Writers write, so

If I do, am I?

I sit myself in boxes

sometimes two or three at a time

I sit and I stare and I do but I dare

not leave my world of rhyme

There is reason in stanzas

each with four lines

There are no shadows

There is no grime

In my metered verse 

of cool rain and shine

there is a lullaby hidden

as the clock keeps time

I sit myself in boxes

sometimes, two or three at a time

I sit and I stare I know not where

Seeking an undeniable sign

In my neutered verse

of plateaus and a white sea

there is nothing sudden

no depths unperceived

There are seasons in my boxes

that don't change with time

They open and I close

Like an interminable mime

I sit myself in boxes

sometimes two or three at a time

I sit and I stare like I really don't care

That I spit stereotypes in every line

A day begins, 

from my boxes I see

The sun goes up, 

I see it and I close

There are no shadows in my boxes

No shadows I can see

For I am blind in my boxes

And things shine wantonly

I sit myself in boxes

sometimes two or three at a time

I sit and I scare of boxes that aren't there

And sell a dozen pairs of wings for a dime

Today begins

from my boxes I rise

I take stock of the number

the colour and the size

For You, To Your Star

I bring you songs

Long forgotten

That are sung by the leaves, 

the grass and shriveled tree

And by the dew and the dark

In stone-womb caves.

I bring you the rhythm of the earth

The slow, long boom 

That roars, echoes and whispers

from deep within, in my heart.

Of a hundred different suns,

(Some that awoke long before time was birthed,

and some that are tiny, gleaming jewels 

In the everlasting dream of the universe,)

I bring you sunsets

That meld into the horizon 

The colors of woven dream

And until the dying moments of twilight,

Last forever

I bring you tales and stories and myths

Of dead kings, lost Gods and magic

Tales as old as stone and wind and sea

Tales that time births, spins, sets aglow

And swallows in the end

Tales that, like the call of the waves

and the dance of day and night

return forevermore

I bring you silence

From the heart of sound

From the eternal moment between words

The instant before the twinkle

Of a smile in the eyes

I bring you all these

And I cast them up into the sky

To the star that bears your name

When night falls, slow and deep

Look to your star

And it will sing you forgotten songs

To the rhythm of all earths, all worlds

It will unfurl old yarns, and show glimpses

of the hues of sunsets 

That were, are and will be

In its silent, white heart

For Amma

Come to me, dear mother
Come, look into my heart
There is light moulded by sunsets
There is darkness, in part

Peep in, but be silent, still
For in it, I am alseep, aware
Of an orb of ever-new warmth
In the void that is full

Come to me, dear mother
Come, look into my dreams
You will find them scattered by your feet
A mosaic that's more than it seems

Tread softly and you shall feel
The song of the broken, and the bound
The ebbing light shall animate
The lost and the newfound

Come to me, dear mother
Come, look into my eyes
They mirror the light that birthed me
They hide stars, they bear skies

I am many, I am not one
I hold your faces, your stories, your dreams
I am a web bereft of seams
I am you, I am your son

The Beginning

The hymn pulsed

Through nothingness

In a single wave that became time,

That grew into distance, and shone as light eternal

Universes sparkled into being

In the nothingness

They swirled like dreams of motion

Like the dreams of dance

Deep within the womb

Of that nothingness

Everything was asleep

In that nothingness

And everything was alive

There was space, to be explored

And distances,

In that nothingness

There was sound

An immense, endless, silent roar

Of galaxies merging their spirals

In a frenzied dance, beautiful, perfect,

Ancient. It would be named chaos

In that nothingness

There was sound

The sound of light newborn, that burst into being

To shine eternally

Through the nothingness

It was dark, endlessly dark,

This nothingness

And it blazed with light

Light streaked through the nothingness

In an endless column

It engulfed the nothingness

Within its heart

And disappeared into nothingness

Light bloomed and withered

Light burst and bubbled

Light crackled and streamed

Light sparkled and shone

And then in the far distance

It twinkled

In the nothingness

Symphony

In a bed of silence

That is endlessly still

An infant sound bulbs

And a dying snowflake’s kiss

Breaks the surface and blooms

A single note

A single, windless chime;

At the moment of its birth

It ceases to be

The silent sea

Is still once more

But it dreams of that

Tiny swell

Endlessly

An infant sound bulbs

Dance

Dance, I dance, I dance

Watch me, watch me dance

I have sharpened my eyes

In the scythe of winds

And tell stories that lie

Upon the fabric of the sands

I can cast a mystic spell,

That is sweet wine and burning hell

With my sword-sharp gaze

And serpentine hands

Dance, I dance, I dance

Watch me, watch me dance

Watch my kohl-black eyes

And remember the velvet night

Watch the dance of colorless silk

That clothes me in the light

My lips,they course with a rare wine

They wait behind a veil

They wait for one who is worthy

To whom my dreams sail

Dance, I dance, I dance

Watch me, watch me dance

My touch can feed your aching soul

To the end of your mortal days

The high Sheikhs of a hundred lands seek

The oasis of my embrace

I am the wind of the west

I am the fire in the sand

The ice-sword of the naked moon

I am the spirit of this land

Dance, I dance, I dance

Watch me, watch me dance

The desert dances to my tune

The wind beats the rhythm of my feet

When I swirl by the fire

The night howls to man's desires

The skies grow purple, light

The night's end is nigh

When dawn tries to steal a kiss

I shall vanish into the night

Dance, I dance, I dance

Watch me, watch me dance

Dreams of Flight

1.

The wind buttresses my fingertips

They play a medley of notes in the air,

Tap at the invisible membrane of reality

In nonchalant joy

I look down and I cannot see the ground.

There are no brown-green crumbs

Scattered below.

No crooked silver lines,

Cutting impossibly straight

Man-made incisions

Into meaningless grammar.

All around me is blue.

And white.

Blue and white melded so inseparably

That I see them both as one.

Blue is white

White is blue.

All around me is emptiness.

Emptiness that is filled

With blue and white.

I look for the sun.

And then from below me,

In the far distance, to a side,

I see clouds.

I know I made them.

I made them so I could find the sun.

To find the sun I had to look for it.

To look for it, I had to hide it.

And so I made the clouds.

I looked for the sun I hid in the clouds

The clouds were pierced by yellow light

And my blue white sky was simple no more

It was indescribable. Inexplicable.

I strain harder, arch my neck forward

The wind lilts lost melodies in my ears

It carries whispers of other times

Other 'me's

I strain harder, arch my back and twist

I want to fly around the cloud

Look behind the cloud, my cloud

Find the sun. My sun.

I find the sun

And wake up the dawn

My dream ends

The wind dies

The sky fades

2.

Swirling through whorling grey cumulous clouds

Plunging into its dark dew-and-dust heart

I swallowed a pearl of white light that burst into

A thousand and eight threads of gossamer shards

I rose up through countless wayward kisses moist

Each kiss held one life fulfilled,death asleep coiled

I rose like a bead of blue lightning from a brow

That frowned dark and deep in unceasing pond'rous toil

The wind stole the kisses, it wiped them away

And wrapped me in shrouds of cold sky in their stead

It wailed and it laughed and it shuddered in dread

And it threw me into another bright day

The Wind Blows Eastward

I lie upon a changeless, yellow sea

Above me, is a fountain of hate

My lips, a parched well through which life runs free

For the wine of your love, the wait

My body is caked with despair's breath

A raiment suited to my plight

I wait amid sifting pores of death

Dear hope has not taken flight

I look to the tyrant, lord of endless thirst;

I am neither wanderer, nor sacrifice, nor feast

I am a mirage, not born of your heat

I shall shimmer away from your grasp

Though your malice dances underfoot

And even in the shade

Alive I shall be

Scorch me if you will

But hearken my tale

For in it lies the secret

To my tempered will...

In her eyes there is no oasis

But there is depth, there is mystery

And a shimmering image of me

She is not the fairest in the land

But she is of the earth

She has slept upon the sand

Her skin is not ivory, under the stars

But her embrace is a promise, unbreakable, warm

Her bosom is the desert's dream of wars

And of storm clouds taken form

'I will wait', she said

As the horizon swallowed me

The wind carried her whisper

Toward the blue seas

Her whisper binds my spirit

It is the call of the oud

Upon the velvet night

It tugs at the strands of my heart

And my solitude roars unraveled

Ten years I have walked

Served fortune like a slave

Now a shipwreck, then a war

Here an innocent life to save

But now I am done

I will wander no more

My longing sways in the twilight dust

The sand slumbers beneath

The wind now blows eastward

It wraps my face with rough, cool hands

My talon-brown eyes look towards

My home, a forgotten, dream-born land

And with the will of a galloping horde

Of black horses with star-sharp eyes

Those beat on the satin womb of the sands

The rhythm of a moon-white riq

I rise from the golden dust, a mystic

Of love that has too long been denied

Of oases that lost souls forever seek

Of music that is a thousand deserts wide

I walk to the hill that grows gently in the wind

I leave behind pain and wounds of memory

And they tumble as tiny avalanches, golden tears

Trickling towards a deepening valley in an endless sea

And dawn comes and kisses my unbelieving eyes

Guilty of having forgotten its caress, they cringe

And there in the far distance, at the fingertip of the skies

Is a solitary palm, blackened by a red disk, ascending

The wind blows eastward

I fall to my knees, my being takes wing

In the distance, the palm rises; a crooked shard,

A seif that pierces the emptiness within

What Do I write

What do I write to a flittery sprite

Who wrinkles her nose that way

What do I write that she probably might

Just snigger and and laugh away

She sits in a corner and thinks up the night

And dreams of blue laughter wrapped in delight

And tumbles in stardust and infant light

In a world so far away

I tilt up her chin, fall into her eyes

Where she holds the stars asway

A kiss to her lips; the scent of sweet spice

And sun-burnt mangoes in May

What di I write to a feather, a kite -that

Will unravel and take flight

What do I write to a dream, a sight

That's true and yet, not quite

Old memories glide in blue complexioned skies

New instances writhe in forgotten desires

That playfully stoke to bristling fires

A thousand tomorrows today

She drinks up the sun and wrinkles her lips

And smiles a glorious day

She hides a few sigh above her hips

They spill as she walks and they sway

What do I write to life's naughtiest rite

That will scatter in the ocean spray

And watch it alight 'pon wings that requite

The bonds of spirit and clay

I Wish

There were moments when I

Had wished upon a star

And that wish came true for me

But once when I

Had wished upon a star

The star flew down to me

It was then that I

Had wished away my wish

And sat by the lonesome star

The star was lonely

And the star was sad

For its home was round and vast

And when the star would cry

And a cloud passed by

I would wipe its tears away

And then time passed

Like each moment was the last

And we were lovers star cross't

But the night grew wary

It was time for day

And the sky began to sway

First a blue then a grey

Then orange o'er the bay

That licked the shadows away

The star was caught

At the birth of day

It panicked and grew distraught

I stopped to think

And said with a wink

'Everyday is swallowed by night'

The star kissed my cheek

With an ice blue streak

And threw itself to the dark

It was home it was safe

But lonely as a waif

It twinkled without a spark

Soon it was night

But the sky had changed

The ink-blots faced the wrong way

I was home, I was lost

Under an ocean of light

I was a castaway

There was a time when I

Had wished upon a star

And the star came down to me

That the wrong I wrought

I may one day right

I now wish upon the night

I wish I may

I wish I might

Get my wish tonight

வைகறையே வருக

மனதில் தினமும் புதிதாய்ச் சிலிர்த்தெழும்பும்

இசையே நீ வருக

என்னுள் அசைவே நீ வருக

என்றோ மறந்தப் பாடல்

காற்றில் தவழ்ந்து வரும்

எங்கோ தொலைந்ததுத் தேடல்

உன் வருகையில் மலர்ந்தக் கணம்

உன் விழியில் விடிவைத் தேடும்

எல்லையிலா வானம் (2)

வைகறையே வருக...

உன்

கண்களில் விம்மும் திவலை

மனதில் அலை மோதும்

நேரமெனும் தொடர்க் கவலை

உன் மடியில் ஓய்ந்து விடும்

விரியும் வானம், நீயும் நானும்,

குருகும் நம் உலகம், இனிமேல் இது போதும்

வைகறையே வருக...

இடை வழியில் நடுவானம் இலக்கானதே

கரையோரம் தடுமாறிக் கால் நின்றதே

காணாத காற்றாகவே

தோணாத கவிதை போலே

மின்னல்களோ இரவின் பின்னல்களோ – நின்று

நில்லாமல் புரண்டோடும் எண்ணங்களோ

முத்தங்களோ மழையின் சத்தங்களோ –சாரல்

பின்னும் வலைக்குள் விண்மீன்களின் யுத்தங்களோ

பனிமொட்டில் கதிர் வீழ்ந்ததே

நினைவெங்கும் நனைகின்றதே

மழலைக்குள் பூச்செண்டு ராகங்களே

தீராத ஆசைகள் யாகங்களே

இடையசைவின் இடையில், உன் மௌனங்களில்

ஒரு நொடியில் ஒரு நூறு சோகங்களே

கதவோரம் சாயும் கன்னம் – என்

கனவோரம் விரியும் வண்ணம்

The Candle

A candle screams its yellow silence

And intermittent rasps

Into the smothering distance

In hapless flickering gasps

It offers its being to the flame

The flame flicks it into the sky

And in darkness, wilting, diminished

The candle wonders why

The flame unhinges grotesqueries

Upon its waxen skin

And cackles, 'this is you! This is you!

This is what you are within!'

Molten hate coalesces

Above a scooped out head

And drips down in spines of curdled whines

of death knell spawned dread

The candle wept hot anger at fate

The tears hissed at the wood

It screamed and the flame's naked dance

For a moment, suspended, stood

The candle thought, 'the battles I've fought

Have not brought wisdom nigh.'

The flame burns hot, but I seek the dark

Dare I ask, Who am I?'

The candle stood silent, stark

Grey-blue curves twisted and flexed

Time watched noiselessly in the dark

And the flame became a spark

Through a Blind Man's Eyes

I would like to see you

Through a blind man's eyes

A breeze softened by a downward smile

Warm solace laden with sighs

I would like to see you

Through a blind man's eyes

and fill the blackness of my gaze

with true love's warm embrace

I would like to see you

Through a blind man's eyes

See innocence, fear and beauty true

That in you, soul-deep, hides

I would like to see you

Through a blind man's eyes

And in a world sans light or color

Understand the skies

I would like to see you

Through a blind man's eyes

And not chafe my life as day and night

But feel memories grow and rise

I would like to see you

Through a blind man's eyes

That I may at last look deep and far

And see you for what you are

Fly With Me

Come, take my hand

Let's pace the shores of a mystery

Run backwards from a knowing wave

Kick away from the blue green sand
Into the arms of a gale

Come, take my hand

like dry leaves picked by destiny

Lets rumple through the sullen air

You soar right, I, left, you, up, I, down

And together, as one, our souls touch the ground

Come, take my hand

Lets watch the dance of lost centuries, in -

An ink and sparkle infinity's misty eyes

As the clouds applaud with thunder claps

Lets furrow snowflakes upon our laps

Come, take my hand

The valley is abloom, don't be shy

Let the sea lave at an amber moon

As a mountain stream with ankle-bells, tiptoes

Lets eat mangoes under a tree

Come take my hand

Its been a while, I know, let's fly

I'll sing you a story of a lullaby

Dreams are the after-light of memory

But a memory is a lifetime in a wink

Birthday Poem

In every heart there is a hidden song
That will sing itself to the skies
When, as you walk down a winding path
You choose to make your own

There are dreams buried within everyday dreams
Like fire within the jewel
Find the spark and set it free
And question reality at the seams

A birthday is not a day
Of musings solemn
See your world from the helm
and laugh your doubts away

Love, laughter, sorrow, pain
May you feel them all
And grow a thousand hues within
Like a forest hugged by fall

Life is just what you want it to be
And it will be what you are
So see yourself in your own light
Like nighttime's falling star

Into The Dreaming

In the forests of the dreaming
I wandered, aimless, in the dark
Time was lost and space was bound
The unreal stood naked, stark

Dark flames, persimmon leaves
Sleuthing through mist like orange thieves
A taste of sorrow, then a touch of light
I staggered through delirium to delight -

A forgotten smile found by memory
A lonesome candle growing teary roots
An intimate finger tracing a silken route
Lost lives that were meant to be

And then a veil like curtain fell
With the flourish of a serif-like hand
Then another fell, and then a thousand more
The dark settled like jaded sand

It was dark as the womb of the earth
Then a shade darker still
My eyes fluttered, frantic, lost
When softly by the window sill-

-The clouds flinted a cool blue hearth
And quenched darkness like hesitant rain
In that softened likeness of fluid rain
A silhouette was birthed

Carved by light from stony dark
An amalgam of truth and mystery
It was sans doubt the heart of my dream
Yet I knew not what it be

…it was you, asleep, and silently-
My dream grew brighter, warm
Your lips parted inadvertently
Passion rushed to me in a swarm

Your bosom rose and fell
To the simple rhythm of your heart
And the ocean’s ebb and swell
Kept time

The moon kissed the mountain tops
The valley deepened with a sigh
The wind sang to the meadows
Your toes wrinkled to a downward smile

I wish for eternal waking
To never sleep away this dream
To watch you sleep as reality
Laves at invisible seams

Lovely Dawn

I breathed in the vagrant breeze
in a lovelorn fool's hope
That it carries but a stray whisper
That would serve as my release

The breeze sighed itself away
And with it hope took wing
And I sat under a lonely sky
And heard the requiem for a dying day

Night dawned early
In an unbroken monochrome
The sullen moon rose -
Night's eternal company

The moon cast elusive shadows
The trees ceased to whisper
The birds dreamed of music
And furtive flights across green meadows

I closed my weary eyes
And the stars winked within
I dreamed of limpid pools,
still waters and lonely isles

In that dream of dreary longing
Your face echoed, rippled, bloomed
A smile fluttered into the skies
That grew brilliant at the seam

Mute colors metamorphosed
Into brillian raucous hues
Those sang of love and wonder
And solitude's bittersweet brew

I awoke to muted thunder
And clouds that framed your face
Your smile shone through moist eyes
The sun peeped out in a haze

Midnight's Footprints

You are the rhythm of my night

You are midnight's footprints

You walk a path all your own

A path everyone knows

One only I can follow

You are the rhythm of my night

You are midnight's footprints

I the twinkling sands of invisible time

You are a thousands folds in the veil-thin fabric

A thousand wrinkles

A thousand tiny paths that is one path

Uncounted verses whispering themselves

To the listening night

You are the rhythm of my night

You are midnight's footprints

In the sea of life, you are the effervescent wave

You define the rise and ebb of my life

As you shatter upon the rock of destiny

You rise to kiss the western wind

And the sea roars

The skies listen to the silent depths

You are the rhythm of my night

You are midnight's footprints

Upon the rock of destiny

You are immovable change

You are the wind and the shape

You are destiny's shaper

You are the sapling of hope beneath jagged crevice

You are the sculpture within

You are the rhythm of my night

You are midnight's footprints

Dawn will come

You will be etched in stone, baked in the sand

And forgotten

Dawn will come

You will be washed away, sifted over

And remembered...

Upon the leaf of a sapling

On the lip of a desert bloom

Within the heart of a cowry shell

You will blink

and drink up the dawn. Slowly.

One Year After 26/11

सुबह उगे नफरत की धुंध से, घुटन से, अंधियारे की चुभथी चादर से...

They came in through the sea with impunity
To mutiny against hope and against peace and joy
It wasn't a bunch of people, held hostage on the sly
It was mumbai, it was the whole city that cried
The skies of the night were filled with angry flame
And the billowing smoke and darkness of human pain
They rained hatred...spewed it in a shower of bullets
Our blood was innocent..and still they wanted to spill it
You've got to will it and it happens..that's what they say
So who willed it? Why us? Why don't we have a say?


ज़ख्म भरी यादें, डरा हुआ जहाँ, घने हैं साए मौत के यहाँ

A whole day that burnt into the night that burst into a day
That screamed into the night. They fight-
-Against hate that burnt like a blister, stung like a curse,
That scars like a wound that's left to fester
Each moment a forever of agonising pain
That wept into days that drove us insane
What gain what motive, what cruel intent
Can drive them to action beyond repent


सिसकती हैं हज़ार आँखें खौफ में खोई, पर भूल गए हैं बाक़ी सारे

It's all over now, (they said), the water's under the bridge, (they said)
No reason to be angry or hold a grudge, (they said)
Let the government take over, you don't get to judge, they said
Well, yeah! it's over for the hundreds who died
And for their brothers, sisters, mums and dads
And the baby that cried
When you love someone with your heart and your soul
And he's gone, a piece of you's empty, and you're no more whole
It's not over and it is not the end,
There's tears and scars and memories you just can't mend
What happened was wrong, don't need you to read me the rules
Look to your heart, your conscience, don't need no other tools
We're healing, but we're waiting for some kind of sign
That we're really safe...but we're still not fine
We're healing....