I prefer steadfastness
      to success

I'm my own
      as life is
      I don't beg
       or beseech

      no ally do I need
      though I'm fragile
      yet I'll not let myself down
      I'll continue to strive

     for to me I owe a duty
     to act freely and in dignity
     I'll not be a mere shadow
     I'll not bow to destiny-

     heroism I never seek
     fame is ephemerality
    if  only I should be true to myself
     I would have lived meaningfully

Myself in time
         I learned and unlearn
         much slicing and adapting
         I know what I can't and can-

        travelling in the tunnel of life
        the darkness into light
        experiencing every moment
        searching my innermost inside-

        things and people
        are not what they seem
        the inescapable lacuna and the nuances
        they are like the images of a dream-

       time in the outside
       more encroaching on my inside
       we are conjoined- I, in reluctance
       there are secrets that I'd rather hide

Over-active
    doesn't achieve
    no forced-action
    has the furthest reach

Life should be lived without having to think of how others regard you-
this is the true measure of your maturity and self-sufficiency

My eyes follow
  the drift of the sea
   it's the hottest summer
   the memory of you
   suddenly flashes back to me
   but too well I know
   you'd no longer remember
   those days of innocent gaiety

   we sat then under the same tree
  where we shared Keats's poetry
  my hand you held tenderly
  and kissed me so passionately :

   'Do not ever leave me
   I'll die for you---surely
   if you were to walk away..'
   your spoke tearfully-

   a decade hence--how time did flee!
  to Cambridge you went to study
  you promised to return after your degree
  but there you stayed on permanently

a telegram reached me before long:
'  Love is a strange thing--I met Henry
    he scored double- first--he promised
    next week to marry me!
    I wish you every happiness
   you'll learn to forget me..'

     A tiny boat is gliding by
     a bird is chirping merrily
      as I watch the slow-moving sea

Life is no easy take
it exists for no one's sake:
our own path we must chart
with fullness of mind and heart

yet mistakes we'll make
and some will continue to plague :
this is the price we pay for being human-
the perennial life-story of every man and woman