Artist

He paints with words
Or paints as such
The world inside him
Forcefully or gently but effectively

He is at peace
When he is out with it
One may like it or not
But he feels relieved

Colours and effects
Mark his works
He does what he does
To please not himself and nobody

When he works
Between him and his work
Nothing can come
He and his work become one

He bares his heart
Piece by piece
Which shows in his work
In a way that is unique

And some of his works
Touch the onlooker so deep
That he feels lost completely like an artist
When his work is yet unfinished and incomplete

When one can't take away his eye from it
And it coveys more and more meaning hidden in it
Nothing better or more meaningful there could be
What the artist has created is a masterpiece!

Preparing for life

See my little ones
Tiny and beautiful
To go up a stair step is so difficult

I make them try
No matter they fail
But they try again

One makes it
To the next step struggling
And is so happy at his feat

I persist and prompt
Till the last one succeeds
But yet further they must proceed

When they have learnt
To climb step after step
They go up and down and refuse to rest

Till they drop down
Having given their best
I then feed them and make them rest

When they wake up
The next lesson awaits them
Even more difficult than the first

This is how we raise
These little ones
For life and its ups and downs

Life is hard when it overpowers you
It becomes a friend when you get even with it
But to live on your terms you have to master it!

Plea bargain

Where justice is a bargain
And dirt cheap to platefuls
Innocents fear the law
And clean slates are at loss

Law is blind but it sees
It's fair irrespective of verdict
But how the guilty goes scot free
And an innocent is behind bars

Blame not the law
Blame not the system
But the culture of statistic
Where numbers find precedence over justice

Guilty may go unpunished
But an innocent should never be punished
Charge not an innocent
And ask him to prove his innocence

Where justice is a bargain
Judge and jury watch
Law becomes subordinate
When plea has sanctity of law!

Slang

We added to our vocabulary
Word by word
As a child with alphabet does

It was raw it was sharp
Nothing less would stir us
And make us shoot back or retort

Not in whispers
But loud and clear
Music so rustic it was

Sometimes it embarrassed
When volleys were exchanged left and right
And a guest or parent dropped

But they understood
The pressure we went through
We didn't buckle but faced it as a don

It brought us closer
These pet names and cuss words
When life was too hard and became unbearable

In retrospect when we think
It was the need of the time
That helped us to hold on and make a mark in life!

Life

It's not a thing
But a wish
Fulfilled at His will

Nothing to do with big bang
It was there before
But in a different home

It's not owned
And knows no sea or shore
But is in perpetual flow

It can't be described
Explained or understood
Yet it is all and all else is not true

It's what it is
Live and feel it
An unexplained mystery

It's not a thing
But a wish
Manifested at His will

Split

It begins with a split
No glue that sticks
The union when it happens
It brings a new spring

Let's take a cue
When doubt persists
Rifts widen further
With nothing to grip

Let's go with the flow
And become one with it
The difference that there is
Let's resolve it forthwith

Plains are level
But hills are not
What becomes stagnant
It needs some turbulence

The meet is historic
The first of its kind
Let it become a legend
To be quoted worldwide!

Perfection

Talent and skill
Will and grit
What you do
That itself speaks

Set standards
Higher than you did
And when you meet them
See how shallow you think

Refine and improve
Nothing limits you
But your thoughts
And those who taunt

You are your friend
And enemy too
Why you give in
Halfway through

Try but a little more
Care not if something holds
Loosen the grip
And run as if for gold

Perfection is nothing
But a state of mind
Unless you struggle
Nothing you find

Work for perfection
And give full attention
To the structure for strength
And to the details for depth

Perfect is no one and none can be
But one who gives life to his works
May one day find it unawares
That he is not far from it

Man wants to be God
Let him be
He wants to be perfect
Let him be

Man is man indeed
Who settles for no less
He competes with God
And becomes a perfect earthly being!

Warm up

Cold as ice
Autumn dry
Nothing moves
No sign of life

Warm up
Flex your muscles
Sun shines
Warm and bright

Wise say think
Before you utter
And take your time 
To ponder and unclutter

What shall one do
When thoughts flood the mind
Some will surely overflow
To unburden the mind

A knife rusts with disuse
It cuts sharp when used
Be careful with your words
And covey what is meaningful

Warm up and be prepared
For the game of life
One who wins the race
He shall sit by His side!

Young and old

As is the wont
When one is old
Nuances of life are told
In their own youth which were ignored

Who are neither young nor old
And play both the roles
Though they act young
But their ways are old

Young or old know this for sure
With the blend of youth
And the wisdom of old
One can make the world his own

Young and old are poles apart
One is south another is north
But for those who are young at heart
What matters is the play and shots

Blessed is the bunch
Which does that's not done
Hitting the ground running
At sixty plus

Life begins afresh
Whenever you want
Impossible becomes possible
Age is no bar

Think young
And breathe new breath
Life is full of wonders
Till the last breath!

An evening poet

When wrinkles line the face
Limbs help not much
It's difficult to keep up
With the young and their pace

One begins to think more
The things that he ignored
Which begin to make sense
And over which he ponders more

He is his only friend
And good friends of yore
None gives an ear to what he says
Without and within his own home

Such is the plight of those
When young don't bother
And the old expect more
His feet struggle in two boats

He has but limited options
To shut himself from the world
Or shut his mouth and live as such
Which he often does

He speaks to himself
What he feels and thinks
The others see and murmur
What has happened to him

Either he is mad
Or become senile
A poet he has turned
In the evening of his life!

Two ends

What begins ends
To begin anew
Half old or half new
It is still half not full

This is the truth of life
Let's us face it
Life is not all roses
Let's us accept it

When we run away from truth
It hounds us
When end is sure and certain
It will catch us

Even the chosen ones fear
When they sense
That the death stalks
Over their shoulder and so near

We are like this
Being humans and no gods
But he has made us capable
To even surpass the gods

The beginning and end
No friends yet close
Points on a circle that overlap for sure
One goes behind curtain and reappears in new clothes

Forties, fifties or a century
These are occasions to thank him
With His grace we have come this far
And if He so wills we shall go further surely

Life and death
They are no friends
One lives and breathes
Between the two ends!

A rose plant

It has a few roses
And thorns too
But one sees the roses
And no thorns that prick

It's in the eye
What it wants to see
Thorns bare their teeth
Yet they are not seen

But thorns are thorns
Whether you see or not see
Wish them away
Yet rose is their company

Life too is like that
Some reality and the rest dream
When reality bites
One lives in dreams

Life is short
Make it sweet
If full of happiness
Make it happier still!

Let's be together

Whatever it is
We can never forget this
It has moulded us much
And tried to make us complete

Solo flight each took
And lived his dreams
But it's here the heart beats
It's now time for home coming

Laurels came
And adulations plenty
But what joy it was
When we had practically nothing

A lot has changed
Nothing is the same
But for our friendship
Which has remained the same

When we think over it
There is no I and me
We feel and think
As we or nothing

Fifty years have passed
Running and wandering
Let's us now be together
It's time for homecoming!

We recall

In queue we stood
All flesh and bones
Distracting our mind
To things far and close

The doctor arrived
With attendant in tow
One fiddled
The other explored

By a wave of a hand
We were disposed
Such batch processing
We saw from close

It was a strange world
Of sharks and wolves
Who pounced on us
With claws and fins

It was a prison of sorts
With no escape route
There was no option
But to reconcile soon

What happened thereafter
It's an open book
No need to repeat
It is known and understood

We were grilled and bullied
Ground and polished
The ordeal we survived
It was no ordinary thing

We who were lambs
Midway changed track
Some became wolves
And some sharks too

It was a jungle indeed
Unfit for meek and weak
The grind we went through
It made us something

It was what it was
But it gave us such confidence
That we could face the world
And its sharks and wolves!

We recall

In queue we stood
All flesh and bones
Distracting our mind
To things not close

The doctor arrived
With attendant in tow
One fiddled
The other explored

By a wave of a hand
We were disposed
This was batch processing
That we saw from close

It was a strange world
Of sharks and wolves
Who pounced on us
A bait sumptuous

It was a prison of sorts
With no escape route
There was no option
But to reconcile soon

What happened thereafter
It's an open book
No need to repeat
It is known and understood

We were grilled and bullied
Ground and polished
The ordeal we survived
It was no ordinary thing

We who were lambs
Midway changed track
Some became wolves
And some sharks too

It was a jungle indeed
Unfit for meek and weak
The grind we went through
It made us something

It was what it was
But it gave us such confidence
That we could face the world
And its sharks and wolves!