The Reclining Buddha

Taken at Ayutthaya

With smile on a face with no lines,

He lies,

where sky and earth align,

He implies,

‘Enlightenment’ is a state of mind,

For their very incognizance,

Here he is,

A poser, the Reclining Buddha.

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INTO THE LABYRINTH

Like a racing horse,
Thoughts are sprinting
Amongst is a thought,
To find a moment
And rein in,
The checkered mind

Sigh!
As that moment arrives
Realization dawns,
And I find myself
Into the labyrinth.

Is it just me or do you also go through the phase when you get a train of thoughts which keeps you in a knotty state for days? At times there is so much going on in your mind that you lose track of your trajectory and feel stuck like a person in the middle of the gridlock. One way, which I find easier to follow, is to become blasé to the whole situation and shrug off.

Not sure how credible it is, but it sure works 🙂

The Rain By Robert Creeley

It’s finally raining in Delhi, still not pouring but rain in whichever form is pleasing. And it not only mellows you out, but compels you to read that complements your mood and the weather. Here’s one poem that goes with the weather, I hope you like it too.

The Rain
By Robert Creeley

All night the sound had
come back again,
and again falls
this quiet, persistent rain.

What am I to myself
that must be remembered,
insisted upon
so often? Is it

that never the ease,
even the hardness,
of rain falling
will have for me

something other than this,
something not so insistent—
am I to be locked in this
final uneasiness.

Love, if you love me,
lie next to me.
Be for me, like rain,
the getting out

of the tiredness, the fatuousness, the semi-
lust of intentional indifference.
Be wet
with a decent happiness.

Roses in the farm

It was spring as I remember

Her face beamed,

As zephyr brushed her hair

She smiled,

Seeing roses in the farm

Singing aloud,

Waiting for her man

She wrote another song

Seasons passed…

Woke up with a jolt,

She looked around the empty room

Rubbing her eyes,

She gazed through the porch

It was snowing,

And there were no roses in the farm.

 

LOVE ONE ANOTHER

LOVE ONE ANOTHER

Love one another, but make not a bond of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other’s cup, but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread, but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone.
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.
For only the hand of life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together.
For the pillars of the temple stand apart.
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.

-Khalil Gibran

A very practical poem by Khalil Gibran which holds meaning in all eras. What I understand from this poem is Love is good, however, too much of it is smothering. We like being around people who care for us and love us, but the moment that love starts chasing us as our shadows, it puts our existence in obscurity. An important lesson taught here by the Lebanese poet that love each other, respect each other but do not make your heart and soul dependent on each other.

The Road not Taken- Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; 

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day! 
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

A Walk through the Forest

               

A FOREST WALK

Come walk with me, I’ll show you how

to pass some pleasant time away

We’ll watch what nature will allow

Our eager eyes to see this day

As we go through the forest now

we’ll see the innocents at play;

And see some things time has forgot

but I will bet that you will not.

Look through the branches, you may see

a bushy tail go flashing by

It’s just a squirrel that’s fast and free,

as jumping limb to limb, up high,

It never wants to ever be

part of our world, I wonder why?

Do you suppose that squirrel knows

some things we don’t? Well, I suppose.

If we be very, very still,

We’ll hear the silence all around,

and maybe then a distant shrill

Of courting birds that made the sound,

they sing just as sometimes man will

when courting someone he has found.

Do you think birds can fall in love

and court someone they’re dreaming of?

Have you been noticing the light

how it grows dimmer as we go?

The leaves are darker green to sight

And flowers make a wond’rous show;

now look beneath this rock, we might

see signs of life few ever know..

Don’t you suppose God knows them all

just as He sees each sparrows fall?

-Vee Bdosa

Rainy Valentine’s

Haven’t seen Rains in February

Is the city all teary?

It longs to see the true love,

Like cupid mourning doves

Each drop yearns to rehear,

Those lyrical Shakespeare

It is painted red today,

To hide the greys of everyday

Can’t it be colored all the time?

Celebrating each day as Valentine’s.

Goodness of pets

Say hello to my new pets – Mama Mia. Yes that’s their name.  From the picture it looks like as if they don’t know each other but they are infact lovebirds. It was their first day at home when they were quite wary of their new surroundings and so were kind of perplexed. Now after almost 4 days I know why are they called lovebirds. I can’t stop admiring them when they are canoodling each other at night. When I first saw them doing it, I couldn’t keep my eyes off from them but they are such intelligent beings as when they sensed the intrusion, they slowly contained their composure. Since then I now don’t gaze them but let them have their moment.

I don’t know if it’s true or not but it is said that lovebirds keep one partner for life. Since the time I have brought them home I feel so poetic at nights, they have brought back the inspiration in me. I am glad I got them home as they have made my nights utterly romantic and philosophical.  That’s the goodness of pets. And I want to pay them back, so here’s Keats (one of my favorites) to my lovebirds.

“Softly the breezes from the forest came,
Softly they blew aside the taper’s flame;
Clear was the song from Philomel’s far bower;
Grateful the incense from the lime-tree flower;
Mysterious, wild, the far-heard trumpet’s tone;
Lovely the moon in ether, all alone:
Sweet too, the converse of these happy mortals,
As that of busy spirits when the portals
Are closing in the west; or that soft humming
We hear around when Hesperus is coming.
Sweet be their sleep.”
― John Keats to Fanny Brawne

Only Breath by Rumi

I discovered this really pensive poem by Rumi and I couldn’t stop myself from sharing it here.

Only Breath

 

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu

Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religion

 

or cultural system. I am not from the East

or the West, not out of the ocean or up

 

from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not

composed of elements at all. I do not exist,

 

am not an entity in this world or in the next,

did not descend from Adam and Eve or any

 

origin story. My place is placeless, a trace

of the traceless. Neither body or soul.

 

I belong to the beloved, have seen the two

worlds as one and that one call to and know,

 

first, last, outer, inner, only that

breath breathing human being.