EXTREMITIES AND BETWIXT

Pouring sunlight, humidity and heat incessant
We curse on the squint, streams of sweat run
Wishing for winter, days of cool draughts 
Warm quilt dreams, romance with thoughts


And now, anything, anything but this burning presence
I could wield a pick - axe and proceed to kill the sun !




The heat blasts off the walls indoors
In air, hair, water and clothes
We lie bare bodied in mango groves
In shade, the wind, the quiet shore


It comes back then as a matter of course
Night frozen and that morning cold
Identity chit in pocket for rail patrol
Famished, in fever, the dying soul
Looks curled on shivering platform
The connecting train since long gone


Moonlight stretched, deserted, killing slow ...


I feel and know the heat now
Know and feel the freeze, and how ?
Think yet of pleasant mid-day sun
Afternoon open and summer fun ...




Feel and know, know and feel
The insufferable extremes
Sweet and sour in between
This power overwhelming me


How do I find and tread the path
In the middle, the wise mean ?
Must I bite the apple to spur on
To 'nother knowledge on the brink ?


Till the fruit is known once more
Through shattered balance, restoring chores !


*




I've had enough of the fruit, I say
One day, facts impressed integrate
In me, the self free, in itself
Knows meanings widely spread 
Over space, cultures, time scale
In tip-of-the-iceberg appearance


Of forms, names and relevance
To our desires real, apparent.




Bang ! Now I tread the middle way
With this perspective, seated at apex
Awake to that perceived as hearsay !

THE CHARWOMAN

I am a working man on my day off
Dozing till late, dreams on puffs
Sun, shades dark and sand dunes
Cascade, dance, some silhouettes


Paper thrust under the door rustles
The cognition fading steps kindle
Of crisp smell, fresh newsprint
Chase barren, texts bull, but in


Absurd reckonings, sad, more complex
Empty lives grandstanding meaningless.


I glance at the news and literary heap
Race over to rest on the sports leaf
Think of joy my charwoman keeps
On my behalf, this day released
Viscous, deep, sweet unfailing ...




I light up, hear the awaited knock
She's in, picks up the strewn socks
Firm, supple, great and draped clean
Smiles, to work, fresh looks assuring
Twitters peace, profiles a miracle !


I wash n dress while she's over with
Sip tea, laugh, her pleasure relating
Put the tray away, we hold and kiss
Warm to stirrings mutual, within
Spaying all thoughts, feel touching
Each, soft and hard, push melting
Attitudes, reaching, bliss hungry
Beyond, in depths resonating


We draw the other, body held in hand
Size, seize, move, assume full unplan'
Play, offer, take in each other's mind
Hear the farthest call, up close drive


She gradually splits apart, smoothly curls
Accepts, showers divine glowing unfurls


Awakens the worlds asleep in each point !




O Whirlwind Goddess, how I await this day
For your secrets simple, your involved play
The momentums massive you generate
Sources joyous unknown you bring in spate


And now, your being full in slumber deep
Love loving love, as newborns keep
Just simple, flushed, glamour free
Unclaimed, unclaiming, god deserving.

NOTHING

Brows loaded with sweat, eyes smarting
I take the sun on the squint
Day hot and sultry




She's not here, I recall curt
The mind moons
Far into the clouds above
Of another evening
A dry summer, I hear :
" Life's a boon, remain afloat dear ! "




The heat is now damp and convecting
Woe - be - gone
This I heavy on me
A forsaken desert
The terms daunting.




She's not here, her touch, her form
Soft voice that could quell a storm
The faith natural .... now beyond
I look around
Thoughts, ideas, my search, me
Seems intangible, ineffective
What alone, why this solitary ...




To me, back and awake
She's not here, I say




The evening turns breezy and cool
I am the world ... its spring view
In step with time, not just pulling
Stops unencumbered, happy rolling.

THE PAGAN SOUL

It all began early but in immediate context
The vocation chose me ere I could assent
And so got trained at which I wished no part
To meanings and lures ...  so little, so short




My lifelong wager thence began
To keep out the money from what I am
As had been when I was born
And shall be when I'm dead and gone




I'd earn to live, yea, to fulfill the needs
But with mind turned in, on the spirit 
Being Being ...  unpropped, supporting 
Taking little, at peace and witnessing




Yea, I was rebuffed for being 'thout ambition
Hence roved places, from one job to another
Suspect enough in the eyes of my employers
But " unstable, unwise " meant nothing here




Unpawned I moved, 'twas fearlessness they feared
Refused their wile and vile, and would never veer
For they held naught I wanted, antipathy obvious
To organised hierarchies, fools, lackeys and lords 




It's time now, to move on
My woman's troubled, I look beyond
The physical uprooting, the unsettled heath
At the little boy, glad real, his undisguised glee




Laughing, happy, forward looking.

DEEP SLEEP BEING

Look at Being in deep sleep
'Thout compare, in unique bliss
Vitality sheer, of great mother's
No mind nor impressed identities.


Charging the field, my instruments fresh
No honey traps, no polluting ignorance
Beyond name and the me and mine sense
Plain, clear ... in throbbing non existence.

*

This morning
When the dawn was yet to break
My mind completely unburdened
Memory free and 'ceptions direct


'Thout residue from before or hence ...


Swallow pairs twittered, to being playful
Prey in beak ... circles high ... the eagle
Lets the piece, eyeing, in complete ease
And regains it mid air in a precise sweep.


Isn't the caretaking lad's honour unworldly ?
Is the barber silent, at work, meditating ?


The being's pure ... ha la la, I now know
A privilege undeserved perhaps in future.


Would I have it again, attain and sustain ?
Am I immortal, free, if unsung n defamed ?

THE GOLD IN OUR HEARTS

Unfurled in truth

History sure shows

The trail of human ego ...

A litter of avoidable collisions

Net spun of blood and humiliation

Foreclosing paths, vulgarly appease

Riders menacing, mounts trampling on peace

The village is scarlet

Of unrequited haste

Good besieged for goods

By yellers incompassionate

Sabotaging hopes of simple folks
The world mute to gasping sobs

Deafening stampede, cause common turn

Marauding fires in which visionaries burn.

But the vision lost, it is now revealed

Remains intact 'thout yielding an inch

With millions subscribed to internet feeds

Across the world, the stiff - heads heed

The marching steps sounding peace :

' The gold is still with us, dear 

  In our hearts, same as ever !'