Errant Current

My star is out of reach
But somewhere in my stars
I have a constellation
Drawn on all my scars

        Yet another day wasted
        Yet another dream shattered
        Yet another chance lost
        Yet another thought battered

One more vexing night
Gnawing into my veins
One more tired morning
When I gather my remains

        And simply counting in years
        What keeps passing away
        In darkness, groping and hoping
        Sometime! Somewhere! Someday!

A prick of my conscience
Unscrupulously strangled
With my persisting mettle
My nerves of metal mangled

        I tried again and again
        To end up in despair
        I didn’t do what happened
        I know there is someone there

There’s chaos all inside me
Or is it the spiritual dance
Yes! Something inside me
Is above the circumstance

        An individual in humanity,
        A face of its own identity,
        Standing tall in vanity,
        An iota of eternity…

    I Am.

How I Wish

When the strange faces
Grow more and more strange,
When routine becomes monotonous
And is not willing to change,
When the whole milieu becomes
As prickly as the pine,
And all what once used to be
Is no more benign,
When I find my feet chained
As I wish to roam
An honest wish-
I wish I were home.

        When the days go by,
        Just waiting for the night,
        And all that I wish to see
        Has vanished out of sight,
        I look up at the sky
        To see the stars shining,
        But all I see are dark clouds
        With no silver lining,
        Whenever they deny me
        A look at spangled dome,
        An honest wish-
        I wish I were home.

When I know people waiting
For a single glimpse of mine,
Praying for me and hoping
In His every shrine,
When it is just the voice
Being sent across the miles
And a touch is needed
To bring back the smiles;
When reality is no more than
Memories' catacomb,
An honest wish-
I wish I were home.

        When in the wide world
        I find myself lonely,
        Fighting adversities
        Is myself only;
        When solitude frightens
        And threatens me too,
        I wish I were closer
        To the people I knew;
        When my own free spirit
        Irks me like a gnome,
        An honest wish-
        I wish I were home.


When I find myself
Searching things unknown
And what tumults inside is
Quelled than being shown
When in the crowd, I,
Struggle for individuality,
When the ocean in my eyes
Loses its tranquility
And the raving waves have
More salt in the foam,
An honest wish-
I wish I were home.

        When all I can think of
        Are stupid rhymes,
        I make and break them
        An umpteen times,
        When I badly hate it
        But I just have to cry
        When I have to moisten
        Responses so dry
        When I have to mask
        My feelings so true,
        When I stifle emotions,
        And words I hew,
        When I am lost
        In the wilderness of thought
        When the past and the future
        Grind me to naught
        When I am sick and tired
        Of every other thing
        The flower, the thorn,
        The scent and the sting,
        I can only allow them,
        (What else can I do?),
        To love me, to hate me,
        To neglect me too
        And to tell me that I have
        Some home sick syndrome,
        But I wish honestly-
        I wish I were home.

Proposal-Disposal

I don’t know what compelled me
Into decisions of my own
The outcomes of which held me
Captivated all alone

        I’d only planned for the future
        Drawing on my imagination
        Not knowing I was a creature
        Still under education

My plans that now lay slain
By fate and beaten dead
Somehow teach to plan again
To not to plan ahead

        Whatever you badly desire
        You might not ever get
        But try until you tire
        And let Him settle the debt

I don’t know why people pray
Probably prayers are heard
But there’s always a second way
Of them being answered

        I thought I would be happier
        When I wished to have no wish
        My wishes fled for failure’s fear
        I wish to have a wish…

By the Sea

Saw it in her eyes
Thought she’d like to play a game
        On the shiny silver sand
        In the breeze so mild
        With each and every strand
        Of her hair going wild.
        In stillness of the night
        Under the moonlight
I saw it in her eyes
Thought she’d like to play a game
To melt down the skies
And set the sea aflame


Felt it in her touch
A silent gentle stir
        The way she held my finger
        The way she held her words
        Letting her thought linger
        So that it engirds
        Both of us together.
        Soft and light as feather-
I felt it in her touch
That silent gentle stir.
I wanted her so much
To keep me wanting her.


Sensed it in her smile
Some mischief on her mind
        She’d chew her finger-tips
        Several times she’d blink
        And biting her lips
        She’d pretend to think
        She’d turn her face aside
        But she could not hide
I sensed it in her smile
Some mischief on her mind.
Her ways to beguile
Are rarest of their kind.



Heard it in the silence
Heard it in the sound
        Of the fleeting moments
        Of the craving gaze
        Of the rising casements
        Of the ocean waves
        Of fragrances, vernal,
        Anticipation, eternal…
I heard it in the silence
Heard it in its sound
And in the throbbing suspense
That held me all spell-bound


So real it seemed
Was it an illusion ?
        Was it not all real ?
        Was it not all true ?
        Then how did I feel ?
        What did I construe ?
        I saw, I felt, I sensed and heard
        No vision, no motion and no word
And so real it seemed
What was an illusion
I lived or I dreamed
That is the confusion.

The Unsaid

Lost in the labyrinths of intelligence
Shackled with the chains of reason
Sacrificed on the altar of sense
Sometimes vanished in oblivion
Among many things in the head
So many things just left unsaid

        Things which had no beginning, no end
        And no time for their timelessness
        In messages which I could not send
        But left them in the wilderness
        Half alive and somewhat dead
        Things that were left unsaid

The ones I kept for another day
Gingerly winding them in skeins
A few of them with shades of grey
Lonely blues and envious greens
Or quite often the hopeful red
Threads of what was left unsaid

        Things that I had put on hold
        Things that were for u to hear
        Things that I should have told
        I had to tell them loud n clear
        Not just to my pillow on bed
        To Witness what I left unsaid

Its not that I had chosen with care
Only I could take no more
Just when I could no more bear
I felt it rend me to the core
The day when my heart had bled
I told you a part of the unsaid…

THE SERENADE

There was no dearth
Of beauty on earth,
But all have been put to shame
By that demi-goddess-
With a moonlit bodice
Cladding her hourglass frame-

        The way shells hide
        Somewhere inside
        Them, an untouched unseen pearl.
        The way buds sprout-
        This pearl comes out
        In guise of a beautiful girl-

So charming, so fetching-
While writhing and stretching
Her shimmering, shivering shape,
Her casual yawn
Makes rays of dawn
Swathe her in a gossamer drape,

        Which the breeze unfurls
        When it shrivels and curls
        Up around her lissome neck
        And shoulders bare-
        So lithe, so fair-
        Blemishes-not a speck!

Adornments-not a bit!
Make-up-not a whit!
She's nature in its purest form.
The pulchritude and grace,
Simplicity on her face
Can soothe a raging storm.

        Her beatific smile
        Even for a while
        Would set sail a thousand ships.
        I'd kiss the death
        To become the breath
        That severs those ruby lips,

Or the wind, that blows
And mischievously throws
Her locks all over her face
And blushing so much
With a gentle touch
She puts them back in place.

        The cascade black
        Falls on her back
        Splashing off her shoulders-
        Her lustrous hair
        Put passions on flare
        This heart silently smolders.

Her delicate palms,
Her slender arms,
Are charms that cast a spell;
Sweet and sublime
As musical chime-
Voice of the beauteous belle!

        Coyness immense;
        Without pretense;
        Innocence as that of a doe!
        But then who delivers
        The murderous quivers
        To the crimson Cupid’s bow?

All love potions,
All her emotions,
Glimmer in a gorgeous gleam
In the oceans deep-
As if after a sleep
Her eyes still bearing the dream

        Shining as bright
        As evening twilight,
        As fresh as the morning dew,
        As white as snow,
        With a rosy glow-
        Such is her radiant hue!

And elixir within
Her supple skin
Can silks ever be more smooth?
Did fragrance of flowers
Pour down in showers
As she bathed in the fountain of youth?

        Nothing in the world,
        No picture, no word
        Delineates her complexion.
        I wonder how well
        Can a mirror tell
        Her image in reflection!

Oh beauty pristine!
Oh seraphic queen!
My heart's so eager to deify you;
But oh svelte dame
I find no name
By which I can glorify you!

        You are one in a zillion!
        You are the only one-
        Your beauty is so nonpareil
        That my efforts to describe it,
        In words to inscribe it
        Have all been to no avail.

Yet, all I love to do-
(To be very true)
Is to observe something in you,
And find thoughts to feed
My undying need
To express it in ways anew;

        And just to adore you-
        Genuflecting before you-
        With a heart for you palpitating,
        For your love to bless me,
        Your arms to caress me,
        I keep eternally waiting...