Worst Fear?

I’ve seen heaven

And hell too

They both exist

On earth

Just like you do

Downswing creations

Putting pen to paper is sometimes as easy as breathing, and sometimes an insurmountable task. Days when the ink flows automatically and thoughts lend themselves to being told are the most peaceful ones in my experience. On the other hand, there are also days when every thought spirals, every sorrow snowballs, every tear demands to be shed and the pen, oh the pen just refuses to cooperate! On such days, I believe, it’s better to put poetry aside and create art instead. Why? Because the thing about art is that it’s never ugly or beautiful. It exists and that’s all there is to it.

Strawberries

Is it strawberry picking season yet?

Asking for a friend, really,

Who likes her sweets with a hint of sourness

With whipped cream or chocolates that’ve got a little bit of darkness

Ripe red

Juicy insides

Pancakes

And ice creams besides

You’ll let me know when it’s time for strawberry picking, right?

I’ll hold on till then.

The End of the World?

I was always scared of following someone to the end of the world. Until I realised, they don’t mean the literal world, they mean what the world means for the follower – they follow the one they love, their entire world, till the end of the world as they know it. Since I’ve come to this realisation, I’ve become even more scared of following someone to the end of my world for the fear of falling off the edge.

Surajmukhi

You can have the rose

With all its redness and thorns

The sunflower is mine, anyway

It will look for me and bloom afresh

Each day, every day

Repository

I’ve written a lot about love and pain

And I’ve often wondered what I stand to gain

From laying my heart out bare

Unflinching under every stare

And I think

I think I finally know

Or, at best, can suppose

Why I pour blood into ink

And turn aches into poetry

No, it’s not to juxtapose

But to have a bed for love to repose

Reality Check

June has always been a little bit of a conundrum for me. It brings with it the promise of a vacation under sunny skies, but with a pang of fear for leaving everything behind. Just like the washed away sand on the beaches I like to visit.

June marks the middle of another year and I can never tell if I’ve done just enough to be able to relax now and justify it as a good year, or if I’m just getting started.

June has a way of breaking past all the barriers I’ve constructed and ridding me of all disillusions. For June always is what it is, and never what it ought to be.

Darkness, a Friend

Darkness is an old friend, yes

Not just because of its familiarity

But because it brings light to everything around it

Making them shine even brighter

Aglow in contrast

And isn’t that the pivotal function of friendship

To bring you light even in the bleakest of days

To make you feel light

To sit with you in the inky depths of the tunnel of life

Till you see the light on the other end

Tough times, tougher people

Taking my cue from the Kungfu Panda (honestly, so much more than a kid’s movie) –

You know what scars do, they fade

And even the most terrifying of wounds heal

That’s the nature of life

That’s also the nature of us

So what matters most

Is how we handle the now

And not how the past handles us

That’s how we rise, we grow and we conquer

Even the toughest times

Siren Song

I’m looking for a new song to hum tonight. Not like a lullaby yet a salve for the soul. A tune for all ages. The words haunting. A treble that trembles and a bass as deep as the woods. A siren’s call. A devil’s snare. A lure. A trap. An unattempted dare.

I’m looking for a new song to hum tonight. Can you fathom its dulcet tones?