A new year -2016

A new year -2016

Another trip around the sun

With a single stroke, a new year will have begun,

And with new vigor , resolutions ,we arrange

Will anything in this new year change?

Will we traverse the maze of unmet desires again

Swing the swing, between pleasure , pain?

Or will we find our way , the direction, path between

In this new year of two thousand sixteen?

--shubha 

Moments of the night

Moments of the night


Nights strung together

With moments tenderly gathered


Moments of unrequited longing

Moments of happy belonging


Moments of festivity, celebration

Moments of lonely suffocation


Moments of quiet, wakeful serenity

Moments of stress, unrest , resolve, gritty


Moments of sweet slumber peaceful

Moments of many dreams colorful


Or perhaps,moments strung together

Through nights, gratefully in memory, tethered.




--shubha

P.S. Happy to share this poem won second place in a fortnightly theme competition in a poetry group.

The stare

The stare

Somewhere far away

A little girl sits on the grass,

Smears of soot against her skin

In a dirty, torn dress

That was once violet

A shocked, vacant stare

Looks out of the newspaper

Another day , another violent event 

Another lost home, another lost childhood....

 

And yet that stare..

Traverses the latitudes of separation 

Jumps the barriers of reason

Blazes its way out of a city,laid to waste

To mock my lazy decision of helpless apathy

Fashion of this season of selfcenteredness

To scorch my conscience.

--shubha

Foggy secrets

Foggy secrets

Night's secrets condense
Earth's warm lips smolder quiet
Hide passion in fog


--shubha

Night's hope

Night's hope


Night stretches endless

Renders everything colorless


Sketches stark shapes in gray

Reveals stories, unsaid during the day


Houses the ghouls of suspicion, dread,fear

Serenity of silence, dew drops' gentle tear


Yet, every night, of gain or pain

Carries in itself the next day's grain

Sleeps in the dreams,of a new days' hope

Those dreams, strewn stars, envelope

Thus I traverse this endless night

In hopes of a new day, new light

Filled with your presence, bright

--shubha

Night , the temptress

Night , the temptress

Nosegay of a heady scent swoons

In her tiara , the resplendent moon

Gown of blue velvet, star strewn

Hear the crickets, a welcome,croon

Twirls softly, pulls under her trance soon

Night, the temptress, sashays, sways

Lures to dream, to rest,a tired day

--shubha 

Generosity

Generosity 

Blow you gusting breeze
Carry away the last glowing embers
Of my pent up anger 
At injustice
And scatter them 
As benign leaves of fall

Leave me bereft 
Of any residual bitterness
As I stand proud, tall
Complete in my surrender

Let me retreat 
Into myself 
For winters' restful meditation 
Where I strengthen my faith

That come the warmth 
Of your spring
I will be willing, able 
To bloom 
Spread fragrance to all
Without holding back

--shubha 

Faith - for Chennai

Faith - for Chennai

Familiar names of my childhood float
As does a living , thriving city
Inundated by nature's excesses
And in hindsight perhaps its own
And over this floating debris
Rises human compassion
Understanding, patience,resilience
That forms resolute bridges
To those in distress
While the concrete ones ,submerged
Remain impassable
And as the flood waters will recede
My faith in goodness
That informs humanity at its core, increases.

--shubha

P.S For the flood stricken citizens of Chennai battling floods after an unprecedented deluge who have shown remarkable resilience and compassion for their fellows in distress 

Scarred and whole

Scarred and whole

In deep swallows of hard lumps
I drink up , drop by little drop
Of presumed rejection

With searing rip after rip
I tear out the pain
And let it fly in the breeze
Of gentle forgiveness
One shred at a time

In silent sniffles
I let out fragments
Of a building scream
To find my way to silence

With each wound, a new hole
I plug with forgiveness
To try and fill this leaking heart
With love

With every small attempt to love
Despite the hurt, I heal
Grow a little more scarred
A little more whole

--shubha