Passion…unbridled

I am my own nemesis

I thwart my own progress

On weaknesses I lay emphasis

And disregard any success

This is something I realized

After introspection relentless

And when I did, I was surprised

That I had caused my unhappiness..

Every negative experience

Made me turn inwards and chide

Myself, and curse my existence-

From myself I always wanted to hide

Took me years to comprehend

The world was my soul’s reflection

If within myself I would make amends

My world would move in the same direction

I was looking for external validation

For love, and whole-hearted acceptance

How could I expect it when self-condemnation

Had invaded every corner of my existence?

***

I was grateful for having realized

That my own worst enemy was I

It did not take me long to decide

To give self-love an honest try

Difficult as it was to replace

Self-loathing with kindness and love

It was spiritual travel to a new place

With blessings from above.

I had lived life all along

In various hues of grey

The world to which I belonged

Had night blurring into day,

And the day morphing into night

With indistinct borders all around

No sharp distinction of black and white

Innumerable shades of grey I had found

The lack of distinct hues, the blurriness

Fuelled my fertile imagination

But taking decisions was like a wild guess

The shades of grey clouded my estimations..

**

Then I met him, who idolized

The world of black and white

Life for him was compartmentalized 

Things were either wrong or right

As we united in spirit and soul

The greys merged with the monochromes

The spectrum of white and black became whole,

We welcomed it in our hearts and home.

I showed him the romance of blurry greys

He showed me the science of black and white

And so passed our collective days

With different perceptions, but functioning right!

“A compliment is verbal sunshine”- Robert Orben

I cannot help mention that the poem was inspired by my four-year old son who complimented me on my jewelry today!

The compliment that made my day

How encouraging it was, words cannot say

To the grey clouds populating my sky

It brought a silver lining, I won’t lie

Brought back in my step that spring

My confidence soared up like a swing

Beauty within me I could visualize

Fortunate was I, I did realize

Brought forth my generosity

Made me forget all animosity

Transformed me, albeit for a short while

Into a better person with a warm smile.

**

As I twirled around and did a dance

In blissful oblivion, purely by chance,

In a secluded corner of my brain

It dawned on me, evident and plain

While I basked in the compliment’s glow

My ability to compliment was quite low

My self-absorbed mind then realized

Complimenting genuinely was well-advised

And I resolved from that moment

I wouldn’t miss opportunities to compliment.

**

When I showered a lavish compliment 

I saw, to my utter amazement

A brilliant smile of contentment

And that was a reciprocal compliment!

Judgment pronounced

By life, unfair may be

Without any ounce

Of reason that you can see

Frustrating are battles

That life puts you through

You may prove your mettle

Only for life to defeat you

Why is the fight

So tough for some souls

While others sail right

Through roads full of potholes?

Mysterious are the ways

Of Karma’s revenge

Filling your days

With miseries to no end

Your hands are tied

You just watch and wait

On a roller-coaster ride

You cannot tempt fate..

An infatuation germinated

In the depths of my mind

It grew in size, and instigated

Me to turn an eye blind

To the warnings of reason:

Unchecked and untamed

With each passing season

It got deformed and inflamed

Turned into an obsession

Threatening to tear apart

Bringing, in succession

Joy and despair to my heart

The obsession catapulted me

On a roller-coaster ride

Of emotions, like a stormy sea

I had to face them, with no place to hide

The harder I tried to fight my emotions

The more they tormented me

I then gave up, just went through the motions

From the storm I sailed into calmer sea

Time and distance worked their magic

My obsession died a peaceful death

Eventually, instead of an end tragic

I painlessly put the matter to rest.

What is this life if full of care

Throughout the day we continue to stare

At screens electronic, texts, e-mail

Afraid that without them we are doomed to fail

In this competitive world, in this rat race

There is no room for a snail’s leisurely pace

Deprived of our smart phones, we feel incomplete

Wish all life’s problems were amenable to “delete”

Connectivity is paramount wherever we go

Electronic isolation would be a massive blow

We need our devices even to unwind

Hear music on i-pods to soothe our tired minds

We have our new e-lives, about which we care

Of course there’s no time to stop and stare!

P.S. This poem was written on a smart-phone on my evening commute after being exasperated by a series of texts.