H is combustible
No colour, it owns
O helps combustion
Yet we inhale and breathe in
Together H and O combine  
To make a pure compound
None of us can live without
Individually
Properties they posses
Fiery, to say the least
Together they douse
Put fires under leash

The little yellow bird
Precariously perched on the yellow mustard flowers
Sang the wisdom song
To the little girl, passing by on her yellow bicycle
To enjoy the song of life, abundantly
And to paddle on
By the fields and the nearby stream
Back on the tar road, safe
In her warm yellow home

✨🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼✨

Every drop that falls
Is part of an echo
Distanced by the valley
Surrounded by the mountains
Carried by the winds
Silenced by the rain
Joining the million
On an untraveled path
Into little streams
To make a waterfall

Distanced by the valleys
Carried by the winds
Since ancient times
Absorbed by the roots
Nourishing the soul
Of Mother Earth

A drop into eternity
Journey it takes, joyfully
Joined by a million
To be
A part of the whole
Eternally

Words have the power
A basket of them
Effective effervescent
Freshly plucked
Quite like the flowers
Fragrant

A garland a bouquet
Maybe, just a few
At the feet of the deity
Even the wildflowers, one sees
Bring peace

Words have the power
Use them freely
Once in a while set yourself free
Many I have known, since ever  
Have chosen the quiet

Locking the fragrance
Flowers wilt
The voice devoid
Locked inside
Into the vast void

Words have the power
Brings in a sense of belonging
Dare to bare, helps to bear
All that is

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

These days
There are many who are going through pain
Uncertainty has caught us by the neck  again
The virus lurks, has been on a house hunting spree
Causing distress
It’s been here for a while, creating stories of its own in every home
After a brief pause, back to bringing our lives to a pause, if not standstill
The world its classroom
Sending out individual and group invites
Nudging us to face it, brace it
Trying to teach some life skills
Will it be able to create a new world
A better one
We’ll see
Hopeful with prayers on lips
This time we are better equipped
Empowering each other with help and support
To heal

The syllable slid
Into the wild, fragrant words
Spread in pithy verse

A melange of browns and greens
Styled in a stream, where twigs float, flashing emerald green
A new life, germinating within
Colours on the canvas, dripping
A splash of yellow, winsome pinks
The barks of trees, have scaled heights
The canopy and foliage to kiss sunlight

Dance to your tunes
To someone else’s
Maybe not wise
Follow your heart
Maybe not always right

You could be a dot, a comma, a pause in someone’s life
A fill in the blanks to some
A lost memory to few
A word, a sentence or none to many
But a select few would make you their story
Part of their history, their life
Through miseries and smiles
Walking that mile
Through precious times and eventide  

Some may walk along a while
Listen to your heart
All along you will hear many a heartbeats
Tugging at yours
Believing in you and
Wanting your energy, time and space
Be the resource
Rest assured, there is a source besides, walking, tracking, guiding you through

You could be a grammatical error to someone
Good that you got to know
There is always a way to correct the  sentence
But through all the errors
The Blanks and pauses
Be your own stop
Reflect upon your own story
A novel in the making
Never a full stop
Until your last sunset
The final stop

The need for wants
Wants each need fulfilled
All for me, trampling all
Yes, for me to receive
Leave no chance to deceive
Wasn’t the past year enough
For one to learn
And rise above self
And look beyond
Masked and taped
Everyone

I gave words a try
Wrote them
They helped me fly,
free
In my mind
Abstract, as freedom is
Now, we never stop
The words, and I

Life in monochrome
Has been smooth and safe
The world of colours, allures
Newer avenues, shores
Measured steps  
A journey to embrace
A rainbow awaits

It was a lovely morning and the day,
Special, my son’s 16th birthday
Happy and busy with the preparations
But there was something amiss
Couldn’t put my hand or heart on
The day was fine, but by evening there were signs, sickness crept up its way

An out of this world experience
My jumpy heart raced between its place and fist, and the pulse on my wrist
Devoid of any feeling, my fingers numb

The lungs screamed
To be left alone, in silence  
With the painless calm
And the pain, unseen

The chaos outside was too much to bear
My heart weakened by the deafening noise
Wanted this break, from some, I prayed
Believe it or not, god listened to my prayer

Fear disillusioned
Too many places, invited
Never the one to travel
At loss, amidst the chaos

I felt a deep pull
In the eyes of my husband and children
They wanted me to be fit and fine
The other side allured me, twice
In my mind, I swayed on both the sides

I remembered the words and faces of my ageing parents
I knew they would be worried
Parents, never fail you
Wise and old, they have great advice

To stay safe from, I tried, but couldn’t
The virus and I took head on
Single combat, the family safe
No more on the battleground
Self isolation done

Home isolation worked well for me
Locked in my room, with the windows facing the road, my days, alone, duly spent
The room lights on during the nights
Been longing for a break since March
Albeit, in a beach resort

Music has the power to heal
Takes you to places, language free
Pre booking, no requisites
My quarantine sojourn complete

Physically I could be weak
But mentally I am strong
With infinite hope and love of the family
Yes from the clutches of the virus
Came back alive, I survived

If words could speak for themselves
Then they are best, written
Spoken, they are sinusoidal
Unless, the wavelengths match

Thank you so much, my dear friends at Hp
My family of poets and poetesses
For reading my words and sharing yours
It’s always home here, I reckon

🌿🌿

There is not much to write
These days
My mind on an uninspired escape

The thoughts scarce and redundant
Disinterested words
Wander off for a sea-scape

Sure there is enough beauty in this world
Yet to be explored
Limited my imagination and views today

Experiences
Vicarious or the ones lived
Leave a mark, indelible

The teacher said
Stretch your limits to the maximum
It might surprise you

Little surprises
Bring a delight
Some are off limits

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

Forged in the fire
Unfinished and unrefined
The sharp edges, uneven
The fabric it cut
Stitched the same
Different patterns
Revealed
The scissors made a mark

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

One step right

Two steps back

What went wrong

No one has the right

To wrong anyone

What went up

Is the angry flame

brought it down

To ashes and pain

Two steps back

Up and right

What went down

In plain sight

Brought insight

Up and down

Right and wrong

Life is one big song

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

An ocean to swim

An ocean to fill

Courage

To spill

Mind

You

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

Under the shade of the banyan tree
And green cascading leaves
Lay shoes and backpacks on the ground
Bicycle handles curled to the left
Parked by the lake
On the side stand
There were sounds of laughter and music
On the other side
Quiet the water in the lake

The moon knew its shade
And never once it changed
Forms it changed,
As forever it should
Promises made
Forever
Unchanged

The more I write

The less I feel

Better

What’s in a name
What if you don’t have one
How does one address you
How do you know it’s you
Who’s being addressed in crowd
What’s in a name
Without one
Think about that

The mind tree
Thrives on the seed of thought
Inundated or sprinkled
Rightly so
Cultivating
Leaving no arid land

🌿🌿

Connoisseur curates

The walls adorned, gratitude

Reverence in paint

It’s been a while
Since I have closely watched the birds
And heard their dawn chorus
It’s been a while since I have whiled away time in nature and be pleasantly charmed

It’s been a while since life has treated us
The way we wanted it to
Certain and happier
Well isn’t that asking for too much
Yes, it’s been a while
Uncertainty has kept everyone busy

It’s been a while, now
To get accustomed to what is irreversible
Finding solutions, to the ones that have
For amelioration

Colours in nursery
Saplings in the nursery
And nursery rhymes

Pink satin ribbons and bow clips
Innocence braided
In plaits

The paper pared
To be paired with white
Origami tiles

Seven and three makes ten
You must learn
To count

Sweet raisin
Crazy crispy nuts
Bursting with energy
Come alive

One day
some day
soon
all of this
will
and
is about to
come to an end

Let it

Until then live every moment
and love today

Everyone swooned at the orange moon
Although it knew, it didn’t own, the glow
Yet shined for everyone alike
A celestial force, in the starry sky

As the night grew
The moon soared in the sky
It seemed to orbit with ease
The orange moon, at peace
For its glow, it owed to the sun

It didn’t mind changing attires
Through phases, thinning, gaining, losing the curves
but always admired and enjoyed the run
Orbiting around the sun
Its flaws camouflaged

Unleash the words
Truthful and mindful
But causing hurt
As you sow, so shall you reap
The fruits borne, instantaneously
To be consumed alone
Never left for posterity
A pact with the divine, as a child sealed
To be at peace

🌿✨✨🌿

Keeping it short
words
presence
In accordance

A warm sunny smile
Sun sweeps up the naughty clouds
Rays of swift sunshine

I am afraid to share my thoughts
I am scared to lose them all
I am afraid to think, as that will make me want to write
I am scared to write
In anticipation of loss
Why do they, these thoughts, bother me
I know, not right

But I think, I will listen to my thoughts
As they have helped me write
And lighten my heart
Even if no one listens
Never Reads
Forgotten
Hidden from light
I know I have a place to keep them safe
In drafts
For another time

Perceptions and reasoning
Reality and truth
Universal truth
Not all

Compare not
Do not come and pare down
What is not yours

In a courtroom
Judgments are fine  
Out of that, keep it to yourself

Talent is to show
Come out and shine
Latent lost, never undermine