My Ancient Heart

 I shut down the book

& Switch off the song 

Halt my weary search through 

Pages, words & wisdoms

Of forgotten ancestors far and wide 

Looking for my meanings - outside.

I now turn with 

Unsteady step 

and faltering voice

to sing my own silent song

Welling in an ancient heart

Wisdom and truth quietly 

Showing right from wrong.

 

And I let them flow

In serene song streams,

Of forgotten dreams

To merge with rushing 

Rivers outside, from

turbulent and peaceful times

Of our human ancestors 

And the more distant divine

To recognise 

I'm now the ancient ancestor,

conjuring truths

Like magic on shafts of light

Created and escaping 

Into the stillness of this 

Eternal night.

What?

 What violet light 

Blazes bright 

In inky night

Behind eyes shut tight?

What chord keeps

Striking a melody sweet,

With incessant chorus deep

No voice, No hand, and

No instrument to beat?

It's that - singular infinite 

conscious I

Which encompasses 

All conceivable & perceivable 

forms & phases of mortal sighs-

Recycles this chaos to order

Giving melody and light

For my earthly delight 

काव्य?

 हल्की हल्की सी हवा 

सहमी सहमी सी शरद

हाथ में चाय का प्याला

और दबा दबा सा दर्द

Neti Neti

 No song 

No rhyme 

No melody 

Is mine 

No rainbow 

No light

Nor star studded 

Night

No friend

No Foe

No high

No low

No seeking 

Nor sought 

Devoid

Of thought 

No future

No past

Eternal moment 

Lasts

Silent 

& Still

Illumined

Within

Insignificant 

But integral

Completing 

Infinity.

Poem from Hanle

 Dust storms raging far, wide,

Obliterating landscapes out of sight 

Storms rage also in my heart 

Transforming life with a new start.

Deleting records of my past

Healing scars that painfully last.

My storms swirl in glowing light

Closed eyes, blue & violet bright.

Srinagar notes

Apple baits,

And a fisherman 

Catches a loot

On Dal Lake.

Sliding their rifles around 

Soldiers shed tears

Gulping golgappas

Indolent with his hookah

A boatman relaxes on 

His shikara

Swatting mosquitoes.

Today

 My sky is blue

No rains, or clouds

Passing through 

No sunrise, no sunset

To mar my way

Azure eons fly

In stillness of today 

No darkness, no light 

Just illumined openness 

Of infinite sight.

-------

Choppy mountain waves, 

With edges of icy lace

Tumbling like my days

And a heart that never behaves.

------

Sweeping indigo shadow lines -

Unfolding wings in endless flight?

Or Sumi hills in dusky light?

Reflection in these silent times.

Jottings

 Only through words comes a silence

Only through pain, bliss

The way into unknown is through the known

Journey into spirit begins in the flesh

Through travels a realisation of stillness 

Be alive, dying every moment.

------

Break free & breathe

Night has birthed light

Rejoice-

Din is silenced into a song,

This moment is your eternity.

Revealed in Dark

 Sitting in a candle's glow

Deepening darkness, evening slow

Sea murmuring nearby

Stars glittering in the sky.

Rapt in candle's dancing flame

Frogs crooning their mating game

Cicadas chorus, night's awake

Fragrance filled - this haunting ache.

Leaning forward, I blow off the light

Nature's revealed in a Prussian sight 

Pain's soothed - a mere attachment to glow 

At ease in dark, and timeless eons flow.

I Just close my eyes

 I just close my eyes 

To space-travel inside

Swirling lights of blue and gold

Many mysterious sights unfold

Zooming past gazillion stars

Swinging around a centre far

Milky Way is too small for me

Rushing past there's much to see

Annihilating galaxies, jet-streams and more

Endless joys of Cosmic allure

Moving towards a source unknown

Going past a no-return zone

Crossing boundaries of space-time

Fractal structures govern its paradigm

Veils of darkness hiding that Light

Eternally burning bright, Inside.

Creation

 This heartbreak is your gift to me

I couldn't grow in dullness of complacency.

Nor break in cycles, shattering into pieces

For alchemy's distillation to purer reaches.

Only dark winters fulfill spring's abundance,

And, pain's a requisite for transcendence.

Entropy's dissolution kindles all deflagration

Into music, dance, and colours of creation.

2 more haikus

Withered twigs, now tipped with Earth's fire, first hints of spring.

---

Winter silence, endless bamboo sonatas, shishi-odoshi

Pecan pie

 Your love for me

is like that pecan pie, in

embedded memories that I

claw with aged faithless fingers,

to bring back, a taste

of youth, delectably poised,

at the edge of my tongue -

Of shared life, warmth, and

our love's promise carried

in my womb. 

Words

I shall not measure my day

Chart it's course, Or

Analyse whether it's better

Than my yesterday

I choose instead to drown

In my sorrows, 

slowly skin the pain -

Experience its horrors!

Or delight in elation

Of free flight

Over rainbows bright

Unhindered - 

No horizon in sight.

To Be, to breathe - ALive, 

this moment's my ultimate High,

I Leave books and charts to scholars,

And follow the lute of wise.

------------

Bereft, without a

hand to hold -

I reached to skies,

Light streamed, wrapping 

My fingers.

I reached into water

She laughed, with a cooling hold.

I reached to winds

Who played, caressing 

with a lover's touch.

Loved thus,

I resumed my journey -

Ahead.

Living

I know this - surely -

As the drumming of my heart

And the dancing of my breath

That I live - and am Alive, 

in waves that run to lick my feet,

soft grass which beckons me to lie by its side,

Winds that croon with ticklish breath their multitudinal melodies,

Inky nights that yearn and reach out for me.

I live in

grains of sands that were once roaming mountains, 

Rains brimming life from blazing volcanoes, 

Alive Light that shines from Sun and equally from eyes of dragonflies. 

I am Alive in All of this

As it's All Alive in me.

a little haiku

Sea breeze & Sumi nights

Sitar strains on dancing palms 

My ancient-young heart.

आज की बात

अरुणालय का रंगीन गगन 

और सुबह मे ये ठंडी तपन, 

पारिजात बिछाए श्वेत चादर

उड़ गए सब गम के बादर 

लहरों की कुछ दबी बात

धुल गई सब अश्रु रात

नीलांबर की चंदन सांस

पूर्ण बनी सब अंगीन आस

चित्त उड़े बने पखेऊ 

दृष्टि बिंदु _ पर्वत मेरु।

Devouring Light

Be still, invisible - watch.

It's a Feast day of creation 

Giant cauldrons cook up

Light 

flooding empty aeons with sight.

Earth suckles with greedy gulps

Dancing cells in verdant green reaching up

Oceans devour light, rising to sky 

Nights leave star crumbs behind.

And I, a Light-child, grow luminous wings and soar,

Sitting still circle Cosmos million times or more

Green Star

If the Sun were not green

Would Earth be blanketed in verdant shades and sheen?

If Sun were not green

Would our sky be blue

And stain the Oceans in similar hue?

This miracle of malachite and jades,

cobalts, indigo and ultramarine shades,

pirouettes in Sama* at a dizzying pace**

In zikr on an Eternal course,

A tiny green Star - its Supreme Source.

------

*Sama = Sama is a Sufi ceremony performed as part of the meditation and prayer practice dhikr/zikr. Sama means "listening", while dhikr means "remembrance". 

**30 km/s earth around sun

Aham Brahmasmi

Early this morning I wandered down to the shore, cloud clad & sunlit in gild and blue. Kites circled my crown at invisible heights. Whales sang in ocean depths at my feet & dolphins frolicked in breaking waves; giant rays glid in silent dark power in the whirlpools of my navel