FINGERTIP
( for Shyam )

as a little child
I travelled

up & down the Ganges
its sister Yamuna..her brother Brahmaputra

their names
upon my tongue

my voice calling them
into being

awed by their sound
mantras for my mind

riding their waters
in the little ship

of a
fingertip

traveling only as a child
can

now
here I am

still that child
become this man

still offering
my devotion

from the Dev Bhoomi I come

tracing Shiva's hair
from here to there

"Ganga Ma...Ganga Ma!" I cry
herding the river

from Gaumukh
watching her

spread her fan
into the Bay of Bengal and beyond

still sailing the same old
fingertip ship

a bit old and
battered now

soon I will stand
on Indian soil

call all my childhood rivers
to me

bow as they
flow into me

their names
upon my tongue

calling upon
all the Gods to come

as
one

"OM!"

OUT OF SIGHT
( for Shyam )

A constellation
comes to rest

amongst the branches
of a young tree

plays with
her leaves

for a little while

then when I turn
my head away

it rests
upon the ground

pretends to be a cobweb
stretched from hedge to hedge

and only in the very act
of my turning back

does it leap
into the sky

as if
"nothing"
had happened

an owl gives a hoot
but no one is listening

not even the moon
asleep on a hill

a mile or so
away

the constellation clasped
upon the night

beautiful as a brooch
made out of time

the squeak squeak
of a bicycle wheel

that needs an oiling

as I cycle slowly slowly
around the bend

the tick tick of the spokes
and. . .

. . .out of sight.

*


I wrote it walking around the Taj Mahal on a cold foggy morning with a shy Taj Mahal dressed in a respectable fog and nowhere to be seen...when this poem popped into being.

In India thinking of Ireland. I remember being on a beach in Lampadusa with the sun hitting a hundred and writing about furze ablaze with yellow on the Curragh of Kildare.

Shyam( the King of Kindness )was like a constellation stretching himself from the here to the there in his efforts to look after us in a regal fashion.

His good nature and kindness reminded me of this memory when I was very happy and living in this tiny moment.

He was everywhere and even when he wasn't there...he was there. Our lucky Shyam...bad pun on his name!