Prayer of the Cross

Hold! Restrain your cruel hand;
Spare me a life of ignominy,
An eternity of shame
Carrying that holy frame.

Forgive, my Lord, forgive,
My helpless pain I submit,
With your loving touch
This wood enrich.

Lambs of your fold kneel
In worship, in reverence,
Blessed with your blood, I live
In faithful hearts a rememberance.

December 6, 1992

My Nation! My Nation!
I grieve for thee:
For a trust betrayed,
For a people befooled.
When brick by brick, our Babri fell,
Did Rama smile?
His hearth he beheld o’er run,
A pilgrimage defiled!

Can we forget? Can we forgive?
The lives snuffed,
Burning candles put out.
The orphans’ cries, the mothers’ tears,
Yet haunt our ears.
Shame, O shame!
Anguish fills a race,
Anger, the hearts they rape.

A Walk through the Dark

The sun has lost its warmth, the moon its shine,
No longer do I mourn this loss of mine,
Life now a trudging, uphill task,
Every word a lie, each face a mask;
No doorway can I find, no escape,
In each human touch there is rape.
In darkness burn a million stars,
Shine of twinkling lights, stays afar,
My path unseen, shadows around,
Each step a death, traps abound.

Love's Burden

You nail me to a cross,
You whip me like a cur,
My sides you jab to let blood flow,
My head adorned with crown of thorn
You mock with laughter and scorn;
My failing is grave, I have sinned,
For I have loved.
My heart I opened, my arms lent
For you to rest your burden:
I became a Pariah, the untouchable one
Used and discarded:
Yet I resurrect for your deliverance.

Broken Heart

Hold the broken pieces of your heart
In your hands;
Dont let 'em fall,
Dont let 'em stand alone,
They are your dream of love,
They're your soul,
Tho' they lie shattered
Dont let 'em go cold;
For all you know
They'll rise once more
From ashes of ruined life
To bring you to your shore.
So, hold those precious pieces of your heart
In your hand till life departs.

A place of my own

Find me a corner in this wide world
To hide a face to rest a heart to lose myself
In anonymity.
No more toils of hearth or trade
No more tears nor sweet smiles
Where glorious sunlight can not beguile
Where adder has lost its venomous bite;
Friendship and love,hate and blame
A swirling current casts aside
A mantle of white hues conceals
Peace be to the world
Peace to me

Surrender

Lord! Fool me not with your show of concern;
Your ways I have seen, Your heart I've learnt.
This plastic world you fill with pleasures,
To woo man's lust, then take measures
To thwart desire, to make man squirm
Till, in despair to you they turn,
Pain-filled surrender in their hearts,
For Grace and Mercy they implore at last.

Panchali proud laughed in glee,
Five spouses surrounded to fill her pleas,
Indraprastha they built out of bare lands,
Envious Kings came, staring to stand;
In royal court her vastra was shed,
Her cries for help unanswered were left-
Five brave husbands hung heads in shame,
Lord Krishna showered mercy, she cried His name.

Kargil-in Memory

A nation mourned:
A tear in every eye, hands held out,
Soft words, “Your loss is ours too.”
No time for private grief.
Unknown to all a soldier dies on remote hills:
A martyr lives in public space,
His last journey
A gauntlet run through
Salutes and bugles, wreaths and garlands,
For final return to bosoms
Of Mothers and Wives, Fathers, Siblings, Sons.

A nation mourns:
Martyrs’ names a lost memory,
Wreaths and salutes to unknown faces
While a nation works and plays;
No more tears, gone the consoling hands;
A private grief in
Breasts that live the loss,
Eyes that still search for
Heroes who died
Once on hills, once in hearts.

Renewal

When a flower drops from your branch
Do you tell the next "Don't come?"
When a fruit is untimely plucked,
Do others hear your order,"Run!"
When sun switches sides
To draw a blanket of night,
Moon holds her head high,
Braving the dark, to set things right,
Calling on stars to come and sup
On mysteries, yearnings,or unknown sights,
To bring union of birth, to ignite
A new spark to life.

My Journey

My rainbow beckons from the sky,

This hill I'll cross to touch its hues;

A taller stands behind, hidden

From sight; mountains and vales

On I walk, closer to my dale:

Hoppety skip, hoppety skip,

One step back each time;

Journey prolonged;

Hand of fate? or siren's call?

A shady bower to rest awhile,

Soon storms and gales come crashing by!

Naming Game

The Rose is a rose
And always was a rose,
But the new theory goes
That the apple's a rose,
And the pear is too, and so's
The plum. I suppose;
The dear only knows
What'll next prove a rose,
You, of course are a rose,
Now, and for years far and close!

Bridge of Fire

I walked down a bridge of fire
To reach a rose scented bower;
Reclining in its leafy shade a while
I rested, safe, serene:
But Hell fire followed me;
My life not burnt,
Yet scorched and singed
To graceless lump of flesh,
A Pariha feared and shunted,
Or submerged in heartless sweetness;
A self created purgatory
Rendering no escape.

Vision

Where are you? Oh, where are you?
I cried in fear,
My Mother, my Goddess, my Child,
Why have you deserted me?
I lay prostrate, in pain, in grief,
Unable to comprehend:
And then-
A vision unfolded!
Lightning touched my soul,
Ripples of life reverbated
As peels of laughter
Filled my ears.
There She stood; Her hand in mine,
A little child, my constant companion,
And fear vanished for ever.




















;

Song of a Despairing Heart

Why did you take sweet sleep from eyes,
Quiet content from my heart?
Why did you rouse flames in breast
That now but make me smart?
Why did you lend ears to dreams?
Long were they laid to rest,
Why did you bring hope to life
And put me to the test?
My soul I had lost to darkening night,
Why make it live once more?
Why light a lamp, and let it burn
When sadness lies in store?
This life, these thoughts, my love, my soul,
I put in your dear care,
Why gather 'em close, keep 'em warm,
Just to lay them bare.

Dream of Life

I am an eternal journey;
Each threshold I cross
Opens new vistas,
Horizons call to walk
Beyond the edge, alone,
To doors of darker chambers,
Where secret knowledge of cosmos
Waits to waken my soul
From dream of life,
To suck my world into
Vortex of emptiness!

HelloFriend

I met you on life's battlefield:
Bloodied and gasping, I threw you out;
I hid from you, I ran.
You stayed with me,
More constant than the Northern Star,
Devoted as a wife,
My lover, my companion, my breath.
You and I merged, till death do us part.

Journey of a Flower

A flower offered herself to the sun:
Lovely, colourful and bright:
Full of life was she, vivacious –
And in the dazzling heat
The petals shrivelled, forlorn.
Now, on a branch she droops.


A flower welcomed the gusty wind:
Tender and fragrant and mild
The heart she opened wide, lovingly-
A stormy draught of wind
Her limb from form sundered, merciless.
Now, on the hard earth she dies.


A flower bent in quiet surrender to rain;
Calm and still and firm-
Her strength it gathered round like a cloak.
The rain to her a blessing gave.
There grew a thorn around her frame.
Now straight she stands, alone.

Togetherness

You and I went picking flowers,
You and I played in yon bowers,
Your flute you filled with my tune,
In my voice your songs I sung,
We walked apace, a journey long,
You and I were welded strong,
You and I blended,were joined;
Oh Lord! Shower blessings, our lives anoint.

A New Tryst With Destiny

This time it is different:
A nation filled with righteous rage;
A hundred bloodbaths of the past
Come round to haunt a psyche,
To infuse a people with will to act:
The brave have done their part;
We remain to take one step forward:
No time now for pinning blame,
Our shoulders we offer;
Shoulders that carried martyrs,
That bore the burden of millennia,
Bent or battered, we vow
To take on a new challenge,
To fight once more for deliverance
From monoliths of inertia
To lead the way into another sunrise,
To set up our next tryst with destiny.

Hope

Sunshine in My Heart

When clouds abound; when storms assail;
When grief my mind in shrouds veils,
Sunshine in my heart remains
Waiting for another dawn:

When voice can’t sing; when wings don’t fly;
When burdens come by and by,
Sunshine in my heart remains,
To sing again in other morn:

When tears flow; when fears bind;
When darkness blocks inner mind,
Sunshine in my heart remains,
Seeking a way out of the tomb:

Where’er I go, whate’er I feel,
Whene’er the wind leaves my keel,
Sunshine in my heart remains,
Awaiting re birth in the womb.