Trees

Gnarled, huge, knotted, tree trunks
Grand old banyan trees spreading, an entire colony
True guardians of the earth, these sentinels
stand watch, century after century
Witnessing .... Time
I bow my head, god is here
in these temples of our grandfathers.

On a visit to Baircha Lake

Arms entwined around branches

I become part of the tree

Swinging, swaying with the breeze

hair floating, branches waving

up-down-up-down-up-down

The rhythmic movement reminds me

of the rowing oars on a boat

Down below, the waves lap and dash against the rocks.

The Mind

It is a lazy ass
a snobbish, egotistical brat
a rich, spoilt pig
a selfish prig
the human mind.
It hates to upset itself
by working, thinking
or contemplating unplesantness
sees lusting bastards rape a screaming woman
fanatics torturing innocents for religion
children going hungry for lack of food
worlds of constant fear, without joy
Says "Horrible! Terrible!
Such an insane world!"
Its duty done
a minute later
"I'm hungry. Is there something good to eat?"

A Pause

a comma, a full stop, period
it makes you pause
it makes you think
it makes you feel
and understand
and relate with what is
it makes a poem
a poem.
All because of a nothingness
an emptiness
a silence
called a pause.

Feeling

Feeling makes me human
Feeling is why I am I
not that table, bed or broken stone
(Though even tables, beds and broken stones
have stories of their own to tell)
I would rather feel
too much
too quickly
love too much, cry too much
get hurt, angry, pain
too much
than to not feel.
to unfeel.
to stop all feeling.
Dying inside
Like a hollow tree
Indifference, apathy
scare me into a scream of terror
Living death. Burning in hell.
Intense feeling of any kind
I can relate with
But an empty absence of feeling
resists all relation
If only we could blend
feeling with thinking, feeling with knowing
feeling with learning, and feeling with living!