LOVE THEN AND NOW (A POEM)


Time was when love meant
Passion and flurry of limbs,
Impatience to satiate desires
Understandable in the young.


Three dozen years of marital bliss
Still preserves and enhances Romance,
When gentleness and patience,
And eons of leisure bestow
A gentle touch with significance
Inexplicable in human words.


Wrinkles and memories all add up
To chronicle a life well lived,
Where selfishness yielded place
To altruism of the Spirit and family life.

WE HOLD UNTO DEAR LIFE (A POEM)


We hold unto dear life
Like a grandpa’s fingers
Softly enclosing a child’s,
Not wishing to let go,
But prolong the soft delight
The experience affords!


We are all caught up
In the delights of living.
Life is a strange pattern
Of kaleidoscopic designs,
Ever changing, each one
More alluring than the previous.


From sensation to sensation we drift
And before we know, we are
Son, father and grandfather!
Our wrinkles and unsteady gait
Proclaim unfelt transformation.
We are young spirits trapped in old bodies
Trying to escape unwelcome incarceration.
Success depends on attitudes that spell
The plunge into either longevity or mortality.

PEOPLE OF LITTLE KNOWLEDGE POSE AS EXPERTS (A POEM)


People of little knowledge pose as experts
While experts observe silence despite expertise.
They hesitate to parade their knowledge
Exuding from them like fragrance from flowers.


Such has always been the case from yore,
But imposters don’t fool everyone always;
When exposed they are scorned, ridiculed,
Anon they either hide or turn belligerent.


The mark of erudition is endless humility;
Only abiding wisdom is “the wisdom of humility”.
The erudite knows that for all his sparkle,
There are areas where he is in the dark!

IF WE COULD LOOK BEYOND NARROW PREJUDICES (A POEM)



If we could look beyond narrow prejudices,
If we could turn inwards to correct our flaws,
If we could admit that at times we are wrong,
Then we’d have less turmoil and a sweeter life!


In our silly race to show off our importance
We hurt those that mean most to us;
We hurl words of missile power at love
To protect our ego and false sense of prestige.


If only we have beforehand an inkling
Of the regrets that later dawn as wisdom;
But alas! Humankind is always unkind
Failing to penetrate fogs of stubbornness!

NOT BY BIRTH DOES A MAN (A POEM)


Not by birth does a man ennoble himself
But by education, culture and conduct!
Do not boast of your high birth, your caste,
Your ancient family name or connection.


Birth is an accident, you cannot help it,
You can help what you become eventually.
By hard work, perseverance and honest effort
You can scale dizzying ladders of excellence,
Leaving the proud ones of famous lineage
Behind in the grueling race for eminence!


Success is for the one who strives against odds,
Awake while others sleep or squander the wealth
Bequeathed by forebears carelessly in the wind;
He alone is, worthy of adulation and emulation!

MENTAL STOCKTAKING (A POEM)



Mental stocktaking discomfits,
Revealing with great clarity
Failure in the area of Happiness.


Our pelf can only just keep us satisfied;
Fulfillment of desires is not Happiness.


Happiness is nothing but exhilaration
We feel in the rainbows of existence,
Tangibly elusive but not illusory!


It is lodged in our hearts’ innermost corner,
But we seek it, ignorant of its true residence!


Dangerous ventures thrill our senses
Dizzying our befuddled minds;
But we forget they are not Happiness!


How can we define what is precious,
Indefinable because it is everywhere



Happiness is a precious pearl converted
By Life’s oyster absorbing all it was given
To make a magnificent gem of wonder!

YOU WHO WANT FREEDOM (A POEM)


You who want freedom
And clamor for it,
First find out
Who and what has bound you!


Oftentimes you are not aware
That the door to your own prison
Does not have a lock!


You could walk out anytime
You desired to be free!
A pity that quite often you want
Only relief and not release!

WHITE IS A MUCH ABUSED COLOR (A POEM)


White is a much abused color;
Priests of some denominations,
Indian Politicians, Social workers,
All love it for it signifies!

Purity’s second self deceives many,
Who to the letter and spirit feel
White is white and always right!

Only experience and awareness inform
That white could hide a multitude of sins;
It might be a trap to the unwary
Taken in by impressions and programming!

What seems innocuous is a subterfuge;
Pristine purity is colorless, transparent.
It never needs a white wash or a veneer!

TO BE IN THE WORLD BUT NOT OF THE WORLD ( A POEM )



To be in the world but not of the world,
That is true living and loving!
Love not to possess and appropriate
What is free and cannot be bound!


True love is to free what you love,
True happiness to release without regrets,
To realize that all things you longingly desire
Are not essential really to Happiness.


Happiness is in ultimate cosmic Realization,
Dropping illusions that cloud your senses.
Truth drops in when your mind is clear,
Love and Joy when your heart is unfettered!

TWO MISERABLE MIDDLE AGED WOMEN (A POEM)


Two miserable middle aged women
On a morning Park bench on a Sunday
Exchanged notes on their miseries!


One talked of her aches and pain,
Arthritis, Diabetes and high B.P.
The other of her darling son
And daughter-in-law, both unkind!


While the punctual blood red Sun
Crimsoned the trees and structures
Announcing the dawn of a lovely day.


These women didn’t know what misery is
Like those who lost their all, their dreams,
Fortunes, possessions, sustenance and hopes
In the recent floods and blinding rains!


The Sun, the courteous gentleman ever,
Only put in an appearance to say,
“Hello, Good Morning, Have a nice day!”