Silent fire

Tags

5AM, Bombay, Cityscapes, Dawn, dversepoets, Morning magic, Morning ritual, Morning scents, Morning Series, New York City, OpenLinkNight

Photography and image editing – Kavita

As the navy pigments
fade into embers of saffron
infused in tints of rose
And as time settles its dispute
between bygones and morrows,
today has lazily set in
– behind the stretched landscape –
– above the river’s mist –
– grazing her edifices and steeples –
She awakens like she does each day
Her smell reaching my nose
– Not of burnt cigars –
– Not of rough pavements –
But of sacred ashes
scattered among snaking railroads,
And of an old tea house
at the corner of my street
serving life in little cups

And my heart whimpers
in nervous exhilaration
as she – yet again –
whispers to me
She’s mine and I, hers

**Also posting for Open Link Night at d’VersePoets pub… the craziest place in town, where every hour is happy hour! **

A wordless ballad

Tags

3AM song, 5PM song, Bird, Bird call, Birdsong, diurnal, dversepoets, Every night, Everyday, Flying Friend, Nocturnal, Open Link Night, Song of a bird, Tuneful

Image credits: Google images for the basic bird silhouette; Texturing, layering and artwork done by me

Every day and every night
I hear you
call out to your kin
Your song
– rising above the sounds of the city –
– shying behind the rustle of summer –
– travelling afloat Hudsonian waters –
You remind me
of an exuberant rainbow
now faded into a monochrome of grey
You remind me
of that beautiful verse
now buried beneath the heavy pages
of my favorite book
You remind me
of my unchained thoughts
that somehow lost their way
in dark alleys of ennui

I might be a stranger to you
– to me even –
but you are no stranger to me
I see myself in every feather of yours
I hear my dream in every flight of yours…

**Dedicated to that awesome bird (whom I’m yet to catch a glimpse of) who has been giving me company even in the wee hours of the night for the past one month (at the very least). He (or she) keeps singing the same song over and over again, in the same tempo… and NO, I’m not at all bored by it. I only wish I could see the throat that emits this tune, day in day out.
And I REALLY WISH it could read my post 🙂 **

**Also posting this for the 100th week of Open Link Night at dVersePoets pub… If you haven’t already gotten high here, it’s high time you did! 🙂 And join me in wishing these awesome folks a veeeery happy 100th!! Woohoo… **

Birthplace of a song

Tags

A lesson, Cancun, dversepoets, Mexico, Morning Series, OpenLinkNight, Ponderings, Realization, Reflection, Sands of time, Slipping away

Photography and image editing by Kavita – Cancun, Mexico

In that dreamed of heaven
– called shore –
where a grain of sand met a drop of water
I placed a foot, or two
I sipped a mojito, or two
I picked a conch, or two
And I knew why it was the dreamed of land
I knew why not everyone could be there
I had learnt
the difference between
existing and living
the link between
music and lyrics

Moments defined themselves
in expanded universes
of little trivialities
And even the mundane
seemed liked sacred rituals

Waves touched my feet
and whispered between my toes,
secrets, which carried themselves
to the trenches within my heart
And suddenly it was all so simple
All so clear to me
Clear as the first raindrop
– that ever kissed the sea –

*Posting this for OpenLinkNight @ d’VersePoets(week 87).. my favorite stop for poetry & inspiration! *

Spires into the sky

Tags

Bombay, By the sea, City, dversepoets, My love(s), New York, OpenLinkNight, Reality, Skyline, True cities, Urban

Photography and image editing by Kavita

Long after the days and nights
have merged unceremoniously
into an eclipse of hardened truth
Long after life has perished
and death has vaporized
into a cloud of tearful smog
Long after voices have dropped
like insignificant pennies
into bowls held by callous hands
Long after dreams have realized
into bittersweet delusions
catalyzed by an ambitious cocaine
Long after the feet have run
beyond those thorny pinnacles
coveted by many a faraway eye

The city still breathes
in her million pulsating hearts
The city still bleeds
into a million curious minds

Mostly thriving
Sometimes conniving
But always striving
To seduce the unknown
To accompany the lonely
To hold back her own

And she lives…
like none other…

*Posting this for OpenLinkNight @ d’VersePoets… my favorite stop for inspiration! *

The other side…

Tags

aftermath, dversepoets, Likeness, Open Link Night, Release, Sandy, Similarity, Storm, Wait

“Hush of a storm”
Image capture and editing done by Kavita

She’s pounding on my windows
I can hear her sobs
– her nerve twisting wails –
But little does she know
that while she is wreaking a havoc
with her disgruntled sighs
I am right here
Waiting
– helpless –
Watching her tears
flood my sight
Beating the walls
of my own pounding heart
Knowing
– we’re both trying to escape –
She, from us…
And I, from me…

*Posting this for OpenLinkNight @ d’VersePoets… Always my favorite! And once you visit, it’ll be yours too :)*

Grappling with a verse

Tags

dversepoets, Fighting against all odds, First times, Looking for a word, Poetics, Shakespearean sonnet, Sonnet, Trying to write

“An eye that dreamt”
Image capture, editing, rendering and color extraction done by Kavita

Look at me, how I sit here trying hard,
pen in hand and a sheet of page in front:
To scribble a word and be called a bard;
Of muse’s wrath, instead, I bear the brunt.
I beseech her to come to me one more time,
pacing back and forth, reaching my wit’s end;
Watching morose clocks of wordlessness chime,
my broken poetic cord I try to mend.
Her silent laughs through clouds of hush I hear,
mocking me at my moment of despair;
While from my red eye, slips a lonely tear
screaming her name through ripples in the air.

Wait! Are those the footfalls that have returned?
For words I feel; my listlessness has burned.

**Posted for Poetics: ‘First Times’ @ d’VersePoets… The folks here make me do things I have never done before.. like write a Shakespearean Sonnet! 🙂 And that too, at a time when I am experiencing my all-time poetic low! Seriously, when decent poetic words are hard to come by, these guys fill me with inspiration! CANNOT thank y’all enough, d’Versers!! **

Zona oblivia…

Tags

Acceptance, Beyond everything, Doesn't matter, dversepoets, Each other, Love, Oblivion, OpenLinkNight, Society, Unconditional, Unperturbed, Victory

Faces in the crowd (an iPad attempt by me)

Plunging into
the familiar abyss
of scathing looks
Stung by
the gnawing tongues
of a raging ocean
Surrounded by
the jarring sounds
of a chaotic world
Cocooned in
a transparent bubble
of chromatic moments
They stand alone
– ensconced –
in each other’s arms

And emerging from the
stark clouds of apathy
are the first signs
of a fluttering kiss…

Posting this poem for Week 56 of OpenLinkNight @ d’VersePoets pub… if you haven’t already been there, NOW is the right time to do so! Enjoy!! 🙂

The heart-collector…

Tags

A city of a kind, A sunset over Bombay, Alluring, ANNIVERSARY CONTEST, Arabian sea, Bewitching Bombay, dversepoets, HOT Summers, I heart Bombay, Inviting, Local trains, Love for motherland, Modest Mumbai, Monsoons, Mumbai, Where dreams come true

– Clicked (and later iPad edited) by me @ Marine Drive –

With her translucent veins
invariably spilling commuting sighs
With her Arabian waves
magically forming a quixotic mist
With her thumping heart
thrusting life into her slender body
With her sultry skin
attracting a rush of excited nerves
With her monsoon scent
injecting doses of moist earth
She stands there
– poised –
Eyes inviting
Arms outstretched
Smile bewitching

And all one can do is
Succumb
to her incomparable charm
Drown
in her sweltering heat
Melt
before her yielding embrace
While only hoping to chant
the syllables of her tuneful name
…Bom-bay…

**Mumbai, Bombay, call her what you may, she will always remain what she has always been – a mystic lover, a heart stealer, a soul quencher! For a person (like me) born and raised in her arms, there exists no better place on this fabulous planet (other than NYC perhaps 🙂 )! This poem is my heart’s snapshot at how I felt about her when I lived there, how I felt about her on my most recent trip there, how feel about her now, and how I will always feel about her! They say good things are better shared… So here I am, sharing a little bit of my Bombay with all of you… **

Over leftovers…

Tags

7 X 7 poem, Consumed by fear, Dregs, Drowning in the past, dversepoets, Fiction, Form for All, Leftovers, Living in inertia, Past-Present-Future, Resistent to change, Square poem, Usurped by future

Clicked and edited by me…

Like draff brimming with ennui and insipidity
Draff, swelling with pasts, breaches, gnaws, creeps

Brimming with untethered tears, tomorrow keels over

With past’s tears so easily shattering me
Ennui breaches tomorrow, easily crushing thought’s cell
And gnaws, keels, shattering thoughts passing by

Insipidity creeps over me – cell….. by….. cell

*Try reading the poem horizontally or vertically…it should read the same :)*

**This 7 X 7 square poem has been written and posted for Form for All – Square Poems @ d’VersePoets… A place where learning and fun go hand in hand :).. And while you are here, check out the awesome created by others as well…you’ll be stunned! **

Brine and Vinegar

Tags

Bittersweet, Bottled up, dversepoets, FormForAll, Ghazal, Kept over time, Marinated, Pickled, Soaked, Sour, Tangy, Volcanic

Image clicked by me in an atypical New York cafe

Where smiles flew and teardrops streamed
Emotions stood still, pickled in a jar

Wars were fought and blood was drained
But souls remained, pickled in a jar

Words had charmed few shallow minds
Yet fear prevailed, pickled in a jar

Bounds were crossed, and sanctums snatched
But secrets lived, pickled in a jar

The sands of time kept rolling on
With shimmering waves pickled in a jar

An endless night gave a nervous laugh
But the morning sun sat pickled in a jar

Like a forlorn poem, Kavita sighed
Her void thoughts lying pickled in a jar…

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**Posted for FormForAll @ d’VersePoets… and when I saw that the form for this week is Ghazals, I simply had to try it myself!! I loved it… and I hope you too take the time to explore this beautiful form of poetry, and while at it, have fun!! **

Tilted over…

Tags

Allowing past to rule, dversepoets, Endless, Eternal, Leading memories to a future, Memories, OpenLinkNight, Sandglass of yesteryears, Time waits for none, Waiting for nothingness, Watching as time passes by

Image credits: liuanta @ Deviant Art

Drawn by a torque into
the immense whirlpool
of unfrozen memories
I observe them drip
timidly slip
into
a
pale
translucence
on the other side
Until one pink morn
a faint realization dawns
while eternity has set in

---

**Posted for the grand opening of dVersePoets – a place for poets, poems and their friends :)**

On sacred grounds…

Tags

Art, Building on dreams, Construction, Creation, dversepoets, From the start, New beginning, Realizing a dream, Sacred, Sand castle, Thematic

Image credits: X_psyco_thingy_X@DeviantArt

A
heap
of hued
notion in
the trough
of my hand,
A pitcher of
fluid mystique
never to run dry,
I build my fortress
over a serene shore
of midnight dreams
Its base sitting cosy
in an earthy passion
Its defined contours
luring hungry waves
into leaping up to its
demure, elegant lines
Its acme bowing to the
stars smiling at its beauty
Its very existence, a beacon
of radiant hope to all mortals
stranded on the seas of tedium

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**Posted for the Welcome “construction” theme at dVersePoets… Cheers to new beginnings!! 😀 **