“During the darkest indigo midnight, yet will countless stars blossom.”
―Dr. SunWolf
Jelly fish
Asters
Equal and different
Martin Luther King Jr.
Equal born, equal in death
Why on the earth then do we fret
About our differences while living
When death is equally unforgiving?
We all go through life somehow
With an attitude of being holier than thou
Condemning every viewpoint that may appear
Different from the ideas to which we adhere.
Why do we try to impose our will?
Why do we try so hard to drill
In others, our customs and specific ways,
Convinced that we are right always.
Using superiority as a pretense
Sometimes we resort to violence
In base attempts at subjugation
Of those who resist our domination.
***
Can we appreciate and share
Cultural diversity everywhere
Learn to celebrate our differences
Soak in varied experiences,
Differences may seem too great
Ideas may appear disparate
But understand that deep inside
All of us, similarities hide.
Empty-handed we were born
Empty-handed we return
To the earth when life is done;
So love and tolerance we should learn.
Change
Be the change you wish to see in the world-
Gandhi
Caught in the drudgery of an insipid life
Residents shuffling their unwilling feet
Their days devoid of love, or strife
Nothing to keep their mood upbeat..
Dull, colorless days with air thick and stale
Uninspiring landscape, completely bare
Where a ripple, before spreading would fail
In the languid stillness of the air.
The slippery sands of time that shift
Seemed to leave untouched this place
Upheavals elsewhere would fail to lift
The thick sheet of languor off its face.
****
Until one day a sagacious man
Traveling on foot day and night
Into this sleepy town ran
Bringing a ray of hopeful light.
Being as different as he could be
A new perspective did he display
A look at this town’s passivity
Did not cause him much dismay.
He was full of vigor and mirth
Recounting stories of adventures wild
Welcomed in every home and hearth
He enthralled every adult and child.
He raised citizens young and old
Out of their collective torpor,
Suddenly everyone was bold
Rising from their stupor.
The merry man went on his way
To a new land, to explore
The change he had brought was here to stay
Exciting things were now in store.
****
It may take just one man’s desire
For massive changes to occur
Good ideas spread like wildfire
When everyone does concur.
Cee’s Oddball Photo Challenge 2015: Week 3
Glass sculpture at the Corning Museum of Glass, New York, depicting what I like to call “Medusa’s head”
Philadelphia Magic Gardens- decorated with glass and plastic waste
Sculpture at “Grounds for Sculpture”, Hamilton, New Jersey
The virtue of patience
Our willingness to wait reveals the value we place on what we are waiting for…
-Charles Stanley
All her wishes, wants and desires
She wanted at once fulfilled..
The overflowing cup of her patience
Was always to the very brim filled.
She wanted instant gratification
Irrespective of the need
Her hands raised in supplication
She would pray fervently indeed.
As a five year old she had
Quite a precocious conviction
That what she wanted really bad
Would soon be in her possession.
*
So the years went flying by,
She blossomed into a lovely lass
Slowly she came to realize why
Her dreams had been made of glass.
First love tugging at her heart’s strings,
Arduous search for gainful employment,
Taught her patience was a virtuous thing,
Leading to eventual enjoyment.
*
The more you wait for things to come
The sweeter the fruits they bear
Patience always accompanies wisdom
So wait for what you hold dear!
Floral dreams
“I must have flowers, always, and always.”
― Claude Monet
In the depths of winter, I am always thinking about spring…my mind wants an overdose of everything floral.
Sharing the pictures of flowers I have been toasting my eyes with..
Sunday Stills: Night Shots
Linking to : Sunday Stills, the next challenge: Night Shots
Bellagio Fountains, Las Vegas, NV
Lincoln Center, New York City
Holiday Lights Along the Columbus Circle, New York City
Audacity
There was a time
When she would not dare
To speak up her mind
She would not share
Ideas, that in their singularity
Could have stirred up a storm
She would not have found solidarity
In going against the norm.
**
She saw the world around her
Changing at a reckless pace
She remained a silent spectator
In a rapidly declining phase.
Until one day she took stock
Of all that her loved ones had lost
The revelation came as a shock
This is what her passivity had cost..
If only she had interjected
If only she had been brave
May be her ideas would be accepted
May be something she could save.
**
Not all was lost, she realized
She still had novel solutions
She could experiment, she surmised
Not thinking of retribution.
With newly found audacity
In waters new she took the plunge
With steely resolve and tenacity
Self-doubt she did expunge.
And then, to her pleasant surprise
She gained so much more
Than what she expected from the prize
Prompting her to further explore
The limits of her recalcitrance.
She let her ideas take flight
And marched past every resistance:
She had finally learnt to fight!
Global warming
Global warming is not a conqueror to kneel before – but a challenge to rise to. A challenge we must rise to.
The picture below is that of a glacier in Alaska-these glaciers are disappearing fast!
The greatest story of exploitation
Has long been hidden under wraps
The pillage of our planet by mankind
Deserves to be discussed perhaps.
The planet Earth, our unique abode
That over millennia has sustained us
Is under threat from human greed
Its fragility suddenly in focus.
We’ve cut down trees, industrialized
And thus polluted our breathable air
Raising emissions of greenhouse gases
Causing a rent in the ozone layer.
Plagued by the sweltering heat in summer
We dismiss it as “global warming”
Forgetting that the rising temperatures
Carry with them an ominous warning.
And then, reeling under the polar vortex
Global warming is pushed into oblivion
Though the frigid temperatures are
Of global warming, a manifestation.
Remember every time you travel
To see an island or a glacier
Your children may never see them
Because they are likely to disappear.
May be all of us could lend
A helping hand for Mother Earth
And do our minute part
In preserving our home and hearth..
We sowed the seeds of global warming
Eventually the fruits we’ll bear
We have to make an effort to save
The earth and its atmosphere.
Losing yourself in a book
“There is no mistaking a real book when one meets it. It is like falling in love.”
― Christopher Morley, Pipefuls
A way to get infinite pleasure
Is reading a good book at your leisure
Soaking in every printed word
Transported to another world..
Letting the characters grow on you
Living their life vicariously, too.
In sync with the cadence of the plot,
In the writer’s web, you get caught..
Letting your imagination soar
As new ideas open their doors
The whole slew of human emotions
Love, jealousy, flattery, devotion
Anger, despair, happiness,
Each one you may witness.
With each new book you embark
On a virtual adventure in the dark
Not knowing what is in store
An engrossing read or a colossal bore.
When you get to a good book you may find
“Nirvana” for the soul and mind
Reading a good book is my meditation
It leaves me with a sense of elation.
P.S. The image above is a photograph of the mural in my local library.
Best form of expression
I started this blog to share my views on pretty much anything and everything that I like. While it was easy enough to write about the tangible things in everyday prose (such as my favorite books etc.), I was finding it difficult to express myself when it came to abstract ideas.
So I rekindled my passion for poetry. I used to dabble in poetry as a young adult, before I realized that few people read poems. Now, however, it is serving my purpose, that is, allowing me to write about rather sensitive and abstract issues. I am aware fewer followers would read these poems, but for me, the ability to express everything I feel is crucial since that is the reason for the existence of my blog.
Reflecting on this, I realized that it is actually easier to express sensitive topics in verse. It may be the nature of poetry itself where verses have short lines, often incomplete by prose standards, that allow one to include some key words while leaving the rest to be pieced together by the reader. This way, abstraction becomes easier than in prose. A lot of controversial early literature was written in verse.
Shakespeare wrote his plays in verse. His plays were enacted on a threadbare stage where minimal props were available, and conjuring up imagery depended upon the words spoken by his characters. Thus verse helped stimulate imagination in order to enjoy the play. Another interesting thing is that the less educated pleibian had lines that did not rhyme, while the elite group always spoke in perfectly rhyming verse.
The performing arts have their own ways of dealing with sensitive issues. One of them is puppetry, mime being another one. Use of puppets takes enactment of difficult or embarrassing issues out of the picture, and is therefore widespread in societies that are less open. Similarly, the use of masks allows actors to perform without stepping out of their comfort zones.
As the world hotly debates freedom of expression, I, despite being the biggest proponent of free speech, am fascinated how different forms of expression can achieve different outcomes…
Fly high, above mediocrity
Square pegs in round holes
Trying to fit in preformed molds
Bowing to all societal pressures
Forgetting all individual measures..
Slaughtering all creative drive
Conforming to every rule, they strive
Internalizing all frustration
Simmering inside like ammunition
Living a life of discontentment
Harboring subtle resentment
Through their lives they trudge
Eventually unable to budge
From the mold in which they were cast
Oblivious to their unique ideas of the past
To promote mediocrity, they are inclined
Just as they were to mediocrity destined.
*********
Is this how we want to raise
Our children in this rat race?
Destroying their intellect
By snatching their power to select.
Let them find their special place
Outside the boundaries we have raised
Take the road less traveled by,
Never forget to question why.
Never be afraid to express their thought
This, I think needs to be taught.
To rise above the tyranny
Of insipid mediocrity.
Passion...unbridled 
