Like a hapless fly
trapped in a spider’s tricky web,
I struggle.

A vicious web,
a thousand hairy hands,
crooked as they are,
they descended on me
to squeeze my sensibilities
in their roguish grip.

A hapless fly
trapped in a spider’s tricky web,
I struggle.

Freeing from the shackles of the past
trickling down to a catharsis
at the slender neck of the hourglass,
the golden grains of sand
dribble down
to create my reality.

Unhurriedly they flow,
with me they flow
into the forgottenness of the past  they flow,
to rise like a Phoenix
clothed in the newness
of the present
to create a new me!

Like a doting mother,
Sun tries to calm her beloved’s painful screams.
East to west,
in endless caress,
she showers on her,
her varied hues of love.

But the sea screams evermore,
lashes the shores
like a distraught damsel
frothing out her soul’s mysterious grief.

But on that breezy dusk,
the doting mother
mixed on her love’s palette colours new,
to cheer her flustered daughter.

I stood there,
a dark pain gripping my melancholic soul.
Why this misery,
why this pain,
why this never-ending cry of the sea
that explodes at the horizon?

Dark mysterious clouds
climbed sky’s majestic vault
to create a lustrous charcoal painting.
Black monochrome,
myriad shades of black,
varied ashen hues,
subtle shades only an ingenious artist can create.

A stroke here,
a stroke there,
magic spread across the sky.

Fluffy clouds in flux,
exotic forms,
grandeur unfolding in the sky.

Like strobe lights,
sun’s golden rays peek through the dark clouds -
a psychedelic light show of a grand scale!

The silhouetted tree watched
this splendid spectacle
in awe and in wonder!

Well-crafted suits,
chic, colour-coordinated costumes,
toned bodies, heady perfumes,
affected accent,
modish gadgets,
glib, politically correct talks,
juggled alphabets displayed after names
to show off eruditeness -
a bizarre veneer of sophistication we flaunt!

We wisely disguise our hideous true selves -
our barbarous primitiveness -
under our glistening outwards.
Its greed, its pride, its selfishness,
we shrewdly camouflage with enamouring smiles,
we, a generation of impersonators!

You baffle me with your many moods,
your stormy tempers,
your quirky outbursts,
your melancholic whining,
your calming melodies,
your soothing caresses,
the white turbulence that froths at your flustered soul!

Sensual colours of creation shimmer in your depth,
every drop carries the colours of your depth,
in the depth of your soul, you trance in stillness!

Your mystic charm mesmerises me,
I become a vestal drop that celebrates the mystery
that unfolds in your soul’s stillness!

A queer breed of Ostriches we're!
Scared of reality,  
we bury our senses
in the barren sands of illusion,
live in an oasis of fantasy!

The glare of daylight scares us!!

Cosy in the arms of our delusions,
inebriated with our fallacies,
romancing idiocies,
we day-dream all the time,
while silver drizzles of the morning sun
paint the dawn gorgeous!

But we blind our senses
to a magnificent reality!

Beyond the horizons of my perception,
truth merges with its shadow
to form the stellar dust that settles on my soul’s stillness.

Webs of galaxies dance to a mesmeric melody
rising from the depth of a prismatic dream
that carries the script of my being.

Mystifying strains of awareness permeate my soul,
I become an enigma buried in the mystery of my genesis.

At the crossroads where the gods stroll,
the indigo mist etches the mark of eternity
on my soul's forehead
for me to stroll along with the gods.

Flowing from a mesmeric flute,
soothing chimes of celestial stillness
stroke every grain of my being to a lullaby.

Like a gentle mist
illuminating a willing landscape to esoteric radiance,
every cell glows to a call from the depth of stillness.

Dust returning to dust
to free the spirit from the hold of mortality
diffusing it to a galactic wonder of thoughtful mystery,
with new wings to migrate to a land
shut to mortals blinded by illusions.

On the wings of the mystical whirlwind
I dance to the call of bliss
that escort me to the heart of its radiance.

Divine hands
with the dexterity
to disperse a flurry of ethereal fragrances
in one’s soul
take me on a pilgrimage
to the depths of the soul
where I touch the core of my consciousness.

Soul-stirring fragrance of Sandalwood
wafting into my cells
takes me to the depth of
stillness to free my spirit
from the hold of mortality!

Raindrops have long returned to their nests of ethereal clouds.
Few stayed here,
diamond drops scattered on
the white pearly glow of my bougainvillaeas,
immortalising the beauty of a mystic's smiles.

How many Springs have visited
this wintery desolation,
painting it gorgeous with its enchanting glory!

How many Spring flowers have mesmerised
this arid wasteland
with its ethereal beauty!

Tell me, why the Spring has not visited me,
why has it not mixed its soothing colours in my dreary dreams?
Why has it not left its splendour
on my parched longings?

A garden I didn’t ask for,
but only a slice of its colour.
A garden I didn’t ask for,
but only a single flower –
to treasure in my mourning soul
the life that Spring brings to
the winter of my frozen dreams.

A single flower I asked for -
a keepsake of your mesmeric beauty.
But you gave bunches of bliss
in myriad hues of yellows,
every bough beaming with heaven’s majestic smiles!

Fleeing from the shackles of yesterday,
trickling down to a catharsis
at the slender neck of the hourglass,
the golden grains dribble down
to create my present.

My days out-flowing
the forgottenness of the past
creating a newness
that explodes in every cell!

You woo me deep
into the ecstasy of your pristine chasteness...

where dry leaves of Aspen and Beech and Birch
sussurate to the music of a lazy breeze,

where Hummingbirds
**** in frenzy
nectar from the orange glees
of the flame-of-the-forest trees,

where Hawthorns
lure the breeze
to weave its vibrance
in their domes of green glory,

where shrunken streams
bask in their white pebbly flourish.

Like an enchantress,
you lure me to the depth of your
rapturous bliss!

To say farewell, my heart pains.
I leave a beat of my heart
to ramble with the roving breeze
perennially in your alluring meadows!

I was alone on this journey, I thought
till I realised the road was all along with me
hugging my feet to ease my steps
as I strode homeward.

We travelled together
like two lonely souls who met to become soulmates.

Me and the mystical road, we
kept travelling,
I, oblivious to the home I already reached!

Beneath the layers of smiles,
deep down,
we hide our real selves.

From lie to lie,
from pretence to pretence,
we camouflage our reality
with the stylish masks we wear,
whilst the monster behind the mask chuckles
hoodwinking a whole generation!

I watched the coal-black smoke
of the ancient chimney
as it chased a messianic dream
swirling up the smoggy expanse
to the freedom of the blue sky
for a lungful of sanity.

I watched the gloom
of the soot-smeared boy
in tattered khaki
as he longed for the dark wings of smoke
to take him on its pilgrimage to freedom.

Withered by the corrupting fumes of the chimney
he lay there.

With no hands to hold to the smoke
as it spiralled up,
with no breath to feel
the freedom of the azure sky,
he lay there.

Like a faint twig
feeding the wrath of a funeral pyre
he lay there!

You always transcend my sadness
with your hypnotic stillness,
your entrancing symphonies.

My thoughts go back to the banks of Langat*,
where one day a little boy sat alone,
just only five,
bewildered, in a canoe.

From the sea,
from the streams,
from the rain,
you chanted a calming mantra to soothe him,
calling him to dissolve
in your awe-inspiring presence.

Your aquamarine sheen paints
the intricacies of all that I'm.
In the cool blue depth of your stillness,
I long to create the tabernacle of my being.

Never I thought
your melodies could become
the war cry of a devilish psyche!

Today I'm perplexed,
when I hear the anguished human cries
from the twirls of your turbid anger.

I realise
you’ve become an enigma
that pulls me to the depths of a
crazy conundrum.

How many more shades of anger you hide
in the burning red heart of the mantra you chant
to give me a heavenly bliss, Oh Water?

Primordial chants
YAH VEH
YAH VEH
YAH VEH
meditating in the soul of the black onyx beads.

Frozen drops of bliss nestling in the sinews,
soaking me in its sublime stillness,
leading me to its philharmonic depth,
yoking me to its cosmic vibes.

I sublimate
to become the chants
that pulsate in the soul
of the black onyx beads...