haikus

trying out haikus...

big, full golden moon
between two tall palm tree tops
inky purple sky


bare, slender branches
parakeets, thick as leaves
still, as though transfixed

these are just experiments... according to Vivek, you need to read the work of the old japanese masters first before you try to write haikus, and I've never read any... and now I'm fearing scathing remarks from vivek if he reads all these references on my blog!!

a ghazal

i wrote this ghazal very foolishly, without even knowing that it needs to have a rhyme... then when Vivek pointed that out, I managed to have some sort of a rhyme, and personally speaking, it turned out much better than I expected it to, when i was wrestling away with it. But what Vivek says is very true... that it's actually a repetition of "-ly" and not really a rhyme... well... I didn't know that when I wrote it, and now I'm stuck and have no idea what to do with it! Here goes! the idea is something that germinated in my mind a lon time back in october-november...


a sculptor carving skilfully in agra
my hand was cut off stealthily in agra

abused and worn out weaning fourteen babies
your love in a tomb, tenderly in agra

people from afar visit the world's wonder
amidst squalor unheedingly in agra

built by shah jahan for his beloved wife mumtaz
in history class they said proudly in agra

this white gleaming tomb erected in darkness
Shruti asks cruelly or lovingly i agra.

poems shortlisted for TLM

OK... I have NEWS!! For the first time since I started this blog, I actually have NEWS.
which is just that I got the surprise of my life on the evening of 9th jan 2009, when a mail from Antara Dev Sen of "The Little Magazine" (otherwise known as TLM) saying that 3 of my poems ...( and I had sent them so many... that was a long time back in July 2008) have been accepted for publishing in subsequent issues. all their issues are themed, so the poem has to fit the theme. that's all. this is what makes me so super-elatedly excited these days when all else fails...
I'm pasting the 3 poems here below, although all of them are elsewhere on this blog as well, in earlier entries... here goes...
1. Trees

Gnarled, huge, knotted, tree trunks
Grand old banyans spreading, an ancient society
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.


2. You have grown
into me
you are part of me
your words are my words
your tones and gestures
my tones and gestures
the way you dress, is the way I dress
How do I separate
How do I escape from you now
without losing my self?

3. At night 
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temporarily removed. sent elsewhere for publication.