Each and every step
Is soaking wet
The roads to trees
Stand still

The bark of the trees
Little do they speak

Soft and coarse brown
Peeling skin

Losing limbs to the pelting rain

It is July what to expect
Traffic snarls
Red to orange
Green alerts

Overcast skies
Overflowing dams
Unbridled seas
rivers no more discreet

The gleaming copper  water ***
Joyfully dances beneath the gurgling spout
Scrubbed clean, empty its core
Aged, over the decades had some mighty falls
The dents and scratches on the outside
Over the years, no days to recall
A silvery sheen, it wears
Slaked the thirst of many a souls
A life fulfilled, brimmed and drained
A timeless inscription, the ownership date, tenderly engraved

Blue Silken slumber
The lake I see breathes deep, sleeps
The mountain protects

Dear Well-Wisher,

I hope this message finds you in good health.

We, Vaishali and Tushar Purohit from Pune, come to you with a heavy heart and tears in our eyes, pleading for your help to save our 4-year old son Rishi's life. He is undergoing treatment for neuroblastoma (rare form of cancer) at the Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai.

Since April, our little warrior has been bravely battling cancer that is threatening to take him away from this world. Every rupee you contribute will be the difference between life and death for our 4-year old warrior.

We would also request you to forward this message to your family and friends, which will inspire them to contribute and aid in saving an innocent life.

Here's the fundraiser link:* https://www.impactguru.com/fundraiser/help-s-o-tushar

Thanking you for your consideration and support during these trying times.🙏🏼 *

Fierce gusts
Swept away
The gentle breeze

Don’t be beguiled
The flash and light, do beckon
Beware its a snare

Velvet clouds, cumulus
Atmospheric colours, silver and Grey
Fervid, they prey

Hold your breath
Skip that beat, It’s not your song
But a raging thunderstorm

Rains call it a day
The droplets have been let down
Streams babble a song

Assignments to do
Says ‘The Moodle’
I navigate through Zoom
And doodle my dreams  
On the screen

Classroom to classroom
The dashboard croons
A melody incomprehensible
Moodle knows the notes

Meet on the wisdom page
Says ‘The Sage’
Surrender to knowledge
At your wanting door

True blue buttery wings
A lone butterfly passes by
The creeping oxeye

Yellow petals, fluttering flowers
On a bed of velvety grass

Each unique, smiley upright
Gracefully grow by the sidewalk
Scattered apart, like speckled stars

There’s more to it, than what meets the eye
There’s more to it, if you know why
Thoughts have feelings, they are alive
Words have meanings, they know how to fly
There is always a reason for every known, why??
If only, it could be known to every eye

Even in isolation
Be that island
That will be visited and revisited
For the diversity and enriched life
Own it never deny the  luminescence
Revitalise
Shine

I pay a visit to check the whereabouts of thee
Cocooned in a soft glow of hibernating
Fire flies
Fragments of sunshine interspersed through trees
A withered page, whispers secrets to the winds
A wordless melody

Lost your time
Paid a price
Lose your inhibitions
Live your life
It is free

A lesser known place
A quieter pace
A better known place
Rigours of life
Peace or quiet
Choose or leave
What can be the choice
Never can be known by any of the two
It’s all about the drive
Within, or the road
That you chose
Time flies like the buzz of the bee
What is your choice
The quiet or peace
Who is to claim
The better known place
A lesser known place
Geographically placed
Distance and miles

Dreams bloom from the sunny sunflowers
Fragrant in their wake, a burst of colours
Rain sprinkled
A canvas, ready to be framed
Nurtured in the streams, by rivers and lakes
Questions none
who harboured them
Or how many

Every morning they meet
Make a circle and perform, child like activities
Left leg in the circle and right hand out,
up above, pointing to the sky
And laugh out loud
A forced one it sounds
And then someone, who understands the joke, late
The activity
They are a group of people coming from different walks of life
Different ages, bracket same
Every morning they meet and laugh out their lungs, unnecessarily
Some nursing a wound
Visible in the eye, not physically
They share a laugh, but no jokes
Every morning they follow a ritual
Which sets them free
Even if temporarily
They know, they have done their part
Working their lives, duties done
Earning, their time now, spending for themselves as they please
They know that life is quick, lived in moments
Fast, sometimes short
So they laugh out loud, unnecessarily
For they have found a way
To make some noise
Out in the parks
And in the gardens
Part of the society
They have cared enough
Now they know,they should take care of their hearts and the knees
Some may have the creaking ones
Yet they walk, a stick to hold
Not worries,  certainly
Life has shown them a way to live
Some find it hard, initially
But learn, from others
Who have learned it too
Everyone leads and follows
One at a time
A leader, a follower
Arms raised
No fingers to point
Laugh out loud
No jokes shared
They know they can
Laugh unnecessarily
To live, they have understood
It is necessary to laugh, unnecessarily

Flipping through the pages
Of yesteryears
There is a special silence
Which permeates

History is someone’s story
The past
Construed in the future
Narrated to the young

Lost in the haze of yesteryears
Flipping through the pages of yesterdays
A soft hum of the past
Into silence permeates

Dreamy clouds spread out wide
Whispers of white
Rumours had no place  
Not a lie
On a crisp blue sky

How good is the thought
If it doesn’t set you free
The freedom you seek within

How blind can you be
When you already can see
The true side of it

How good is the thought
If it doesn’t set you free
From miseries

When you don’t trust
Your own heart
How will you believe
That you can

There is freedom
In believing yourself
There is freedom
In believing, that thought
That you can believe
In yourself
That inner strength
Assertively
And that freedom sought
Is freedom received

Two birds on the line
Fight for a fruit, the cat waits
Two friends realise

The places I’ve visited and then left
Only to revisit to know more
The experience of the untouched untapped resource

For some it comes easy
Some struggle the ****
Pushing and pulling, the invisible doors

Then on a rainy day
Wait for the clouds while they pour
Filled with dreams of paddy fields
An experience of abundance
And some more

Fisherman’s net spread
No shoals
Transparent its soul, shiny sheen
The ocean dances to a rhythm known
Its own
Eclectic muse
Moves like a danseuse
Like the flowers in spring
Under the morning sun
Luminous
The ocean swells
Scattering gems
Sparkling diamonds
Embers of sapphire
Slivers of gold
Secrets of the ocean
Never held
Sunrise to sunset
Serendipitous moments
Gently unfold

The choice to choose the complexity of truth forever difficult different from the rest
sure it tests
in nature, it is natural for the rivers to flow,
trees to grow, as naturally as they can
  how do you plant a melon seed and wish for an apple to grow
no two fruits can taste same but they come from a family of greens, part of the earth
so are we, different in our ways as we naturally grow
how does it change the truth
hard as it may sound the truth can find its way up wherever it plants and grows roots, albeit,
if the humankind allows
Where there is a flow a natural progression of what is, no cutting down, distortion or clipping in parts, as it changes the whole
it makes sense as is
to the end
And there can be one

Unburdened by the past
Heralding the future
A blend of ancient and the modern
History swirls
Rock solid walls
A fortress to beckon
A hint of glitter
Glamour and gold
Glimpses of the old
Refurbished  and restored
Manicured gardens
Perfect leaves
And trees
Branches bow down in rows
Bound by boundaries
Through centuries
The fort
Open to the commoners
The royals once owned

Cold on the outside
Tending the hurt
Tender inside
There’s always that one
Who wants to be out
But can’t
The fear of
The glass
That cuts
Is transparent
But hurts

Belong
I let the words
Have a word
Amongst themselves
The one
Which steps out first
Better know
Its way to the sentence
Others in waiting
Are equally eager
To have their day
I mean say
However
All I have
To say
To them
It’s ok
How does it matter
Whichever steps out first
Doesn’t mean
The last one
Will not make it
Every word
Can belong in a sentence
Or can be enough
Even if they stand alone
That’s what
Even a dictionary
Says
Find your own meaning
Your purpose
On the way

It was the road
Not the walk initially
Then it was the walk
And then the question
That arose
Is it worthwhile ??
It stayed for a while
And then it froze
The doubt
That was
Not worthwhile
Every walk may not lead
You to a rose
And every road
May not lead
To a destination
As planned
The journey matters
So do the learnings
The experience of
A different chapter
On a different note

Joining the dots
What will
It be
Will be a blot on the paper
A word a sentence
A poem perhaps

There it was
Flipping the pages
Was it the wind
True to itself
The sounds create
The rhythm
Too perfect

What do I say
I know
What do I say

Can it be the same
Will it be
As it was
Joining the dots

True to itself
The rhythm
Will they
The words
Make a line
A sentence

What do I say
Perhaps

Joining the dots

Light to far dark
Seed to flower
And the endless hours
And the wait
To know the fate
Destined

Sunset colours
Touch the ground
Red to gold
Buds and roses
Pleasant yellows
Unfurl

Parallel
Present and aware
In the moment
Unknown
To know the world of
Happenstance

Warmth of the candle
Softly grows
Flickering its flame
Softly glows
Tender hearts
To defrost
Slow

Fluid in the race
Words run the marathon

Synaptic connections
Like untapped destinations

Follow the directions
Defying challenges

Sweet and sour
Prudent and extravagant

Kind or sharp
Convey every emotion

Jubilant they dance
On the paper

Start to finish
Run the marathon

Winds soar sway and sing
A farewell song to the sea
Heavy clouds hang low

Rhythmic drop of beats
Slow
Hollow beads
Into the well of wealth
Cascade
Seeds of eventide
Sow
A slow tempo
Sweet crescendo
Waves and vibes
Shimmer and shine
Echoes
Of vibrant times

Melodic birds
Chirp in the morning
Bees and worm
A delicacy they yearn

With an ease
They sing a song
Sometimes tense
Sometimes verse

The melodic birds
Speak a language unknown
Known to their kind
Sweet it sounds

There is an upheaval
Unleashed by the unknown
Of what’s in store

Familiar the terrain
Unfettered the mind explores
The unknown

H- Him and Her
U- u and me
M- make it everybody
A- And the world over, if they agree
N- No one’s sad, happy together

In circles we move

A part of me lost
It seeks

A part of me belongs
Wants to still

A part of me forgets and forgives
Not all

A part of me ugly and bad
I embrace

A part of me driven
Trying to be

A part of me
Never apart
Remains

A part of me
And the rest
Makes me whole

Presence deeply felt
Absence too
Coexisting in a nucleus
Valence
bound
The feeling
And not
Effervescence

Warmth of orange rust
Striking beauty of evergreen
Merry as the sun
Yellow sunburst

Feverish shimmering
Leaves on trees
Frozen in frames
Fall

Fervent
Rainbow in the sky
Beckons

The mind a deep reservoir
Challenged or otherwise
Challenges it meets

Bridging the gaps
Bracing and braving
The gaping holes

Instinctively and intuitively designed
It knows what it needs
And learns to believe
The dotted line

Don’t tell me about something
I have always known

Don’t tell me something
I never wanted to know about

Ignorance at will
Ignorance otherwise
Is bliss wonder why

Mirrors and lakes
Rusty or fine, edgy or divine
Overcast sky, they defy

Pain must be miserable
Alone, in its game
Inflicting, breaking
Gaining shame

Was its learnings easy
As a novice
Did it improvise
Was it pained

Tenacious, it must be
In its ways
To befriend
Know thy subjects
A Prerequisite, a norm

No pain, no gain
That’s the motto of pain
Knowledge it imparts
Impartial in its game

I respect myself
So do you

Age is just a number
We all know that

But still we respect
That’s how it is done

Better late than never
We learn
We have to that’s the norm

There are ways to win a war

No more fencing with you
I have crossed the fence

I lay my armour down
I respect the domain

In our heart of hearts
We knew
The boundaries were meant to be

I respect mine
My sanity I reclaim

Hope
Lay in silence
Rebuked and renounced

Abandoned
Feeble its voice
But fair

Frail
Its hands, paints
Patterns of life

Silence and hope
Have a pattern
They paint

Bright
Colour on the walls
Drew grace

Hope resurfaced

I want to fail and fall
Free fall to my safety net
One time two times sometimes
And again

Like a clown
I want to cry and laugh
Bounce back and  stand tall
And again
One time two times sometimes
recall to free fall

In a nutshell
May, maybe not
Redundant sometimes
Recoil Recall free fall
And bounce back along

I want to create something new
From the residue
And learn to fail and fall
And free fall to gravity
Once and for all

Tears you shed
For the lack of gifts
Wishing for one and some-more
Stuck in the greed of forever more

Life it is
You have been tricked
It bestows upon you
The choicest of all
And watches from afar

The gifts you owned
And the greed for more
Bringing in a abundance
Of evermore

Sky high
The inventory you see
What do you do
How do you stack
The cloud is full

Stuck in the forevermore
Be free and learn to shape shift
There is wisdom in those gifts
May you gain and secure

No wings
Attached to strings
In the sky
Blue or colourless
The colourful kite
Learns to fly

I speak in syllables
I have known words
My vocabulary inert

Blue and white
Black and white
Monochromatic
Or rainbow like

Cold and numb
Warm to fuzzy
Systematic
Cognitive overdrive

Day and night
At will
Unflinching
Rhythmic
Serpentine

It takes a storm
To know the strength of the winds
No more gentle as the breeze

It takes a storm
To make the calm and silent waves swell
A lesson it must teach

It takes a storm to know
Past is done, do not dwell
Gentler waves now touch the shore

For the storm too knows
Finite it is, in its entirety
Lose it must, to the tree of will

It takes a storm to know your strength
It takes a will of the tender tendrils
To sway with the winds
And stay still in the storm

The flowers knew it was their end

The flowers knew their life was short

There was no way through

The flowers knew their way through

The flowers knew their way to the end

They knew it was worthwhile

They smiled to the end