We are victors in a sea of naysayers
We are soothsayers able to the see it all
Change is our ally and honesty is our guide
Step out of the dark, so you can shine in the light

We have the gift of sight in a world of lost souls
We are the blind in the land of the wise too
Art is our calling and emotion is our sword
Here's my plight and passion for a kingdom of dust

I will hold my head high and let my wings outstretch
I will allow my broken mind to heal
At last I will be free to speak up
But I like a bird will follow others in silent flight

That's my curse and my calling
To fly like I have never before
But I have never flown and let my heart be free
My art, my pencils, and my calligraphy

All for nothing?
But this is what I breathe

She flips through the pages of her magazine
Cherishes her wine and perfume in the evening
You can't tell the strain she's been under all the this time
You only see the graceful ballerina and not her dances on fire

We are writers of emotion
Artists of still life and tinkerers of language
Inventors of metaphor and sculptors of anatomy

Always trying to pursue the essence
Of human existence
We are poets

Our love was like
Umm...A Book of Poetry
Beautiful, right?
We were shy like a children, full of tenacity

It sat idle on the window sill
Dwindling to a shell in its last days
As we tore a page from its wrinkled spine
Each time we lost our way

It was for us two, but we read other books
We held our hands under the moon, like others do
And while others could ignite fires by sharing a look
I didn't see the inferno to which I would finally lose you

Now the pages are all gone, the cover is a ghost
I still remember, I was a child who was in pain
While your fragrance, I will miss the most
I have started writing again, a new book, a new name

Kids who get bullied in the alley
In school and kicked out of college
Try making it to a league of good writers
As they learn how to punch the keys and I just bleed on paper
Also, letting out the anger
My dad never drank or smoked
But, he loved me a lot
Maybe, I was a bad kid who never loved anyone before
Because I never was treated well in school
One fine day, I stayed after school
Losing to my friends in a fist-fight
After a few years, I got into psychedelics and misfortune
Kept reading in the meantime
Barely processing all those drugs
Let alone the literature
Soon, I started a career as an underrated writer
Influenced by Hell and it's angels
Talking to myself, and making clouds of thoughts in my head
I thought I wouldn't be the only angel head who would become a poet in this day-and-age of hippies and world leaders
So, I wanted to be an author as I kept writing out my epitaph while figuring out nothing
Quite like India without the politics
I never liked mixing the two
It should just be country and God
I always believed God gave me my folks
I gave myself my life and my mess.

I'm surrounded
By people from all walks of life
With cars that have travelled miles
But I'm all by myself

I cannot escape the smell of her hair
Her eyes as they follow me on the flooded road
As skip over puddles and evade her eyes
Newspaper tell their story, the smoke is evergreen

I'm holding her artistic fingers
Entangled in her smoke rings that linger a second too long
She sings out her blues
I'm living each day anew

Many find ecstasy in glasses of whiskey
Drowning their sins in gin and tonic
Dancing to the gait of cabaret dancers
Lighting a smoke, shortening the rope

A walk in the woods in the bosoms of the trees
The joyous rhythm in the tossing of flowers
God has gifted me the power
To appreciate every solitary hour

In this short life
Share
Your precious time with others

I wish I could escape to forests
Live among the trees and sacred flowers
The breeze rustles through the many leaves
Searching for sunlight through the canopy

I'm still searching for clusters of the light
I miss the chatter of my people
The desolate highway, once a river
Houses clusters of streetlamps and chrome birds

Soil enriched by lichens for million eons
This place once held us for a brief moment
It is red with blood of my ancestors
Yet, they are alive in the Grand canyon

She was beautiful
With flowers in her hair
Drenched in the rain

I tried to depend on you
Feel more than I could
Now all I have left
Is what I used to be

Drained of color
Void of life
Emptied of water and sun
A flower cannot grow freely

I heard you sing
I saw you dance
I knew about your beauty
When I saw you with my eyes
Your eyes told me I had a chance

I am afraid of death without fulfillment
But I fear the coldness in the tomb
Demons gnawing at my self-esteem

Yet, suicide is such a sad end too
It takes away happiness and love
From someone who has never felt the two

Leaving an corpse with a double death

There's no life in her eyes
There's no warmth in her heart
I'd said to myself that she was kind
When the veil fell I saw Death waiting
No love, only secrets to immortality

While shackled forever
In a circle of fire- without sight
What did strike me as beautiful was
The time I spent dying in her arms
No love, no more secrets this time

Serious poems are tough to read
I like poets who can express themselves
Through realism and simple words
Ironic...

Write as if your life depends on it
It will make for a comfortable death
Knowing you said everything you ever wanted

The rain brings back clear memories in clear waters
Or in the form of massive storms that power through
Sometime when the rain's gone and we need no shelter
I'd be with you

There's too much rain now and grey clouds
I keep reminiscing the words spoken and the silent vow
There won't be a tomorrow and a sun on the horizon
But there will be hearts broken and the sun will come out

That's the truth

The darkness follows me
As I chase the sunlight
Shadows fall faster than
The tears

I am yearning love I deserve
I can't be with you
Let your warm touch
Reassure me

I'm sitting on this park bench meant for two
It's the eve of my birthday right after the end of monsoon
The rain falls weakly with a heaviness in each drop
I miss the times when the thunder drowned out the crowd

I still hear them, the whispers of the past in friends lost
Through poetry, I can give a voice to my sensations
I'm able to temper my restless heart
But I promised to keep you safe when you were little

Life is transient with insecurities deeply entrenched
While all my friends like the seasons have been brief
Still I circle this park bench, I see a different youth
Who was changed because of you

I've been unfair to you, my fire
In the midst of my storm of lies
I have hid the truth from many eyes
That you are the best thing in my life

The wisest friend that God could give
To a fool
Whatever comes, I'll never
Forget you, my shine on the greyest days

It is the wind that guides birds through broken landscapes
Who are yet to find flight as they emerge chronically injured
Fire follows the fiery trail of what comes in its way
Of things that catch it or it assails, none come out the same

Nature's purpose is to give birth, but it also destroys
To grant worth to a weary traveler, it seeks a will to match the destination
To instill love in a thirsty soul, it catalyzes a deep-seated compassion
It also creates magic for the mystics who are of this earth with loftier ambitions

About which neither science nor math can enlighten us
It is an active pursuit of truth and self-defeating journey that is needed
Nature poses questions not as a test nor as a race, but as constant assessment
The result (good or bad) can come through authentic experience

Nature ushers me into a new order, perhaps I might flourish here
I have read the works of the greats trying to come closer to the outcome
Yet daily life is like a disturbed wind that has guided this ravenous bird
This mind cannot enter deep rest until the fire consumes the wealth of the earth

Ambition and greed are of this dry soil
From which grows the envy of others
It is hard, yet you have a choice
And the flower can be love, but you will have to toil

There were the stars in your embrace
The moon in your face
The fire in your eyes felt like
Some distant galaxy longed to be closer
To me through time and space

Shadows wash the moon hastily
As the waves wash the sandy beach
But not as lazily as the sea
Time is of the essence
I hope we can meet soon

Warmth doesn't lie there
It is the fire in his eyes that comforts
The core even in a world so broken

His piercing glare
Might turn away the lost traveler
But if you look long enough
He does kind of give a ****

She is not afraid of looking
She didn't see past the cold shell

Miscommunication is a bigger
Cause for broken friendships
Than malice

The simplest words
Make the best explanations
And the toughest paths
Lead to surreal destinations

While good things comes when you wait
Life rewards the greats
Seizing the fire, defying logic
It is a numbers game, you helped me hear the music

Toasted nuts, marshmallows roasted and half-eaten
Half-smoked cigarettes, edges of burnt letters
All notions romantic are consumed by fire
The embers of a fireplace have enveloped it

Yet, the sweetness of your lips
Alerts my innermost desires
Every time- like sunsets in a solitary sky
Your light luminesces the cold caves of time

In the eye of the storm, the waves ****** me aside
I simply trust nature and lose track of time
Holding my hands, praying for a fire in the distance
Or does my fire come from within?

Yet, a sudden chill comes up my spine
A hollow voice from my cowering throat signifies
The promises of a towering Captain Abe
Is it my place to lead the way?

Soon the sea will ring the knell on us all
I hold my breath and savor the deep blue
Will it hail whilst I sleep with the crew?
Tis' not a night of doubt, but to survive till dawn

The night is cruel and clouds are breaking today
In the breeze, the trees are love-stricken and astray
Rustling softly are the leaves that I share in my memory
Till I get my tea every morning after your coffee

You tell me the wind is heading south
I'm living in the north covering the gap in quick bounds

You said we'll never get a new start in this losing battle
As long as I keep shying away from the horrors of war
The dawn arrives quick and we've already quarreled
Just like a sign on the highway, we've ignored them all

I can't rid myself of last night's toil, the words, and blood we drew
The sickness stays in my flesh and blood, your sinew

Love is like dust in my hands
It falls through my frail fingers
I am hanging on, the feeling lingers
As I pick and grab at every grain of sand

I know what I'll name this song
It will shoot stars in your stomach
The music of the verses will make you long
For a word that is no more or less for the ******

This is a song for you but not me
It will be clear that my pain is an ache
The river of gold in these lines will run free
You can share this disease

It's a song that means so much to me
You'll just fake a laugh and clear the air
I like a fool will read into every gesture
That's my nature

Its Monsoon's *** end
It shed its tears on the bare leaves
The rain arrived and soon left
So fast, it swept me off my feet

I share this scene of the last shower
On a park bench, with the people here
The mud is filled with fallen flowers
Ravens will sit on trees, sky-bound till next year

The Indian cork trees hide behind hedges
Collecting its last drops greedily in each flower
While puddles form memories in the dead trenches
Rain comes and goes, leaving only petrichor

Winter will wrap up Monsoon's graceful stay
The swaying trees will bid farewell to a weeping friend
The pounding on my rooftop will quickly fade
I'll only desire for its return in the end

This isolated corner under the trees
Which is meant for strangers
From all walks of life
I've been here, collecting the leaves

Usually, I watch from the window
Today, it's raining
On a tree, a bird is singing
The rain stops to let it ring in the fields

This bird has flown
As it flutters miles, miles into the sun
Touching the skies and tip-toeing in clouds
Like hands outstretched into freedom

After every dark night
My mind is imprisoned
By its cold gates
Until I run to the fields and watch the birds

You told me to wait
I was sure I cared
It's been hours, I still do
About the shape of you

I gave you my world and let you in
You're one of the few
Whom I can count on
To see it through

I wonder where the time went
You hesitated in the end
Before opening your mouth
I finished the sentence

We were young
We had books and years in common
Or I thought it must have been fate
Or the way your hair sat

We once shared the same songs
If I'd focus, I could hear what you hear
All I needed was to let my heart act as a sail
You made me let go of fear

My faith has gotten stronger
The storm has turned into a nervous song
A song of the rain has morphed into a shelter of the mind
This power can right the wrongs in my life

But this planet will die, and so will the vile
So I talk all night about something pure
You will see that I have a life
I can't lie to you, you know I'm broken and poor

You have created a hole in my heart
There is a hunger that aches for your art
But I have waited too long to not start
I joke to everyone that she's **** smart

The wind changes speeds and the cities fall asleep
I could go oceans deep and search for that storm
But my power signals that this calmness runs deep
Let this moment of silence stay between us

The sun shines brightly
Buds, bees, and carefree breeze
Leaves feed off the heat

When the waters of life are choppy
God saved you from the storm
When times are smooth sailing
God gave you friends

The cloud breaks a little with a soft thud
A shower is anticipated, but the sun shines though
An effervescence flows through the river
As every bead of rain stirs the mammoth

A ice sheet piled on another melds into one
The vapors of meet the wide ether
Now the sun has turned crimson
A blizzard forms the weather

A touch of sun, a hope of a flower
Is enough to change everything
From a wintry, desolate stretch
To a island with hot, temperate hedges

The sun makes me squint my eye
There are times I don't wanna see the light
The cold makes me clutch my arms
You've held my eyes in your cold gaze

We could walk over the streets in the rain
The steps look like a painting of *******
Colorful but bleak, full of pain
The glaze of the puddles shine on the night

The dandelions in the field make me sniffle
There are times I don't wanna see the light
The cold makes me clutch my arms
You've held my eyes in cold gaze

In every waking moment, I seek the wretched past
Sleeping and dreaming seem to be a blur
I want an escape from the chaos of my mind
But let me tell you a rhyme nonetheless

The shadows of the incoming evening cool the forest
Like lights glinting through the trees in Ranthambore
Hunters with their rifles and bruises
Have the tiger in their sights, I am silenced with the muzzle

Like the blind, we tracked our way
I am free knowing this day
We followed the jackals and nilgai, out we went
I am veering at every shot, alive, as the raven quiver

Now my lips are shaking and trembling
My heart rushes with its warmth slowly ebbing away
It pumps dreams into my bloodstream, raising itself
Until I am shattered, scrounging for the illusory past

I am filled with regret, maybe I am unable to express
If you read this through and through
You know the power of hunger and desperation
Let's just say I played the cards just like you

I am grateful that I took it easy on myself
Life and sleep seem to be a blur
In a land where the people are blind
I am glad I can see now, where I went wrong

My mind has closed in itself
I know I will miss my Ranthambore
My childhood will miss the search
I will miss it all but I am glad I lived through it all

Civilization is born
In an instant
And lost forever
It does resurface often; don't count on it

The traces of logical development
All lost to the constant brisk stride of progress
The pace of everyday with broken sidewalks that line the streets
All missing from the newspapers I once read; my eyes have bled

The people who once existed become memoirs
Those memoirs with celebrities, now memories
All have been cast away and exiled
Only to come and meet us at our destiny

Children whom you loved to play with
The game has changed, my friends
One must start again
To make it into the books of history

Your whispers will echo through the thundered seas
Memories will tear the sails from the canvas seams
A soldered heart that was once a levee
Now broken and flooded

Our love is a rocky shore where sailors dare to dream
Ships of words are wrecked by bombs under covers of the night
We see the sight of hope but hope is not our guide
It is a distant dream after the thunder dies

Then the journey comes alive