Passion…unbridled

My horoscope says that stars are soon going to align

And supercharge my creativity, I want to believe in this cosmic design

The creative streak that I’ve been trying to cultivate

Right now appears to be in a perilous state

When I want to write, paint or come up with a new solution

I face a mental block, and my recent resolution

Of consciously incorporating a daily dose of creativity

In my life has not been working for me..

*

I am usually good at working under duress

But creative endeavors do not get along well with stress

One needs time and space to let the mind wander away

For a creative project to see the light of the day..

*

Not that I believe in horoscopes but this prediction gives me

Hope that creative juices would start flowing freely

More than anything else, it is the power of suggestion

That is going to propel me in the right direction

When I write, the world around me

Melts away into oblivion, all I see

Are the words I have typed, my ears

The ambient noise refuse to hear

The sensation of touch seems confined

To the pressure of my fingers on the keyboard, I find

That external distractions have melted away

In a rare state of flow I seem to stay

When my piece of writing is complete

I feel elated as if I’ve accomplished a feat

Even when I go back to the real world I experience

In a slightly different manner, each sense

At least for some time, this is what inspires me

To come back to writing repeatedly..

*

Writing is a personal form of meditation

In mindful writing, I find deep relaxation

While I can be distracted quite easily

Writing gives me focus and clarity

*

Therefore I write, and in doing so create

For myself a peaceful and blissful state…

Sometimes I want to go back to an era old

Where computer crashes do not unfold

Disasters that inconvenience many people simultaneously

Lead to anger, frustration, loss of precious productivity

Automation is great when it works well

But a single malfunction leads to hell

One single hacker can havoc create

One mistake can lead to a disastrous state

‘**

It’s convenient to let information live in the cloud somewhere

When things work smoothly, no one does care

But like a house of cards when things fall

In a moment of frustration, you recall

A time when information could be stored

In more tangible ways, until order is restored

You wish you could go back to paper and ink…

Hard copies must exist somewhere, you’d think…

**

The wondrous nature of technology is such

It does not allow you to pine for the past too much

Mostly a few clicks are needed for a problem to be solved

And you go back to using the technology that has evolved

Sometimes it’s difficult to figure out what to say

Without giving your inner thoughts away

And when you do that inadvertently you do not know

How the other person thinks, whether you’ve made a friend or a foe

Everyone has sharply polarized views

Topics of discussion you carefully have to choose

Even traditionally “safe” areas for small talk no longer seem to be

Innocuous for discussion, feathers can be ruffled easily

Discussion about weather, for instance, can escalate

To heated discussions about change in climate

Discussion of health issues may invariably

Veer into highly contested territory

Reproductive rights, mental health, pandemic- all are

Some of the most provocative topics by far

Politics, religion and war are issues completely off-limit

So you don’t really know what topics under small talk fit..

*

So you stick on a forced plastic smile

Open your mouth only to compliment people, for a while

You meet new people but the conversation seems to stay

Superficial, you do not connect with people this way..

The list of taboo topics appears to grow

At the end of each gathering to which you go…

Can you say who is lonely and who is not

I urge you, just give it another thought

Your often too-loud, gregarious neighbor

Suffocating you with her over-friendly behavior

That friend who can self-deprecating jokes crack

Making everyone laugh, company who does not seem to lack

The one who shares details of her life excessively

None of them appear to be particularly lonely…

*

Your neighbor longs for a friendly face

To invite for lunch or dinner at her place

Your friend makes jokes at his own expense

Hoping to find someone to assuage his loneliness intense

The one who shares a bit too much with you

Has no other ear to pour her woes into…

*

You thought lonely people would have a vibe of melancholy

These animated people you meet often do not appear lonely

Behind a mask loneliness hides in plain sight

Seeking in every interaction a light

To dispel its darkness away, if momentarily

Look closely, many happy faces hide souls lonely..

On a Southern fall morning, unseasonably cold

I witness surreal scenery unfold

Mist rising from the Savannah river on my drive

Like wisps of smoke, giving a Halloween-like vibe

In the grayish pre-dawn darkness

Spellbinding in its other-worldliness

*

From a place of awe, to the present world I return

Like always, a picturesque sight makes me yearn

To capture it quickly in my lens

To preserve beauty is a desire intense

But I am on a freeway, and cannot make

An arbitrary stop, simply to take

A picture on my phone, therefore I try

To imprint on my mind the vista I drive by…

*

My morning drive takes me through this scenic way

The river looks majestic at the break of the day

Through all four seasons, a treat I get

For my eyes as I drive, but I still regret

That I cannot share what I have seen

Free from being captured by my lens the river has been

*

“A sight so touching in its majesty”

The landscape reminds me of Wordsworth’ poetry

Though it’s not London seen from Westminster bridge, the sentiment

Is astoundingly similar to a great extent

Since I do not have the words to describe what I see

I just invoke Wordsworth’s vivid imagery…

Suddenly I realize that I do not feel

To capture the scenery in a camera reel

*

So here is my attempt to transform

A visual treat into a verbal form…

Every holiday and every celebration has become

A golden business opportunity for some

The way holidays are celebrated is no longer based

On traditions and lore, instead strategically placed

All over the media are images quite enticing

Depicting how to celebrate holidays in ways exciting

And that includes parting with money hard-earned

Celebrating holidays this way is a behavior learnt

*

Elaborate decorations, costumes, theme parties and more

Increase your consumption is the idea at the core

If you are short on funds, then energy and time you must expend

To figure out D-I-Y hacks, so you can follow current trends

The true spirit of the holiday is lost

There is lower fulfillment and higher cost..

*

Call it inertia or laziness on my part

Or maybe I completely lack the bone for craft and art

I do not indulge in decorations or other knick- knacks

But we celebrate, the holiday spirit we do not lack

Without falling prey to corporate greed

Our holidays are simple and joyous indeed

I read this somewhere, it resonated with me

To sleep well implies to trust freely

*

Sleep is a manifestation of trust

To be able to fall asleep you must

Be able to forget all the troubles of the day

And trust that better things would come your way

When you wake up to the promise of a new sunrise

You are equipped for every challenge, every surprise

*

When you fall asleep, you lose your consciousness

Implicit is your trust in this process

That in this vulnerable state protected you would stay

That you would live to see another day

*

A self-fulfilling prophecy this tends to become

When you sleep well, you’re able to overcome

Problems with less frustration and more patience

You come to trust your own resilience

Then you sleep better, and solidify

Your trust in life, as time goes by

Life ebbs and flows

Much like the tide

Like a tiny seashell

I go along for the ride

From the depths of the ocean

To the surface of sand

Tossed about by waves

I try to understand

Where life wants to lead me

As it shuttles me around

Somewhere in the ebb and flow

There must be lessons profound..

*

Through the cycle of ebb and flow

I do move forward, though the progress is slow

Let me submit myself unwaveringly

To the plan the universe has for me

When I flow, let me further reaches explore

When I ebb, let me have patience some more

So many people cite the year 2020

As a catalyst that made them change permanently

In how they viewed life, they reference the forced break

As a time to reflect on priorities, reconfigure and remake

Their to-do lists, they talk about clarity newly found

In how to lead life with a sense of purpose profound

So many around the world made new goals with determination

That they are now fulfilling and discovering self-actualization

This is like the years following the great influenza, historians would say

Which, for the roaring twenties paved the way

**

I apologize for the self-pity here as I say

I got cheated out of that time of reflection in a way

Working in healthcare I did not find a break

Long enough such that a pause I could take

From the daily grind of life and reconfigure

My aspirations and goals for the future

The fragility of life I understood to some extent already

It did not come as a profound revelation to me..

I know many of us were in the same boat

We hunkered down and worked to keep ourselves afloat

**

The post-pandemic era has brought challenges new

I hope I shall be able to take a mental break to

Hit the reset button, revisit my goals and priorities

It is difficult when the demands of work and life do not cease..

I must trim out from my life all time-sinks

For what really matters, I must find time to think..

I felt stuck, and I placed the blame

On my circumstances, but the feeling stayed the same

When external factors changed, why did I not realize

That the sense of being perpetually stuck did arise

From within me, I was acting as a hindrance in my own way

To move forward, I had to examine internal factors at play..

*

I had let unbridled fear take rein of me

I feared judgment from others constantly

The values I cherished I was trying to ignore

I was trying to please imaginary people more..

*

To feel unstuck, within my soul I needed to find

The core values hidden in the recesses of my mind

Then redesign my life in a way intentional

Based on my value system internal

In the process my fears I had to overcome

Finally I could start moving forward some…

*

Staying unstuck is a work in progress

Fear still torments me during this process

Old habits die hard, and that feeling stuck was admittedly

A bad habit from which I still struggle to break free

A lot of time I seem to spend

In sorting my jumbled emotions, in the end

I feel drained and just as directionless

As at the beginning, I do confess

That it’s easier to procrastinate

And place all blame on my emotional state

Instead of trying to extricate myself from the tangled mess

Of my emotions- I end up not making progress..

*

Sometimes I wonder if there is a purpose behind

These unpredictable emotions that mess with my mind

If only at I could be placid and tranquil

Make any tide of emotions recede at will

How much more efficient would I become…

On the other hand, I could be perceived by some

As a ruthless workaholic incapable of empathy

And that’s why I need my emotions probably…