Showing posts with label poetry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poetry. Show all posts

31 Aug 2023

Gloomy Day

 



There is a slowness to the day 

Murky clouds have taken over the sky

Rain drizzled a bit like a teaser 

Two woodpeckers climbed a papaya tree

Sounded back to me in their voice 

When I made a squeaky bird noise 

They left emptyhanded as papaya was unripe

My wait for the new project was extended 

Frustrating the peace of mind 

I would rather be working than sitting idle 



Images from Pixabay

25 Jan 2023

Goodbye To Wales (Cymru)


 

As the countdown for a dreaded, return looms

It seems like time is flying away like a storm

Swirling towards the gigantic ocean of reality

Draining out the sand beneath the feet

Slowly drowning me in its ever-growing depth

The more I look for an anchor of hope to hold on

The land of fathers looks sure to abandon me

Back to the world I belong to, for an unforeseeable time

I will miss the hills and valleys filled with green carpets

Of grasslands, separated by hedges all along

The array of sheep and lambs munching on virgin grass

The tidal river Usk and its uncertain flow directions

The drizzles that accompanied by heavy winds

The freezing temperatures and the naked trees in winter

The picturesque landscapes I saw on my journeys to work

The seamless motorways made distances look like nothing

The endless daylight of summer and eternal darkness of winter

The hams, kebabs, chips and fish, countless experiments with food  

The dragons, castles, forts and all those heritage that remains


 

 

 I wrote this poem when I left Newport for Birmingham in 2012. 

Images Courtesy: Adobe Stock Images and Nation.Cymru

22 Jan 2023

Destiny

Destiny 
A comforting word 
To hide the pain 
Of the dreams 
Snatched from 
My palms 
I stood
Helplessly 
But it gave wings 
To my heart 
To dream again 
It drives my mind 
Like a machine 
I've left behind my past 
As it held me back 
I'm chasing a new dream 
To build a new life 

23 Jun 2022

Pressures And Deadlines

This is an old handwritten poem salvaged by my mother today. I am hoping to find countless old poems written on paper. 

20 Jun 2022

Mysterious Well



 An abandoned well 

Inside a forest 

Attached to an old temple 

There was no water for centuries

As it was filled with earth over the time 

Astrologers predicted that there is a hidden treasure 

Beneath the layers of the earth in the well 

Some treasure hunters left behind the tools 

Besides the heaps of earth, they removed 

From the well, might be in dismay 

The natives were amused to see water 

During their lifetime in this well 

Native temple devotees see no reason 

To dig the well again  for water 

It might have taken so many days 

To remove that much earth from the well 

Police are now looking for the culprits 

It seems that the treasure hunters failed 

In finding the treasure in the well 

The well is attracting curious visitors now 


This poem is based on a piece of news I saw. The image is taken from mathrubhumi

19 Jun 2022

My Percussion Dreams



 I focus on the layers of drum beats 

When I listen to the songs 

I started my tryst with percussion 

By making beats on a wooden bench

As a kid, emulating tabla in mind 

Given my interest, my father let me learn tabla

I loved those fast notes and tried to grasp

But I was bad at byhearting the notes 

So my learning was slow 

I was so insecure about my tabla skills

That I skipped meeting the legendary singer Yesudas

When he came to meet the music students

It remains a regret that I didn't play for him

When the high school became more important

I had to take a break from the lessons 

I did perform before audiences 

With contrasting  fortunes

I used to jam along with some nice beaty songs 

Then I fell in love with drums 

Bought drum sticks and joined a class

After learning the basics for a few months I quit 

I have two pairs of drum sticks waiting for me to play

Maybe I will learn drums again

And fix the tabla to play it again 

As beats in songs still slip my heart to beat the desk

And I dream to play beats in front of an audience again



Most people follow their musical aspirations. I have left my percussion learning midway. The beats of songs still lure me to try beating the desk. I want to make up for an embarrassing tabla performance in front of a packed audience someday. The images are taken by Carlos Castilla and By Heaven


17 Jun 2022

Internet Explorer

 


Goodbye to Internet Explorer

I still remember the first time I went 

To an internet cafe with a friend 

To create an email id 

The slow buffering browser became

A part of my life 

As it was installed as the primary browser

In most the places

You had the monopoly as you came with MS Windows

When I had a monthly internet browsing card

I used to sift through countless web pages 

Checking for sports and other news 

While chatting on some messenger 

I remember browsing at home through 

Dial-up internet at home 

You buffered eternally slow 

While I searched for engineering topics

For my presentation  at college 

Then I moved on to other internet browsers 

With the availability of broadband internet 

But still browsed with you for nostalgia at times

Your monopoly ended when Opera, Mozilla, and Chrome 

Made inroads into the browsers' landscape 

Now that you're gone

I must say, you were very underappreciated

For the job you did during the internet revolution


Though internet explorer was hated by the people due to its slowness and bad features, it played a huge role in the internet revolution. Its monopoly was down to the fact that it came with the Microsoft operating systems and most of the computers had Microsoft OS. People craved better browsers with better features. Microsoft was eternally slow to update IE and others made better browsers and IE ended up in the bin. Microsoft opted to create Bing and IE was bound for ignominy.  



13 Jun 2022

Runaway Wedding

 


I romanticized the runaway wedding 

Breaking away from the societal conventions 

I didn't want an arranged marriage 

And life with a total stranger 

With a decision on a partner taken 

With mere minutes of meeting and conversation

Nor I want to be bought by dowry 

But the girl I loved, chose to run away from me 

And not risk being ostracised by the family 

By marrying me, after six years of friendship 

I still see families avoiding their beloved kids

For marrying someone they loved 

Not talking, not meeting, and not giving properties 

Some families relent after seeing the smiles of 

Their grandkids, they welcome back their kids 

With the runaway weddings involving

Different caste, class, and religion

Many get killed for the honour of the family

More than love for their kids

They take pride in their societal status 

People might cite the failure of many love marriages 

But, I have seen arranged marriages that are hell

People remain stuck in abusive and unloved relation 

For the sake of kids or for the sake of family pride    

I wonder when will the society of my country 

Rise above the societal norms and accept love marriages 


I have come across couples who ran away and got married and led nice life. But my society and relatives are still not very evolved to accept love marriages. The ostracisation of the girl or guy for marrying someone out of caste, class or religion is still a reality. The honor killing of young guys and girls is also prevalent in my country. The image was snapped by Lorna

4 Jun 2022

Waking Up To The Sound Of Rain



 Waking up to the sound of rain 

On a rare dawn 

Brought disappointment of 

Missing out on the sunrise 

Which I crave to see a lot 

The breeze brought 

The fragrance of guava flowers

The teak leaves on neighbour's plot 

Flaunted happily with the breeze 

This is not monsoon yet 

Pre-monsoon showers 

Teasing about endless rains 

That could lash in the coming weeks

And the heavy winds from the sea 

I am lost in the thought of waterproofing 

As long summer showers have dampened 

Some of the walls in my home 

The sound of a small bird intrigued me 

It is trying to engage with its partner 

Sitting in a faraway tree 

It seems rain evaporated into the thin air

As sunshine is making its way back to the greens



Rain woke me earlier than usual. The prompt #FromOneLine generated a poetic seed. I wrote the thoughts evoked by it in this poem. Images from JD Nightbot and Relaxing Sounds Of Nature

3 Jun 2022

3-D Printed Homes

As the demand for social housing 
Shoots up in many countries
The waiting list of council homes
Increasing with each year 
The number of homeless people in 
The streets increasing significantly 
Even in the developed countries 
There is a need for faster construction 
Of homes that need to withstand 
The climate change effects 
Large 3-D printing machines can 
Build a floor of houses within days 
All sorts of complex structures are 
Built with 3-D printing technology 
3-D printed homes made with concrete,
Hempcrete, and other materials show 
Good thermal and insulation properties Make homes cooler inside in hot areas 
Cost savings are possible with no plastering, With lesser manual work 
Multiple homes can be constructed faster 
It can solve social housing issues 
If governments adopt this technology 
It is ideal for constructing small houses 
3-D printed homes could be a cheaper solution for social housing demands. Hempcrete based 3-D printing can be sustainable solution for none availability of sand. Basic structures printing only need human supervision and providing the material. It eliminates labour costs significantly. Avoiding plastering can also provide cost savings.  ASME and The Guardian

27 May 2022

Black Beauty



Black Beauty written 
With the image of a horse 
Reminded me of the book 
I learned in my school 
While I was in the salon 
I have been there before 
The new hairdresser
Looked familiar 
I initiated a conversation 
And I remembered 
A salon bearing the same name 
Near where I used to live earlier 
My father used to take me there 
For haircuts as a school kid 
Where I had my last haircut
In my twenties 
He told me that it's the same brand 
I asked about the other man 
He was soft-spoken and friendly 
But he lost his voice somehow 
I remember him showing me the 
Facilities in the salon after upgrading 
And inquiring about life 
Whenever I visited the salon 
That man was the uncle
Images from the past came to my mind 
There's always a special bond 
With the hairdressers 
The stories they tell while cutting hair
They remember individual hairstyle 
They're the local vocal classifieds 
I used to look for Black Beauty 
But their board was gone 
A few years ago
I found it again
A piece from my past 




It was nostalgic to find an old salon relocated. For years I thought that they shut the salon. It is more intriguing that I have been to their new salon multiple times. At that time the hairdresser was a migrant from another state and spoke Hindi. I didn't notice their brand name. This time I saw the name and the picture of black beauty. It brought back everything from memory. The hairdresser was also glad to know that I was an old customer at the old place.  The images were taken by Erik-Jan Leusink and Agustin Fernandez . Thanks to Unsplash. 

26 May 2022

Bio-Logs: An alternative to Firewood



Charcoal and firewood fire up 
The barbeques in the backyards 
More trees are cut for making a fire 
In Argentina, pomace, the leftover
extracts from apple, pear, and other fruits 
Spread on the grounds with sunshine 
For days to let the moisture dry 
Then it's laid in a brick-like thickness 
Again to dry to lose all moisture 
The dried thick slabs are cut into logs 
They provide similar thermal properties 
As charcoal and firewood does 
It infuses fruity flavor into the meat 
The pomace from olives is turned 
Into long bio-pellets as well in Greece 
Coconut husks and shells are pulverized 
And converted into short briquettes 
In Sierra Leone as an initiative to 
Replace firewood as it offers more heat 
These bio-logs can save thousands of trees, 
It can change the way people cook, grill, 
and barbecue in many countries 
Bio-logs could light up the fireplace 
In the winter in the old buildings 
And allow trees to capture more Co2
To fight the climate change in a small way 




I came across multiple alternatives for firewood and charcoal. I saw some videos from Business Insider telling stories of individuals making products that can transform the way people cook, grill, barbeque, or even heat. A lot of people might be already using these pellets, briquettes, and bio-logs made from fruit and farm waste from factories and in general. I am experimenting with poetry based on solutions available for solving issues affecting nature and climate. Images are taken from Business Insider. 

25 May 2022

Reclaimed Earth Colors



Abandoned mines discharge 
Acidic mine drainage 
Full of oxides 
To the creeks and streams 
Making them toxic and polluted 
For years after the closure of the mine 
The sludge from the polluted streams 
Processed to remove impurities 
And dried at different temperatures 
To make powder of different colors 
When mixed with oil and additives 
And cold-pressed 
Magical paints of reclaimed earth colors emerge 
The tail ends from mines have lumps of minerals 
Crushing those minerals creates natural colors 
That can gloss pottery like in historical times 
Painters can give colors to their imaginations
With paints  made from the mine waste
And get closer to the nature 
To spread the message 
Of healing the nature 




This poem is inspired by a documentary of researchers from Ohio Department of Natural Resources, True Pigments LLC and gamblincolors converting AMD into the paint. Reclaimed Earth Colors is the brand of the paints produced in this manner.  This is not a paid promotion of the brand. I feel this is worthy of a shout-out due to the significance of their efforts. I also came across some other videos of converting minerals from tail end of the abandoned mines into paints. They're natural colors. 

24 May 2022

Untold Love


I came to your doorstep 

I didn’t knock

I heard your voice

It thrilled me

 

I had a letter for you

I didn’t give

I saw your smile

It graced me

 

I had a lot to tell

I didn’t try

I just walked away

In silence

 

You were raining joy on me

You were blooming love in me

You were showering hope on me

But I didn’t know how to tell you

 


I wrote this poem in 2011. The images are taken by Jean Carlo Emer and Serhil Prysiazhnyi . 

23 May 2022

Fog Catcher For Water


 

A hill on a desert 

Rain is a rare mercy 

A water-deprived society 

Men migrating to cities for jobs

As land cannot support farming 

Women walk miles to fetch water 

Then came the magic wand of fog catchers 

Standing tall on the hills inline to embrace the fog 

That looks like clouds and remains there for months 

The frame withstands the heavy breeze from the ocean 

The mesh lets the mist form droplets of water 

Then drain to the bottom of the frame 

And through the pipes to the tanks 

Collecting hundreds of liters of water each day 

To sustain the lives of the people in the region 

Giving new lease of life to the farms and farmers

Giving women time freedom from fetching water 

Allowing men to return to their native to build lives again 

This could be a lifesaver for many communities around the world 



This poem is inspired by documentaries I watched about fog-catching technology to absorb water from fog in Morocco, India, and Peru. There are new materials being used instead of mesh. It allows catchment of more water. There are tower-based structures too for catching water. The simplicity of the technology is remarkable. Images are taken from DW and CNN

22 May 2022

Being Friend To Old Lover

  



 


                                                                           It is hard

 To be the friend of your love

 When you know he is

 Someone else's life

 

It’s hard to control emotions

As old memories and dreams

Flocks the heart, giving

A sense of great loss

 

Every time when you see him

Your heart craves for getting closer

Like the olden days

With nostalgic eyes

 

He conquered your untamed heart

Made you his beautiful princess

Filled dreams in you

About life together

 

Still, you are there in his heart

 He wants to care for you like before

 But from a distance

 As a loving friend


I wrote this for a friend back in 2010. It is indeed hard to be a friend to someone you love so much. But, circumstances demand the presence in that person's life, when he is building a new life with another woman. Image courtesy Antonio Guillem . 

21 May 2022

In Memory of Achhii



 Courage behind the smile

It defined your nature

Tears hidden in your words

You never let anyone know

You left behind your dreams

In search of your ultimate wish

I hope that you found your joy

To be with your dearest one

You live in our hearts

With the charm of your smile

You lits our lives forever

With your prayers from heaven

You are that angel, who

Comes in our dreams, with hope

You are that star in the sky

Who shines for us every night.


This poem was written in memory of Achhii after two years of her death. I knew her only for a very short period of time through Orkut. But she has left a big impact on me. She lived her last four months with the knowledge that she will die. She had blood cancer. She chose to spend those time with her friends and loved ones in India. She wrote a short passage to me in her last letter to her friends from hospital. She said goodbyes to us before going to the hospital. Image thanks to sdominick in istockphoto. 

20 May 2022

Take A Break

  


Take a break from your anger

Take a break from your tensions

Take a break from your tears

Take a break from your regrets

Take a break from your dreams

 Give yourself a day for peace

Go out and spread all your love

Shower all your care

Fly yourself in a world of freedom

Go out and spread the love

Let others know how much they mean to you

Make them feel wanted

As they make up your world

In sorrows and joy alike

Have a great, peaceful day

Keep some time for yourself

To rest and rejuvenate

As the marathon of life keeps going on

And you are just a runner

Trying to cross the finishing line

But the finishing line keeps moving away

As you reach near it

With new tasks to finish and new glories to achieve

In this busy life, every pressure gets on your mind and body.

Take a break and enjoy yourself

As if there is no tomorrow! 



This is a poem I wrote in 2010.  I don't remember the context. The images are taken by Romolo Tavani and Ferenc Csullog

18 May 2022

Live Your Life

                                                                                 


                                                                 This is a storm before

The rain of joy

Your silence will tame

When the smiles burst

Your Tears will dry before

The sun shines

 

You may be walking

Through summers of past

And Living through

Colours of lost dreams

And Swimming through

The lake of hope

To snatch back all that

Flew past your heart

 

You got to fly away from your past

Towards a new destiny

You got to dream something new

That’s so exciting

 

You got to fight for a new dawn in life

To show your courage

As there are some people

Who considers you a sour loser

Writing you off as a failure

They find joy in mocking and teasing you

But you can leave them speechless

As you walk past them

With the wand of glories

That they could never even dream

 

Stick to your likes

Build your life around it

You will see your life blooming

With the joy, you've never experienced before

There is a reason for every life

Search for your reason

You will find it

Live

 



 

This is a poem I wrote in 2010. I feel I was more optimistic back then. This poem sounds like me in 2010 telling me in 2022 to live my life.  I wasn't depressed at that time, I guess. I certainly cannot write a free-flowing poem now. Images from Unsplash. Taken by Marc Najera and Fabio Comparelli .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

17 May 2022

I Am Not Your Last Refuge

                                                                                    


                                                               Empty words of silence

From an empty soul in peace

That’s all that left to greet you

When you come back for my love

 

You took me for granted, always

Came to me, when you needed me

You grinned past me many a time

When you found someone lustier

 

I saw the days of loneliness

When you were fooling around

And having fun, with no loose ends

Back then, you didn’t remember me

  

Now, why are you turning around?

Looking to reach out for my hand

When my heart has gone frozen

Without your smile for a long time

 

 You got me wrong,

 Every time I trusted you

You left me crying,

 Every time without mercy

 

I am not your last refuge

Where you could come and leave

Whenever you feel like

Cos, I don’t love you anymore


I wrote this poem in 2010. It was another failed attempt to write a song. I don't remember the context. Images were taken from Amy Tran in Unsplash and  Foundry in Pixabay.