Broken

In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Broken”.

It is in the nature of everything

To be broken repeatedly in pieces fine

For every breakage is destined to bring

The pieces together in a novel design

With a massive breakage the universe began

A giant mass of matter broke with the big bang

And gave birth to the sun, the earth, and man;

Life as we know it, the whole shebang!

DSC05209This picture is from a glass sculpture at the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY. The artist has depicted crows feeding on a carrion with pieces of broken red glass to signify a bloody carnage. This represents the breakdown of the centuries-old glass industry in Murano, Venice, Italy.

Travel Theme-Tangle

Linking to :

Where’s My Backpack?: Travel Theme: Tangle

It’s been a while since I participated in any challenge (or posted any content, for that matter!)

Surprisingly, it was quite easy to come up with ideas for this one- I hope you enjoy the collection!

Tangled webs of our lives

That we try to navigate

Gathering tools along the way

With life we learn to negotiate

Meandering through myriad mazes

Of rational thought, conflicts, emotions,

Cracking complex conundrums

We sail through life’s web of oceans. 

All of life’s choicest blessings

Tangled they present, with success

Mixed with sorrows and failures

We unravel them to find happiness.

DSC05211A chandelier with wires tangled in a unique pattern-At Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NYDSC05143Chihuly’s sculpture- a tangled mess- at Corning Museum of GlassDSC05155Tangled web that holds a family together- artist’s depiction of her family with each atom representing a family member-At Corning Museum of GlassDSC04547Tangled aerial roots of a banyan tree, Nassau, The BahamasDSC04218Tangled ropes, Museum of Art and Design, New York City, NY

DSC04853Tree branches that appear entangled- Seaport Village, San Diego, CA

Anger

Unknown

DSC04791I trudged along life’s pathway

Angry at myself every single day

For falling short of expectations

Of others and my own-in combination

For every minor failure myself I berated

My desire for success never satiated

Disappointment constantly followed me

Failure was a self-fulfilling prophecy

My resentment spiraled up in the sky

Words cannot express how angry was I..

**

One day when the volcano erupted

I realized how my life anger had disrupted

I could not go on with anger bottled inside

I had to face my anger, there was no place to hide.

**

I turned to meditation, learnt to love

Myself, and believe the powers above

My anger subsided in degrees gradual

I discovered I could actually be lovable..

With anger displaced by contentment new

I discovered there was much more I could do

More tasks completed, more goals achieved

The less I resented myself, the more I received

Loving myself had a learning curve steep

At the top of the hill was contentment deep.

Shades of grey

table by lake (2)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!

Compliment

“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!

DSC04881

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!

Life’s judgment


 judgmentJudgment 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..

Natural history of obsession

red orchAn 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.

Wired

media-tation-media-meditation-many-armed-cartoon-yoga-man-sitting-globe-lotus-position-holding-contemporary-electronic-42635392 (1)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.

Fear and hatred

FullSizeRender (6)I see the world change around me

An atmosphere of fear surrounds me

Fear- naked, primeval, intense

Dousing the last embers of pretense-

The pretense of equality among men

The hollow claim of love among brethren

Fear borne out of deep-seated mistrust

Simmering hatred that in a flash can burst

Releasing a lava of loathing profound

Singeing humanity, spreading evil around

Where men kill each other for minimal gain

Miserable themselves, on others they inflict pain

In an atmosphere so sharply polarized

How do we raise children unprejudiced?

They are forced to inherit hatred and fear

They grow up surrounded by mistrust severe

If not for us, maybe for future generations

We need to dispel such fear and apprehensions...

Utopia

DSC04849Free my soul, free my mind

From the shackles that bind

Me, within a web of worldly desire

Free me from ambition that fuels the fire

Wipe the slate of my life clean

Such that no expectations are seen

Let experiences a blank canvas color

Enrich my life and make it fuller

Let me face each sunrise sanguine

With vigor and enthusiasm genuine

And when the day is done, go to sleep

With no regrets, just contentment deep

If only this utopian life I could create

I would be the luckiest being on this planet!

New skin

pink wax orchidsIn response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “New Skin.”

If there was one thing I could take

From the attributes of a snake

I’d like to learn to shed my skin

Periodically, with a mischievous grin

Turn over a new leaf and appear

More charming, confident, without any fear

Hide for a while my gaping flaws

With the new skin providing camouflage

There are scars within that throb with pain

Visible, they mock me in disdain

If made invisible, I can maybe

Forget the pain they arouse in me

A new skin, like a new, improved facade

Projecting a vibrant personality, a warm heart

A metamorphosis of the best kind

A change of perception, a cleansing of mind!

Prejudice

mural1 (2)Preconceived notions surrounded me

Ways different from mine confounded me

I had developed tunnel vision

In rigid ideas I was imprisoned

Where did these ideas originate?

What did this narrow-mindedness precipitate?

When I dwell on these fixations of mine

No logical explanation behind them I find..

I think from my family did I inherit

These prejudiced notions without any merit

Never doubted the dictums passed down to me

Accepted them as gospel truths unquestioningly.

*

As I travel through life’s meandering pathways

Old assumptions are shattered in different ways

I should be vigilant and keep in restraint

The tendency of my mind to taint

My experiences with sprinkles of prejudice-

Such is the conditioned mind’s artifice…

Above all, I shall try my best

To hold my tongue and not express

Before my children such notions

Let them face the world with a mind open.