Categories
Poetry

It’s Time to Drop the Bag, My Brother

You carry not a giant backpack anymore
Nor those oversized black hand-me-down shoes
You elegantly roam in doctor’s blue scrubs
Performing surgeries, healing heart patients
What about your own heart you leave behind?

You no longer hold my finger to nursery
Or follow me out, unwilling to be left alone
You are fearless and a self-made man
Who needs not a sister, patronizing him on what to do

And yet, I scribble today only for you
Because we teach our children everyday
How to succeed, never how to fail
As you mend your patients’ hearts when they fail
Don’t forget the one you carry inside: your own (your baggage)

Sometimes in life, blessings come as hardships
What feels harsh to accept
May be God speaking to us
For when we fumble, we grow

Your bag of problems may be larger today
Than that giant nursery bag you’d held one day
Drop those problem; let them go
They are not worthy of your soul
Shed the burdens, they deserve not a shard of you

God created all his children, including you
Love yourself when its hard to do
We all make mistakes, we all fall
It’s not a feat only you know how to do

But what if I told you today
Our mistakes are tools through which God speaks
And we discover who are truly ours–and who are not
Would you laugh and dismiss me . . .
If I said it’s important to know your real friends?

For every second we value the wrong
We lose it with those where we truly belong
Count your blessings, and you will find
You have no time left to value the petty

So waste not another second
Pick up the pieces of your life
Recreate that dream that beaconed you
But not with those who failed to see your heart
It’s time for better investments

Drop that bag that was never yours
Bigger, better, bolder, more beautiful
That’s where you are destined to be
That giant bag is petty compared to the places you will see

Categories
Poetry

My Dream in the Palm of My Hands

When that you have worked for
Cried for, fought for, for four years
Suddenly fits in the palm of your hand
You can touch it, caress it—the years flash by your eyes.

When doubt had shrouded the midnight oil
Fear had slept with you at night
Words had spelled desires on whiteness
With no end in sight, no reward

Only a beating heart, images no one else could see
Only an idea, a trembling hope
Something that didn’t exist
Kept you up all night

No bold promises, no guarantee of daylight
Words formed, un-formed undyingly
Yet you had risen each morning, gotten on your feet
And spelled another one of those dreamy but wretched words

And then what was in the mind
Bottled up and tear jerking dream
Spilled over to touch and turn a page
Today was that kind of day

I opened my proof of my first book
Curling into a ball and pressing its sheets
A dream four years in the making
Dropped from my eyelids into my hands.

Categories
Childrens Poetry

The Recycle Bin

Oh, how useful the recycle bin
It helps us reuse cans, cups, and bags
And stops waste in its tracks
Oh, if you did not exist what would we do

If people put recyclables in garbage bins
The garbage bins would fill
Oh, how useful the recycle bin
Oh, what would we do without you

Categories
Poetry

My Friend, Your Life

If I tell you, I have been there, my friend
Matters not, I too have seen it
So have thousands others, scarred by life
When life did not pan out how it was planned

If I tell you, people err, they improve, my friend
Matters not, when what has happened
Cannot be undone, edited, and altered to ease the mind
Once bled, forever spilled blood and tears

If I tell you, ten ways to solve the problem, my friend
And you are looking for just one, just one
That has nothing to do with the problem to solve
But everything about lightening your load, easing your heart

So, I will say this to you, my friend
Sometimes, all we need is to drain our hearts
Let it all come out, thrash and wail
Until there is nothing left there to hold

So, I will say this to you, my friend
Let it all out, we will leave the problems unsolved
Life will remain how it is, a most-treacherous examiner
Perhaps, all we gain is to get up and breathe un-laboriously again

The gulfs that separate you and me
Is a phantom of the mind
Despite the distance, I am here for you, just ask
I can be there like you have been for me

beach-1868132_1920

Images by Free-Photos from Pixabay.

Categories
Poetry

Undefined Feelings

ARS_1275

Impeccable joy like insurmountable sorrow
Bow down to one, worry about the other
How in the world is it possible
To be so high or so low without altering reality?

If all that I perceive is through the lens of my mind
If all that I feel is through the tap of feelings
Feelings burrowed deep inside begging for words
Only felt in broken smiles and suppressed tears

Feelings in search of words
Feelings that can only be smelled
In the muddy slush created by a rapid downpour
Or touched in the moistness of a cheek or muddiness of vision

The world remains intact, out of order
What is the purpose of those feelings?
If they mean nothing or everything in one instance
Only conjoined in an incomprehensible paradox

Conflicting with its own existence
In the middle of crowd, lonely as a midnight street
Or alone as a night-guard, but beaming with joy
Suspended in time as an unfinished thought

A life lived a quarter at a time
Wondering if it were to complete
How rich or devastating the experience
For completion, all footsteps must trot

Meaningless words, wordless feelings
Only for the senses, invisible to the world
The sheer reality shredded of its meaning
Only painted by the undefined feelings

Categories
Poetry

I Promise

I promise I will wish no more
If only I had but one wish
How bad can one wish be?
One wish, and happily ever after, with certainty.

I need that dream job, without which
I am but a nobody stuck in nobody land
Of course, once the dream job presents itself
I know my dreams would have changed, alas!

So, I promise I will wish no more
If only I had but one wish
Wish is simple and singular this time, I promise
The last wish, the most supreme wish

Nothing will break around me
Not hearts, not bodies, not dreams, not glass
Heck, even the machines, when they break
it is my heart that ends up breaking

Alas, I am wishing for machines now
But imagine for a moment, will you?
An unbreakable home, an unbreakable bond
Unbreakable appliances, unbreakable cars, why not?

Unbreakable determination, unbreakable promises
Who cares, mine or yours, unbreak-ability must be nirvana.
Will that fill the void of hunger inside my heart?
Sprinkle it with happiness, joy forever.

So, here it goes over again
As long as sun shines and sparkles
The rivers flow down valleys
Babies are born, cities are renovated

I promise I will wish no more
If only I had but one wish

Categories
inspiring moral non-fiction Opinion Poetry

What We Can All Learn From The Solar Eclipse?

It was that type of an event where a gaggle of women working out together pulled out their phones in the middle of a workout to check the weather for. The solar eclipse was a big deal. And as the astronauts, scientists and regulars like me cheered, the philosopher in me also chimed in with an emphatic yes, yes it was great, and I hope most people in and around its path took a moment’s pause. Yes, I hope we thought about what the solar eclipse meant not just in the grand, scientific manner but in life in general. With my philosopher hat on, witnessing the moon eclipse the enormous Sun taught me a few lessons.

All darkness is transient

Darkness falls and it moves away. In life, when the going gets tough and it feels like we cannot take the darkness another second, remind yourself darkness will travel out as hurriedly as it rushed in. Hang in there.

The enormity of life

Our lives revolve around a tiny sphere. Ever stood under the shadow of a giant mountain and felt small? Well, the solar eclipse reminded us of world outside of our tiny troubles consisting of real objects in motion, and how do such large bodies in motion maintain such order? How close are we to chaos, after all?

There are things beyond our understanding

It is okay to admit to blind spots and to realize so much of our own life is outside of our own control. It is easy to feel the control when focusing on objects around us, finding the right job, tackling work problems, finding the right life partner, but in the grand scheme of things, really, are we the masters?

Something so small can eclipse something so large

How can the little stuff bother great humans for life on end? A tiny Moon, 400 times smaller than the Sun, is capable of eclipsing it, taking from it its light, its power even if for a few moments. Conversely, never judge a person by how less they have. A small person can move great things by doing the right thing at the right time. Nobody is too small to succeed. If the small pebbles can hurt the most, small efforts can pay off big dividends.

So I will thank the solar eclipse of 2017 for reminding me how small I am compared to the grand scheme of the universe and lending a unique perspective to me, one that I will carry close to my heart as I get ready to face a new day in the morning.

 

 

 

Categories
non-fiction Poetry

Silent Conversation With God

Without a sighting or a hearing
Without a clue, I still believe
I believe you are out there, my God
For in the middle of turmoil, I see a sliver of hope

I fight with you for wants small and large
And sometimes, I admit it is hard to believe
In something that shows itself to none
Is a mystery for the intelligent and gullible, all in one

But I believe you are out there
For when I look back, I know the future
My worries of past feel misplaced now
For in hindsight, every missing piece fell in place

And if it did in the past, the future is safe and secure
Chaos will continue and so will your order
A big sigh, a light heart, yes, my God, I believe
It is all destined to be.

Categories
Opinion Poetry

Give Me the Pitter-Patter of Rain

denali

I am a simple being
I ask for no riches or no acclaim
Let me live my life under a shady tree
Watch the clouds wander away with a pen in my hand

I have simple demands
I want no fame or no fortune
A dash of love, a dollop of comfort
Makes the pudding of my life complete

No luxuries, no castles
An old, rusty shack I take
But give me, my God
Pitter-patter of rain.

The wisdom to let go
The ability to abandon worry
I need not the fancy automobile
When it is my mind, all I ought to conquer

Categories
Poetry

Flooded by Memories

DSC_0012

Before I wisened up and could call myself mature
Before I could tell apart love from a crush
I scribbled the tribulations of my day
In the captivity of a forever-secret journal

Years flew by, and I could not contain time
Memories overflowed spilling here and there
Notebooks filled with coffee stains and words
Tear-stained pages wrinkled in a glorious show

From heartbreaks from joy and sorrow alike
To getaway escapades and faraway hideouts
My life sprawled like a giant Banyan tree
Notebooks no longer could contain my heart’s outreach

Memories flooded my heart
Without memory-proofing, tried vacuuming
But memories spread their wings as I aged
Day by day, trip by trip

As I tread forward in life
With an already-full jar of memories
My life’s memory jar will continue to spill
I let the river flow and drench all in its way

Follow

Get the latest posts delivered to your mailbox: