Dead fish swim with the stream
‘I’m reading Shakespeare,’ she said, ‘Will use references in my poetry That will then be read Not by the heart but in the head.’ That’s the trend. He scanned window displays, read reviews Bought only current drifts Was on the social media with most views And with the crowds he loved to fuse. That’s the...
Ever wondered why poetry touches hearts?
Do lines in a poem live a strange life? They gossip like neighbours about neighbours they like And fancy going around in a literary guise Mumbling, ‘I want to look wise’. They can be anorexic, obese, and evenly toned Hobble, mumble, tumble, and grumble Or just have days when the mind is stoned They love...
The politician as a writer
Where imagination struts with its head held high Where fiction flows free Where melodrama doesn’t experience fragmentation By narrow language walls Where truth germinates from the heart of fiction Where determination stretches its arms towards climax Where more words put inventiveness on its way To confuse even the reviewers and analysts Where the creative instinct...
Advice to images
An image in the mind lives Connects and converses Just as well as I do with myself. Like verses Images compare syllables and rhymes Hide a nuance somewhere To sometimes forget and then their search Creates a colossal scare!
Out of nothing
Out of nothing Like a surprise that out of nowhere comes Life also happens and hums It is the same with thoughts and words And even a poem suddenly flirts So must love be any different And be irreverent? All things, good or bad, do not seek To defend them, speak They live their...
Inking a strange reality
Dark and flowing it waits patiently Like a commando it obeys Without giving thoughts a second thought Goes out and executes well Not every time are there executions Nor verdicts that tear through hopes But doodles that smile Rhymes that glance shyly Live and breathe because it flows. It is a funny feeling to hover...
Falling to a new life
Dear leaf, why do you quiver Before you fall, touch the ground? No eyes, but yet the distance Should be clear through waves of sound Falls don’t last nor are they false No fall ever ends it all Distance done, some new begun Falls are but a beckon, call
The Chase
In the wild do tigers chase Anything they do not seek? Needs fulfilled they rest in peace Give a breather to the meek. When hungry they search for food At times their meal ambles by Beyond their need to kill is rude Why must for greed someone die?
On the streets of Delhi
No mountains high with clouds to kiss No trails with mystery to explore In Delhi here I do not miss These nature bits and our folk-lore! Not all the lanes I have walked through And some, I know, must be dead-ends Each lane each day has something new Not classified as foes or friends. Adventure...
Moving away is moving towards
Like a wildflower on a sunny slope She waved her hands as she came along In her eyes we saw resilient hope And in her words was a heartfelt song ‘You’re here,’ we asked, ‘how’s your husband, dear?’ ‘In the city of dreams and fine for sure.’ ‘Why then aren’t you with him and why...
To playfully giggle with my heart
To playfully giggle with my heart Review of ‘The Broken Boat’ by Nitin Soni Poetry isn’t poetry if it doesn’t ‘playfully giggle with my heart’… and the book of poems that Nitin Soni has published does just that. Now let me admit that my heart isn’t a professor of poetry at some university and cannot...
When I see love misinterpreted
Love doesn’t always comes in bouquets Petals scattered by wind too come With as much love in many ways But even this isn’t the whole sum. It is like that rhyme that will write Itself after years in insight! Love doesn’t always come with a right To say it simply wants to stay And wants...
