Hitchhiker

Winter In Me

2012-01-12T09:09:00.001-08:00

You who lies there
Silent and vacant as a tree
With your roots going nowhere
I speak to you now.

Winter comes undone in circles around you
And I
Break the only knot I know.

And as I unwind on orphaned roads
I speak but stay silent about tombstones
Watching my dark city sweep
Its filth under the pavements.

I know
I rage without a reason
I burn without a flame
My voices have no words
Anymore

Yet, the winter in me waits
As my voice awaits your presence
Like water shackled within a glass
Waiting the release of your lips.
Wishing to spill
Into your conversations
When I’m not there.

And I wish, as only a dreamer would
To hold the world in your eyes
To touch you with my words
With my silence
To hold you
To bite each day to its very core
To call each thing
By its right name.

To wake and find
The roads are washed and pure
The skies are clear and leaves are green
To find, suddenly, the sparks are flames.

Names

2012-01-12T08:39:00.001-08:00

But everything must be filled with time,
Or at least, a reminder of the same.
That's why there is no silence
That's why we have names.

You

2011-12-15T08:58:00.000-08:00

I find you in things that don’t make sense.
In cries of the spoon when I stir my tea
In traces of melting sugar on its steel.
In the eye of every glass
I find I don’t see myself at all.
I find you when I am faceless and I lose myself
In dark corners and paths I walk away from
And never stare back
In creases of my unironed clothes
In threads that come undone and unravel like the seasons
In dents and curves of my misshapen body
In the dust that rises from people in a hurry
And settles back, like time itself.
Sometimes I talk with insanity
At times I give my thoughts a name
And sometimes she comes to me with faces I knew
In silence that I break too soon
With my unkempt words
On empty pages that always win
In melting wax gathered next to a flame
In tears I shed over those I don’t know
In a yellow moon, half eaten by the sun
In words and gestures I don’t hear and overlook
In strands of hair sticking to my skin
Like an ill-treated memory
I’m afraid, my love,
I’m turning into you.

Ugly

2011-11-15T08:59:00.000-08:00

What is age when your skin is a pearl
Unlike mine, love,
Stretched out
As a dry riverbed
Ghost flake puzzles.
Yet your mouth quivers like an arrow
Stretched upon a bow
Reaching out to catch me.
Your tongue lashing,
Like a bird in a cage
Violence, pain and love
In the tunnel of your eyes.

What good are my arms, my feet, my legs
Forever inching closer
Nudging your ribs
Colliding like ungentle waves
Like the only place I know.

What good is my hair
Thinning out, tied
In knots by the wind
A tangle of tension threads.

What good are my words
When they only pierce the past
Thin as paper with bullet holes
And the future dissolves
In promises of tomorrow.

And as age shines on you
Like a dawning sun
Dry leaf, I should know
I’m unworthy of a green stem.

Page

2011-11-15T08:34:00.000-08:00

There are no tears or songs,
Shades of blue and violet from the sky
Locks of your dark hair caught in the sun,
The emptiness of smoke escaping your lips,
Filling the void in between
But words that make this poem.
Words and distance.
Words and promises.
Words and silence.
When i rise no more,
From your eye or your storm.
From a dusty cupboard.
From a torn page.

Naming the Void

2011-10-16T02:45:00.000-07:00

The ropes are gone
Lost in a garden of wretched believers
And I, vigilante
Let my dreams soar
For a clear, white day.
Like a string less kite, departed leaf
Like a lonely wave
Washing your feet.

Only mere strings remain
And I, lost in a maze
Of vile beliefs
Pour labyrinth into my cup
Swallow it down the abyss.

And in the distance, as far
As the eye can see the grey
The box is undone
The walls are bare
The mirror is empty
For her reflection is gone.

And the threads, the threads, threads
The threads grow thinner still.

*awesome photo by Ipshita :)

Home for Norah

2011-10-08T04:51:00.000-07:00

I walked by the forgotten home
Of her youth
The wind sailing through broken windows
Beckoning the aged, blackened wood
To speak and sing.
I walked by ghosts and
Through the sun
Lighting a dead lamp with life
I took a page
Wet with yellow light and walls and
I wrote this down,
Not by the sweat on the brow
Of your weather-beaten blue eyes
That haunt your lovers and have
Seen too much but never enough.
Not by the river that flows
Through your skin, flooding with rage when it rains
Leaving lines of sand.
And not, by your wise hands that
Hold these green, breathing mountains
That rise and fall and make
Roads along the moon.
I will heal by the soles
Of your ashen feet
That mirror the land
You call home.

Across the Inch

2011-10-08T04:49:00.000-07:00

The rains chase you away to shelter
Away from childhood
Away from puddles and all the children
Away from the promises
Of a rain swept road.
As we dry with our rhymes and our rants
With our lethal habits
With our music and all our secrets
With a fear of growing old.

Flow

2011-09-02T10:33:00.000-07:00

Late night
2 am
Woman's footsteps
Echo regrets.

There is no poetry
In being alone
There is no solace
In a heart without a home.

Elegy for an Island

2011-08-11T08:54:00.000-07:00

Once I swam
In a sea in your eyes
Where memories of fear and longing
Passed me by.

Then I came to a shore
Where your lips did rest
And I quenched my thirst
And never left.

Perhaps the wind knew
Where time was going
I sat in the shade of your hair
Dark and flowing.

Your breath lulled me
To sleep and I
Sang songs to your name
And closed my eyes.

And as I slid down your smooth your neck
Your skin, it did gleam
And the island of your body slowly swayed
In the sunset of my dream.

Perhaps the wind knew
Where the birds were going
I sat in the shade of her hair
Dark and knowing.

Then I ran, on a field on her spine
And found my reasons
Sheltered in her breast
The seasons will forever be unkind
To you and I, who wander aimless.

Soon, the clouds gathered
And a storm did come
Where the armies all departed
With their bugles and their drums.

And I made a raft
To brave the tides
When sun set, as
The light from your eyes.

If you find me drifting
With my planks and my oars
Leave me like the wind
But guide me to the shore.

*photo by Piret

Shadow dance

2011-08-08T02:28:00.000-07:00

She raises a wall of unheard gestures, vacant words, of silence...instead of building a bridge of voices. I try to replace a void shaped liked her with her shape. I dance with her shadow while she avoids the spotlight, vary of the light, surrounds herself with her dark hair and forgets the world holding a cigarette. I collide with plans i made yesterday, colours i played with and often wore while she tries to barge that door that would let it all in and wont let her sleep.

Black and white's good for now, played with grey for far too long.

Ache

2011-08-03T09:22:00.000-07:00

To not hear her gentle breath
Going tender still with
The aching of the sun.
To not trace the contours on her skin
And to watch them change with time
As the candle melts.
To watch the clock ticking slowly
And day turn to night again
To carry love like a stain, after
Waving love like a flag.
To call out and receive only my echo in return
And to speak with little tongues,
With a wicked smile, as trouble does
Is not a gentle death.

*photo by Suzanne

Outside

2011-07-31T05:37:00.000-07:00

I came when the wine had flown
The sounds were silent
When the colours were dead.

I came
When the words were spoken
When the match was lit
When ashes remained.

I came when the clouds were gone
The earth was fresh
And the sun lay hid.

I came when the wind was tired
When the birds slept free
When the trees stood still.

And I came when you sang
When the wound had healed
When new colours ran
When words began
In circles of the well
From a broken shell
With not a soul to tell

So I come to you
Let me in.

The Morning After

2011-05-29T02:44:00.000-07:00

What shall I say to save the night?

If we go in circles,
This cut will never mend.

But round and round
Like wind and dust
We twist and turn and go,
As we must

To find ourselves again.

Flame of You

2011-05-29T02:39:00.000-07:00

My hands yearn to touch all that is you
Moon flesh, scattered Kohl and a bruise

While you take flight like desert sand
And unfurl the rain to
Wash our feet with summer.

And soon, when the stranger, that is you,
Departs
The sky falls silent with the sun
In the corner
And I watch the birds douse their fire
Beneath a silent shade.

Grant me a day to watch
The colourful armies at your pillow
Your skin and your waves
And your eyes that speak.

And like the new season
You don’t say much, but
Your tales are true and
Your words are fresh
Plucked from the tree of memory
Washed in the river of tomorrow
Thrust between your hesitant lips
To be consumed slowly
Slowly, like your flame.

The Cynic

2011-05-19T06:03:00.001-07:00

I sometimes feel
Most poetry is
Devoid of a poem.

Interesting, random, unimportant observations

2011-04-21T22:45:00.000-07:00

I’ve always thought most women do not look good with extremely dark lipstick or really bright nailpolish and that they usually get the colour wrong. When they wear the wrong shade of lipstick, I don’t know why, but to me, it looks like they have bad breath.

I’ve never been fat so whenever I put on a little bit of tummy weight, after bathing and seeing that my navel can hold some amount of water deeply unsettles me. Maybe I am a little bulimic, I don’t know.

Shaving my entire face makes me realize that I have dark brown/pink, almost purple-ish lips.

Old

2011-04-04T12:10:00.000-07:00

This is getting old, and maybe, so am I.

But I am not tired, and I am not done.

Four

2011-04-04T12:07:00.001-07:00

If there were four things i could do today, they would be -

to burn, to burn, to burn, and

to heal.

When You Are Not Here

2011-03-11T00:09:00.000-08:00

To you when you are not here
Words cannot contain your small hands
The curve beneath your eye, turning of your little toes
And pink lips like petals.

A page cannot hold you
The lazy river that you are
Beautiful, you curse and make your way
Through different shades of the evening moon
It cannot seize
The fire that you breathe, like
A crimson planet
And the threads you spin
With the needle of your fingers.

This is for you so that it stays with you and may
Touch you when you are not with me
And as I watch the curtains sleep,
In my cold, cold room
Silence speaks your name.

This is for the time when, in the unspoken language
Of glances, smiles and slight brush of your arm
We forgot about the sun and every clock
A time when we were
Mortals in our Eden
Looking for a place to fall.

Fade

2011-02-09T22:58:00.000-08:00

I annoy everyone. I guess sometimes you have to put up with me. It sucks to be confused about little things and memory bringing me down with forgetfulness all the time. I don't impress the ones i love with mostly anything i do anymore. Maybe just strangers who don't know what i look like and get confused about how to spell my name. I am going to be such a burden when i grow old.

Roads

2011-01-24T11:07:00.000-08:00

One thing I have learned - the way back is always easier.

Pieces

2011-01-24T10:59:00.000-08:00

Everyone finds somewhere to fit.

Woman

2011-01-24T10:49:00.000-08:00

The woman is born
Somewhere in the sea
She sleeps till the tides rest
And shudders in her dream
Like roots in winter

In a world where she falls like rain
And breaks in puddles
She takes the stars
In her eye
And casts them into the water

The woman breathes, and
Her voice and soul are silent
And her silence speaks in tears.
Nothing illuminates this heart
And her body made in silver.

Sheltered in her breast
Is a thirst or a word
A question and a bruise
A flame and many wings.

The woman is the sea
That speaks with her eyes
Submerging forgotten cities in your mind
She listens and overflows and speaks in waves.
Birthed into form by storm, sky and heat
Of the sun
She washes and summons
Your ear to the wind
To watch, to nurse your trembling fire
From where words will begin.

Story of a River

2010-12-31T01:18:00.000-08:00

A river cannot be spoken to
It will never agree with you.
A river is not a lover
It will never give in to your charms
A river is much like sand
It will slide through your palm

Like a winged bird
A river must be serenaded
A river must be heard.

Where I Find You

2010-12-24T13:12:00.000-08:00

Where have you gone?
My tender muse
Fled with your scent from my palette
My tenant of misfortunes

Have you fled where the grass doesn’t sing?
Or to a city where you find only winter
And no one smiles?

Awaken the night that
Sleeps in your hair
Enfold me in their darkness

Summon your purple stars
And let a few fall
So your wishes may come true.

Unleash the sleeping waterfall
Behind your ear.
So that you may reach me
In tears or a river.

Let me drink the moon water
From your eye
Let me be intoxicated in
The search of you.

And when I have reached the shores
Of my wisdom
I will lie peaceful
Like your lips in the morning

Find me
Through the sighing waves
Through a shadow dream
Find me, and collide.

Find me and find yourself
You begin where I end.

- for Suzanne

Some Can Call It a Prayer

2010-12-20T05:23:00.000-08:00

Don’t depart
My tender muse
Though your scent has fled
Everyone is a mirror for your face
Where crimson words are bled.

It is here I go
From room to room
Good tidings I hope to bring
The beauty that is lost in the gloom
Shall be nursed to sing.

Mother Nature

2010-11-04T00:47:00.000-07:00

Wrote this for my cousin's cousin, who lives in Mumbai...

You would not want anything
To happen to the sea
If you stand still and listen
To the waves running, dying and being reborn
At night.

Yes, there is life on this earth
In things that do not breathe.
A grain of sand, apple lines, river stream
Homeless clouds, fields of green grass
Glistening, well aged rocks may seem silent at first
But they all speak the language
Of nature.

And then there are sounds
That rise and fall
Of the eagle perched on a branch
Sparrows that make a home
Tigers and Leopards that hunt and succeed
Lizards and snakes that always warn
And then proceed.

Tusks, skin, claws, teeth
Wood, food, shelter are not reasons enough
For us to kill and maim
Or trap everything that is beautiful and not ours
And must be used, no.
For a caged bird will only sing so much
Until it erupts
Like the lava in the fury of a volcano
Like poison in the acid showers and the air
Like the cold that shall soon surround us all.

Save them, because
The only thing that needs to be forgiven
Is us.

Flower Wither Not

2010-10-16T08:46:00.000-07:00

Flower wither not
Brave the flames of the sun
Take the spears of the rain
Spread your roots and shine.

When autumn casts its shadow on you
And when the wind breaks
In dry whispers on your back
Sing of the seasons that shaped thee true
Speak of the gold
You took from the earth.

And when winter summons every leaf to bow
When its minions stoop to be unkind
Tell a tale of the fire in your heart
Your youth will beckon the thaw
In our minds

And soon, when the day is done
Your song will still be sung.

Flower wither not
Brave the flames of the sun
Take the spears of the rain
Spread your roots and shine.

Work

2010-10-03T01:32:00.000-07:00

When i get to work, I won't be done for a long, long time.

Sun

2010-10-03T01:29:00.000-07:00

Sun illuminates what the night can't.

A simple piece of blue plastic looks so nice in the day when it washes the walls of my house with its glow.

You have to be there to see it.

Brave

2010-10-03T01:25:00.001-07:00

I'm not afraid of the gushing water that lies ahead.

Yes, and let them laugh at my boat.

Boy

2010-10-03T01:21:00.000-07:00

I'm sinking.

Boats

2010-10-03T01:18:00.001-07:00

Empty, abandoned boats always make me feel melancholic.

Fishermen

2010-10-03T01:13:00.000-07:00

Anyone with clean feet is an outsider.

Storm

2010-10-03T01:09:00.000-07:00

I was glad as the storm passed by silently.

I'm afraid of lightning.

Art

2010-10-03T01:04:00.000-07:00

The best type of art is the one that can't be made.

Sky

2010-10-03T01:01:00.000-07:00

Have you ever fallen to the sky in your dreams, instead of just falling down?

Crawling

2010-10-03T00:53:00.000-07:00

I live here, and in many other places where you don't bother to look.

Intruder!

2010-10-03T00:50:00.000-07:00

They're not invading.

We did.

Tooth Fairy

2010-10-03T00:47:00.000-07:00

Dentists have a weird sense of humour.

Pills

2010-10-03T00:45:00.001-07:00

Take one if its broke.

Prayer of the clouds

2010-10-03T00:42:00.000-07:00

I'm not religious, but it was very cool to see a man praying in the sky.

Rain

2010-10-03T00:39:00.000-07:00

Coming back home on a rain swept road makes me think of you and your hurt more than ever.

Father

2010-10-03T00:35:00.001-07:00

I thought i wont tell anyone of this moment.

But just like you, sharing it is my way of making it special.

2010-09-03T01:15:00.001-07:00

How shall I speak of your dark hair?
That shrouds your moon face in mystery.
How shall I unfasten the roots that spread?
To hear you respire next to me.

Glimpse upon me through midnight’s eyes
On the heights where we lay
The wine on my lips when morning cries
Will ebb like sea today.

How shall I be lost?
On a mirage on your skin
Where I find a lonely desert, and
Wet earth that oft’ takes me in.

Seek me in the chambers of your mind
From where I shall never depart
And if I drift away into your valley of silence
I may yet be an inch from your heart.

And what am I to do after the rain has fallen?
When I find all my thoughts have run aground
How shall I wish the time to surpass?
How shall you be found?

Find me through your dreams of winter
Where the world, it seems, seizes to spin.
And you and I are left to wander
To find ourselves from where we begin.

The Touch of Whispers

2010-07-15T04:34:00.000-07:00

The memory of your touch
Resides between my fingers
When you with your hair undone
Are born again
Naked and fragile, like
A ball of yarn
Ready to unwind.

The touch of your feet
Is a waking dream
A walk on the clouds
The ocean floor.

The touch of your lips
Is petal dew
As fresh as a leaf
Full as a summer fruit
Smooth, like riverbed rocks
That shimmer at night.

To touch your hands
Is to feel the soul of a traveler
A map of hidden fortunes
Where the lines are all blurred.

The hint of your dream
Is another step in
An open crevasse
That vanishes
As we wake.

And soon
Your back uncoils
Like a lazy river,
You cut me with the star of your skin
Burn me with your fever.
And I am left in search of a face
Before your voice returns
With a name for me.

If
We can
Travel
Through
Silence
We can
Speak
Just
The same.

You, Silence & I

2010-07-07T09:30:00.000-07:00

My silence is a silence of sand dunes
I need the voiceless wind
To sing.

I will surrender at your feet
An army of me
Swoop down, and gather me
I will remain in circles
Unlike the meandering rivers
On your palm.

My silence is a silence of the sky
Ever changing, lost to the water
I look up, but
I never know
From where the clouds came.

I will vanish in your eyes
Without any shape, like
A distant memory
Of making love while the world slept
On a hot summer afternoon.

When I turned to you, and said
Our silence is precious and simple
Like the moon
We may change with time
But our light remains.

Noise inside the quiet

2010-06-30T00:38:00.000-07:00

Why do i follow things which lead nowhere? Give my homeless thoughts a name and i will take each day as it comes. If not thinking about the past is a gift then always thinking about tomorrows must surely be a curse. There is too much noise inside when you're not around. I begin to doubt if i am ever ready for anything. Rid me of my silence, keep yours from me.

Upon Tracing Her Steps

2010-06-30T00:18:00.000-07:00

Between falling snow and the dew lit grass
You will find me as you wander pathless.
And what of the sunsets we didn’t share?
We will exchange silence
And watch it rise instead.

Divide your eyes
Between the green and the blue.
Frame a mountain
Or cup it in your hands.
Catch the rain
Give each stranger a name.

May those be damned
Who say there is nothing to see.

A temple of rocks, spiral winds
Mountain dogs, swirling bells
Singing trees, prayer flags, rising steam
Swollen pillows, homeless clouds,
Wait for you and me.

Into the White

2010-06-30T00:05:00.000-07:00

Waiting for an explosion
Two cold green eyes
See nothing but winter
And broken twigs.

On a chair or on a wheel
This land is whiter than my thoughts.
She will always know where I’ve been
It might rain but it won’t.

We depart with keys and circles
I said I’ll meet her there
Beneath the sinister yellow moon
Which shines unaware.

It will satiate my hunger for shelters
If you left me here alone.
Deep in the forest
The bird makes a home.

Maybe I heard my name
Down where the river dried.
Walk with me to the places we know
Or let me go into the white.

25

2010-06-30T00:03:00.000-07:00

She looked like a scar as she said those words,

''its been 25 years''.

I didn't know whether she hurt or had healed.

Eventide

2010-06-26T12:11:00.000-07:00

I knew
Mirrors could be forgotten
When love came
In the form of you.

My passenger
You smell of everything familiar
Ebb more easily than you would know
And travel within without a sound.

Timeless, is what you are
For time won’t change your beauty
Your beauty will keep on changing
With time.

You have the depth of an ocean
But forgive me
I forget the tides
When skies are clear
Beneath the lights.

Don’t break like a cloud and
Forsake your shape
Like faces lost in a dream.
And if it makes you smile
You can give me a name
It’s all I need.

Don’t fade like the dawn
Like words on a wall
Like a tear in my clothes, stitched.
Like a healing wound.

And I promise
To be the same.

Winter lady,
Only keep silence from me.
Be with me like a stain.

Lotus

2010-06-15T07:15:00.000-07:00

Ive never seen a Lotus bloom, they have been ruined and overused by the BJP party and in various places of worship where it just looks ugly. But come on, if the leaves are so nice, how will the flower be?

Hide

2010-06-15T06:56:00.000-07:00

We've kissed in places where art is made or forced out of people. Where statues stare and seem to be moving. Where people take shelter from the sun and creepers and vines come out of anywhere and everywhere.

We've kissed in places where people quench their thirst. Where pigeons call other pigeons and stare till we're done or its time. Where staircases are forgotten because people are too old and they'd rather stay down, or children are too scared to go in the dark, where two pairs of eyes chase each other and shine.

We've kissed while beautiful tall women dance or middle aged men play their flutes or sip their tea and its the perfect background music, everyone else is oblivious to how it all comes together.

We've kissed while water runs out, overflows and is enough for crows and sparrowes.

We've kissed in places where people can see through the walls and maybe no one is watching but everyone knows.

This is all the same but each kiss is different.

Winter

2010-06-15T06:50:00.000-07:00

Winter's the best season because it often hides what usually looks ugly in summers.

Addiction

2010-06-15T06:20:00.000-07:00

Yes its true
my brother's addicted.

Yesterday's dream

2010-06-15T06:13:00.000-07:00

I cant recall the last time i dreamt of hell.

Hell is a big construction site with demons swinging on chains in my dream.

No red sky.
No lightening or thunder.
No sound of whips cracking in the distance.
No sound of people shouting or screaming with pain.

My hell is silence.

'Choose between your heart or your soul', my dream left me with no choice.

That's probably why i woke up before it got over.

If you ask me, i was glad i did.

To the Waves

2010-05-26T05:04:00.000-07:00

Silent
And rising
She comes and goes in waves.
Falling
And smiling
She never leaves a trace.

Her spells and boundaries
Spill on my page
When I, drifter and she,
Moonlight
Dance without a face.

Still
And waiting
Like a storm untamed
The wind and sky
Know her many names.

And the way she returns
Will never be the same.
Her footprints will vanish
Along the path she came.

- for Suzanne

Song About Roads

2010-04-30T09:31:00.000-07:00

Verse 1

The moon burns twice

In day and night

But deep in your eyes

It only shines bright.

When the war is lost

And nothing is what it seems

Take a drop of the sun

Make a memory.

Chorus

If the roads only take us

Round and round

I'll throw away the map we found

Find our own way out.

Verse 2

In our youth, we were free

To find our way back home.

But we lost our way through the trees

Ate all the breadcrumbs.

In my sleep, I turn

Towards you and say

If you don't know the start

We can share the end.

Chorus

If the path only leaves us

Down and out

I'll throw away the map we found

Find our own way out.

Friend

2010-04-30T09:21:00.000-07:00

Today i was happy it rained a little.

I was happy that the birds got fresh water to drink in the morning.

I was happy thinking that you were.

I was happy because the lonely pigeon outside my window found a friend.

City of mine

2010-04-28T23:30:00.000-07:00

Sometimes when I travel around in Delhi, to go from one place to another, everything comes and goes in patterns, the sounds envelopes you and things seem bigger than they are from a certain height because you're in one of it's veins, cruising past the other inhabitants, in your own world at the same time. The city feels like an organism, constantly dividing cells and evolving, forever growing. Sometimes when you come out after a lot of days, you find it has changed. The way sunlight fell on a certain column is not the same, it smells different, there are holes everywhere like bruises and scars and water is constantly overflowing, it is truly alive. Even if I go away for a while, I always want to come back.

Face

2010-04-28T23:27:00.000-07:00

It's funny, when you see a face like yours on the street - it always passes you by too fast and makes you think about little things...is that how I walk? Am i really that short? What do I think about when i walk? Does the breeze always move my hair that way?

For those five seconds, you're not yourself.

Spring

2010-04-28T23:23:00.000-07:00

Spring is always nice and makes me happy. It's like nature's way of reaffirming -

'life finds a way'.

Shadows

2010-04-28T23:18:00.000-07:00

...I dreamt of shadows the other day, before the dream was over, they all merged into one.

1 minute poems

2010-04-28T23:07:00.000-07:00

At night, when the breeze dies down

When the birds awaken, and fly around

I think of you, lying in my shell

Promises I make, things I don't tell.

-------------------------------------------

The moon is in your eyes,

It stays low, but its on the rise.

A shadow falls down on everything you leave

There is a light upon everything you seek.

Shedding Roots

2010-04-28T22:54:00.000-07:00

People may live for little things, accept their destiny, whatever that means, but maybe no one really wants to badly belong to something or someone or something anymore, i don't know if people yearn for simple things anymore, everyone wants something they cant put their finger on, everybody needs something more. Sometimes when i feel content with where i am, who i am or what i am, there's this weird feeling in my head that i should be dissatisfied with everything, even a little bit would do. And then there is the world which tells me that this isn't the way to be and i can't be this way forever. People live with so much noise inside these days its shocking how they don't go nuts. The 21st century has made us our own slaves, we are bound to doubt ourselves, to hate ourselves and to always compare our achievements with something bigger and better - and that readily available like a huge billboard with neon lights somewhere out there...you can't miss it, you can't escape it. We've come so far from where we were, we don't know where we began from. But hasn't it always been like this? Judgement day is always near. The world is always melting away since the day it began, but our day of reckoning is different from the others because it is OURS. If people don't know about how things started, they want something to hold on to...i guess that's how finalities come into the picture, and the future is always uncertain, and the end is always near, as Morrison puts it.

Our feelings and thoughts are precious...no one knows it like us, no one can or will understand - only we do. We are the only one. Its funny no one has a friend inside. Things can get pretty lonely there, yet everyone seeks solitude and obscurity. To not make sense of the world is the way to be. If fiction's already out there, then everybody's already decided what their reality is, in their minds

Half

2010-04-28T22:48:00.000-07:00

Because words wont matter

Soon

When there is no poetry

In being a man.

No hair to tame

Or spells to utter in the hour

Of the moon.

Realise

Your heart is a lonely crowd

Returning home

Dodging puddles

Walking with a door

Looking for walls.

I greet the friend I see

Wonder about the half he

Left behind in drawers, matchboxes

Beneath his bed

Playing with boundaries

Adorning masks.

Maybe he looks for faces

As he walks the streets alone

And takes the one he likes

Gives it a name

Calls it a home.

2010-04-26T07:20:00.000-07:00

To hide deep within yourself
Is to close your eyes and trust the wind
When there is no path left to wander
There are no waves to make you swim.

But a voice shall call,
Faint, familiar, from before
You’ve soared the depths
And seen barren lands
Now rise to the shore.

Rise like the sun,
With curious footprints on the earth
And head like a bubble from afar
The sky will fill with all your dreams
Time and tide shall shape who we are.

So trust these words, they are all I have
To pull you out from the dark
No one’s a stranger, who passed us by
Silence will live no more
In the ocean of your heart.

- for Nitin

Lonely Star

2010-04-16T05:53:00.000-07:00

It was today, that she

Hung her star in the sky.

Laughing

A timid thing on her palm

That changed shape,

Grew thorns

Became red.

A little like her heart

Vary of strangers

Burning for all

Shining for some.

Doom, Impending

2010-04-14T10:22:00.000-07:00

When the edges break

The grains make sand

Water makes an ocean

The shape adorns a form.

Hands ache fingers

Roots wish for light

Flames pray to be still

Vines caress summer, survive.

And darkness has no beginning

For it has no end.

But the shadow is a circle,

It only grows bigger.

And all that is left,

A silhouette

As the waves approach.

A million thanks!

2010-04-14T10:18:00.000-07:00

Just got interviewed!

http://bloginterviewer.com/music/hitchhiker-aazar

thanks to Mike!
:)

Midnight

2010-03-29T08:44:00.000-07:00

Midnight burns away too fast
Leaving childhood on my tongue.
When I slept safe, without walls
Without a sound.
With a fear of silence
And what lay in the darkness.

Midnight crawls away too soon
Early for voices
The morning rushes,
And brings to light,
What we know we will find
Shadows running on the streets
Toes that grip the floor
Empty glasses and ashes.

Midnight flies away too slow
Like a bird late for spring
Sprung from her cage
Tired and reminiscing.
She curses every feather
And never looks down.

And like a familiar bruise
When midnight is through
Every shape has a name
Her scent remains.

Where no one knows of the days to come.

In my head,
She sings of roads.

Nada

2010-02-17T23:53:00.000-08:00

Money shall be the first to go.

Rings and other circles of gold & silver

My pearl white dress with pin holes

A little yellow now

All the spoils of my wedding.

The rain will fill the air

With teacups, trophies and medals

Knives and spoons and sound of plates crashing

Bronze shoes that belonged to my son.

Nails will be holes

And painting frames would reveal

How my house was with

The forgotten colours i grew old.

Wax soldiers deformed by summers of youth

We were hunters of moments

That became prey to smiles.

So the pictures must go, all of them

The ones that are hidden

And the ones in grey.

The urns that were crafted by my father

Were never meant for keeping ashes

So take these secret keepers

And store your darkest ones

Till the time is right.

Clothes will be given away in the end

I will be as I came.

And when the walls are bare

The ghosts will be gone.

Today I will wear an empty room.

*based on an excellent short story of the same name by Judith Ortez Cofer.

The Road to Jaffa

2010-01-28T09:36:00.000-08:00

The road sings to me
The mountains are chasing me
Bound by land that has been flattened,
Are people who haven't seen the sea.

The sea turns twice
On the belly of her mother
Takes whispers from the wind
Watches shadows grow and sink
Turns into a demon when the clouds rage
Then returns to the shore
To kiss your feet.

With these feet, I'll walk
To singing children, oranges,
Unreal tomatoes and fake bread
To pieces of outdated paper that
mean nothing.

Beyond the green, barbed wires
Landmines, tanks, half footprints,
Olive trees without branches,
Masked men, martyrs,
Rivers of blood and crying women
Broken bricks, powder and white ghosts, to find

A road that cries to me
Headless mountains that are facing me.
And bound by walls that have been raised,
Are people who can feel the sea.

The people sleep at the feet
of the earth.
Dance in the dying rain, in homes
Where no ceiling remains.
Lie awake at night when
The sky cracks open.

They are caught in this city
And in it's veins.

In a violent heart.

{ read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaffa }
{watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBbPUxbjiuc }

Moonpath

2009-12-25T09:22:00.000-08:00

In your laugh, I find

A child afraid of growing old

And in your eyes, I see

A woman watching time.

My purple shaded canvas,

Your skin has lines of a sharp star

Your heart, mellow clay

And on your lips, a gentle curse

For the spell I broke.

Lie next to me, and

I'll be silent.

Watch the light come and leave

Buried in white sand

We will feel the waves

With the sound of grass in the wind,

I'll breathe you slow.

My wandering cloud

Where will you go?

When the sun melts

Where the eye cannot see.

Let your words be whispers

To my patient ear.

And vacant, I

Go through the needle's eye

Run my fingers down your spine

Tell you before the day arrives

On your back,

Is a road to the moon.

Upon Looking Back On All Things Past

2009-12-17T03:03:00.000-08:00

Speak of the days that went by

Or the beauty which gives you wings

The ocean i find in your sad eyes

A heart that wants to sing.

I've always known that sadness

that beckons closer for it calls

The melancholic song of the night

Is the most beautiful of all.

More beautiful than whispers

More sublime than the rain

In her arms i find no sleep

And i find no pain.

In that cold, dark night i have tried

to shape many a different thing

To find stars fallen from the sky

And the joy it would bring.

But stars are mere pieces

they lie broken in our hands

Like the heart of a woman

Like the soul of a man.

So i return to you with sadness

that has made my mind its home

And with it i've waded through darkness

Silent, empty and alone.

Let's travel to a world pure and blue

like the one in your song

Lets start spinning and never stop

Before the season is gone.

Dream with open eyes

Chase me with your smile

And the light will cause every eye to ache

At the coming of the dawn.

*photograph by Suzanne*

A Photograph We Didn’t Take

2009-11-26T22:24:00.000-08:00

I recall

Winters that passed

Like a blade of grass

Flowing with the autumn wind.

The smile on my face

Your hair in the wind

Out of place

The patience of elders wearing thin.

All my names

And all her letters

People with umbrellas

Can't embrace the weather

But poets always make mistakes

and muses never hesitate

We crawl back in

Run for shelter.

And in our eyes

The faces we meet

Down the street

Names they will never know.

No one will see

the ground beneath our feet

Places where we used to go.

On The Run

2009-11-02T01:59:00.000-08:00

(Verse 1)

Come, lets burn this house down

It speaks to me no more

Let's travel to a different place

We haven't been before

(Pre-chorus)

And we could change our names

We could look the same

And we can eat all day

On the trees where we'd lay

(Chorus)

But time, time...will you let me be?

Time, time...can I please be free?

(Verse 2)

You hide from the sun

When the day has just begun

And when the sun goes down

You're nowhere to be found

(Pre-chorus)

And we could change our names

We could look the same

And we can eat all day

On the tree where we'd lay

(Chorus)

But time, time...will you let me be?

Time, time...can I please be free?

(Verse 3)

Yes we are on the run

To call a place our own

And when we're almost done

We won't be alone.

(Repeat pre-chorus and chorus)

(End)

questions

2009-10-31T02:59:00.000-07:00

'Whats with you and cracks'? She said.

'Time and again I find myself in one', is what I didn't.

Cracks

2009-10-31T02:48:00.000-07:00

There is a void.

A gaping hole.

A chasm full of echoes.

A mirror cracked.

That's me in between.

trees

2009-10-29T10:46:00.000-07:00

when they cut the trees down

there were green bruises on the ground.

Where I Stand

2009-10-29T10:27:00.000-07:00

I live at the edge of my city
A spot of fading green in the corner
A world within a world, and getting smaller
Of blue swords dividing the land
And people in the cracks
A stranger to paradise
Stranger than paradise.

Everyday the mirror of the sun
Is who we are
We, who used to ache with silence,
Now speak with the same.
Our conversations with voices across the river
Our love
Just a passing of the seasons.

Here I fought a blue beast
That brought me the gift of fear.
Here I lived a yellow night
That left you in my veins.

Again I break from my shell
As clouds break over the dawn
And I rise
And I wait
For the music to come.

After the Rain

2009-09-24T01:13:00.000-07:00

After the rain
Everything is silent
When the world sleeps
In its own wound.
And I wait for you
To raid my mind
While the circle breaks
Around the moon.

After the rain
Everything is pure
And untouched,
Like first steps.
Where new colours
Rise and fall
And the world is a canvas
When the sun sets.

After the rain
Everything is hollow
When the sky caves
Into the earth
There are no idols
To be followed
As the statues crumble
And turn to dust.

After the rain
Everything is fallen
Touched by your hands
It is alive
And I, in my dreams
Dream of the moment
When I find all this, and more
In your eyes.

Grain of Sand

2009-08-16T06:23:00.001-07:00

On this page
I am
Without strings and words
My tongue racing through
A desert of emptiness
Here there is no wind.

There is no path
Weathered by your feet
Nor a tree
Seasoned by the sun

My friends, there is no time.

It is here I lie
Underneath the stars that burn
And it is here I will be
When my face becomes theirs.

Here they fall
Strangers dressed in silhouettes
This land of mirrors
Without a name.

And it is here that I lie
Like all that I have lost
Consumed.
Unparalleled.

All Her Names

2009-08-16T06:17:00.000-07:00

Shall I call you a cloud
That brings the promise of rain?
Or a street that leads me astray?
Shall I name all the seasons
As day turns to night and your face appears
Or should I lose myself in the
Nameless sound when wings are drawn.

Shall I count the number of
Strangers we have met and all your questions?
Or rather, the things we forget and
Never mention.
Confusions, complications
Between detours and destinations
Multiplications and divisions, is
The way we have lived.

Shall I call you a book
Whose pages are yellowed with time?
And each whiff brings to mind
Secrets of yesterday.
Friends and foes that held you close
Made you their own
Within stories where you find yourself.

But no, I shall call you a tree
That is as free
As its roots
Which never pick and choose where
They want to go.
Whose branches are not boundaries
Marked territories
But something that makes it beautiful.
And now naked, as you sway
In the autumn wind
I lie in your shade and wait for spring.

Into The Night

2009-08-16T05:53:00.000-07:00

(Verse 1)
Love, it’s been raining lights
All throughout the night
Won’t you hold my hand and fly…away
See, the stars are all aligned
In a purple sky
Won’t you hold my hand and fly…today

Hey don’t give up too fast
‘cuz the only thing that lasts
Are the things you wanna save…yeah
I once fell beneath the cracks
And there’s no turning back
But know it’s never (too) late…yeah

(Chorus)
And I don’t know
What they mean
When they ask me
To believe
There’s no reason
There’s no rhyme
To lose our voice
Into the night

(Verse 2)
And words…they can bring you down
And you smile without a sound
When no one is around…now

And like the human touch
Sometimes words don’t mean too much
And silence too, is a sound…now

(Chorus)
And I don’t know
What they mean
When they want me
To believe
There’s no reason
There’s no rhyme
To lose our voice
Into the night

When The Sun Goes Down

2009-08-16T05:50:00.000-07:00

...an incomplete song

Hope lies in uncertain things
No one knows what the future brings
So much horror when there’s no sound
And there is a light when the sun goes down.

So much is gone, we were lead astray
But not al is lost, let’s learn to live.
So much has died, it’s gone away
But not all is lost, we’ll find a way.

The Shape of Colours

2009-05-13T21:38:00.000-07:00

Hope lies in uncertain things
The look in your eyes when I depart
The breeze of your skin
That shines as it leaves.
The healing of the sky after the rains have fallen.
There is a light when the sun goes down.

Red, like your skin
When you lay on the grass
Burning naked feet
Diamonds in the sun.

Oh my lady of the water,
Till noon, I’ll trace
The shape your shadows make.
And when darkness arrives, shapeless, we
Become a silhouette.

Truth lies in the silver of the night
In the braches that sway, and
Roots that shiver in the cold
In the whispering wind and roads that
Take you where you want to go.
In secrets that only silence allows us to confess.
In the shining moon that undoes your dress.

Oh my lady of all seasons
You say you will wait for winters
After summer leaves like,
A stranger through your door
And a yellow leaf on the ground
Announces autumn.

The Beginning

2009-04-22T02:29:00.000-07:00

When her hand lay lifeless at the break of dawn
An unironed crease, she
Reminded me of a wave that
Returns to the ocean
Leaving the shore washed, clean and pure.

And as I remembered all the things
I’ve learnt to hold,
Wheels, nameless colours, names, stories and strings
They were your own, as
You are to me.

But tell me, for no one else will
Of a mother’s pain that gives life.
Sing to me the songs of harvest
Of the village you left behind.
Simple secrets, like a bird’s nest
A river
And cracks in our ceiling
Teach me how to speak with silence.

Teach me how to be the rain.

And more, for when the boy in me
Meets the man I will be tomorrow,
I remember

We began as we are,
Strangers to ourselves
Without roots or maps and lines

Scattered footsteps in the sand.

Vidharbha

2009-04-09T06:57:00.000-07:00

My mother must die with my own two hands.
Here, we can turn
Death into gold.
But what will I do with this gold?

Shall I melt it and make it rain?
On this parched land of mine
Where every wishing well has dried
And promises are turning into cracks, like
Wrinkles on my forehead.

Should I crush it and plant it in the sand?
Watch it grow day by day
So that it may give me fruits, wood and shade
On this parched land of mine.
Where birds don’t sing in the morning
And at night, I have to
Find reasons to sleep.

Shall I beat it and throw it in a pot?
Cook it for my children
Who should never go hungry.
Who should run and play, for
It is their age.
On this parched land of mine
Where there is nowhere to hide.

Or shall I shape it into a sickle,
That my fathers used to yield?
And slice my own throat
On this parched land of mine
Where I can’t watch my wife
Repay the debt I owe to mother earth
With her own flesh.

Ordinary Day

2009-04-09T06:52:00.000-07:00

An ordinary day began
When the sun rose the same.
And I didn’t believe the future
They try to sell me
With news I didn’t buy.

Because things written on paper
Do not last.

Prose

2009-04-09T06:48:00.000-07:00

Oh, to write
A rhyme without a rhyme
And call it poetry.

My Lady's Home

2009-03-26T05:01:00.000-07:00

In my lady’s home, the curtains dance.
They whisper as they reveal
The sun they hide.
While summer sleeps in
The playground of her youth,
And remembers the lines racing
Through her smile.

She needs no armour for
Battles in her dream.
She needs no shelter for pictures,
Of childhood in the rain.
She never knew any spells for little miracles,
Like toy soldiers and pencils that defy shape.

In my lady’s home, the trees sway
And in the moonlight, she says
They come alive.
While she gazes outside the window
The breeze plays with her dark, dark hair
Her eyes mirror a city
Shining in the night.

She needs no words for the songs she sings.
She needs no reigns
For a heart untamed.
And why pray today
For a better tomorrow?
A silent hymn never broke our chains.

And sometimes in my lady’s home
I hear the sounds of freedom
The breaking of the waves
Rising of the sun.
And I become a slave to all I’ve seen
To the beauty in her eyes
When the day’s begun.

Morning Lullaby

2009-03-17T01:44:00.000-07:00

(Verse 1)
In the morning, when
The sun will rise
Half in my sleep
I’ll kiss your eyes.

And then you’ll ask
Is this the end?
I’ll smile and say,
We’ll meet again…friend.

(Chorus)
And with these words
I’ll take you far.
‘Cuz in, in our dreams
We’re just who we are.

(Verse 2)
Summer’s in her shoes
Lines through her smile
Forget my autumn bruise
Fruits of denial.

(Chorus 2)
Some say, I’ll never learn
Anything, so take me far.
Meet me in our dreams
Where we’re just who we are.

(little guitar thingy)

Now tears are flowing,
Climbing down your smile
Like trains and mirrors,
This will pass you by.

Here Comes the Rain (song)

2009-03-17T01:40:00.000-07:00

(Verse 1)
When bodies glide
In a silent room
Strangers wait for the afternoon
I sit alone and sing.

Let’s forget, wrong or right
Who’s the first and who’s the last
There’s always time to think.

(Chorus)
Here comes the rain – 2
Washing down again
Here comes the rain.

(Verse 2)
And when we met
Words were bled
Thoughts meandered in our head
It all just ends too soon.

I remember, everything
Places I’ve been to
Things I’ve seen
I’ll never leave this room.

(Repeat Chorus)

(Bride)
Now I haunt
This empty space
I’m an autumn leaf
Flying in the wind
And all I’ll say is…

(Repeat Chorus)

Untitled and Incomplete (song)

2009-03-17T00:51:00.000-07:00

(Verse 1)
Stuck in the attic
You move through letters
You curse all the static
Caught in your head

It seems that you doubt it
The course of the weather
Sometimes it’s good to find
What you’re lookin’ for

(Chorus)
Cuz…don’t we breathe the same, love?
Don’t we need the same…?

If I (song)

2009-03-17T00:32:00.000-07:00

(Verse 1)
Have you seen my woman?
She was born in the rain
Have you seen that child?
With songs in her head?

Like a picture in a frame
She’s tried to be free
Oh, it’s all the same
Can’t you see?

I’d ask you to stay
Just for a while
If it helps you to stand
If it makes you smile

(Pre chorus)
The time for starters
Has gone out of hand
What doesn’t make you a woman
Will it make you a man?
And rest assured, I’ll do all I can

(Chorus)
If I could, then I would.

(Verse 2)
Did you see my woman
When she danced in the rain?
Did you see her cry?
When her thoughts, they bled

And I promise I won’t take
Most of your time
Unless it helps you to stand
And if it makes you smile.

(Pre chorus 2)
‘Cuz these thoughts in my head
You wouldn’t understand
Does it make you a woman
To not be a man?
And rest assured,
I’ll do all I can

(Chorus)
If I could, then I would.

(End)

Hold On (song)

2009-03-17T00:28:00.001-07:00

(Verse 1)
And to those who preach
Could you look around and see
What have you done?

And to those who know
Tell me the truth
Is this what we've become?

And I forgive, I forget
Just an inch
An inch is left
Of this resolve
Don’t let it go.

(Chorus)
When time itself slips away
Could we hold on...?
Could we hold on...?

Innocence is lost today
Could we hold on...?
Yeah, hold on...?

(Verse 2)
Neighbours fighting - left or right
Promised land, take me back
I don’t want nowhere to belong
...to belong

And I forgive, I forget
Just a breath
A breath is left
In this heart
Don’t let it part

(Repeat chorus)

(Bridge)
Why can’t difference ring the same?
Pointed fingers, (with) everyone to blame
Why can’t we stop this war?

(Repeat chorus)

Fingerprints (song)

2009-03-17T00:13:00.000-07:00

(Verse 1)
Roads will take you where you wanna go
But who will show you where you wanna be?
If you think you've gotten too far from home
I’ll smile and hush your eyes to sleep

I’m not in this, i listen to you
Never say a word above to me

(Chorus)
cuz I still wait for
And I still wait for...you
And I bleed

(Verse 2)
I sing this one for every broken heart
Don’t know who you were, who you are
She’s not in this, always next to me
Sing and laugh again, set me free.

(Repeat chorus)

(Breakdown...or something like it!!)
Fingerprints are climbing up the wall
We crash and burn (but) we never take the fall
You’re not in this, I speak the truth
The only thing I could not be was you.

(Repeat chorus)

(End)