Poetry On Life

This is your life So, live it as you like, May not always be as you wish ‘Cause it’s Lady Luck’s strike. You may court her if you will She may well shine a light If, your overtures are gentle And your methods always right. Remember, she too is subservient To someone else’s dictate, Destiny, too, was carved on stone Writ by the One who is each one’s mate. And, He knows best what He does Avalanches...

Look at dust and rejoice When that ‘birdie’ putt is the choice, But, when enveloped by darkness Then, at the stars and the divine voice. Let that ball roll for you Give it the tap that rings nice and true Then, hear your heart skip a beat As you wait without a clue. Then hear that ‘gorgeous’ disappear The terrifying ball that fills you with fear, As it sinks into that cup, or Leaves you crying wit...

Will Night See the Light of Day Where have they gone those pretty flowers Where, the oft- quoted Ivory Towers, Questions, questions, questions, all Where is Heaven and it’s “believed” Powers? Why are we in such disarray Tragedies now in full display, Is there no relief in sight, none Does Heaven have nothing to do or say? Horrendous, what we witness, sadly People fleeing and, often, madly, Childre...

A smothered Nation or a game of chess A chequerboard, a war zone, what a mess, A tragedy of Shakespearian proportions Anchors, wise guys, views and notions. A world gone nuts beyond repair Madhouses and madness at these we stare, The beating heart, just a clock no more Little feeling, less care. How unfeeling is the world today Sad the saga, tragic the play Compassion, a word now extinct Man ready...

We long for things that aren’t around Like Silence, when crazy is the sound, Friends of yore and simple times When, our millions we have finally found. Enticing is power and the glamour world Even when stones, not flowers are hurled, Even when words of praise and glory Are twisted, turned and, suavely, curled. Beyond redemption seems Man now Weapon in hand and sweaty the brow, The Good Lord is the...

Rise, O Ladies and show us the way We, the faltering, blundering, “Male”,  play Lost in the stupid, lovely, perfect,”macho man” phrase Can think of nothing but lust and power and to hold sway. Weaker than you on every count Brutal, savage, strength apart, We, who look down upon you We, who have a beating but uncaring heart. Be the resplendent light that lights the way Out of the present murky...

Why does sweetness in sadness lie Why catharsis in the gentle cry, Is it needed to remind us, softly Live, for one day we shall die. Why do petals fall one at a time Hit the ground and mix with grime, Dust thou art was not for the soul Prose is nice but Rhyme, is Rhyme. All things are nice and beautiful If the sparkle in the eyes is full, If the heart beats to drums its own And, if at heartstrings...

The song of life is not a sad song Though sadness may well be a part of it Paths you walk may well be dark Unless they are, by moonlight, lit. ‘Two sides of the coin’ is an idiom old Heads or tails, that is the choice Coin-spinning has two results: Joy on one side, then a mournful voice. Tears will flow, both sad and happy Though they’re not quite the same Little to choose between Devil and saint...

Roses in bloom, Daffodils besides The colour Blue, the rising tides, Stars above, the sands below The Moon shining in your eyes, Where else is Heaven, look within Why look at those empty skies, If a hand is, then, in your hands That, my friends, is where Heaven, lies, Desiderata, the Heart cries. If, it’s desert sands so be it So long as the heart is well-lit, The Dromedary with you, your “humsafa...

Midst the barbs and the Rancour Midst the din and the Clamour, Cries a saddened, trampled, “Reason” A clobbered “Conscience” that amounts to Treason For, no greater Infidels will we ever find Than those who, seemingly, portray a despairing, shackled mind And, no greater Sin will there ever be Than the lies we see, within Hypocrisy. ‘Tis a very uncaring, callous, state The dark side of Dame Fate, T...

The cup, half-empty or half-full A matter of how we look at things, they say, As we tread, alone, on the sands of Time Down life’s rather, wayward, way. The rough and the smooth, companions all Velvet gloves or bare feet, Walks down sunset boulevards Or, sweating in the noon’s heat. How we look at things and perceive them Is what our state of mind rests on, It’s on that alone that happiness lies T...

The hullabaloo about Paradise Being, somewhere, beyond the blue skies Is it anything more than a pack of lies ‘Cause there’s an awful lot more than meets the eyes. Is it in the skies, this thing called Heaven  Or, is it the Tavern that opens at Seven,  I love the face of CNN’s Don Lemon  Let’s meet tonight Don, let’s say at ten. Let’s give this Ukraine thing a miss tonight  Let...

How boring how, awfully, tedious If all we see, all day long, is our own beautiful face, Oblivious of the insignificance of the ‘mighty me’ A little dot on the spectrum of the human race And, the ‘me’ includes the ‘you’, the ‘us’ For, we are all the same fundamentally, Human beings created by the Lord Simple, but lacking in simplicity. Unhappy, uncomfortable, in skins our own An endless quest for...

The upsurge of the spirit free No burdens on shoulders carried, No grudges harboured, no grouses there To no prejudices, futilely, married. The mind that leaps into the skies No stars that cannot ever be reached, Like the eagle soaring on high No clouds that cannot ever be breached. The heart, light as is the feather It’s tapestry allegorical Woven, as it is by a million threads Secrets dark, desi...

Ask the Morning, yes, please do Does it feel a bit insecure, With another day and night to go Before it sees itself again, for sure. Time, indeed, is a fickle mistress Life, a bubble and no more, Standing on the shifting sands An eternity away, is the other shore. All things transient is, eternally, true  And Life a Caravan of vagaries,  Moments brimming with happiness  Some little...

Every cloud has a silver lining Maybe true, maybe not But, the fact some do is enough for me What more do you want, What? Stars in the sky they all shine Not all visible to the eye, Enough for me to see those I see For the rest, I don’t cry. The world’s a boiling pot today Melting and flowing over too, Disasters, man- made and Natural And, viruses that leave little clue But, even with these dismal...

The Book of Life Out of the shadows into the limelight Into the “arc” and then the sunlight, All a play of light and dark A twilight walk in the park. Joys and Tears flow through its pages Ask yourself, forget the Sages, No one understands you better ‘Tis your Alphabet and your letter. Teachers, Preachers, Sermonizers Rioters some, some Harmonizers , Like the Seas that aid and harm There’s turbule...

Somewhere beyond the skies, they say Lies what is the permanent Heaven, The Tavern beyond the shining stars And, not the one that opens nightly at Seven. This opens up possibilities, though And choices are always nice, The Heaven we imagine and the one we know One free, the other tagged with a price. I know there is confusion there, friends For the obvious “Heaven” is only one, Which demands piety...

I look at the heavens, then below my feet An emptiness there, no better here, We speak of Eternity in glowing terms Much the same emptiness, I often fear. Here and now is all, nothing before, nothing after The rest no more than ardent hope and hopeless dreams, Delusion, illusion, mirage, the sands No rivers of Pearls, no gilded, glittering ,streams. Nothing behind when the curtains drop Gone the f...

In the maze of Life’s journey And, the unknown vaults of Destiny, Lies a future, unrevealed And, wounds that have not healed. The hands of Time they never rest Like the flowing waters of the river, No pearls are ever handed out For the efforts of the diver. No holding back, no shoving around Time moves at a pace its own, It is eternal and unlike Man To beseeching, not prone. It’s movements imperce...

It’s the story of the Deep South And, the drawl of those golden voices, Of those who were black and so, colorless And, also with no choices. The roars of the Mississippi And, many an Old Man River, Seeking the mirage of Eternity From the only Merciful ‘Giver’. How does it matter if I’m Brown and you Yellow And, why must we all be white, We do the same things, make the same mistakes Knowing, fully,...

”Happiness” seldom passed me by And, not for long anyway, A little patience, some passage of Time And, I was again on my way To the tavern around the corner The one called, “Heaven” With me, then, was ‘old’ Jack Horner ‘Twas evening, and the time was seven. I hummed the rhyme of the little child The one who ate the Christmas pie, l gave you his name a while ago He was little then but, now, not shy...

While you wait or tarry a while Or, rush around and reach your mile Remember, Patience, too, needs a little help And, there’s nothing better than a simple smile. The one that takes your frowns away Lightens the heart and makes you sway, The mind’s an awful, complex, machine As soccer and cricket you, simultaneously, play. The smile then is your ally supreme As thoughts submerge you, like tadpoles...

‘Tis a losing battle we all wage Said a wise, old man, a wise Sage, The winner’s name in letters bold Writ on each life’s last page. Life’s a chessboard and no more You make your moves then leave the shore,  Winds and gales and balmy breeze  The curtain falls, the the end of encore! There’s an emptiness in everyone When it’s time to go at the end of fun,  When the party’s over and w...

Why does no one think of this I often wonder, I do, Ashok, Are we lost in our Ivory Towers Blinded by lure of the “golden” cloak. Ban this and prohibit that And, outlaw everything, Teach the Nightingale, if you will To your own silly song, sing. Lay down rules for each knows best What others can and cannot do, Two sides to the coin, we all know that Yours a fake, mine True. So, why did no one thin...