Hallowed Ground

in the hallowed ground of my heart

where the gently flowing river bends

where the soil is wet and soft with tears

lie the imprints of your feet

hidden from the watchful moon
wind weeps quietly in the groves

morning finds them annointed

with fallen flowers of the night

140

Search

where do I seek you

when longing sears?

do I look for your footprints

on snow covered slopes

and find my way up

to the silence of the frozen peak

where you sit immersed

in solitary aloneness?

do I search 

amidst flaming pyres of  burning ghats

where in the stench of charred flesh

accompanied by the reverberating beat
of your drum

you play your make believe game

of birth and death?

or do I  find

a lonely corner of my home

and explore hidden pathways

to my heart 

in hope, that one day

you will take mercy 

and come to me?

139

Dream

wistful desire, I am

in the creator's heart

his ephemeral dream

drifting lightly 

on gossamer wings

glinting in sunlight

here today

gone tomorrow

flitting between

his sleep and wakefulness

all sorrrows imagined

all worries futile

138

Celebration

my tears will find yours
and when they flow together
salty oceans will turn
sweet in their depths

my wounds will touch yours
and when they heal together
crimson roses will bloom
in celebration of love

137

His Body

 I sometimes think

 hills, valleys, rivers
oceans and plains

of this mortal earth

are nothing but

undulating expanses

of his ash-whitened body

so lovingly embraced 

by most venomous of snakes

he, whose tangled locks

hold with utmost ease

a mighty river and the moon

and with a flick of whose finger

galaxies die

an ant is born

136

New Bride

Harvest moon,
slipped from heavens,
shines in your eyes,
smiles on your lips.
Your hands, white flowers
so soft to touch,
uncalloused by life.
Budding hope, you are
swathed in colours of spring.
O new bride,
so long ago
I was like you !

135

My Boat

my arms aching,

I threw oars away

and now my boat

rocks, swings, whirls

and waltzes with the waves

I rejoice!

134

Death Of A Poet

a poet he was
sowed pleasure and pain
roots ran deep into the earth
flowers reached up to the sky
harvest of his soul 
is feast for the world
feeding hunger
running through veins
poets don't die
not really

Remembering  Deepak Arora

133

coffee

I've never cared much for coffee

but

dark coffee on your lips

as you talk of everything

but love

makes the bitter-sweet brew
so very alluring

132

balm

you have walked for miles
on burning sands
of the desert which grows
nothing but thorns

now sit a while
and I will wash with balm
of hoarded tears
your wounded feet

131

distance

I do not count the distance between us in miles
where even if I unlock the silence of my lips
and call out your name
you will not hear me

for in the still white expanses of my soul
where you live just a heartbeat away
my voice finds you
before it reaches my lips

130

pain

ruler of skies
born to lofty flight
in utter oblivion

coiled in mortal pain

129

silence

come let us shun words

for they can only vex 

and stain with mortal fingers

the thing of beauty 

that lives between us

let our eyes remain

and the silence that abides

at the core of our beings

will hold hands

and speak.

128

Some loves are denied words

some loves are not given voices
denied sound
they seek and find
the vocabulary of silence
where words rise from ocean depths
and sentences do not follow
the grammar of time and space
having learnt the language of souls
they turn deserts into oases

some loves are denied words
and then they find
that they have been gifted
the vast freedom of silence
that they are not condemned
to cage in clumsiness of words
surges and depths
flows and ebbs
of that undefinable magic
the enigma called love
!
!26, 127

Silent love

some loves are not given words

born in silence

in silence they grow

like mountain streams

they make their way

squeezing through crevices

cutting around rocks

agony hidden

ecstasy unspoken

moments of sweetness stolen

from an unforgiving fate

125

Aloneness

as the ice melted
she never knew when
chill of loneliness turned
to warm aloneness
in wilderness or in crowded rooms
it wrapped around her
snug blanket of comfort
you, only you
it whispered to her
you are the overflowing pitcher
you are fullness
you are the fount

124

Alone

fragrance of feasting
warm happy babble
softly cocooned in a
room filled with people
she sits alone

!23

Ganesh Chaturthi

He is a Muslim boy, son of labourers, who comes to my home for studying. Some years ago, when he was stiil a tiny fellow, he would be hugely excited by new  school books. He would sit with my husband for hours patiently covering them with brown paper, sticking on the labels.And when he was done, he wanted to leave them at our home.When I asked why, he told me his home was not like mine, it was galeez(dirty)There were too many rats who nibbled on everything, potatoes, tomatoes, clothes.When I asked why do they not use rat traps or rat poison to kill them, he gave me the look. They are Ganesha's friends. Didn't I know that?He would never harm them.Evenings, he loved the ritual of my lighting agarbattis and stood with me hands folded, eyes closed in prayer.He is twelve now and I can see him changing fast as he enters adolescence.Today he phoned and told us that he will not be coming as there is a Ganesh Chaturthi function going on in the Sai temple and he wanted to dance.I just hope that the Almighty, by whatever name we call him, will keep the beauty in this child's heart alive.Happy Ganesh Chaturthi !

cleaning

To come to me you must first

wipe the world from your skin

scrub from your mind all stains of fear 

brush all cleverness away.

Come to me in your white cleanness
in openness without any walls

like the day you first came to earth

wrapped in lure of pure innocence.

My arms ache to hold you.

122

Passage

the tattered kite

looks up in vain

the sky holds no memory

of its soaring flight

earth with water moulded 

baked in fiery kilns

countless pots fashioned

and smashed each day

so hold your joy gently

bury sorrow in shallow grave

in your passage of numbered breaths

on the streets of this world

walk softly, walk slowly

walk with light steps

121