Sunday, June 24, 2018

Immaturity

About the time one desultory year slipped into another
And everywhere, all around me, well-laid plans were falling into place
And mine were blowing up in my face
Immaturity willed itself
To stand up and make a name

Though neither a virtue nor a vice
But looked upon with scorn nonetheless
In a tepid world of virtues preaching themselves
With monotonous regularity and unbounded affectation
It was immaturity that held me together

Pushed me towards stubborn optimism at first
And then just plain stubbornness
As I was gathering my thoughts in earnest
About what ought to be done
Of a future ever present

The eternal validity of a life-plan cannot be denied
To those born to order and rigidity
The steps they took neatly outlined to conformity
For if a thousand follow the path most certain
‘Tis expected the thousandth and first would do the same

But a leap into thin air was what I opted for
Even if I land among nettles and thorns,
and that failure could wait at every turn
For who can tell unless one tries
What’s in store for the impetuous soul?

Carefree it wanders, o’er prudence and foresight
And truth be told, when money is scarce
Reason too is scarce;
The call of the whim is strong, there-in lies a foolhardy gamble
In times such as these, the saddest words are 'you can’t'

Wherein an oft repeated hope is enough to blind one
To much of the mundane realism
And to all of our hardened pragmatism
I listened, yet again, to the whisperer of idle thoughts
And off I went to chase a glimpse of what they promised

And now that I have been struck
by the damnation of dreams
with equanimity slowly being swept into a tidal stream
Immaturity has well-nigh placed me
on the path of crass ridicule and insensitive mirth

So a fool’s wisdom is all that I am to be left with
and nothing else to gain, no not even a dour outlook
but the stoic composure of a wet rook
as Immaturity’s grip gets washed away
under a spell of the cold and sombre rain


Thursday, November 16, 2017

The Pearl Diver's Song

(A rather simple song that I composed a few months back - a metaphor for the phd )

Raindrops are falling at you
Rainclouds are coming at you
A stray wind is blowing
all the way to the shoreline

Oh (baby) baby I know
what it is to be sure
I've been listening to the silence around me

But too many days in a row
spent in the chase of a haven
I've been walking beside all the trappings
of following this little trail
and get a little disillusioned, for a fading resolution
when the nacre's glow is lost
in a beautiful world.

I've been blinded, I've been defeated
The sun shone a strong light
and the waves were unyielding

Oh maybe baby... I guess
I've been diving too deep
I've been missing all the signs on the surface

But I can remember a day
When the opaline waters were calm
I held a hope in my heart
The shell won't be empty this time

It was my calling all this while
I'm gonna catch the final mile
before I swim back up the shore to a beautiful world

where I can be
cool when the summer wind blows/
warm when the winter fire glows/
calm when the harmony breaks/
and sing a song
that's playing on a one-man band

(but for now
i'll  just catch
the last rays of the sun
before the light is gone,
and with it the opaline glow.....)




Sunday, October 29, 2017

Silver Linings

(song that I composed two years back)

Flickering in and out, inside of a dream
One of the fated stars is out of my reach
Call off the Revenant now, he’s walking behind
But things are never as they seem

So it’s wicked wasting time
When I’ve got nothing but affection for you
With happiness stuck in this series of trade-offs,
it’s freedom that’s all that is left to taste
to figure out this conundrum

So what would you say if I just stop for awhile
I was enchanted by my immortal child
When all of my favourite things were falling behind
We were dancing on the rainbow’s edge

A wayward pact in time
When I felt nothing but connected to you
If happiness came with a lock and a golden key
I’d be lost searching for what it’s worth
When everything is upside down

So it’s wicked wasting time
When I got nothing but affection for you
We were caught on the fulcrum of the anger and the doubt
but there was love
interceding

No I don’t believe this life was meant to be hard
Weighed down with all the things that we could discard
I have been sitting still in a garden of stone
My thoughts were bouncing off the rocks

Walking in between silver linings on the freeway
Well I kept my gaze on the spark of a distant light
It’s been a while since I took the map
I’m spinning on a circus wheel





Tuesday, May 2, 2017

In search of a hypothesis


          ruminating…..
        or, is this fabricating?
        grasping at straws
        or, bending the laws?
        my thoughts are swimming
        in a sea of doubt
        an idea stripped of meaning
        will stand naked in a rout
        my theory is not a lone shark
        looking for its mark
        rather ‘tis a spluttering shrimp,
        that’s served with wine…. to the brim,
        to be eschewed by critics
        who’ve got a bone to pick.







Monday, April 30, 2012

SUBLIME


O Joyous hour! To have come when least expected!
To gentle talks and carefree conversation,
A buoyant mood o’er a smile reflected,
‘Tween tea-sips and quiet contemplation.

O Happy day, that bequeath a space in time
When the fair hand of fate brought an invisible friend
That rests a man from discordant rhyme
And the hour chimes with nary an end

And we as children once were, laughed with gaiety,
Once again to wit, swayed by humour,
Learned to dispel archaic notions in a moment’s clarity,
Ready to welcome the novel with the familiar

A surprise gift of Time these merry seconds!
When a cheery spirit taketh us over,
Haunts us once we resume our day’s errands
For we had chanced upon a four-leaf clover!

And the heart is light, might it not be a red-herring?
A brief delight, as the day fleeted by,
Stay a while even if there be no bearing
To the work and task we strive hereby!

For truth be told, O blessed hour, whether ye chime
In solitary walks or in the guise of friends; Ye awaken
A real joy; delightful nuggets dispersed o’er a lifetime
Much as the spring tree showers flowers on fields once barren.






  

Saturday, January 21, 2012

The Lost Path


(My take on a Dave Matthews song that I like called The Dreaming Tree)

I

The chair creaked silently

And the old man turned to me
"Before tall buildings took away the sunshine
There stood greenfields where black-winged sparrows used to fly"
Feeding the birds down by the brook
He would dream the dreams of youth
The promise made to the girl he first kissed
And watched children play under summer trees
Progress robbed simplicity
Established a hollow novelty
A brick wall for a view
And a shadow on the morning grass dew
Worked hard till a dime changed to gold
Gave a little to the brethren soul
"A rich man's fortune I gladly amassed
And little did I notice the things that I passed"
As time slowly changed endless greenfields
To the dead-end of the street
He remembered what his mother once said
"No matter what some treasures never fade"
And now in the ageing sun of the day
He longs to be where black-winged sparrows play
And before the fall of dark
He hastens to catch the song of the last skylark

II



Sitting by the window
Faded beauty in the warm glow
She remembers the little girl dancing in frills
To the sound of flutes in the distant hills
Confident of a future that was hers for the taking
She worked hard for fame's slippery fortune
Friends, gladly did they come when riches were many
But shallow was the promise of a dream once held dear
And turning she says
"I wish I had the  strength to leave it all,
for the clear sound of the water-fall"
And she thinks of what her father said
"As you dance oft to the bagpiper's song
The bone-chilling cold vanishes ere long"
I could see her gazing at the Blue hills
constant in an ever-changing landscape
A place of sweetest comfort
Sleeping beauty in a mountain hut
A time of innocent dreams
and a hope that conquered fear
And with a smile that hid it all
She battles once again the darkness that is life
For true was the call of the bagpiper's tune
As she hastens to claim a lost fortune














Sunday, August 21, 2011

In Each of us Lies a Story Untold


In each of us lies a story untold
In each of us lies a word unspoken

In each of us lies a tear unshed
In each of us lies a chuckle unheard

In each of us lies a joy unshared
In each of us lies a smile unseen

In each of us lies an idea unattended
In each of us lies talent undiscovered

In each of us lies a hurt unacknowledged
In each of us lies endurance untested

In each of us lies a song never sung
And a dance never danced

In each of us lies a struggle unexpressed
In each of us lies courage unknown

In each of us lies failure unanticipated
In each of us lies progress unrecorded

And one day if you want to share
This story that is yours

For a reason not important; nor to be judged right or wrong
but simply to lighten your heart

And know that you are not alone,
I am listening.