Bhuvaneshwari Shankar's Blog, page 7

[Poetry) Haiku

EYES
Sun flowers spring in
the morning surging hope dulls
limpid lilies at night

Sand Dunes
Hillocks stretch smooth soft
ridged ever changing the wind's
eternal playground

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Published on November 21, 2016 10:07

Image from: http://phoenix.about.com/od/arizonapi...

Faint light streams
From a leaden sky
The sun has gone to rest
In his fallow realm
It is earth's turn
At the helm
Birds return to roost
All confused

Wind tumbles through the trees
Pounding on my roof top
Distant thunder rumbles
A hungry giant's grumble

Vast cotton balls of dust move
As though propelled
By an invisible blower
Cloaking greenery,
Dwellings in a brown mail

Grey inks the blue sky
And mornings turn to dusk
Curtains of dust hang
From invisible hooks suspended

Hopes for rain
Are wishful
Eyes singe
And nostrils writhe
Faces turn ashen

In the pall of gloom
Flowers in bloom
Dream
Frail leaves tremble
In hope
Their rain lover
To unravel
Their chaste hue
In one stroke

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Published on November 07, 2016 02:35

[Poem] The song of the Mother

Image from: http://www.kmberggren.com

The speck grew limb by limb
Swimming in animate waters
A sacred chalice, veiled
In the chancel of her womb
He throbbed and kicked
She was awash with thrill
He swelled in strength
Filling every space in her heart

And when the world called to him
He saw it first through her eyes
Propped against a warm shoulder
He hid from fear
And sought out cheer
Drooling, bubbling, gurgling
He was a cloudburst of joy

He learnt to crawl then to walk
When he began to talk
He just couldn't stop
'Mother, I shall never leave you'
He said

'Don't wrap him in your apron strings
He is grown, let him be
Let go
He belongs not in your world
Give him up
to the world of men'
They said

So she sent him away.

His education complete
He returned a man
With a grown up mustache
With limbs grown longer
He dwarfed her
in height and in manner

She pecked shyly at the cheeks
On which she had rained kisses
She grasped the hand
That had clasped her forefinger tight
She stroked his rough hair
That was silken when he left
He nodded all adult like
Talked in clipped tone
She heard her heart moan

Was her little boy lost?
Was his grooming at a cost?
Was his exile worthwhile?
Agitation riled

He got up to leave and smiled
As he bid good bye
In a flash she saw
His hesitation
A look that she knew too well
(A mother can always tell)
Though it vanished
It lingered
She knew then
That her little boy walked again

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Published on October 31, 2016 10:12

[Poem] A Dewdrop of Warmth

Image Credit- Sheila Verghis

I neither know day nor night
All I do is see the light
I live in beauty I live in vigour
I glide on the air I feast on nectar

I am a dewdrop of warmth
That glimmers and is gone

I fear neither age nor disease
My life is always an endless trapeze.

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Published on August 23, 2016 17:24

[Poem] How Can My Love Hold Him? When...

He is a wanderer he is a rebel
He is wanton he is wild
He is a fiend most dreadful
But he is also gentle as a child

He is a traveller adventurous
Tripping around in the wilderness
He flutes as he scales mountains
And sings as he rides the seas

No windows stop, no door bars his way
Bodies come under his sway
They surrender, All is his - to plunder

He is the classic imp
undoing a button here, pulling a pleat there
He pushes hats and caps awry
Setting the locks beneath free

How can my love hold him, when nothing can?
He is the breeze, a tease upon the trees
And all I can do - is
Sing of his caprice.

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Published on August 23, 2016 17:16

[Poem] In the Land of Sindhu

Proudly flows the Sindhu river
In the land that is named after her
And today that same nation, voices in unison
Your name in one breath, lauds your mission
You, the young star on the horizon
Have pirouetted the country in jubilation
India, your women have finally arrived
Sindhu's Silver, our birthday present, delivered Indian style!

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Published on August 23, 2016 17:04

[Poem] The Fall

Image: Munier, Emile -The Broken Vase
A battered mother
smothers to save
feeds husk
the neonate to choke
She crushes, she kills to save
Her wealth, her honour
Or her daughter's
She does not know...
Thus began our oral histories

She does not know
I am the hope for mankind

I Survive held aloft
by wispy tendrils
that threaten to break
Overhead hovers the weight of centuries
Cloudbursts of oppression to rain

Then I fall,
At every heave
'You are a virgin, free of guile'
'You are a sin, a temptress rank and vile'
The phrases pile
'You are weak'
Abuses pile
Of the mouth, the lips, the hips

I thrash about
My womb swells
Births Dragons, Catapults, Mortars, Cannons,
A giant advances all cells firing

Meanwhile I lie curled
In my own pod
I crawl, crouch in cold and wetness
Every time to rise - fear purged
Laughing

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Published on August 17, 2016 23:51

[Poem] Adrift

We live in troubled times. There are approximately 65 million displaced people who are fleeing their homelands either because their country is in conflict or because they face persecution or are poverty stricken. The 19th of June is observed as World Refugee Day.
This poem originally appeared in the online portal Different Truths.

Adrift
The monster roars
Dropping shells
I now know what shell-shocked is –
Shell shocked is to lose a neighborhood
Friends, familiarity
In one stroke
To have history erased
In one stroke
Shell shock is red paint splayed on a domestic scene
Rough hearts wipe my canvas clean
Streets become rivers
Ferrying the dead and the living
I desperately pray for a branch, a log, a twig
To anchor me to my land

Death drops its mantle on the fortuitous
Hope gathers up the dammed in his folds
Oh! This foolish hope
Oh! This foolish wish to live
Riding a wispy fate I flee
I run for days
And drift over seas

I had a job, a routine
I had hopes I had dreams
All in an another life
Now I am a cell in a mass of surging humanity
A nameless hopeless spectre
Without an identity
I am a rudderless refugee
Will I ever wrest back my dignity?

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Published on June 21, 2016 01:10

[Short Story] The Diverging Road

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y1eX0hw30E..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y1eX0hw30E..." width="400" /></a></div> It was early afternoon. Venu surveyed her surroundings doubtfully. She breathed a sigh of relief when she found the signboard. It read Venpani Peak. What lay ahead was a steep slope. She began the ascent, lips pursed. She panted a little. The heavy camera that hung around her neck swayed and twisted heavily, with every stride, as she negotiated the jagged steps. Sharp branches of dead wood that grew alongside the path, grazed her elbows and legs. ‘Damn! I should have worn something more sensible!’ she exclaimed as she looked down with dismay at her sleeveless short dress. Several red marks marred the smoothness of her arms and legs. She rubbed them to relieve the pain. She slowed down to catch her breath and clicked pictures of the golden sunlight filtering in through the curtain of leaves. The charm of her surroundings engulfed her and she gave in to the pure mountain air, the greenery and the sound of the wind that whooshed through the trees. Venu was pleased with herself when she finally reached the peak. She spied a wooden bench a little distance away and rushed towards it to rest her aching limbs. But as soon as she sat down, she stood up again drawing in her breath sharply. She was greeted by a sight that she had only seen in the screen savers in her computer. She ran to the brink to drink in the panoramic view of the hills covered in green, dotted with rocky precipices and straight ahead of her, lay a white, misty, waterfall that fell several meters below into a wide river that meandered and vanished through a bend in the rocks. She stood transfixed for a long while and then began photographing it all in a frenzy, eager to capture the sheer beauty and transfer it all into her camera. She heard the soft rush of a mountain stream and set out to find it. She washed her face and drank the cool water thirstily. Rejuvenated, she moved about capturing wild flowers through her lens, all the while imagining the ripples and the envy it would stir up among her classmates, who were at the base camp. She and her college mates had arrived just that morning on a botanical expedition to the mountains and she had slipped out quietly at lunchtime for her own little adventure in the hills. Will they miss me? Would they perhaps look for me? Would Akil stall them? she wondered. Venu wasn't the adventurous type at all, but Akil had challenged her to do it and she was never one to back down from a dare. ‘Thank you Akil, I have the entire hills to myself!’ She shouted hands cupping her mouth, waiting eagerly for the reverberation. But thoughts of nature, beauty and peace gave place to fear doubt and panic. Venu was seized by the thought that she had not seen another human being all through. Her survival instincts kicked in. She looked around anxiously for the path that would take her back. But a few false trails later, Venu realized that she was completely lost. What sort of a boyfriend was this stupid Akil? He could have easily slipped out with me or he should not have put me up to this! She lamented. Hunger pangs gnawed at her stomach. Just take any path downhill …it would lead to civilization, a sane voice spoke in her head. She began her descent and came upon a clearing. Then she saw him. He was of a diminutive height, small made. He was brown skinned with an angular face. He wore an embroidered shawl of red black and white over his right shoulder leaving his left shoulder bare. She ran towards him and began animatedly. ‘Oh thank god, you are here …’ She switched to Tamizh when he fixed her in a quizzical stare. But when he continued to stare at her in puzzlement, she broke of a twig and began drawing on the ground. She spoke the words slowly and gestured animatedly with both her hands. He nodded and pointed to a pathway through the trees. She drew money from her pocket and held it out to him. He slowly but firmly pushed her hand away. As she made her way down hill, sending up a silent prayer, she saw another man. He came up the stone path effortlessly, twirling a cane. He must have been in his thirties. Everything about him spelt style and fine taste, right from his khaki shorts, blue shirt to the Gucci sunglasses carelessly pushed back to his crown. An unlit cigarette dangled rakishly from a corner of his mouth. He waved at her and Venu waved back a little hesitantly. He came closer. 'Are you part of that college expedition? She nodded smiling sheepishly. ‘Hmm… That’s what I thought, when I saw you from a distance!’ He gave an easy laugh. ‘What are you doing here all by yourself?’ ‘ Oh, I am Sanjay, by the way’ He held out his hand. She shook it with her fingertips. ‘I am a geologist … I am staying in the same resort.’ Venu merely nodded. He continued ‘Are you lost or something? What are you doing with him?’ He gestured to the adivasi, who stood patiently during the exchange. ‘Come with me. I could take you back. I can always come up here tomorrow. Twilight is almost upon us …’ he laughed again. Venu deliberated for a long moment. She cast a sidelong glance at the adivasi who waited patiently. ‘No’ she began apologetically ‘I think I will go with him ... He has agreed to take me back and it would be impolite.’ He laughed. ‘Don't be silly. I could give him some money and send him away… let me speak to him.’ She turned and blocked his path. She looked him firmly in the eye. 'It's alright. I'll go with him. I am pretty sure we will have plenty of occasions to meet later on…’ She signaled to her guide to lead her and followed him, head bent. The Noble Savage won the day. Image Source: 7-themes.com

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Published on June 13, 2016 13:30