"gopi" poems
A River
In Madurai,
city of temples and poets,
who sang of cities and temples,
every summer
a river dries to a trickle
in the sand,
baring the sand ribs,
straw and women’s hair
clogging the watergates
at the rusty bars
under the bridges with patches
of repair all over them
the wet stones glistening like sleepy
crocodiles, the dry ones
shaven water-buffaloes lounging in the sun
The poets only sang of the floods.
He was there for a day
when they had the floods.
People everywhere talked
of the inches rising,
of the precise number of cobbled steps
run over by the water, rising
on the bathing places,
and the way it carried off three village houses,
one pregnant woman
and a couple of cows
named Gopi and Brinda as usual.
The new poets still quoted
the old poets, but no one spoke
in verse
of the pregnant woman
drowned, with perhaps twins in her,
kicking at blank walls
even before birth.
He said:
the river has water enough
to be poetic
about only once a year
and then
it carries away
in the first half-hour
three village houses,
a couple of cows
named Gopi and Brinda
and one pregnant woman
expecting identical twins
with no moles on their bodies,
with different coloured diapers
to tell them apart.
~A.K.Ramanujan
Apr 28, 2013
Apr 28, 2013 at 12:57 PM UTC
she moves in red silk
a ghazal on white marble
Smile of the Blue Lord
Jul 27, 2016
Jul 27, 2016 at 10:31 AM UTC
Gopi star maidens roam
across an ever widening
void
searching for their darling Giridhari
"Krishna why have You abandoned us?"
"Your foot prints have gone cold and the music
of Your ankle bells are deathly silent"
"The universe is so colossal, baffling,
unfathomable, bewildering and
incomprehensible"
"Where are You?"
"We beg only for Your celestial embrace"
The Lord opens His ginormous, glittering,
galactic blue mouth and laughs
misty worlds evaporate and reappear
Elysian fields, sweet perfumed scents
of Paradise
sweep across our Souls
Beloved Krishna with the cashmere eyes
that old snake charmer
plays His golden flute
Radha seated eternally by His side
The empty jhoola swings
Nov 26, 2014
Nov 26, 2014 at 9:09 AM UTC
Swami You have
driven us all mad
with Your bewitching Love
we gather in confused circles
spinning senselessly like
gopi maidens without
Sri Krishna in their arms
Over the barren dust bowl hills
of Parthi the wind
sobs and red eyed rainclouds
weep Your Holy name
even rays of the
sun scan the earth for
a chance to fall once
again upon Your
tender Lotus Feet
Beloved Lord
roll away the
gravestone
from our hearts
the funereal shroud
that hides our
immortal truth
Lift the white veil
and gaze into
lovestruck eyes
eternally wedded
to You
Mar 17, 2014
Mar 17, 2014 at 12:52 AM UTC
Far from the
restless boom box blare
jazz blue ****
city lights and guitars on fire
miles from the urban smell
of opulent people, pierced armpits
bulldog buildings pressed
together in a dead-heat
many asphalt moons from
quaint village cafes
Yankee Stadium, Central Park,
Queens Boulevard
and downtown mystical bookshops
I found a clear, pure halcyon stream
hewn from stars,
trickling down from Heaven
an affluent vision of strength
gushing over the softer
translucent parts of me
gentle Yogi yodeling through
my alpine heart
lets sail upstream to the roof of your
prayer washed Zen mountain
offer lotus garlands and incense
at sunrise we kneel in the
Temple Alucinante
(Please share the warm embrace of my new Poetry book:
108 Bhakti Kisses, The Ecstatic Poetry of a Modern Day Gopi
http://amzn.com/0984787216)
Jan 4, 2014
Jan 4, 2014 at 9:08 PM UTC
( I am Happy to announce the publication of my new poetry book: 108 Bhakti Kisses, The Ecstatic Poetry of a Modern Day Gopi by Sonya Ki Tomlinson available on Amazon
http://amzn.com/0984787216)
Happy and Holy Holidays
108 bhakti kisses
Courting Your adoring feet
108 Names of God
adorn the temple gates
where I kneel close to
Your precious Feet
108 Crystal mala beads
poised like stars passing
one by one over my fingers
tiny bridges across
an immense and luminous expanse
Infinite frontier
The Soul returning to its Source
offspring of Light
I look to the Heavens
my sustenance
thunderheads, distant mist
solitary black cameo shape
of a bird soaring swiftly
vanishes into
ballooning, billowing
blue wilderness of Your eyes
Dec 24, 2013
Dec 24, 2013 at 1:25 PM UTC
There is a humility in art,
Where simplicity plays its part.
There is an excitement
Of primordial sensations,
Solubility and Insolubility of textures,
And the sublime fluid,
Of deconstructions.
Its’ menace haunts,
A View in the Dark.
The forms are stolid.
Black and stark.
Beyond Black is where
The hues play Hide ‘n’ Seek.
Surfacing,
Resurfacing,
Diving headlong,
Into the absence of a peak.
The smudge and the smog,
In the dizziness of Desire,
Are the nuances of a beige fog,
Perturbed in a Vertical Blue retire.
All the lines ******
As they refuse to talk,
Questioning the lingering persuasion,
Of the eyes that stalk.
The dawn silence
Answers in a luxuriant red,
When rebellious strokes,
Keep dancing on that fiery bed.
Fragments keep coalescing into a whole,
It pulsates against the senses,
This Illusion of the soul.
This song is bright,
Even in the absence of light,
The Song of Silence,
Portrays an indomitable might.
The Mirage looks back,
Like every familiar stranger,
The unsettling Rejoicing Red,
Such impacts can auger.
*Blossom in dark,
Through Dark and Deep,
Rhythm of tones,
A View in a Dream*.
Alone breathes the Isolated Red,
As The Melodies in Grey
Resonate
What the Resonance of Blues
Had left unsaid.
There is a bucolic symmetry,
A revelling immortal mystery,
In The Meditative Silence,
Of
Gopi Gajwani
Mar 22, 2017
Mar 22, 2017 at 1:18 AM UTC
Clay circles that allows
my hands to almost touch
ribbed startle of your
Soul in flight
That permits my breath
snake's tongue
to probe inside echoes
of a time you weren't so
sad and mocking
Wing tips brushing
floating face down
in keenness
of memory
I join lines running rivers
of peyote
stretch skin across a
stone sphinx
silently relive the
enigma
Please share the warm embrace of my new Poetry book:
108 Bhakti Kisses, The Ecstatic Poetry of a Modern Day Gopi
http://amzn.com/0984787216
Jan 4, 2014
Jan 4, 2014 at 11:33 PM UTC
There is a sacred path
that winds through
my heart
It sings God's Name
as I dance ecstatically
along enchanted gopi banks
and over
whirling, warbling brooks
I marvel as a black and
white checkered,
red tufted woodpecker
carves God's Name on
a thankful tree trunk
Mirabai, Kabir and Rumi
wave their colorful prayer flags
verses of pure love
and devotion cling to the
very air we breathe
The Bhakti path forges
unafraid through
the bleak, brooding
forest of desires
Husky winds blow around
ghostly, skeleton branches
that claw helplessly
at the night skies
whispering valiant stories of
Rama's exile and
Krishna's triumph
Another tree it's hoary arms
outstretched
resembling a cross
bleeds, remembering the sacrifices
and love of Jesus, The Lamb of God
Trekking further into the dense
unforgiving jungle
seated in Lotus pose
a Golden Buddha
immersed in
rapturous meditation
opens His eyes for an instant
The sun rises in the east
I kneel and kiss His
glorious feet
Leaving the tangled woods
behind
suffering, godforsaken
figures of homeless people
sleeping alongside
this good samaritan road
emerge
Embodiments of God
spirits marred by defeat
and agony
stare listlessly, flies circling
oblivious to the
blistering desert heat
I stop to share a prayer,
cup of water, some fresh
baked bread from my knapsack
and a ray of hope
The path abruptly ascends
purple mountain mists
crown the summit
holy footprints of saints,
yogis, fellow pilgrims
indelibly christen
and guide my steps
Angels sweep the road
ahead tossing rose petals
and victory blossoms
Om peals
across the enlightened
Bhakti path
...and an ancient God awakens....
Feb 28, 2014
Feb 28, 2014 at 2:07 PM UTC
Hello my Dear Poet friends
If you’d like a free copy of 108 Bhakti Kisses, The Ecstatic Poetry of a Modern Day Gopi. Pick up your free copy available only on June 10, 11 and 12, 2014. Download:
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If you enjoy the book I would appreciate a review on Amazon.
You can download one of the free Kindle apps for your web browser, desktop computer, or any mobile device you have:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId;=1000493771
Jun 10, 2014
Jun 10, 2014 at 7:53 AM UTC
Like sun's gold rays
slipping backwards into
itself
alone, again in
cool darkness of thought
my heart
a flaming target
put out with
quiet tears and hopeless
longing
bleats through ember
shadows
still searching
Please share the warm embrace of my new Poetry book:
108 Bhakti Kisses, The Ecstatic Poetry of a Modern Day Gopi
http://amzn.com/0984787216
Jan 4, 2014
Jan 4, 2014 at 11:08 PM UTC
My heart smiled
no... giggled like a giddy
gopi maiden
all day long
Last night
during the star drenched
nocturne hours
my darling Sai Giridhari
blessed me with His euphoric darshan
O the scent of Sai
the mandarin robed form
curly mane and probing eyes
clings to me like a rare perfume
overpowering all sense of
ego and separate identity
that undiluted bliss
very essence of Self
Presence of God
Sai Nandalala
under nightfall’s luminous cape
I run madly to the edge of my dreams
searching for my beloved
drunk on the nectar of Your Name
I swoon Body, Mind and Soul
into Your.....................
Infinitely Waxing Embrace
Aug 16, 2015
Aug 16, 2015 at 12:16 AM UTC
Krishna to Tara:
Recently reincarnated,
After so many millennium without you
There's so many ways I want to make love to you,
That one lingam is not enough,
So I grow a ninety-nine more,
Sprouting branches of sinew and flesh
From my chest, my arms, my legs,
All stretching toward you.
In response, you open ninety-nine yoni
Rose red lips opening like flowers in every niche.
Embracing, we fit together like a puzzle piece,
Once halved, once divided, once mystical
Now solved.
Tara to Krishna:
Crazy blue man,
Come to me as one lover,
Not a myriad
You only need one piece
To fit the puzzle that is me,
Complete me and I'll make you one again,
And suspend the cycle
Of rebirth and death
But you must give up
Those Gopi, those hundred and eight *****
They must find a more suitable lover
To fit their station behind the cow
Sep 29, 2014
Sep 29, 2014 at 5:55 PM UTC