UNREQUITED LOVE AND LATER

A POETIC LOVE STORY.

 

When he first met her in college and fell deeply in love…………. 

 

GENTLE LOVE

Soft gentle love stay,

Longer till the end of day,

Your soft footsteps so alert,

Kindle fires of ancient inert,

Pray tell, what lies in your heart?

What thoughts of yore do they part?

Is it half hidden secret of yesterday?

Half said, rest forgotten to convey?

What weighs heavily in those eyes?

Half shut glazed in dreamy guise,

Is it an ache, a parting painfully sweet?

Or flooding memories still incomplete?

**

A MOMENT OF YOUR TIME

Give me a moment

Of your time,

In it I’ll see

Everlasting eternity.

 

Give me a moment

I’ll keep it unspent

And stretch it along,

To live my life in it.

 

Give me a moment

I’ll spin memories

Around, that’ll ease

My turbid path of life.

 

Give me a moment,

That’ll make my dream

And reality of you seem

Part of my being.

 

Give me a moment,

That I’ll cherish and store,

For the glamour and galore,

Has nothing to me meant.

**

When she did not respond to his persistent love and resolutely went her ways to join the Religious Order………..

 

SOMETHING AMISS

The flowers have bloomed,

The birds have sung

their full throated trills….

The sun has risen

in all its splendour

beyond the distant hills…..

The winds have blown,

the cloudy mists

chasing the cold away……

The rays have melted,

the dew-wet grass,

to greet the new-born day…..

The world has woken up,

with a stretch and yawn

to meet the target line…..

There’s colour and gaiety,

with vigour and beauty,

and no room to sigh and pine…..

Then why does my heart deny today

And bask in the glories of yesterday?

**

THE LAST GOODBYE. 

I bade her goodbye under the street light,

The night was growing dark and affright,

Rain fell in sleet on the wet sodden street,

And I turned as her wagon made a retreat.

 

Into the night I walked as I had done,

In changing weathers and burning sun,

She had a vision of compelling mission,

To give up the world and its glowing fun.

 

Her path wasn’t smooth and easy to scale,

It was rough and rocky, her feet so frail,

Her vows kept her strong to pray and heal

The wounded and broken with pious zeal.

 

I know I’ll never see her again,

This world has fallen from her terrain,

She’ll spend her time in easing fears,

Mending hearts and wiping tears.

**

When the aftereffects of unrequited love swept over him and he wept at his lost love, unable to forget her with memories haunting him day and night……….

 

TIMELESS MEMORIES

What do I own as my own?

Except a heartful,

Of memories,

Of sunlit days,

Of borrowed books and burgers,

Sandwiches and salads,

Smells of time

That grimly grips,

My aching heart,

As remnants of life?

 

What else do I cling to?

Except a handful

Of dried rose buds

Collected from forgotten

Pages of dusty books?

 

What else do I have?

Except letters all faded,

On a yellow brittle

Page that had seen other times,

Bright and green with

Trim borders of red.

Letters all known by heart?

 

What else do I own?

Except a few skeletal leaves,

Whose essence paled over time?

Tiny fragile ribs jut out,

Like the spider’s web,

Not implying bonds,

But frayed links.

 

What else do I possess?

Except the echo of voices,

Muffled from the past,

Dispersed, bouncing off,

Into space, mixing with air,

Ebbing away with

The receding tide,

And bubbling back to me?

**

WHY O WHY

Why did you cut across my path,

With no thought of the aftermath?

Why did you loom larger than life size,

In my tiny world of manly ties?

Why do I wallow in depressed mood,

And seek the silence of solitude?

You touched my heart and departed,

And left me like a broken-hearted.

Why O why did you come into my life?

And go away as if it’s a trife!

**

SLEEPLESSNESS

The moon stole in through my window,

And threw her beams softly aglow,

A silvery pen on the silvery paper,

Intruding slyly on my caper.

 

She can read my spurned worship,

The pains and aches of breakup,

She can see my doleful tears,

And my love that was once fierce.

 

She can laugh at all my ways,

To woo her in my bustling days.

She can see the wounds I got,

And the losing battles that I fought.

 

Then she strode alone on her way,

In the deep expanse of the sky,

Yet she seemed never to stray,

And faded from my window nigh.

**

THEME

I looked for a theme,

To write my lines,

Finding none,

I turned to the sea.

The waves rushed

From all the sides,

And dashed

On the stony cliffs

with a fancy,

More forceful than

They seemed to be.

Foamy sprays flew half

A mile and went

Limping back to sea.

I turned to the sky above,

And saw the seagulls

Sweeping in mid air,

Looking for a prey.

Far ahead a yacht swayed,

On the rough and violent waves,

Tossed by the selfish sea,

Indifferent, callous, merciless.

The yacht danced on the waves.

My heart was just the same,

The raging sea in my mind,

Tossed my heart so kind,

So full of love and tenderness,

Into the depths of passion,

I know not if this is true

Or just a fleeting illusion.

**

UNTITLED
No one knows my heart’s in pain,

No one knows my unspoken strain.

No one knows how it weeps,

No one knows it never sleeps,

Wherever I go it goes with me,

Like a bird that hides in the thickest lea,

Sometimes I feel in the far beyond,

The deep waters call me to the pond.

I sit on its steps with profound woe,

Except it, no one may ever know.

**

When he got a placement in the Corporate world booming with deadlines, gossips, meetings, parties and get-togethers…………..

 

BOREDOM AND IMPASSIVITY

There is jubilation in the air,

The sounds of revelry merrily ring,

As party begins in full swing,

They’ve gathered all, the ladies fair,

In their attire gay and new,

Decked in pearls and beads of blue,

The men in stealth seek their hand,

Till senses rule and joy expand.

They cheer aloud in perfumed hall,

Hardly an ear for a single call,

The music flows, the laughter rings,

Like the magic of meeting brings.

A sight as rare as never will be,

And all the hearts beat happily.

I turn away from the empty crowd,

My heart is wrapped in painful shroud.

What’s the use of all this glitter?

When love has left me so bitter?

**

The tattered strings of human ties

Fall verily apart,

Leaving a sore void,

Of seclusion  and nothingness.

When all is gone,

Only memories remain and hurt.

These memories are unwashed,

By time and loneliness,

Like a blinking cuss.

**

When he gave up the Corporate world and went wandering in search of peace……….

 

THE OMNIPRESENT

I see you in your creations all,

The blue sea bathed in sunlight thrall,

The lulling waves against the cliffs,

The golden rays sweeping tree tips,

I bow my head,

With prayers unsaid.

 

I see you in the dawn and dusk,

In mountain, waves and paddy husk,

In pods of peas and poppy seeds,

In kindest words and noblest deeds.

I bow my head,

With prayers unsaid.

 

I see you in the smile of a child,

In gratitude given warm and wild,

In wayside flowers lying abloom,

In bushy weeds of woody perfume,

I bow my head,

With prayers unsaid.

 

I see you in the gurgling waters,

In poetry put to lyrical verse,

In music strewn by birds and wind,

In clouds that sail in sky unpinned,

I bow my head,

With prayers unsaid.

 

I see you in the petals unfolding,

In colours in nature and joyous morning,

In fruits raw and fully ripened,

In the heart of true and loving friend.

I bow my head,

With prayers unsaid.

**

AUM

One day in my darkest hour,

Feeling lonely, lost and sour,

My finger pressed a dismal key,

And it rang like a sweet melody.

 

All at once my dying vigour,

rose to the sound in utmost spur.

It sounded like the chant of Aum,

A sudden release from sick syndrome.

 

It filled the room with golden glee,

Like those that sing devotedly,

It caused in me an infinite calm,

And put to rest my disturbed qualm.

 

It quietened all the noisy ramblings

Of my high strung mental wrings.

And left instead a lasting peace,

Bliss in heart with tender ease.

**

When he gave himself up to do some service to mankind and reach out to the poor………

THE CUP.

The cup you gave me,

O! That cup was empty,

You told me to fill,

With something that will last,

For a lifetime pain or joy,

I went about a-seeking,

Fame, and love and glory,

But the more I sought,

The less I got,

And years rolled away,

The cup was empty still,

So empty I couldn’t fill,

With riches, glory, passion,

Power, greed and glee,

Then I stopped and stirred,

In my nest of discomfort,

I put my hand out to touch,

The lowly, dying, poor,

The sick and old and disabled,

And poured my love on them,

They in turn with blesses wept,

And time in motion leapt,

Then one day when I eyed,

The forgotten cup inside,

A forsaken dusty corner,

It shone to the brim with pride,

With utmost joy I cried,

And to my heart I lifted,

But its weight weighed down,

For the rest of life to crown.

**

THAT INSCRUTABLE SMILE.

Your smile does never wane,

They come and constantly complain,

Day in, year in, time and again,

Yet your joy and smile remain.

O! Tell O! Goddess how can this be?

That for every pain you give melody,

Of your deepest smile unfailingly,

Your effects follow O! Goddess of victory.

Lend it to some forlorn seeker,

Whose heart’s devoid like empty beaker,

Let it course to strengthen the weaker,

And twice bless the feeble taker.

**

When he realised that all the so called love, cravings and material things are transient and cannot give permanent joy and when his footsteps took him to the innermost Sanctum Sanctorum of the Temple……………

 

THAT SILENT SERENITY

In the vastness of the Universe,

In the unknown limitless paths,

In the innumerable faces of humans,

In the great expanse of the sea,

On the waves of mirthful mounts,

In the sprays of foamy waves,

In the immeasurable depths of minds,

In the din and roar and muted sounds,

In the dazzling torrid sun of noon day,

In the pitch-dark silence of mysterious night,

In the nondescript assortment of daily life,

In the torrential rains of flooding waters,

I see your presence and feel your life,

I am a pilgrim not a refugee in strife.

I seek you in the smallest of things,

And see you in the hand that clings.
**
INSIGHT

In fleeting moments,

I identify my own

Identity with the soul.

Then in that moment,

Of vacant time,

All the distress vanish.

All the praise and blames

Of worldly mortals,

Pass by like a stream.

I feel no pain and anger,

And no rebellious reprisal,

But just a moment’s bliss.

If I could grow this joyfulness,

To deny my body gross,

With all its sum,

Of worldly scum,

Of daggers driven,

Above and below the belt,

If only I can see you in all,

And chip and chisel life,

My soul will find its peace,

That everlasting peace!

**

EXIT

I watch the flowing river,

That started from a stream,

The wind blows them gently,

To merge with the sea.

 

I watch the dying day,

That started with the dawn,

Fusing into twilight drawn,

To greet the galloping night.

 

I watch the singing birds,

And others flying homewards,

They Perch on branches grey,

At the end of a fading day.

 

I wake up from my illusion,

In search of the holy shalom,

My earthly work is over and done,

And I wait for my eternal dome.

THE END