The springs and summers have gone by....The greens have lost their lustre, the freshness fading into the interior of the cells...one would think it were the eyes that got accustomed to seeing the greens
.....but indeed the yellows are looming large each day.....the oranges running along the fringes.

Colours seep out....a little each day....the eyes watch her expose new colours....her last sunshines , the slant of the last evening rays on the walls...the last splendour she throws around, draped in a brilliant sheen...loving hard ...loving deep...until the wind falls and lifts a ripened leaf to the empty skies.....

Summer shades

"Gulmohar is a human" I said ….My daughter burst into fits of laughter..But then Gulmohar is indeed so ; a warm, passionate human with love running through the veins and reaching out to my mind like a soft and benevolent shade in the mid summers when the heat saps all liquids and desires from the being.

I garrulously talk to my family members about Gulmohar when the summer draws close. I talk about it the whole of April and May. It is like waiting for a family member’s coming home for summer vacation. . I wait for its arrival as soon as the rays of the sun get warmer and fades the green by the hedgerows. I know they bud and the first flowers appear by the end of April. It is full bloom during May. It is a feast to the eyes and one of the ecstasies of summer. .

."Incredible!” says my daughter when talks of Gulmohar

ensue out of nowhere in the midst of a different conversation.

The best part of a long walk is getting to see the Gulmohar ; appearing everywhere..  along the dusty pavements, along a breezy walkway, peeping from behind buildings, looming large clearly outlined against the blue summer sky...  The soft slant of the evening sun plays on the heap of orange red flowers …yellows, oranges and  reds paint in deep tones the dusty lane and the mind's canvas.

Bright flames of passion suddenly burst forth on an unassuming tree that had stood all the year just green like the next one beside it and then it is colours that swing before the eye in a long walk or a lazy drive... deep orange...red..the flamboyant flame of the forest interspersed with green leaves standing up in all crowning glory..

Images swing to the mind.. the summer rain of childhood, the wet streets strewn with the orange blossoms knocked down by the rain... the trees bending down with the weight of the water... the flowers scattered across and the flooding gurgling waters carrying the blooms down the lane…

Every dream had an orange bloom appearing in some corner of the mind…

Last year I planted a Gulmohar in the backyard of my home... the same month I realised I had conceived my younger daughter. It has grown tall now....probably some years from now I shall see one morning, a spurt of orange suddenly appearing amidst the green jungle of trees behind my home….probably it might take longer... and my younger daughter will have become a girl and my older daughter a maiden... I shall wait….wait for them all to ripe, for their flamboyant colours to fill my eyes, with all love and passion in the heart. 

( From my first book of poems 'The divine hand in the dark' published in August 2010)

Rain

The day ebbs slow,
fading into an orange glow,
with an amber glint of sunlight on leaves
and a peculiar slant of rays on trees
and then I think of rains
and strangely the heart pains
The sun has not gone down
still it grew dark outside
and I wondered if it was the heart inside
or was it really cloudy on the skies?
I can hear the footfall of the rain
For I was close in nature's lane
Where she couldn't but hear the heart cry
So she really brought the clouds on the sky!
And then the mind eases in bliss
as the first rain seeps to the insides
the balmy wind plants a kiss
and sweeps by the sides
and then through the silence ripping fast
the clouds open and drop down wild
upon the trees thrashing and tearing down
the eyes in the pouring rain looking through
to the skies behind the clouds
and below to the clustering trees
appearing like patches of green
The hours pass by and I find I can love
this kind of a coloured desolation of the mind.
The drops that array in queue
like a multimillion pearls in a pale hue
studding over the edges of roof
now changes patterns collecting all
and streams down like a limpid fall.
The rain wraps me around in its arm
whispering secrets of love
casting a mystic spell of charm
to the being thrilled in every nerve
And when its night and sleep builds
vision still hangs in the eyelids
of the rain that pour from the roofy top
filling images in the eyes
and transferring them to the heart
I look out miles and miles
while the mind sleeps cosy again
immobile in the arms of the rain.

http://www.writersezine.com/2015/01/adrift.html


Poem 'Adrift' in Writer's Ezine got chosen for their Exceptional poem award.

Happiness is ....getting a prize when you never thought of even entering a contest..Getting published itself was happiness.The second email containing a certificate was a surprise to say the least.Writer's Ezine deserves a lot of good words for 'making heard', new voices and new thoughts...And of course to think of compiling the collections every few months into a print version.



                                                                         Adrift

I sailed, I sailed
Like a little boat adrift
Sailing away from streets, cities, homes;
Far from the fake love of mortals
The waters were taught by the master
To carry with true love and placid joy


I sailed, I sailed
On his wondrous sea
To the silent shore;
I sang, with all my heart, I sang
I breathed enough air on this wondrous sea,
Till the green shores appeared,
With its peacock colored hills
And white jagged rocks;
I felt the people giving a funeral behind
Superfluous, for I was proud to die,
To untie the strings of my soul
And to drift, adrift!
In the little boat to sail!

Beneath the rain clouds

The rain doesn't stop at once. It comes with a tumultuous uproar from far; with the trumpeting thunders and sizzling lightning and pours down hitting with mighty force on the earth bed... the blinding downpour cuts off all sound and vision around and across. It lasts like that for the next few minutes and then it thins down leaving a beautiful music and a discernible penetrating silence in the background... slowly the music fading and the silence penetrating more.

My favourite seat is just here where I can feel the infinite patience of your heart to let me speak, seeking through my human bone, vein and sinew and listen through the nerves, the lamentations and laughter of my soul. Here the mind feels free, flying like a floating leaf and words flow incessant.... how beautiful here my solitude is! The inner eye watching the clouds gather and waiting for the rain from far off... and soon the wind in the heart gathers momentum and the inside awakes... I am leaping in the joyous wind and the rain, standing happily breathing in the smell of earth... the branches of the trees constantly thumping against the window in the wind... and memories slowly limping across the old rain spattered courtyards through the fresh scent of rain...