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623 · Nov 2020
Confess
living by myself
gives me time to confess,
no more fooling around
my heart
once a training ground,
is now a fortress.
571 · Feb 2021
As I Am
To be here as I am
I had to be there as I was
a perpetual dreamer
sometimes a singer,
but often a screamer
my ever-fleeting memory
of past life
feels like pollen in the beehive,
was I always the same
or just another empty name?
maybe asking questions
just made me mad,
as there were
days I've been sad
days I've been glad,
living was always the grey area
between good and bad.
569 · Nov 2020
Your Epitaph
living in a way to
avoiding the word failure
in your epitaph,
for a foreseeable reward in heaven,
is like walking on eggshells
without ever breaking out of your own shell.
The fear of failure is worse than actual failure. Failure teaches you to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and have another shot.

The context seems rather relevant now with what has happened this year.
Here's to hoping you never give up and find the strength to start again.
555 · Nov 2020
Mistakes
Life could either be
defined by your parents' mistakes
or solely yours,
only here to live and learn
with the hindsight
that you may well be
one of those mistakes too.
Living and learning are intertwined, go hand in hand. In between are the moments of laughter, grandeur, thankfulness and thrill.

In the midst of all chaos, laughing at yourself is a way to live by.
543 · Sep 2020
What Is Poetry?
Is it just another perspective?
Or is it a much broader lie?
Is it what makes you fly into the sky?
Or is it that something that helps you through the night?

Is it just an expression of thoughts?
Is it just some feelings that you bought?
For someone, from someone?
Or is it everything that you sought?

Is it like writing your life script?
Or yet another piece of paper that you ripped?
Is it just some words you could gather?
Or is it out there forever,
Once you pieced those words together?

Is it just a combination of phrases and words?
Or is it expounding on a fairy tale that you heard?
Is it just a mysterious experience?
Or is it something more serious?

Is it an escape from this cruel world?
Or is it a declaration of truth with a banner unfurled?
Is it like God speaking through you?
Or is it always within you?
Maybe in different forms and styles,
Something that makes you stop and stay awhile?

Is it a catharsis of a tragedy?
Or something to help you keep steady?
Is it ever hostile?
Or does it always makes you smile?
What is poetry for you?
532 · Dec 2020
Art is Home/Home is Art
art, in any form,
helps deal with what is real,
an escape to a euphoric place
a way out of the sacrilege
that we now call living.

words can't often do justice
to such a beautiful place,
for even the love songs fail
whenever we embrace.

maybe the world is darker now
than it used to before,
maybe we have now raised our voices
to speak up,
our beliefs and fears
all out there
in the open now.

the world was as pure as the canvas before,
now that we are painting it
without ever knowing
if we will finish it,
tricking ourselves into thinking
we hold the brush
and decide the strokes
we decide,
our humble abode
rather than fearing
a loss of control
the world,
it is out there
for us to feel
as it has always been
through time,
an inviolate home
for those with beauty in their eyes to see.
Today, I woke up with an appreciation of art and how it helps give meaning, make a connection and save lives.

We all have an artist within us, just a matter of the medium of expression. I'm agnostic, but sometimes I think that there is a higher sense of purpose for every one of us and it can be shared through the art.

This one is for all you artists out there; never stop creating!
526 · Dec 2020
A Sincere Question
How do you expect me to
hold on to you
when I keep running from myself,
every chance I get?
525 · Jun 2020
Spell
I was under the spell,
The spell of love,
Forgot how much I had bled
In churning out a new me for you,
How often do you get your wishes fulfilled
from up above?
I thought I was happy,
Now I often repent the path that I had tread.
520 · May 2021
Yesterday
there's a fight
outside,
but also
within me
who will win today?
will I be cheerful or despondent,
hopeful or sans it,
I just wish to
win over yesterday
for it is
my enemy.
we go on,
somehow,
someway.
519 · Feb 2021
Seasons
Do the seasons change
so that I don't have to?
People come and go,
sometimes for a reason
sometimes just for a season,
I'm here till I can be.
511 · Dec 2020
Break Out
No matter how much I try,
I keep winding up at the same place
I keep trying to break out of my loop,
I want to learn the way life survives
By never staying the same.
What are you waiting for
A change?
An awakening?
An answer?
504 · Oct 2020
Thinking of a Place
I was stuck in a rut,
Not in a place I knew.
I had my heart shut,
Through and through.
If you are someone who often gets stuck in places beyond their comprehension, you just might relate to this. Places where your heart stops working and you don't know what is real and fantasy. I've heard people facing a war against addiction often experience this and also in some cases it can be a medical condition, often beyond their control. But in the end, I think the human spirit is stronger than these places and it is what will survive. We just have to believe and have faith in ourselves, often the most difficult part but well worth it.

PS: The title is inspired by a song of the same name by 'The War On Drugs'. One of my personal favourites and highly recommended :)
498 · Apr 2021
Would You Pray?
I don't know if I've seen a lot
But seems that I've seen enough,
It's hard to find good people
As hard it is to find good love.

Maybe the world's crashing,
Hence everyone seems cruel
The world is ending,
And everyone's fighting their own duel.

It's hard to trust people,
But much harder is to trust yourself
Maybe there is a way out of this,
Where I don't end up by myself.

I've been carrying this load,
On what was once my light shoulders,
They just seem rugged now,
That the world has turned colder.

Once a virtue of kindness
Spread like a wildfire in my heart,
Tried to be kind once,
But the world tore me apart.

What did I learn so far?
In life, there are no two ways,
There is only one
Would you believe in God if I asked you to pray?

Pray for your soul,
Pray for your temptations,
Pray for all those souls
That desperately seek salvation.
Strange times but stranger human behaviour.
482 · Dec 2020
Linger On
I know now that
you can't be my
ray of sunshine,
yet you linger on
with your pale blue eyes.
475 · Dec 2020
Notification
my frantic anxiety used to wait for you,
now it just waits for a notification.
****, these notifications can **** you, in many ways.
475 · Sep 2020
Desire
If I could smoke away all the pain,
I'd never stop setting the fire.
Even if it'd wash away in the rain,
I'd never stop chasing my desire.
Don't let the old sins turn yourself into a lifelong tragedy. The past is there for learning and not overbearing.

To quote David Wooderson from Dazed And Confused -

"The older you do get the more rules they're going to try to get you to follow. You just gotta keep livin' man, L. I. V. I. N. "
472 · Dec 2020
December
seeing things I don't know,
learning things I won't remember
another year with nothing to show,
sitting through a bitter December.
Ah, it is that time of the year again. A flashback of all that was said and done, this one has been different in so many ways.
465 · Oct 2020
Selfish Happiness
I've met so many people,
Seen so many faces
Yet here I am
Sitting by the tree
All alone,
Often Pondering
What life would have been?
Had I not cut off
People who reminded me of
Simpler and happier times,
Singing together
To the tunes that barely rhymed,
Had I not cut off
The things that always seemed so real,
And some feelings that I tried to conceal.
But here I am
Learning to be happy,
Even if it seems sloppy
Maybe God's watching over me,
As I walk along my path carefree
Maybe I was playing with my sanity,
Just by sleeping in the arms of destiny.
Will I be happy about being selfish?
Or is treading the longer path towards gratitude something I'd relish?
455 · Jul 2020
The Book
Where is this life headed?
I feel like I'm in the middle of the sea
Trying to find a shore,
Realizing there has to be something more
To this rather daft existence
Trying to find the meaning of your origin,
Feels nothing more than a burden
I'd rather live a little,
For dreams that often seem brittle
All these empty pages in my book
Waiting to be scribbled down
With stories galore
Maybe what I need to work on
Is an index for the book,
So I can head towards
where I want to look.
Fate can decide, I can ignore.
The never-ending urge to control where you are going rather than letting destiny make that decision for you.
455 · May 2020
Days
Feels like the days are flowing by,
While I lay here, restless
Unaware of my becoming
Like an unusual goodbye.
451 · Jul 2023
Lucked out
I thought I had lucked out,
Of all the things it could have been
It just turned out to be
Yet another listless face in a luckless place.
448 · Jun 2021
Enough writing for today
a distant thought of
an intimate dream where
my life depended on me
putting emotions into words
everyday,
writing something
that makes me think
of myself as a decent and productive
human being
somewhere in the herd,
contributing
trying to raise the bar
of  critical thinking
in a thoughtless world
it wasn't so mechanical
so I would be on autopilot
but rather its a journey
a transformation,
always growing
perplexed yet again
at that thought of being
satisfied and optimistic,
looking into the mirror
vacillating as always
who am I today?
what will I get done?
being involved in another
facade or just flow
like water
lacking pretence,
waiting to be profound
over the baggage of rebound
longing both to be
known and hidden,
letting the significant moments
of my life
pass in little incidents
will I take these words
and dive in deep?
or simply give up
and go to sleep?
What if I had to write for my survival?
Will I survive?
440 · May 2020
Life
Life, as we understand it, could just be another one of our fickle imaginations
Every day is a new fantasy
We are running around in circles concentric;
Making us feel vulnerable and asking ourselves whether we are eccentric
With each passing experience, we make the circles grow bigger,
But are we growing, who's to know?
Maybe we are and who's to blame us,
After all, life is all about trying to be a better part of our selves
At the core of these circles, we lie and we never try to forget
Who we were during the part of the whole process.

Even if we did figure it all out, who we were supposed to be;
Never fearing about the fall-out and remembering our need to be free,
Even if we did stutter to make the best of it,
Did we ever try to feel like a complete part of it?

Who are you chasing?
Is it a part of you that you left behind or just another one of your own created versions?
At the centre of it all, we're still the same person
Who we were and we never tried to escape it, all we did was just reshape it.

We're running in tails of who we wanted to be
Never realizing how much we want to be the one we were supposed to be
But who are we supposed to be?
What's the cost of happiness we ask,
Is it drowning into your problems or giving life a way to seep through you?

Every tangent is different, every experience will take you away from your circle,
to make you feel something more
But that might not be the only way to grow, but it surely will be the right one
They say 'go with the flow' without ever telling the real truth,
Go with the flow as long as you don't crash and burn.

Chaos is everywhere, within you and without you
In chaos there's meaning, there's truth
It's inevitable but so are you
Each chaos is your tangent, maybe the aftermath is not the complete you,
It won't matter though as long as you take the exit
And get back to where you were before.

At the end when the dust settles, you're still your self
Your version who thought he was better than your previous self,
It was harmonious knowing what you know now
Even if you found yourself and how,
Knowing you'll never go back to being the same person you were,
before life consumed you and you became the paranoia that only you know.

You are still the centre of your creations,
Raking chaos in your way of finding a meaning.
Trying not to lose yourself along the way,
Before you fade away.
438 · Sep 2020
Why do I write?
Maybe I am following a light,
A junction from where I took right
Some days I'm just chasing a high,
Is it just some words arranged tight
Or is it chastising yourself through the night?
For when the sun is shining bright,
I love taking my emotions for a flight.
I'm not hunting for any limelight,
Nor do I have any foresight.
I'm just driving through the misery and the plight,
Knowing I will always stop at a red light
Like a deer in the headlights
I'm trying to be my self-guiding light,
Try as I might.
Sometimes we don't even need a reason, but for days when the reasoning is strong, it must be upheld and respected. Cheers to all kinds of poets :)
437 · Jun 2020
Growing up
The meaning of growing up,
Perhaps lost in translation
I never realized what it meant,
To lose your innocence
And the feeling of playing catch up,
When the train had left the station.
432 · Nov 2020
Up in Smoke
If the spirit isn't broke,
Yet all your dreams are up in smoke,
Whose ego will you now stroke?
Was it always a joke?
The famous saying goes - If it ain't broke don't fix it. Sometimes there are imperfect pieces to a perfect puzzle. The human spirit, though imperfect, has the power to change almost everything unless ego gets in the way.  

Your spirit vs your ego - Who will win?
426 · Nov 2020
The Old Tales
A trip down
The memory lane
Of simpler times
And happier days
Rekindling those vibes
With a few pals of mine,
The old tales of summer
Jumping around,
Even in pain,
Chasing ice cream trucks
On our bikes
For our favourite flavours
The old tales of winter
Trying to look cool,
Cracking lame jokes
Exhaling,
What we used to pretend
Was smoke
This conversation was special
I was out of touch
But not out of time,
For the very first time
I think you may consider yourself lucky if you are still in touch with your childhood friend(s); like talking about nothing substantial but the glory days of summers and winters gone by. I think we have seasonal associations with some people, some stay for a season and others for a reason.
424 · Aug 2020
Expectations
Expectations,
They take their toll
Some are hard to fulfil,
While the others are just stories untold.
Things that are just way beyond
Your wildest capabilities
Diving deep into it,
Can sometimes hurt your worth.
Sometimes we often judge ourselves,
With the number of expectations met
No matter how far you go,
You will always be in debt.
Life feels like a plethora of experience,
But a dearth of emotions.

Maybe I am too young
To be feeling this old,
But the burden of expectations
Takes me down
And makes me feel cold.
This is what I'm feeling
Now and then
That in all of the universe
There is nobody for me,
While everything is changing
and there's nothing I can do.

My world is turning pages
And I am just sitting here,
wondering
How do people live without fear?
The fear of failure
Is it the lack of expectations?
From themselves or others
Is that the answer
To a simpler and happier life?
Maybe I should just drop it all,
And follow my heart
Cross some lines
and just feel alive.
Honestly, expectations from yourself are the only ones worth keeping and sometimes it serves you well to take a break from it too if needed. However, most of us, at some point in time or another, are often bogged down by what is going on in the world around us and what people expect us to do. We often look outside rather than inside and we all have different ways of dealing with it. May we all find the strength to set and fulfil the right expectations without losing everything in it - for that isn't worth the cost of your happiness.
422 · Nov 2020
Night
Morning sun comes
Nowhere to hide with the lights around,
Always waiting for the night.
This goes out to all the nocturnal animals, who are at one with themselves only at night.
411 · Jul 2020
Self worth
People don't have a clue,
But the fact is indeed true
Your self worth is always in your hand,
Only you can make your life grand
The admiration of others
Has no strength,
But this world is crazy
For people go to an extreme length
Just to grab some eyeballs
Might not turn out to be the best idea
In the long haul
What we need is passion,
What we crave is attention
Don't tell me not to be myself,
Otherwise this whole life
Will be one long detention.
Learning to be yourself and evaluating your worth through you and not others.
398 · Jan 2021
Et tu, Brutus?
I don't have
great inspiration,
very often,
to write
but when I do,
the site stops working.
Why do you do this HP?
391 · Oct 2020
Dreams
Things that might be keeping me awake,
These tiring nights
Hypnotic dreams making connections,
Way beyond my comprehension.

Are they meant to keep you on your path?
Or grow out of it and fly above the clouds?
An illusion of control?
Or a way to fulfil your soul?

Perplexed at those vivid pictures,
Of places and people left behind
Maybe sometimes just stuck in your mind,
Turning me into a beast of burden.

Wake up from my somnambulism
To find me back in bed
With sunken eyes, holding my head
No meaning to this pretence.

A lullaby went wrong,
A state of trance
A voice inside my head,
Speaking to me like I still had a chance.

'I know you know your pain,
Here's a ticket to hop on that train
The path is treacherous with mist all around,
But have faith, you are heaven bound'

Till the morning comes and the sun is shining bright
Still ******* in my fictitious knots,
I wake up from the slumber
Realizing it's not up to me to join the dots.

Was never great at reading signs
Been living with these feelings somehow,
At the end of the tunnel, there's a light that shines
Time to face the music now.
Oh dreams, what are you?
Coming every night,
Most of the times I don't even remember
Is it good news or bad?
All I know is I need you
For where the world would be,
Without people who had dreams and acted upon them.
388 · Aug 2020
Galaxy
Maybe I was wrong searching for the brightest star in the sky,
When I could have found the entire galaxy in your eyes.
A love worth the depth of an entire galaxy - myth or reality?
386 · Sep 2020
Ten years
Two years ago, I was still in love.
I was trying to build a new home with someone, upon the clouds above.

Four years ago, I was leaving my home to head to a new city.
I was trying to make a name for me, in a place of immense complexity.  

Six years ago, I was turning eighteen.
I was trying to make big plans so that my mother is proud of her gene.

Eight years ago, I was still in high school.
I was trying to survive through it rather than looking cool.

Ten years ago, I was a completely different person altogether.
I was trying to build bonds and friendships that would last forever.

Now that ten years have passed, I still feel the same.
Time has gone past like a flash, but there is no one left to blame.
381 · Dec 2020
Decisions
I don't need you
to question
my decisions,
as I do that
well myself,
a plethora of voices
to account for
no reaction,
maybe one
sanguine voice
will rise,
to drive a change
and take me away
from a desolate
morbid graveyard
to yet deserted
but pristine meadows,
with nothing but
a hope
to grow
rather than
just fade away,
and maybe
that is just enough.
The seed of all this indecision isn't me, I'm perfectly capable of making alright decisions.
Well, maybe not that often.  
But at least I'm in control.
380 · Dec 2020
The Key
In a world full of locked doors,
You hold the key to mine.
My younger innocent self wrote this about an ex.

Now I'm older and wiser, or am I?
379 · Jun 2020
Fragile
Fragile, as all things of value are, defines life
Small little things, we often overlook
Forgetting the context, we often realise
What makes up our existence?
Are we always chasing the unknown?
Swimming in a sea of feelings, trying to find the shore.

Trying to process these feelings
It never seems easy
What matters, in the end, is the conquest
Your name in a victory,
To help take meaning away
From all the wrong things you've done
Why do we even need anything
To feel satisfactory?

A sense of pressure puts us down,
Bringing upon a frown
On our fragile little faces
I thought I could be happy forever,
Rather than caring about expectations
Moving on rather than switching off
The past seems like yesterday
Hoping that this evasion from myself,
Will, in one way or other, finally pay off.
376 · Aug 2020
Part of Sun
I feel like having a little part,
A little part of the sun
Like the hope that it brings
Seeking to catch the rays of positivity
To bring some of it into my life,
To still burn brighter,
Rather than burning out
By all things that lead you
To you dismay,
Winding you down at the end of the day.

Sometimes it's perplexing
When I try to rise and shine,
To be brighter than life
These rays of the sun
When it gives me hope,
Knowing full well it will all come undone
By my discretion
With which I can't even cope
Things have some way to spiral,
Spiral out of control
Tricking me into believing
If I even had that power for a fleeting second
Well, some things have a bitter end
There's an end to this pretend
I'm trying to give it more,
More than it needs
Despite knowing the truth
Which is not so great as it always fades,
By the layers of the facade that lie underneath
Can't be unearthed,
It all feels surreal
But the effort is, in fact, very real.

Going back to the childhood days,
When you were bright as the day
Somewhere hidden these memories still lay
Pictures of your innocence,
Dragging you around
The bluntness of reality leaves you to astound
All I'm looking for is a haven
A sanctuary for healing the wounds,
Maybe I'm chasing the wrong thing
Maybe all I need is somebody
Somebody to share the pain,
Someone to hold hands with
Under the beautiful rain
They always say that when you have love,
You don't need anything else
Maybe that is my answer,
Maybe I've been asking all the wrong questions.

Getting over myself, I come to my senses
Life can't be lived in future tenses,
It is what is, right here and now
Not thinking about how you go out
But what you make of it while you still can,
The journey of this ever running man
Running away for myself,
From myself
Maybe I've got everything I need
If I live in this space between
The beauty and pain.

In need of a light
That goes on till by seemingly endless days
Thinking of the impossible, I know
What's the harm in thinking
Of a better place in my heart?
Rather than these graves that I've dug for myself
Where the cold wind blows
All I hear is the silence now,
Never heard it like that before
Trying to make sense of it all,
Still leaves me baffled somehow.

All I need is a little part,
A little part of the sun
To feel the burn,
To feel the warmth inside
A perpetual storm resides within,
Cold winter snow in my soul
The fluctuations of my reality
Finally taking its toll
The moment is edging closer
So I decided to drop this act like a poser
Its time to be real, be a man
I would need a new plan
To deal with these mistakes
From which I can't outrun
Although it is easier said than done
But all I need,
Is a little part of the sun.
373 · Oct 2020
Work
Greatness isn't for those,
Who gets satisfied merely by seeing their old work
And think 'This is it!'
But instead for those who observe their own work,
And think 'I wonder how I can top this'.
Being a born genius would have been great, life would have been somewhat simpler - maybe, who knows?

But since it is not, we might as well learn and improve ourselves on this journey - the payoff would be much better. Maybe, who knows?
363 · Jun 2020
Vision
Without the vision, people are rarely reminiscent
Of what they have been looking for,
And fall into a deep torpor.
Maybe it's this slumber that makes them realize,
All that they wanted to be was right there
In front of their own eyes.
With such strong desires held in her soul,
A fire was ignited in her heart
A rustling of leaves somewhere in the woods,
Where she sat somewhere along the brook
Pondering to herself,
Is happiness all I seek?
Or maybe it is just one of life's very old tricks
And it reeks.
With such a heavy heart
She walks alone into the woods,
Contemplating whether life is something
She ever understood.
358 · Dec 2020
It's Uncertain
getting you was
a cup of tea
holding onto you,
misery for me.

when you imagined
I'd go down on my knee
my first instinct,
was just to flee.

oh, can it be?
your voice is calling me
will you finally
set my soul free?
It's just your voices against mine.
357 · Sep 2020
Autopilot
The time when,
The self-belief system is down
And you are running on autopilot,
Is the time to start asking some real questions.
353 · Sep 2020
Scars
I knew that scars
Will never take me far,
But if I learn some way
To live with it
And heal somehow,
I could be my very own star.
350 · Jul 2020
Chasing
Chasing clarity but seeking suspense
Chasing love but seeking defence
Chasing freedom but seeking pretence
Chasing life but seeking a fire from incense.
The ever-conflicting needs of heart and mind.
In the words of The Rolling Stones, 'you can't always get what you want'.
349 · Aug 2020
Happy
You can't always be happy,
Otherwise, you might fail to realize
The value of a smile after you frown,
The essence of getting up when you're down
The things you do when you try to have a lasting change,
When you try to have the priorities in your life rearranged
For even the darkest night will end,
And the sun will again rise
You are willing to be a new person,
But are you willing to pay that price?
Working towards achieving a sense of lasting happiness is a real effort not many are willing to undertake. It requires hard work and dedication to improve your own self to be more positive and happy. Even though it seems like a distant dream, for being happy is about living in the moment and sometimes overcoming them too.
339 · Aug 2020
Why?
If loving her wasn't a crime,
Why do I still feel like I'm doing time?
Am I a prisoner of my own desires?
338 · Dec 2020
Games of Luck
In these games of luck,
I've lost more than I've ever won
Don't wanna seem like a schmuck,
But this time I'll get it done.
Here's to putting it all on the line now.

This time let's play to win, shall we?
333 · Sep 2020
Those Three Words
Those three words,
That you were so desperate to hear
And I was too afraid to speak,
Are now the difference
Between pleasure and pain
Between lightning and rain
Between effortless and strain
Between pride and shame.
The value of those three words is hard to comprehend unless you are very sure but, once you are there, it is very pure.

Have you ever spoken a lot of words but don't know if it is true?

Sentiment always triumphs the number of words spoken, unless those words are 'I love you'.
332 · Jul 2020
Cyclic destiny
The cycle of life seems never-ending,
Is it just a matter of life and death?
Or is it much beyond that?
Things that often seem out of control,
With you playing just like a pawn in the game.
All you can focus on is your actions,
And nothing else.
You can let your actions define your destiny,
even though it might not turn out to be that easy.
The more you try to control it,
The more it seems far away.
To die freely, you must live within means
Although we have different perceptions of the word,
The feeling seems deserted.
There is freedom in solitude,
People move away with eyes averted.
A free bird but with weighted consequences of his actions. No decision goes unaffected. Karmic destiny awaits.
328 · Sep 2020
Maze
I'm trying to trick my brain to be happy
Although it is hard to face reality,
Carrying remorse and guilt from my past
It's stopping me in my tracks to run away fast,
But everyone is running away from their paths sought
The only question is for what?

I'm trying to lie down and take a break,
But there's always this urge to stay awake,
Just trying to give my heart a rest
From this unfair pain in my chest
Used to think I was clever
Are we going to do this dance forever?

I want to run the clock back to the good old days,
When I was carefree and outside the maze
Here I feel stuck with my feelings,
Does this prison have no ceiling?
Maybe the time I stop lying to myself,
Is when I finally start trying for myself.
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