Your wealth
in exchange
for my health?
That I can't accept:
my peace
would be taken away
nothing of value
would I have left

your health
you must cultivate
looking else
is but dearth

I do pity you
for what
you can't have.

I admire the intuition
of women, also their patience

West: go for the  know

Zen:   the getting go--follow

Love is strange
in its hidden
unknown way
and so often
refuses to change

Ah, the world is drowning

fast drowning in 'positive thinking'

overloaded is the boat of living

all set for the impending sinking!


copyright 2025

The pen obeys
the heart
in all ways:
the two never part

The world's greatest culprit-
the ubiquitous, iniquitous Iphone
it never, never leaves you alone!

Life is either
this or that:
those who are wise
choose what makes them glad

Where there's love
there's spiritual growth

I choose resilience
over strength:
it holds me up better
and I'm made always consistent

Those who have conquered
    the most acute pain
    are immune to every adversity:
    life's most vital lesson they have learnt

This moves me so deeply:
   a flight of birds on wing
   across a clear blue sky
   at the first flush of morning

  or upon the in-setting
  of a soft tender evening
  as through my window, watching
  my poem in completing

  with the last lines impending  
  in beauty enriching -
  time I forget, lost in reverie
  with my heart in throbbing

as for my love I'm waiting-
hush, I'm wondering
where the birds are heading
and feeling they and I are in happiness-sharing

Be humble , in this
the world you will inherit

Every day is fresh air
if I don't reach out
my life would be wanting
in every way

Golden words
I've silently hidden
in my tender heart
yet to be spoken

in their appointed hour
I'll then be ready to utter
after the door of love is open
and I'll be your chosen lover

I must wake up
I've dreamt too long
last year's spring-roses
have all gone- the song

I should have sung
has been left fallow
love's door is shut-
and tomorrow

I'm not sure
whether my voice
would still hold
as with past joys

when life so bold was-
all wonder and splendour
has now fled, never to return
as I move on, a lonely drifter

A kiss
can be prelude
to love
or is just
a one-off-
each case differs
with its story
whether happy
or unhappy
in varying intensity

and those
who haven't
kissed before
or being kissed
know not
its mystery
and what
has been missed

.....but body language
    can be fake

Little house on hill
doors and windows always locked
birds settle on top

The most vulnerable and weakest
in their moments darkest
can be transformed
into the most courageous

Everyone is doing something
but it's questionable
whether it has meaning

Only by our inside
can we be sanctified

Please do, please judge me
I've never claimed infallibility

Live
oh live now
ere the die
is cast-
evening
is setting
daylight
is fading
the heart
is aching
even beauty
cannot last

think not
of the future
set aside
all conjecture-
if love is waiting
there should be
no tarrying-
not responding
might witness
its dying

as you're reading
this writing
it's my wishing
that this moment
of glory and blessing
you'll rush
without hesitating
for the embracing

I'm writing
by the riverside
as the last beams
of the moon subside

I drift on
as in a dream
lost in fantasies
and reveries

I feel dewdrops
on my head, falling
my hair is all stirred
by the wind in drifting

my heart is torn and weary
lost love revisits and is saying:
'  Fate did not allow our consummating
   let the past die--so, with the remembering'

Many will find
my music
unmusical
untamed
defiant
of tradition-
rough
rugged-
not evidently clear
of resolution

but those
who understand
will stand by me
as I've broken
into new territory
as a brave mind
seeking
a new musical trajectory-
history
will not reject
but remember me!

Beethoven towers
over me, so heavily
how could I contemplate
writing a symphony?

No Promethean
am I, puny -
'twas my struggle
endlessly, musically

to have written four-
the future will judge me
whether I stood equal
to Beethoven the All-Mighty

to my beloved Schumann
I owe an eternal duty
but for his tutelage
I'd but appear a mere footage in history

Keats will above
everyone, understand
just as George Sand
the burden and pain
of my illness
and loneliness
my desolation :

he wrote so sublimely:
'Now more than ever
seems  it rich to die
to cease upon the midnight
with no pain...'

how this resonates
with every strain
of my 'Nocturnes'-
I weep
and I can't sleep:
the night's shadows
encircle me
and no memory
of joy
do I keep.

My illness, painful
  and prolonged
  does new musical paths
  create--every note
  has sweetness
in melancholy -
if well you listen
you'd understand

Think only
    this of me:
    melody
    melody
    divine melody!

My songs*- the saddest-
       is what I love the utmost

     * singular verb as 'my songs are' is a single collective

Serious is my music
but you'll see me
happy at the pool-
much of life is comedy!


billiards

I don't write only
on peace, calm, joy
or all that which is tender-
my Sturm und Drang
impels me to break
with tradition-
my music
is revolt, defiance
a smite on the face
of fate:
the world
shall say
when I'm gone:
'Beethoven is anger!'

I'm a bird-
I sing!

....and this
i readily accept
some of my writings
do not make the grade

I know no darkness
I carry with me my inner light

Dreaming is healthy--
it shows us our other hidden side
we gain with such better insight

My poetry
I don't organise
it must do so
on its own
and thus
beauty will arise
in every worthy guise

The puppy speaks not
        ev'ry gesture is of love
        always remembered

When comes the muse
you can't step away or refuse
the words must flow, freely so
and your finest thoughts will follow

Life is heavy
my burden
I'll lighten
taking all things easy-
tears there are
too many
humbly
quietly
I accept
still free
to live
meaningfully

dark moments
don't scare me
they come
they dissipate
whatever
the misery
I've borne
such courageously

joys there are
in between
so lightly
so gently
I hold them
knowing well
their ephemerality

time
the eternal sentinel
watches nonchalantly
our human condition
it neither feels
nor does it pity

I walk alone
I don't complain
despite my pain-
in self-emptying
I find my final victory

Don't tell
anybody-
just be!

If I were
   too ******* myself
   could I be
   gentle with anyone else?

Last night I dreamt
of being stranded
on a lonely island
like Crusoe
but I was unafraid
as my mobile
in my pocket
I had

but alas!
Connection
there was none
and I got desperate

suddenly
came a gigantic wave
with a shark
within it
so near
it came to me
its jaws
it unfolded-
I yelled
for help
and mercifully
woke!

There's a broader
form of love
over the personal :
the love of living
that covers the above

never in conflict
but in each other abiding:
the art of living
brings greater joy
to individual loving

I'd rather be
an alive coward
than to be
a hero dead

Silence
is wisdom
unexpressed
in its own rightful place

Prestige?
The sure way
to future grief!

We'll meet--you and I
       but on equal terms only
       otherwise all goes to waste
       and the result would be misery!

It's never
too late
to create:
if writing
you love
get ahead!