose, The creator himself knows not; Where had it begun and where it heads, The creator himself knows not. Who authored evolution , how and why? Why this, now, here and that, then, there Though in cosmic symmetry indeed, How invented by what infinite mind? How purposes surface from endless mess? How order springs from purposeless heap? Who decides sequence and cause and effect And sinks to naught as never exist? Nothing is plain as good or bad, Nothing is distinct like black and white ; All are gray like evening light And frowned or praised at time's dictates. No patch of cloud can reach the heaven, No matter encroaches on the cosmic will; Can the tides in sea change the sun's course? Can the ripples in well shake the seven seas? All are piggybacks on the cosmic plot, The plain missiles of the cosmic plosion; Yet, an unknown thrust and order rules All rise and fall and jump and swing.
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We partake in a mysterious game, We partake in a mysterious game, Where as mere tools, we play the game, Though inside it, nowhere belong.
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FIFTY-THREE COSMIC DANCE Nataraja, The lord of fierce cosmic dance In all consuming celestial rhythms Of infinite and nought, Of life and death, Sprouts from the shell of void With the profound deep bang of Om In suppressed implosion That throws endless bright flames All over the ceaseless space In impossible speed. Motions in rhythms, Rhythms in deafening Om Cradle new forms, Cradle new lives, All along the fierce dance ; Cold and dark heaven, The celestial stage, Rocks in warmth of blinding light With rhythmic fireballs In run to infinite horizons. Stillness stirs, Silence whispers, Void occupies With extending cosmic dance ; Death comes to life, life, to death, A complex cycle catches all; Dark heaven illumes, Life warms up And the cosmos, like the newmoon sky, Sparkles with myriad bright specks. It is fierce spasms of heavenly bodies , It is cosmic force in celestial dance. Wild flames of wrath Bums elements to fluid motion To deafening bangs In gracious symmetry That springs new worlds Of breathing life and subtle mind
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From the restless feet Of immortal Nataraja In destructive dance, That engulfs evils In creative dance, That evolves new order; Each gesture is a passion, Each motion, an emotion, Each vibration, a divine song In the furious exposition. The restless dance goes on and on Till finite force fills infinite horizon, Till the booming bang of the lifeful Om Reaches back its creative womb.
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FIFTY-FOUR INSIDE You have what you deserve, You save what you preserve, Blame not fate or unknown hand, Know yourself, you know all world. All are born like all others; Some breakup, a few why rise? No sweat or brain, not even wealth, No push or tie explain it ever. What you deserve is deep inside, What you deserve is deep inside, That manifests in real life As true measure of real strength. You are white-hot, keek inside, Trace the flame of divine light That burns, consumes and thrusts forward, There, somewhere, where algate you belong. It knows when and how to click, It plots its time and place to work; No prompting or art, no drugs or trick Ever breached the plot of the inner craft. It streams wisdom and right approach, It inspires work and right conduct, It weaves rare webs of time and place That lead you for a deserving climb. You cook by the fire, you have in the oven, You beget what you deserve deep within; For everything; there is a befitting end, Whether you desire or have it in design. No wisdom alone takes you anywhere While inside is in suppressed wait; No ties, no toil or power or grit Ever awakens you from deep slumber. If you rise far high you deserve it all; If you fail and fall you deserve only it
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In spite of false wordy long claims; The world is simple as plain as this. Inside is not what you make for show, Inside is not what you have in shreds; Deep inside, the silent inside Sinks in soul as an integrated whole.
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FIFTY-FIVE FREE WORLD Untie leashes, set free to fly, Rise at will to the limitless sky; Unbound is space, none fence the path, Shed barriers, spread to length and breadth; Where you set feet, there is your world, Where you set heart, there is free world, As long as eyes stretch, limitless is bright hope; Grow fast wings, fly wherever you want, Look not back and spoil not sport; Unconstructed is future, design own world In unbound freedom that waits your call. Why build tall walls and surround yourself? Why live in towers and miss fresh air? Why hide in caves and lose sunshine? Spread your wings, rise on warm wind, Swim like fish in deep waters of sea, New things are ahead, new worlds are ahead, Unseen wonders, yet to be discovered, Move on the spur, unchained anywhere; Open your mind and sweep like wind; No post to devolve, no fulcrum to revolve; Have restraintless move in transparent air. No walls ever made life safe and rich, No stones round the neck ever brought any weight; Walls that, stop the tides of life-force, Breach and tear delicate wings; Let life always stream on own free course As inside inspires and freewill leads ahead; No fear or swither, no doubts may hold you back, Let no backyard fence, tie down where you are; Barriers do rise here, there and somewhere, You rise high and high and fly above all, You will see how free and lovely all round. You swim ahead, turn left or right Or turn backward or rise or fall To the beats of heart and listen inward, That is your world, that is free world; Look outside and you open inside, You are born free in an open world;
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Why bind in leash and build walls around A square feet of space in fear of unknown? Fledge feathers, preen wings to reach all place And spread on will every inch around you, You find free world, a heaven on the Earth. Free in will is the ultimate joy, Beauty, truth, strength and life itself; Life in free world, a feel of deliverance, A deep existence, a divine experience; No wealth, no strength, equal free inside, No name, no comfort, worth a mean bondage; Free life is true life, joyous pure life, A deep absorption to the nature's subtle core, A living deep, intense like the white-hot sun; Yield to no bondage, sit within no fence, Listen to whispers inside and ride with the tide.
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FIFTY-SIX A STORY He is a regal horse, They wished, he drag their jatkabandi; New to the job, He refused to stoop, He raised head high in regal portance And neighed aloud in leonine arrogance. They pulled his reins to tie to a cart, The cart was low for his impossible height; They knew not how to use this breed. They knew no strains of a regal horse; How to breed and ride a good horse, How to rein in and win its wits, They had no clues; They groped in dark to figure his pride, But found no light; Different it is from the common breed, But high or low, They could not figure ever. Birds of the same feather flock together, They came in haste to stick together; Birds of the same feather flock together, But, could not figure how to handle the fare. Kala was then the chief of them, He had old passion for the young regal-horse; How the tall horse would win bread and I've long If laboured not a cart all its life. Kala wailed aloud in large kind heart; He wished, the regal-horse reduced its height So he could tie a cart to its lowered back; He wished, the regal-horse go dumb as an ass, So none ever fear to mount its regal back; He knew not how to help the regal horse, So, he devised a cruel home-made craft; He caught it in a trench and tied with ropes, He bet with rods and made it run Till fell the exhausted-horse with bleeding open wounds; His heart too bled for the innocent dying horse And tended gaping wounds with love and care Till the horse gained strength and stood erect alive;
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He began again the savage torture To make the regal-horse, a cart-pulling ass; He broke its legs, Flogged skin and bathed in blood For all the passion, he had for the horse, To make the regal-horse a cart-pulling ass; He allowed it not to die Nor allowed the horse to live as a normal-horse Till he languished to drop and disappear somewhere. Is it love or hate, Is he a friend or foe, Is it a grace or curse, Know not he nor that horse. The graceful horse licked blood, Withstood the ordeals for good With its broken legs And rose as ever from strength to strength Of its rare breed; Taller it grew with each of its struggle, Proved its breed and proved its blood, It proved that rare timbre of a noble breed; It showed subtle strains, unseen till then; But never never stooped to jatka-breed, Never assumed an ass' guise, While bore the brunt with valour and resign And stood upright Like god itself. Baser creatures do have several heads, Each is a guise to meet weakness inside; Baser creatures do have several heads While a noble soul has one, held high skyward.
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FIFTY-SEVEN KNOW YOURSELF While you know yourself and know your road, Why balk in fear of unknown hands? While clear is sight and inside is bright, Why look for ghosts of doubts and fate? Road may fall or rise, turn left or right, But, you are you, a brilliant glow And traverse gulfs and cross hills: Not where you walk, but what you are, Make you, you, the ultimate you; Cross-roads do come, you choose your route, Let not illusions oft mislead you; Inopinate turns may end-up somewhere Where you reach the brink of the ultimate end; But, what makes you, you, saves you from all If you know yourself and know your road. Lay your step with sound confidence, Know where feet fall, how deep it mires; Knowledge is light that flees all fears, Knowledge is insight that stills all doubts; While inside is hale with uncontaminated sight, No diffractions ever reach and touch confidence; No rise ever raises, nor fall lets down, For, you are ever you in unresolved glory; You may reach hill-tops, end up in dales, Or lose your path in thick dark wilds And find in midst of savage beasts, Or lose your head in nebulous cloud, Or sink in drains or lose in winds; While you hold rein and know yourself, You come through unscathed like glitterand gold. What all you have, none rob you from; Trust inside and build on that; An ocean inside waits to burst outside, Shut your eyes and listen to the roar, What depth it has, what breadth and length; What a treasure hides 'neath the human sheath; A white-hot sun is burning within That lights thousand worlds if brought outside; So rich you are, why feel forlorn? Rise inside, face outside with resolve,
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Live from within, with, without as a game Of intangible world that surrounds us all, Where we all live in bits, caught in cosmic wind; Path is infinite, so is the endless time, Traverse all the worlds with trust inside.
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FIFTY-EIGHT MOTHER INDIA 0 mother land, 0 dear dear mother, Our mother India, Our beloved India, For all your charm and ancient wisdom, For all the rich past and spiritual cast, For rare forbearance and variegated forms, How, mother, you are caught in a sorry state now Of crave, craze, ignorance and cowardice, Of filth, hunger, degradation and violence? What a sad gap'tween now and then! What a vast gulf 'twixt your own children! A seat of wise sages is a den of self-seekers Who thrive and flourish on the poverty's sufferance And pain and hunger of myriad brothers; Open your eyes, 0 dear dear mother, See how a few smart ones grow to fatty bad giants While most cry hoarse for a morsel every day, Though each is your child, Though you give, all you have. You know not perchance whom you mother, Whom you feed with the best of love, With the best of food, home, joy and comfort With all your riches, power and name-ruffians Scoundrels, worst models of rogues, Cheats, worst crooks, gangsters and criminals; Mother, see otherwhere, gentle children, you breed, In unending fight to keep the both ends meet, No joy, no peace, no comfort or support, They go on knees, 'neath the weight of crime world. You better be barren, our dear mother land Than breed cruel criminals in your sacred womb That bore rare jewels of the mankind once; You better be invalid, our mother land Than feed bands of gangsters with your gentle hands And throttle good lives of gentle innocent babes; Why nectarlike milk of your kind breasts Turn godlike infants to rude blood-hounds? Why your gentle hands strangle innocence, Breed dark ignorance and spread violence?
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We love you, dear mother, for your noble past, For giving us life and means of livelihood; We hate you, our mother, for what you are now, For giving us life in this mean hell of land Where cheats go rich and killers rule the land, Where violence gives power and crimes ease life; Where savagery is adored by indifferent ignorant mass, Where oppression is elected by ignorant cowardice, Where satanic shadows dim the angelic gentle light And everything bad thrives and everything good fails. Why this eclipse of the pristine charm? Why this disgrace to an ancient land? Where has gone the deep passions for value? Where is time-valued sense of just cause? All is gone like sunshine in dusk, Like an aircraft that crashes in mid-air; Burnt fragments of the past do appear, scattered In brooding mood of the foregone ages Like faded youth of an aged woman; Aye, India is dying a slow disgraceful death.
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FIFTY-NINE THOSE CAREFREE DAYS Those carefree days, No bonds whatsoever, though in leashes, Where I could move round the fulcrum In gay abandonment Like happy birds in the sky; I could walk, run and jump, Even fly In weightless freedom; No cares to pindown, No dark spots, no concern, All gay and bright like a child's smile; No thoughts to bother, No fears of future And actions met thoughts in perfection; No deadlines to meet, No pressures to resist, But meet all tides as it visit In perfect leisure. I felt like sitting on the top of the earth, 1 felt like walking through white clouds in heaven, I felt light wings raising me to the moon Where 1 could dream all and attain all that. No barriers around me, No fences to any, No classes to conform, No standards to measure; I could see and walk anywhere Like a pet rabbit; The world was a huge playground then, All playful games, No strains anywhere, no competitions, But, trust and love filled my world; I laughed at will, I shouted mouthful, I talked and talked to all; No masters and servants, No classes bothered me; I sought sparkles in eyes To build my bridges And innocence in smiles
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To meet friendship; I said what I thought And thought what I said, I did what I said And said what I did In open heart; I lived like a king, All my own, Where none could intrude. I saw all equal, as they came to the earth, I saw the world simple, as it always is. I spoke my heart as simple truth In all its passions and emotions; No do's and no donot's No shames and fears; No age or sex or state to consider, Where I stood above all With my own simple, clear judgements, which none could dare to contradict; No heat or rain restrained me, No knowledge of pain refrained me, In meeting what I want; I flew from east to west and north to south In the same gay mood, From star to star, I jumped In playful abandonment; I laughed a day and wept next day In full blast to the pressures of heart, With no cause or reason behind And no pressures to account. The carefree days did light my spirit To candescent glow of pure morning rays; The carefree days did raise my spirit To formless deep pleasure of clam enlightenment.
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SIXTY AN INVINCIBLESPIRIT Like a tall peepal tree, he stands Above thorny cactus bush, Like the polar star, he sits Among twinkles of little stars; A giant mountain of wave, he is, That sweeps unkempt thousand wavelets; Like a rock, he rules a secular land In the center of an oily desert Where American rats and British cats Have Arab slaves in tight leashes; No Japanese might, no European threat Touch his hair, Soviet protests, the UNO's quests In the black sea lost; He, as firm as a rocky fort That no CIA can ever breach, Stood up in lonely mighty splendour To the world's double moral standards. He stood like a man in face of odds In contempt of vested cunning mights In show of inner strength In stilled silence in face of world clamours; Success or no success, War or no war, He defied self-assumed leadership Of American arrogant military might Over the weak and meek sovereigns That went on knees on submission To the rich nation's superior will. In military strength or statesmanship, He subdued the best; In running the land or oil politics, He stood up to the world; A king of kings in Arab world, Of lion's heart in camel's desert, He showed to the world what pride is about. While oil burns in Arab lands, He sits on flames like unbroken confidence; While the oily greed of mighty nations,
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Built a wall of starvings around him, He bore assaults like a warrior king; No reprisals of haste, not an inch compromise, A giant in might, a genius on own right, He drove mighty lands to a hopeless strait Of painful war or loss of credit. Panama is a sovereign where aliens took its chief; It is a sin as many more there to count, Yet, why only one at a sinner's behest, More of sin for the seize of the world? How reasons are drugged in the east and the west On the might's vile political will? He bore the torch, all alone, While big and small lined like lies To dim his light and dull his might In obeisance to the self-assumed world command; He accepted new role To challenge vested groups, As an uncrowned mighty world leader. Of steely resolve and rocky courage As none the world has seen before, Immoral in war, he is like all, Yet, just in immoral to make a point to the world Unlike weak and unjust wanton immorals, Who vanquished smaller states and captured presidents To test military strengths; But, all shrink to nought before the giant invincible spirit.
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SIXTY-ONE TULU NADU A land of valour and truth, Tulu Nadu Where Sathya, Dharma and Sankalpa, blend to a strange broth Of pride, courage and openness, Where love for rectitude and selfless devotion Warp to a fierce way of life, Where flames of pride and courageous resolve Meet to raise an energetic land, That sits besides his queen, the Arabian sea, Whose waves wash and caress his feet all day, Where no trusts ever breach, no ties ever break, No words ever die, no promises ever reneged, Where helpless calls see the life and death defence. Tuluvas, a class apart in imperious state, Tigers in all splendours of invincible might In the jungle of pigs, donkeys and sheeps; There are a rare rugged island of spartan folks In the ocean of shams and deceptions, And look around in righteous indignation; As Billavas, Bunts, Saraswats, and Christians As Brahmins, Muslims, Bestas or as Jains, The threads of Tulu, Konkan, Kannada and Malayalam too, Bind them all as Tuluva soldiers, Who breed on Tulu earth and feed in Tulu strengths And spread by Tulu winds to far away worlds. When Tuluva touches a stone, a temple is born, When a Tuluva touches tool, an industry is born; He rises from earth and spreads to sky like a tower To the shocks of lesser suffering lots; The heat and sweat that warms his heart, The rain and green that enriche his soul, Break false sheaths to extract his true self In dazzling fresh shine for all the world to see, In Kolas, Yakshaganas and age-old cockfights In Nemas, Paddhanas and Bhootharadhanas; The fish and toddy and boiled rice in veins Unwind his spirit for back-breaking work. A land of distinct moods, thoughts and nature Of distinct life, values, goals and culture, With sea and ghats and Konkan and Malabar
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On guard to fend from contaminations, Where mothers rule, Aliya Santhana prevails, Where years roll on solar movements, Whose warm breeze, washed by the Arabian sea waves, Whose rare earth, soaked with rich Tuluva soft ways, Sprout proud great men and spawn pretty girls And spread fields and forests, full of rich greens; Tulu Nadu, the shield of great Indian virtues Stands across ghats like gaint gomata statues. The rugged Tuluvas are gentle and upright, Who shed blood for ancestors' self-respect, Who raise not heads and offer ready obeisance In front of elders and noble deeds; They seek perfection, they take greatness And accept nothing but the topmost slot; They fight like tigers and win or die, But, come not down to meet in the middle; Forces may seize them, but never caputre, Strengths may break them, but never bend; For, they breathe Tulu air and live on Tulu earth And Tulu warmth and passions stream in their veins.
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SIXTV-TWO AGE IN RUINS Here, everything is everywhere, Yet, nothing is anywhere; Where, all, in front, yet, out of reach. Nothing come to hands, nothing come to mouth Though everything is in everybody's range; All are lost like birds overhead In blue sky, far distant from rugged rich world; No pains and pleasures, no passions stir; All are dry leaves, caught in a whirlpool; All are sooty smokes of tall black chimney; All run on hire like a carriage-horse Whose eyes are bound for straight tiresome sight; No weight to sink, no wings to fly, Only strong legs to flee from odds; Thick colours sit on tasteful light hues; All are sweat and dirts, spread in hasty heaps, No freshness anywhere, no leisurely pleasure, All are fragmented hopes on top of a dazzling world. Weak heart stills endless desires, Shineless eyes meet flashes of distant wildfire That exists only in muddles of tired mind; All are directionless, uncertain in self, While all doors are wide open without signboards; Sunshines, no more warm, full-moon, not cool From the cage of unfamiliar horizons; All are tall trees with shallow roots Whom strong wind can uproot at will. This is an age of breadth and height, But no depth, no strength, no inner light. Smiles brood like a withered flower And laughs wither like shrieks of a dying man, While painful moans, like hissing noise of steams, And joys in short spasms, jump across man's reach In the inert world where no sparks ignite. Everything here is disturbingly calm, Everything here is unexciting game; None move, but like a wound spring Eject the leaks of frustrations.
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All cracking bones, mere skeletons; No flesh, no streams of life anywhere, No bridges, no sparks, no prompt responses; All are dwarfs, retarded minds, Who know not how to steer through their worlds Or vent feelings or tide over their thoughts. Here, the life is a zigzag puzzle With random exits and random entries; Here, the life is a snake and ladder game Where fall and rise are sheer chance. Like sand-bed on the side of a roaring sea, The modem age is dry 'neath wet wind; The sparkling seashore is plain like white clouds, No pains, no pleasures, but unending boredom; Nothing sprouts, nothing penetrates, All crumbles in shapeless hold; Visions blur While smokes hang from disturbed sky And all live step to step and day to day In desperate world; It is a world shattered inside and outside And no harmony anywhere; It is sad, still, black, sad ruins Of a long forgotten rich age That disheartens in contrast Where though everything was there, nothing anywhere now. Man lives in cages everywhere in this age In dreaded isolation from within and without.
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SIXTY-THREE THUGS The rag gang of legal thugs, Boisterous bed-bugs, Alas, as police, Creep on the clean world as vice, Of all, to roll the rule of law, For all, but them! For all, but them, Who, from outer space, In vacuum of insight's sunshine or good fence Or pride or reasons' hold, Sweep the good old world, Like mad mafia dons Whack innocence all round For the sake of bad belly. The shady owls shun sun-lights, The blind bats hang like ghosts On barren branches of waste human fossils; For, they fear light in any form, For, they hear threats from inner light That tinds rare fire In the hearth of conscience That resolves to gray ash of repentance, The witless past and spineless presence; They live in ignorant holes of complacence Like rotten rats, Oblivious of heights or depths outside And strengths of sprite; But, ready to shun sunshine anywhere. The dirk packs of life bounce With vile spikes of intrigues and pounce On rare, proud liberated souls That come out of sickly choky holes To force to conform to infirmity; For, instinct to mass crass survival Binds in force all police ranks; They wait and wag like dogs Or bark and bite like dogs On merits of leash you hold, Or the bits of bread loaves in hand, But, treat not a man like man,
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Nor a law as law, Nor heart nor cerebrum concern them; Lo, an intruder! They flock like hungry wolves, Tear him apart and gorge to nought. They are stupid sand bags, Drained of wet emotions inside, No dints, heavy weight, waste bulks; They act in violent rattles of spasms Like a broken diesel engine; They rifle through crime world To squeeze out benefits from lawless land; Yet, not all so bad, Gold dusts do hide in wads of earth As rare isolated sparkles; Wherefore the straw-ball rolls yet Along the woof 'neath the net Of a credible force.
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SIXTY-FOUR I KNOW MY PATH I know my path, I know my goal Though nestled in indistinct shades Amid myriad shoddy trivialities Of barren desires and day-dreams. I know the earth That bears my weight; The load it bears for my sake And the day when it pines for me, While no bonds hold us so close. I know sunshine That warms my heart, I know the breeze That romps on my route To smooth rumples To soothe disaffections That seize my self. I know the source Of my soul's twilight And incessant struggle That obscures my sight To plunge in Hamlet's sad shame. I know my acts, I know my thoughts, I know the gulf That divides my acts and thoughts And the width of the gap That frowns my verve. I know I as myself In nuances of all my moods, In beats of passions, In laughters, in sorrows, In idle indolence That plays hide and seek. I know me in my thoughts, In my heart and soul
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As a flash of my being With all its glare and dark spots That mould character. I know me in essence, It makes all the difference; It hoists my mind To lofty heights of detachment Of resolute confidence And indefectible definite sight That sees a slut as a slut To march in right earnest, Though upstream of popular will For just dispensations. My stride is steady, My outlook is fresh, Too abstruse to trite intellects, Too innovative for degustations Of plebeian taste. I stalk in resolute steps, I touch with definite signs That engrave my indelible marks In gross wise contemn To what lazy pratters chat; For, I know my strengths, For, I know my ends And what uncalled opinions are, Their strengths and length In my mission's long flight. My acts are my heart's notes, Notes of all times That couch me in distinct form; My strides speak my mind, My stalks spell my ends And I am distinct, Distinct from outside cobwebs That contrive to restrict my path, That conspire to refix my goals, To lead me in alien terms To its vulgar will, To submit to mass profile Of discrete thoughts, words and acts On bests of mass mandate
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As an engine of popular appeal In lie of my soul's dictates, Ego's strength and convictions.
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SIXTY-FIVE SELF-RESPECT I sought her all my life, Crossed hills, jumped gulfs, Walked through burning flames To have her on right side. She comes and goes on random pleasure Like clouds in a rainy sky; She dims and lights my uncertain heart Like the sun in hide and seek. I revolve around her, like a satellite To grasp her warm lights; I dissolve in her fierce charms To remould in hard hot steel. She lives in the shell of prejudices Where soft heart cannot reach; A lion's fierce heart, she adores, That sinks to thorns, sheds blood for self. She is hot fluid like a volcanic fire That throws fierce flames once in a while; The white-hot glow of the zeal in soul Cools like clouds in face of trial. No blows crack, no heatings mellow, No heat treatment softens resolves; I must reach her all days and nights, For, only her flames light my soul. A soul that grasps all weak settings, A heart like steel-spikes to guard the self, A trust in self in all painful odds1 need to gain and sustain her. Her fierce charm lights sullen moods, Her fierce touch melts frozen ice To raise a fluid warm world, Where no fears ride, no responses shirk. No pride shrinks in her cheerful trough, No corrosions of basic rights;
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Like a gale of sudden uprooting wind, She carries all, on her wings. Be with her, whatever you be, Then you are a king on the throne; Without her, good old gods too Line on streets with begging bowls. Like holy fire, she burns To consume all shams in flames; Honest big deeds survive the flare By hearty response to her. The road is wild, but a pleasant pursuit To walk, head held high, in proud respect, Though hungry beasts with bloody teeth Wait to pounce and tear her Self.
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SIXTY-SIX THE SUN IN CLOUDS The sun in clouds, Dim, dull and subdued outside, Has ever lost his fierce sunshine? The layers of clouds That hide the sun in distant heaven Could ever reach the worlds of the sun? The sun is a giant living ball That lights a hundred lightless worlds Like a sole bright eye of a pitch-black heaven; How the world of minute clouds Reach the flames of the imperious sun, Who guts all shams and burns all sins? The sun is not in clouds, But the eyes in clouds see so, Those eyes lose shine in front of the light; How can little frogs Stretch beyond the clouds And reach the truth of the sun's splendours? For the eyes caught in hazy clouds, The proud sun is dull and subdued And humbled by valiant windstorms; Crack the clouds and see outside; The sun is as bright and fierce as ever, Whom no clouds touch nor storms reach. Clouds may come and clouds may go, But the sun remains the same, A bright glow, far removed from the earth, In gay abandon of an unattached soul, With floods of light, thrown all round For those who see with unclouded eyes. The sun, so hot, none endeavour to reach; The sun, so bright, none open their eyes; The sun, the tough, proud lonely splendour Reigns over heaven in imperial grace; None reach his height, none withstand his might, But, win his heart or avoid his sight.
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The scorching heat of his inmost core Creeps like lava on uneasy skin Thro' the layers of thick and black clouds; His unsubdued heat Rouses wild whirlwinds That scatter clouds in the nether world. Beyond the mortal measures, beyond praise and trials, The sun shines forever; Beyond minute clouds in the womb of black sky, The sun shines forever; For, the celestial glow should light the world And meet universal goal.
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SIXTY-SEVEN WlNNOCKS OF BEAUTY Who is the sculptor, who created this piece? Who is the creator, who conceived its form, An object of art that breathes and smiles, That captures hearts with spell-binding beauty? In lush flesh and curves, she rouses warmth, In maddening charm, she drugs the mind; All that beauty, all worlds can hold, Why compressed here to create this piece? How simple men with weak heart and mind Can resist her endless well of charm? Every inch and curve, a masterly work, Every hue and shade, an artistic stroke; The gleam in eyes, the smile in face, The youthful warmth all over her body, The subtle rich rays of love in heart, Each shocks heart with irresistible thirsts To drink her charm and drown in day-dreams And deliquiesce to oblivion in ceaseless pleasure; She is joy, the ultimate beauty, The divine light that man seeks to reach. The nectar of beauty flows from all over her, Be her shapely young curves or fluid motions, Be the winks of dazzling eyes or bright hues on cheeks, Be the heaves of lurking breasts or the breath-taking shapely form, Each is a perfect piece, each is an artistic fulfilment, Each is perfect contentment of artistic aspirations; The smooth lustre of her body, the variegated shades Of rich transparent hues that flower young beauty, All are lovely winnocks of her fragrant soul That sits like queen on that beauty's splendent throne. Hark the perfect rhythms of her concinnous body That brings rare symphony of divine melodies, Feel the sweet fragrance of her rich bright soul That creates rhythms and composes melodies; Is it the same as that grand celestial beauty? Is she the live-model of the celestial beauty? What a fine gentle harmony in her soul and body! What a rare rhythmic tune within and without! The sparkles of the eyes and dazzles of the smile How uncover sweet intense expressions of her soul!
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Like a quiet lamp, lit in a dark room , She draws eyes, heart, mind and desires And impales in her charm, irrestible to bear; What a fluid lovely charm, spread in the room! Where everything dissolves like salt in water! What is there in the flesh, the colours and the form, What is behind the sparkles of her gentle skin, What is in the curves and what is in the charm, What is in eyes and inviting sweet smiles That make beauty, beauty and soul, spell-binding sweetness? Is it joy and beauty dissolved to mould her body? Is it lustre and love dissolved to create her soul? Is it grace and music dissolved to compose her whole? Or, were all of them born from her celestial charm? She is the world of all desires' fulfilment, She is the treasure-trove of all artistic pleasures, The endless fount of feasts of pregnant day-dreams; Her lurking young riches from sweet hidings tease The charged imaginations of all beauty-seekers And she binds the world of love with those lush riches. She is like a holy temple of beauty, Where her soul, in holy sanctum sanctorum, Sits in glory for obeisance of all; She sends soft lights that blaze in man's heart And lights new hopes that refreshes his soul; The glow of beauty that wraps the sculpted piece, Its cheeks, its lips, hairlines and breasts, Each is a wonder of the nature's splendours Like the spring's colours and the winter's blue sky Or the full-moon's soft touches or the morning's fresh rays. Her every hair and outline and every eyelash In its exact place like a sculpted piece, Her every move and mood and every shade on face As exactly as it should be in a painter's dream; Her every graceful curve and every expression As conceived by a poet in a great epic; She is a rare beauty where sensuity and classics blend, Where desires and peace rise hand in hand, Where the heat and light of enlightenment grips And the soul glows in divine passions.
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SIXTY-EIGHT WHO CREATED THIS BEAUTIFUL WORLD? Who created this beautiful world? What a harmony and perfection! Who thought this beauty, who brought it out? Who is he that perfected it? What matching patterns spawn the wonder? What concinnous rhythms create this charm? What is that grand invisible hand That weaves this beauty with rhythms and patterns That makes beauty, beauty; a divine music? What a match of place, time and form That makes this world a joyous feeling! Beauty infuses life to the world, Beauty makes the world to speak and sing, To awaken soul to the creator's skills Who gave his rare gifts in abundance. What brings those hues to youthful glows, What brings those shapes to enchanting slopes, What brings gentleness to graceful love, What brings those grace to ripening age, What brings brooding beauty to day-break's freshness, What brings that beauty to the width of the sky, To the height of hills and depth of seas, To the shapes of clouds, to the moods of men In liquid ease and endless abundance That no more the world is what it is made of, But a celestial charm of unknown depth. A subtle music in joyous rhythms, A pregnant pattern in brilliant colours, In human forms, in nature's moods, In fast changing life's variegated hues, In tides of sea, in tides of life, Surface to those inner ears and eyes That keep itself wide open always; A living rhythm is at work in womb In hide and seek of light and shadow, In fall and rise of hills and vales, In love and hate, in war and peace; The twinkles of eyes, the gentle smiles, The blue of the sky, the warm sunshine, Each is a rich work of a master craftsman.
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Day is beauty, night is beauty; Youth is beauty, old age is beauty; Desire is beauty, contentment, beauty; Heart-break is beauty, fulfilment, beauty; Perfection is beauty, ugliness, beauty; All are beautiful deep 'neath bones Like sunrise and sunset or sunshine or rain, In the magical hands of the master craftsman. Is this world his own image, A reflection of his model perfection Like the pleasures of pleasure and the pleasures of pain Make the world a divine charm; Work and leisure, pain and pleasure, Penury and wealth, life and death Hand in hand bring harmony to the world; Mongoose kills snakes; snake, rats, In living rhythms of life and death; Beauty, the world breathes, is beyond cause, Beyond source, beyond course, That surfaces itself to the joy of all On the will of the great divine artist. A speck of dirt, dark spots on the moon Have the same charm and perfect rhythms; Tears of pain and tears of pleasure Have the same simple grace hidden in them; Like silk-worms that weave soft sheath around, He builds the world with his own inner charm, It be a mole or a mountain; And this we have, The wonderous world of perfect beauty; Beauty within and beauty outside, Beauty between and beauty a'where, In gentle flesh and youthful forms, In fall and rise, in rage and patience, In nature's arts and man's crafts, In old and new or foul garbage; For, the creator sits in all of them And builds a bridge to all hearts and souls.
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SIXTY-NINE YOUNG ROMANCE Soft lights of his intense eyes Deluged her firm round beautiful breasts; The intense desire of his brooding heart Seized her soft sensitive breasts; The sheet of sweet joy that caught them both, Lit their souls, defreezed passions; The flames of warmth that spread like fire, Hid their cares in sweet abandonment; The fragrance of beauty on the melody's back Rode like mad dance from heart to heart. The shock of joy shook both the loves, The sweep of sweet warm sensual currents Squeezed their limbs to a lascivious juice Of dripping desires and poppied dreams; A new world where none except the loves, A new world where none except the loves Live like gods in lonely spendour Rose from the desires like bright fullmoon; She hid her breasts from his poignant eyes In pride's pregnant pleasant mock shy. He knew her tricks, he knew her works, He knew her desires, he knew her pleasures; Yet, impatient for her mysterious treasures, His heart begged her for kindness; His soul aflame, sparkled through eyes; Yet, still in motion and dumb in sprite, He honoured her rules and looked aside; Her passions stirred, emotions streamed, In unreserved joy, she uncovered her breasts For the feast of her love's glowing eyes. They rolled in pleasure, they heaved in joy; They were drugged in mad desire for each; She lived in his joy and he, in her, They shed their beings to reach each other; She found her world in him and he, in her, The eager loves sought to dissolve in the other; No fears touched them, no pride nor comforts; Like the sunshine meets the sky in daybreak, They fused in soft passionate hug And spread white glow of immortal light.
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SEVENTY I KNOW HER I know her Like the palm of my hand In all proximities; I know her moods In all nuances Of rise and fall 'Neath the selfs ocean; I sank to her depths, And ran with passion 's streams; I rose with her sprites And saw worlds in eyes Of her pride. She is pure beauty That lulls heart and soul To divine indulgence; She is noble of heart And leads to the path of truth That raises in winged pleasures To the inner world of peace; She lights distant horizons Though still as polaris, And fills all worlds with hopes Of ceaseless sweet musings, Of supreme awakening. I see her in invisibles, I feel her in nothingness; She pervades days and nights Like fragrance and innocence; She rises like holy hymns In sylvan crystal transparence And rocks cosmic rhythms That soothe seething nerves; She flows in ceaseless streams And dazzles life all round. I seek her gentle touch, She spreads her light a 'where From subtle nowhere In benign benificence; She runs across the time
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For eternal commune of souls, In ecstatic speck of continual 'now', What in quantums constitute my whole; She thirsts for me and I for her In divine bond, Where hearts fuse in absolute subtle rhyme.
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SEVENTY-ONE BYGONES ARE BYGONES Oh,bygones are bygones And past never meets future; The ruins of my dear inner temples Dissolve in time's ceaseless streams; Clouds of distance now make indistinct The priceless.strains of joys and pains That flow outward in time's train From memory's distant horizons. A world more true than the transient present, How can naught be for me! A world more mine than me myself be, How can haste to the sight's dark spot! A breath-taking truth that drenched soul, Now braves last breath to survive in thoughts As rolls on the wheels of unending time In memory's lanes, to oblivious dark side. Healer, a great, indeed is time While past is past and the present sits on neck; Yet, some pasts, too real to be past; Dealer, a great, indeed is time, Who strikes steadily in subtle strokes And blunts sharp edges of the painful past. The ruddy glow of the magic sunshine That floods from the past, No more flutters innate wings, Nor curdles the soul to foams of bliss; Thoughts dip to a gulf of void And indolence seizes tired limbs And innate dim flame gasps for life. Indeed, bygones are bygones And past never meets future.
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SEVENTY-TWO TEMPLE OF WORDS However I endeavour to capture you in words, Like labour pains, you appear to disappear in cycles; Like thin streaks of light, you dissolve in thoughts; I dig in deserts and grope in gulfs For the next advent of your refreshing self. Dust and sweat of years Form thick sheath around you, Mist of intervening times Blur your frame deep inside. The words I frame to hold your charm Collapse like card-house by sheer weight; The melodies I garner, fall short to hold Rich'shades of passions that sweeten your thoughts; No metaphors, no similies equal your height, No meanings penetrate enough your depths; The breadth of colours, your image shows up Leak through weak porous words of songs. While the winnocks of memory open doors, I wonder by the splendours you command With dazzles of colours and soulful musics; Emotions sink to raise ripples of songs In fresh images of melodious words. But, alas, the doors are shut by then, The golden rays of splendours, withdrawn; Images break and songs go grey, Dazzles of colours, soulful musics recede And I am left again in blinding darkness. In distant horizons, behind darkness, When I see you surface like streaks of dawn, I sit straight with instruments spread To evoke and bind you in my songs; Alas, my songs soon go like a childless cradle. During high tides in time's cycles, You bring huge waves in the ocean of soul That wash the shores of heart and mind With melodious tunes and passions' foams; While low tides set on the soul's trough, All go still and disturbingly calm.
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I feel your kicks from the womb of time, I hear your wails break-out to daylight, I know your dreams, irrepressible desires, You carry from those ruins of sweet past; The musics of relics, the patterns of ruins Break to soft words with the advent of you; Colours of those days, splendours of passions Speak in live tunes while you break to lights; A lasting temple of words and musics is built Where you live with the past and the present for all times. Those days, so live, must come to life, Those sweet passions must stream again, Those rhythms, musics, colours and fragrance, Those gentle charm, those soulful warmth, Those sad slow tunes that lingered in soul Must make come-back with reflective quietude In live sweet words of the poetic world Where no memory fails, no sprite quails, No vision blurs, no charm dulls, Whom no times reach and weatherings touch.
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SEVENTY-THREE SHE SMILES FROM A MYSTIC LAND She smiles from a mystic land, Blossoms my soul and warms heart And stirs a whirl of unknown hopes; She lights a fire of sweet ethereal desires That consume darkness, Numb nerves with pleasant forebodings; I know not from where I get the beacon, I know not from where I get the beacon that Stills disgrace and builds strength And bounces back my spirit to Those sweet and fresh childhood days And bright and innocent irresponsible ways. Like phoenix, she rises, Like phoenix, she rises, Like phoenix, she rises and Enchants my heart. Every day and every night that passes Takes me a step closer to her; Every thought and pleasure, she brings, Deepens our bond in timeless care; Though frameless space distances us, She, to me and I, to her, Remain in touch through boundless care; For, our hearts home the real other, For, our hearts home the real other Where we dwell in immortal rest. She never dies, She never dies, She never dies, but, Lives in my heart. Unknown hands play hide and seek And build thick walls of savage fate That keep her there and keep me here; We meet and part in unknown cycles Though never part to part altogether; An immortal chord Forever binds us through time and space; Whatever way we part,
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We face the other and feel the other In unending pine and cravings for each; We seek to rest on the other's side Where our souls dwell in absolute rest; We part to meet and meet to part In ceaseless cycles Till the twilight of motion meets the stillness of light In remote horizons of heaven Where tired birds meet forever, Never to part again. Wherever she goes, she must come back, Wherever she goes, she must come back, Wherever she goes, she must come home, Where I wait, however long she may take. We bear the cycle In humble submission to the mother nature, We part to meet the fate's ordain With the hope of serving the goal of the tryst Though bones crack and heart bleeds in the wait; Eyes are afar and ears are erect In tireless search of the inscrutable her, Who races with time to unknown world, Far, far from me, though, She smiles from a mystic land, She smiles from a mystic land, She smiles from a mystic land Forever and ever.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
SEVENTY-FOUR ETERNAL SEARCH O, hymns of my soul, The warmth of my heart, I cracked time and split the space, I dived to sea and rose to sky In your search.
I pierced night, winnowed light, I set my guard on all horizons, I pierced within and spread outside And searced time from the past to future In your search. I chose words, I created worlds To impale you in poetry's net; I engaged thoughts, begged wits To hold you in my eager heart And bind you to my dreams. I flew on the wings of birds And ran with the sun, day and night; I dug with roots of old trees And spread to all holes on the earth To find you there. The worlds of several sheaths and hues, Of infinite distance and time gap Hold us apart somewhere To blur our sights, to dim insights And all our search goes in vain. The nights bring dreamless sleeps, The days bring fruitless labour And I end up in open desert; No bridges, but erratic sandstorms Bring the search to a grinding halt. When the self stills and sky clears, When you peep through the winnocks of time, New wings sprout, old resolves shout And I shoot to open sky To find a door from where I reach you.
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Somewhere you are, very far, Where I don't know; I need you and you need me, we know; But, how to reach, we don't know, Though, we must, some unknown day.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
SEVENTY-FIVE DESIRE She is cute, Brute, Raw as hell inside, No grace, Yet, charming; Like a sterilised needle, She penetrates unassuming hearts And spreads in blood Like rabies virus, Fills all space And dissolves in dream. She is pure pleasure A subtle treasure, bitter, Yet, very sweet Like the forbidden fruit; She is a streak of light That swallows inner gloom; A bunch of nerve-tips On a sensitised trip In crude circuits Of erratic haste. Catch her And rip her open, A gorgeous sight, Gold hidden in mud In dull sparkles; The raw nature's pure strains In all its splendours In liquid charm Stream and drip To streaming blood And raise hot boils in mind. She calls to open arms, But, bites and spits too; Poisonous Like deadly narcotics, And kills to sweet numb death; She proffers her soul and body As a bait;
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Yet, the bait is worth of a bite To dissolve in her raw charm And mired in musty rancid comfort.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
SEVENTY-SIX RIGHT PATH Know yourself, inside, outside; Hear all to widen what you have, But, do always, what you must; Do not make haste, for haste makes waste, Keep heart and mind in peace to each. Be in flock, while soul in solitude, Untouched of foul passion's flood And wild dance of hoax and deceits; Walk upright where you must reach, To beats of the heart that sound right path. Have your path distant from all, For, each is distinct in his own right; Never indulge in copying life styles, But, bend left and right to cooperate And acquiesce to notes around you. Play a simple chess, Move right piece in appropriate time With untired sight always on a goal And heart, shut in a steely cage; Live in dream, yet, out of dream. Move on own strength and confidence, Have clear sight of ups and downs; Still your self while things go wrong, Live up to the joy while you go to win; And enjoy every step of the nature's quirks.
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SEVENTY-SEVEN LAMP Light your sanctum sanctorum With a lamp that never blows out; Deep within the self's space, Where non but you can ever reach; The surreal light of the soulful lamp, The radiant glow of the crystal-pure self Strains in twilight, if exposed outside. Keep your lamp in safe shelf From the violent gust of chill winds That blow across your backdoor; A breach in shady backdoor walls Invites breeze that raps the lamp To plunge all in a pond of darkness. The warmth and light of the inner lamp Like pure sunshine of bright sunlight Awakens self from the gulf of void; It shows up new worlds of light and hope, New truths new beauty that unwrap new world It shows new paths to strive and reach The nebulous goal of peace and contentment. The lamp is yours, yours always, Deep within your selfs space To light your world, to warm innards Till defences break, confidence cracks And spectres of fear and despair invade And throttle the lamp, out of life.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
SEVENTY-EIGHT YOUR WORLD Listen to throbs, deep in heart, To trace your route; Stretch backbone, stand upright, resolute, With reason and intuitive light. The world you build is your world Where none but you have right to reign, Where none but you live in confidence Of peace, grace, grandeur and joy; It is where you command things. Have not thoughts, hired in fear Of power and fury running wild; For, fear consumes your inner world And leaves your temples in sad shambles; Build a fort of invincible spirit Of interminate vigil and undaunted will Around your self to stop mean world afar, Lest, it intrudes your holy world And spreads like infection To shatter peace and weaken your reigns. Intruders scale walls, dig long tunnels And reach your own world, Where they fetter your hands and bind your legs, Where they put out your light and darken your worlds; Keep open eyes and stop intruders outside And keep your world pristine clean, Where you keep awake or sleep at will, Where you sing and dance as heart dictates And laugh and weep as feels the soul.
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SEVENTY-NINE HOLD HEAD HIGH Walk the path of hills and dales Like an athlete on a marathon race; For, ups and downs, a name of the game, A design to rub vitals and tame. Whatever you be, always you be, In the pride of the self that burns inside; Where you are and how you are, make A natural route to the selfs world. Rise to the sky and hold head high, There, none reach you to force you down; Be hard like rock and pure like gold, Pursue your path to reach your goal. Keep eyes wide, ears on all sides, But thoughts always close to heart, Stand firm on the ground, rooted deep inside, Keep away creepers, that obstruct your feet. No cages impale, no ropes bind, The self that always knows itself; Who trusts himself, is own master, Him, none disturb, all his life. Sweep like wind and roll like tides With crystal clear world in sight; Head on shoulders, stand above all clouds And hold all the world in own measures. Light the world with the fire of the self, Like the sun, who distances all: Though near, you stay distant and dear To open your doors at the selfs pleasure.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
EIGHTY A GIANT ROCK A giant rock, atop a hill, Arrogantly rises to infinite sky: Stands upright in lonely splendour In dazzling backdrop of the lighted heaven, Like a battle-scarred victorious knight Towering high on humbled battlefield In imperious frown of heat and stroms That touch and shake far lower mortals. A pack of strength in divine expanse In silent concert to the dizzy height, Stands in stolid frown of the dwarf world In defiance of the shocks of time While all senses in focus on the immortal plane Of stoic calm and immobile peace In striking contrast to the cycles of change That obtemper 'neath its high stature. Distance does not hide, nor the nebulous cloud, Pleasures do not touch, nor pains or praise; Birth and death, it absorbs in self And spreads calm confidence to the surrounding world; The selfless strength that crowns the world In gay abandon of liberated soul, Builds a bridge beyond the earth's crust From where descends sublime godliness.
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EIGHTY-ONE ON HAMPI Hark the rock relics, The grim granite blocks of old old days Which proudly textured an empire's pomp, Now air old fabled tales in distraught shreds, Scattered, uncared, in huge wasteful rubbles, Like ghosts that lost its resting place And writhe in nightmares about old halcyon days. The mute witness of man's pinnacle of splendours And dizzy rise of creative efflux. Bespeaks of man's feral rage to revenge fellow-men, His bestial strength possessed of ravenous indulgence In ravaging the fruition of centuries' steady growths. Hampi did not die a senescent death, But a horror's sad demise in young flowering days While strength and charm all-sparkled in mad riots, It was a facinorous brazen homicide; Each harrowed shred of fallen Hampi Sprightly throbs in mad quirks of youth; It roars aloud its right to life And relives the pomp, unmatched and unheard. Hampi is calescent Even in the midst of nerve-chilling rock relics And breathes to life who larked and languished, Made love and hate and laughed with the stones And grieved with the stones in wild fits of passsions, Then held head raised in imperious grace, In warm sunhine of imperial pomp, In regal calumn of the niggling stale world, Though borrowed and ignored now in saddish huge piles. The squares where enemies dared not to tread in dreams And the halls of rock-walls of imperious honours, Now why, the fugacious fate has writ to breed vultures and theives? A living huge trove of blithe opulance of past, Of jewelled art-makes and musics and dance, Of frolic-rid talks of agile happy men, Of high trade and sex and tinkles of arms, Of stables and baths and unending water-ducts, Look desolate and grey like a burial ground.
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PRAVEEN KUMAR
Once a busy bee-hive, Now a sepulchre of lost splendour's heydays, Which dared onslaughts of the nature's fury For centuries on and centuries off, But unmoved in strength and pristine charm; Hampi pronounced its impregnable youthful pomp, Undying but for concerted wild forays Of savage brutes for months inccssent, An all-out blood-curdling inhuman rapine; Hampi now lies in glory's mute ruins, Hampi now lies in glory's mute ruins, Obtesting how elusive is rise and fall.
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EIGHTY-TWO SAD MEMORIES Bygones in passion's frames Race up from the years' layers In rhythms, once seized my heart; Each distinct frame disturbs now, Each prods sad music in soul; How heart rose and fell in turn In wild tides of unsteady passions And found deep roots in soft magic world! Those days are crystal sharp in eyes Though smudged in time's dark holes; The life, attuned to heart and soul In soft melodies that bloomed dreams, Stumbled to plunge and dissolve in death In the fierce flame of disintegration That fogs my inner peace And razes heart to dull and gray sloth. Pains and pleasures in pickaback Ravage human soul in unending cycles; No pleasures heal Incisive wounds inflicted on soul; Years score as age fails to heal And the wounds sour in sad melodies And lull the soul to a numb world Of sweet dreams and sad memories.
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PORTRAITS OF PASSION - English Poems Composed by Praveen Kumar

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PORTRAITS OF PASSION - English Poems Composed by Praveen Kumar

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Year of Publication: 1997

for my darling daughter

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