swells inside
as a singular pain.
10.FORECAST
Finishing the day’s work well in advance
seated, I remain
in anticipation….
Washing my limbs that have turned
rough and sticky with day-long chores,
moving to a different shore,
seated, I remain
in anticipation….
Keeping my hands wide-opened
without a care of ‘the four’;
the After and Before –
seated, I remain
in anticipation…..
With bated breath I wait
to receive and entwine;
to have it all mine -
no matter for what a tiny particle of Time.
The signs are all there _
Dark clouds;
Chill wind;
The peculiar smell;
Birds screeching;
Dust dispersing….
The Stage is all set
for a fulfilling Drama
with an auditorium so grand
and an ace music-band!
There pervades the fragrance
par-excellence _
of Life, which through evanescence
ensures
Permanence!
The bells chime.
The curtain would be raised any time.
Oh my!
Seated in my shell
lock stock and barrel
I remain
In anticipation
Of the RAIN
11.TEMPERATURE
Can’t even say ‘slightly better’-
The heat persists with a morbid vigour.
The state of being congenially warm
seems a distant dream.
But
these days ‘Climate Change’ comes
all too suddenly
with such unpredictability!
No harm in trying
to make things Absolutely Perfect;
Perfectly Absolute.
Is this empty rhetoric?
Or, the outcome of a seeking so esoteric?
How to decode these two?
Is there a ‘readerly text’ in these too?
Phonemes, Syntax. Semantics
Etymology, Phraseology, Rhymes, Rhythms _
The permutations and combinations of all these
Leaving you enthralled; appalled,
make Life a veritable hell….
or Heaven?
‘To Be or Not To Be…..?’
The question rages along with the
more than 1060 Celsius all around.
All kinds of horns sound
increasing the heat with a vengeance
making you travel through
a temporary desert;
Can’t say so….
It could turn into permanent too….
Amidst all wagons hurrying past
No camel in view;
Nor even a mirage.
Feet acquire blisters.
Eyes on fire.
Sweaty all over.
Struggling to retain
some semblance of composure….
I can’t help wondering _
Can anyone ever decipher Nature?
None can succeed in making it dance to our tune;
You can’t mold it;
You can’t hold it.
Either we accept it as it is,
and adapt ourselves to its dictates,
or remain all the more frustrated.
Shelley’s Spring is there for ever.
Remember….
Nature has always been a partaker in our lives;
Not a mere preacher; passerby.
By and by
we might find a magic wand
with which the mirage can be turned into
marvelously cool pond.
The desert, a treasure island!
But, for the time being
no way out
except wading through this suffocating stretch
Within and Without.
12.TIME ON A DIFFERENT PLANE….
Almost exactly at the moment when I thought
of the sentence
that poets have a different Time-Zone
my wrist-watch stopped showing the correct time
and began to run erratically.
Though I could attribute it all rationally
to faulty mechanism
an eerie feeling did creep in.
Since then I have been travelling along
a different plane.
The time-zone, different plane –
are these actual terrains
or mere fantasies of the brain?
Once again
I look at my watch
wondering whether it was Borges’s Aleph
or just a ‘whiff of breath’….
Right – Left – Right - Left
Turn About _
Guided and misguided by Time
the march continues topsy-turvy.
On the dais
and in the rows of seats _
everywhere men and women,
including those invisible in the empty ones,
each a separate horizon
simultaneously, in unison
each intent on playing the assigned role
to perfection….
Friend
Foe
Freak
Fool…
Hole after hole we dig
deep and deeper
but to unearth never
the whole….
Curtain raises;
Words flow -
Torrential;
Terribly superficial;
Heartfelt;
Hyperboles;
Sensible;
Sweet nonsense;
Slightly sarcastic;
Sugar-coated;
Bitter-tinged;
Hope-filled;
Heartrending;
Faces with hearts reflected
Wholly or partly
Fill the auditorium....
As everything else
this show too comes to a close.
Accompanied by melting moments
I step into the lane;
with night glistening
start walking in the rain.
14.RAINY REMINISCENCES….
No more a mere drizzle;
or just a shower;
This is real downpour –
voluminous; torrential;
Intensifying more and more
with each passing hour.
Remaining inside doors shut
I could still visualize it
with all my ears.
The unfelt raindrops hold me
in a fierce embrace,
caress,
drenching me all over.
The longing to plant a tender kiss
upon the ‘might be dozing’
or ‘might be moving’ feet
that bear the chest wherein the heart
brimming forever with passion closeted…..
that carry the head
inside which the skull encasing the brain
of a Magnificent Muse resides …..
engulfs my whole being in a delicate warmth.
The exquisite quiver travelling from head to foot,
along the whole length of spine
proves pleasure and pain
so closely entwined.
Longing surges as a perennial flood
gushing forth towards
a land afar
on a distant shore
that can still be reached in a matter of hours _
a little after 6 a.m., or even before!
15.RAIN: REAL AND SURREAL
Yet again a Rain
gathering momentum…
gripping; wholesome.
There
wishing for Love Infinite
some hope…. some despair….
some ecstasy here…. some agony there ….
some expectation…. some frustration
some leap…. some halt….
Caught entangled in the labyrinth of words
some longing indescribable
some loneliness incomprehensible….
The heart melts; freezes _
taking turns….
Rain Real _
Rain Surreal _
On the terrain _
In the brain _
Gains galore _
Pains aplenty _
Nature can’t be fixed
as a ‘twenty-twenty match’
there lies the catch.
Golden eggs are hatched
with each little Rain-drops!
By and by
Rain turning delirious
does a ringa-ringa roses;
with Lightning and Thunder
providing the backdrop
filling the heart’s parched rivers
with successive showers!
From deep down surges
the Spring;
Rain’s Offering!
16.INTO THE RAIN…..
Work for the day is over.
(Is the expression ‘at last’ appropriate – I wonder…)
With the taste of black coffee still lingering
(associated idea: black day, one might say….)
I step out and start walking….
Rain commences in right earnest.
soon turning into sturdy ropes of water
landing straight on to my head
Strong twains of raindrops encircle me
Having no umbrella at hand
(can it be called a real loss ? I muse…)
I get more and more thoroughly drenched;
Even big trees are not big enough
to spread a canopy over my head.
In fact, nothing is there to provide shelter.
Men, women, children, wagon run
that a tree with an electric post standing near
ever a mysterious terrain!
make me wade through wilderness;
each step I take into the rain
terrifies me as intercepting a speeding train….
leaves me standing at the
(razor’s) edge of a lofty mountain.
The fall into an unfathomable abyss
looming large
The Rain resembles a fairy-tale!
I proceed, with wings and tail!
A wide-screen image of a vacuum
pregnant with the possibility of
Beyond the outer layer of fear apparent
caused by the craving
to reach the safety of home
there lurks another down under
Hurling the choicest abuses
the realization that stoic silence
is what makes one the worst-hit
strikes me as Truth Fundamental.
Its raining Cats and Dogs.
I continue to remain in Rain
inside the four walls of my cabin.
Ø
17.RESONANT RAIN!
Though the sky turns grey Rain stays away….
Will it or will it not…?
The heart is all set to start the countdown
One to ten? Oh, when ? and then…?
My ears strain to catch its resonance.
Tears, Rain, Microcosm, Macrocosm _
Association of ideas keep accumulating on their own.
In the midday heat while translating ‘Possessed’
From nowhere a visual surfaced within…
A supple female hand travelling through
a sturdy torso in honey-hue
lying in the nude, somewhat relaxed,
with its mind ever embarked.
Indeed a Zen Moment
with dozen undercurrents…
Kind of a split-personality
I went on writing,
simultaneously into the scene…
‘Yet to come’ Resonant Rain _
In anticipation do I remain….
18.SOMETIMES RAIN…..
Sometimes a distant dream;
sometimes a flooding stream;
sometimes a terror-struck scream;
sometimes a tasty ice-cream!
Sometimes making you feel so secure;
as part of the Great Grand Universe;
sometimes leaving you shaky to the core;
at the receiving end of a bitter curse.
Sometimes serene;
sometimes a violent hurricane;
sometimes your eyes can see through it -
sometimes you stand thoroughly blinded.
Sometimes it turns everything anew;
sometimes it leaves you feeling so blue;
so transparent, yet so mysterious
so soothing, yet so unsettling.
Sometimes a watery wilderness
sometimes caves chaotic;
sometimes roaring flood;
sometimes rhythmic circulation of blood.
Sometimes a benign fairy;
sometimes a dinosaur in fury;
sometimes a solemn empress!
sometimes a demon deranged!
All said and done there still remain
similes in tons, images millions!
Hen or cock ? is this empty rhetoric?
Who to tell? What to yell?
Why ? How? Which? When?
Do pour in this region
My Own Rain
that belongs to all _
Woods, Hills and Plains
weaving heartrending visuals,
with its magic wand, time and again!
Now and then, or all too often
do pour Rain, cooling my terrain
turning it fertile,
causing green to happen;
crops to grow;
grains to harvest;
North South East and West!
Keeping my fingers crossed,
I stand at the Day's threshold…
Little Lizzy wants to play
Oh, Rain Rain don’t go away!
Hardly a few drops and the Rain is off;
Haunting disappointment beyond words….
What stupid fantasy is this ?
A fallacy indeed -
feeling romantic about Rain
which comes and goes as suits its whims and fancies.
Why crave for it
when it is never known to have changed its course
for anyone, ever?
Never once has the rain poured for you alone…
Then why nurture this feeling of communion?
Has it ever knocked at your windowpanes
when you yearned for it
with wide-opened arms?
Oh, let’s face the truth – no harm…
But unfortunately truth too has an other side
just as the rain playing Dr.Jeckyll and Mr.Hyde!
And, no matter how far away you be
It is sure to entrap you with its cool and warmth
and wakeful lullaby!
Thunderous or littlefairy- like _
Rain casts its spell alike!
Poem for Rain or Rain for Poem…?
The query remains, hanging suspended
Or rather, open-ended….
All the same
the two prove one and the same
in my present mental frame.
As I continue to run on
in a never-ending marathon
Drizzle, Shower, Monsoon, Downpour _
Rain unravels itself, stage by stage
With each passing hour….
All along the mid-sunny lane
besieged I remain
experiencing the pleasure and pathos of BrainRain.
20.RAIN READINGS
Raging heat seems to have
ascended the throne
once again.
Having no power to bargain
with the conspiring
elemental forces
this day wades along
an arid terrain
through horrid hours,
saving itself from swooning
aided by the fountain
inside the brain.
Is the Rain waiting for
an opportune moment
to shower its blessing
or stays away with intent -
to keep me guessing…?
Oh, why so?
Why not Come, See and Go
without turning into something
‘Long Long Ago…’?
To and fro
oscillates the pendulum
The micro-monitor screen
stays mum….
Yet a few more hours
or the day’s farewell…
With tolling bells
the yearning for Rain
swells…
Caught in a quagmire,
hope tends to wane
so the heart keeps bemoaning,
woebegone,
with eternal thirst for Rain
ingrained….
Half-cup full;
half remains empty -
In between these
two refrains
Life hangs
Humpty _ Dumpty….
Though appalled,
I quickly take refuge
in the Weather Forecast,
[Far more reliable these days,
at last!]
that there would be rainfall
without fail…..
