THE INDIAN POETS COLLECTIVE

Nov 2016

The Flipped Word

Hair, head, neck, shoulders
Emerging out the window from the
Back seat of a car whizzing
Down a Mountain she fell in love with
Before knowing what love was
One arm overstretched and out as if she was
hugging the eroded Giants that towered over aged valleys
Just then a gust blows so strongly that
She sways a little, almost as if
The mountain winds were hugging her back
(She likes to think they were)
Hair billowing and whipping around;
A tumultuous halo
An unknown flutter in the Hollow
Of the centre of her chest expands
While she feels like she has shrunk
Or maybe has just realised How big the world is;
The feeling grows; Delighted, ecstatic and erratic
She shouts in her exploding happiness
Shouts the flutter from her belly
up her throat and out to the world
She makes love to the giant moss wearing rocks
Later, she sticks her head back in
(Like a touch-me-not flower shrinks back inside)
And leans back on the headrest, panting happily, eyes sparkling
And just looks in wonder as the mountains
keep on unfolding themselves to her
the car keeps going on and on and on.

Nov 2016

Ghazal

An Objective Poem

I found myself rooting for the tiny ant
The spider was trying to trap in its webbed snare,
No thoughts did I spare before swiping a finger,
and helping it make a dramatic escape

As I looked at the spider, left food-less,
Rearrange itself in its meticulous net,
I wondered at the strangeness of this
Little world of ours, and also its pointlessness

We make it seem so rosy and pretty,
Embellish it with garlands of emotions,
But underneath lies the truth of its existence,
Made up of cruelty, chaos and commotion

The Designer painted it beautifully,
But gave it finer embroideries of pain,
He threw in an entire cosmos together,
And arranged it into a food chain

Compartments and more compartments,
Of colour and country and gender galore,
Hustle and bustle to stay put in a labile balance,
That is forever tipped at the cusp of war

We fool ourselves with the sham that our lives
Depend on friendships and love and such stunts,
When what we are, if we think about it,
Is a part, of one gigantic hunt

A hunt for alimentation,
And monetary satisfaction,
And physical satiation,
Does being conditional deserve glorification?

I wonder if I've turned into a permanent cynic,
It may very well be just a phase,
Though the spider would be cursing me for sure,
Not too romantic it is, sabotaging a prey!

Sep 2016

Ghazal

Destination

You are the ending
to my wandering
Poem

Sep 2016

Ghazal

Tears of Blood

Are you a ******?*
Whirlwinds of flashes
Passed in front of her eyes
And she shut them tight,
Remembering,
Had he touched her?
No.
Had he touched her?
No!
Had he touched her?
Yes...
He had touched her deeper
Than the reach of physicality,
He had touched her firmer than
Sensations of all tactile reality,
She knew kisses that tasted of Forever,
Without having kissed at all,
So what could she answer!
She was untouched,
Yet she was not.
She recollected herself,
Replied a meek Yes,
And felt herself violated by
Another alien self,
A tear rolled down silently,
As her soul bled to death.

Aug 2016

Ghazal

Therapy For Two Souls

It must be a strong force unseen
That drives a heart to someone's poetry,

For it's not easy to spare the time,
Out of the chaotic humdrum of one's life,

To push the clutter and monotone aside
And welcome alien ideas into one's mind,

Ideas not shaped into melodious tunes,
Ideas not shaded with colours and hues,

Ideas not in a photographic frame enclosed,
Ideas not structured into the flow of prose,

Free-gushing, mischievous, some rhyming some not!
Poetic ideas are a difficult lot,

Which is why I wonder, astonished, each time
Someone sits down to explore a creation of mine,

What power was greater than all worldly realities,
That led them to my humble poetry?

Was it a soul parched of light?
Was it a heart in the throes of an endless night?

Was it the thrill of love, was it the urgency of desire?
Was it pure craving for emotion, the warmth of fire?

No greater an honour could there be,
Than having someone step into your dream,

Allowing themselves to take the expedition,
Into the unknown depths of your composition,

And have your poem satiate their being,
Just as its birth had healed your own entity.

Aug 2016

Ghazal

A Secret Meeting

Vermilion spread across
her forehead, like clouds
over the dusky sky,
Love perspired,
and frantically rained,
Her Earth quietly sighed.

Aug 2016

Ghazal

Levitating

Suspended in his animation,
Between just tangible vapour
And barely there air,
I can touch him and I can't,
Yet I know he's there

Aug 2016

Ghazal

The Candle That Fuels The Stars

I'm penning a poem and letting it
Shoot towards the night sky,
And hang on to those little celestial
hooks that adorn the universe,
to fit itself amongst the million other shiny ones,
that gracefully illuminate our world.

Sending a glittery part of your heart
so far away, I won't lie, is hard,
yet the Gift to create as I write,
comes with its own fair price,
So I rub my palms together and
open them to find,
Magic with a shimmer so dazzling,
it needs a place in the Divine.

And off it goes! Launching from my fingertips,
Propelled by a charm I utter from my lips,
To snuggle into the welcoming realm
Of the mighty Heavens, my poem smiles
down on the Earth, twinkling with rhyme,

It sends across love to the broken hearts,
Radiates warmth to the shivering soul,
Wraps a comforting arm around the loner,
Soothes the ones wrought in sorrow,

For whoever looks above with despair in the eyes,
Finds that there's hope glimmering there up high,
and the stars of the verses created by You and I,
unhook themselves dutifully from their perch and fly
Down to the reader and calm their sighs,
Which is why,
Which is why,
The poet gladly diminishes his own light,
So his words keep alive, the benevolent night sky.

Jul 2016

Ghazal

Story Of Some Other Cinderella

Cinderella-
She left her shoe behind as she ran,
Barefoot, unthinking,
she hurried on dewy grass
towards greener lands
and castles grand,
and chandeliers radiant,
and jasmines fragrant,

Cinderella-
did you realise that the
bloom which beckons from afar,
in reality, will only hurt and jar,
the sun, the glitter, and the stars
are faces of a deceitful mirage?

Cinderella, return!
You left your shoe behind,
You left your heart behind,
You left your prince behind,
You left yourself behind,
Save them all before they go ****!
It's only minutes until midnight.

Jul 2016

Paridhi Sharma

Give Her The Wings

Even though disappointed thousand times
or struck in a fight,
She is now finally rising from
her life's darkest night.

So, today I stand here,
Afraid to reveal my heights
recite my ideas,
and fight for my rights.

You detained me of my will,
Agonized my mind
descended my skill.
And confining me to fork and knife,
Yes, it is true that this
Is the story of my life.

She who was pressed from all sides
remained victorious in her spirits
overcoming her fetters
giving wings to her mind.

She, the nucleus of our society
deprived of her living,
with a tormented mind
and fractured within her own kind.

If she tends to be so weak,
Then the future of our country is bleak.

Apr 2016

Ghazal

Painstaking Alchemy

Slow cooked over a simmering flame
is how I'd like our love to be
Full of earthy fragrances and soft
crackling of fire fuelling our chemistry

Wafts of aroma will float through,
with the gradual deepening of the flavour
Impatient bubbles will form and burst,
Heightening the temptation to savour-

That delightful melange of emotions,
But we'll hold back and let there be
A deeper hue, a thicker consistency
To our painstaking alchemy

For the dish of love will be best served
When conceived with patient devotion,
So lend me a hand darling; let's slow-stir
together, our delectable concoction