When the going gets tough,
Tough gets going.
Hurdles distinguish
the great from good,
something like winnowing
-but nothing must stop you
the sun, storm or the rain.
The bull’s eye should be clear
Like Arjuna saw his aim.
Let not a setback,
Ever pull you down.
Know that you are a hero-
You ain’t meant to drown.
So what you lost a fight?
So what if you slipped?
the battles in life
Go on till the end.
And the winner is the one,
who stands last in the ring.
The earth moved a full circle and
I too sprawled a little further
hoping to find a few answers
quench a few yearnings
Forgot this I
There are some open questions
rhetoric ones too and
I find myself
caught in a raging storm
of both universes
one outside me
while one within
Both as real as me, myself
conflicting as they could be
creating answers virtual and reversed
Tangible but unreal
but I am only human
I strive to go on
For I look forward to the calm
after the storm
They say a smooth sea never
made a skilled sailor
So I will sail further
adjust to the winds
For the winds
cannot be changed
but I can be.
Two women sat side by side,
In an Uber parked across the road
One clad in a saree light,
Other donned a business suit.
One cradled a newborn
against the warmth of her bosom soft.
Other checked her phone
as swift as light-
her expressions terse
her eyes bored.
One saw a figure sculpted right
draped in expensive clothes.
The other saw
the bloom of motherhood,
strength of an invincible soul.
Each wondered if a vision had been
fulfilled or if a vision had been lost.
Envy,
in their hearts, rose.
One saw a selfless
labor of love
Sleepless nights of toil and work
Other saw a persistent devotion,
to a hunt for identity.
to a point perceived
paramount
to be proven.
Reverence,
in their hearts rose.
Who is finer?
Who is fine?
an absolute summation,
hard to define.
A canal of love or
A window of dreams?
A picturesque view-
together might yield.
Who mattered?
Who mattered though is
hard to say.
One raised a child
that built things called great.
then why such division,
why such deride?
a difference in paths
doesn't always mean
a difference in destination.
One stopped forth a glass building
Other stopped forth her home
still wondering in their hearts
if a vision
had been fulfilled or
If a vision had been lost.
At some point in time, we all tend to be lost in this strange labyrinth of life, not just because it is uncertain, challenging and demanding but because just sometimes one stumbles upon a realization that there is a void and nothing ever seems to fill it.
Sometimes in to the nights so dark,
sometimes into my thoughts so deep
I look for you with all my heart
up till where my eyes can see.
I look for happiness
I look for peace
I look for something
that shall mean something to me.
I tried for clothes
I tried for books
I tried for drugs
still my hunt didn’t cease.
I don’t know what’s written for me
I wonder if ever anything is written for anybody
I wonder if life is just a journey
Or a bubble, a dream-so momentary.
Not always are my paths so right
At times I walk without the light
At times into the forests so dark
I keep wandering till the last.
So my heart sings me a song
tells me these thoughts are a Pandora’s box
tells me to listen to what It says
but like a wild feather, the heart sways and sways.
A travesty, a game, a drama or desire
Questions, confusions, a truth so satire
A deck of cards or a house of one
many conjectures to this world.
still I look for it
up till where my eyes can see
into the nights so dark,
and my thoughts so deep.
Background: There are a few things that remain unspoken of usually because the adult heart, which has experienced enough suffering does not want to plunge in too soon. The adult heart chooses to be secure and sure. Most people choose not to express their feelings of affection for the same reason, not just because they fear rejection but because they do not trust their heart and the games it plays.
In her conversation with Cooper, Dr. Brand in the movie Interstellar has explained this sensation of feeling affectionate towards somebody quite optimally. She says: ‘it means something we can’t…yet understand. Maybe it’s some evidence, some artifact of a higher dimension that we can’t consciously perceive. I’m drawn across the universe to someone I haven’t seen in a decade… Who I know is probably dead. Love is the one thing we’re capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space’.
The following poem that was penned down in the summer of 2012 in a college classroom, gazing outside the window into nothingness, tries to articulate what remained to be largely unsaid but not un-felt during that time. (more…)
Shivi Writes 