When trees fall..

(Written in 7th grade... )

I went to the window for some fresh air,
And was shocked to see the land below bare!
I rushed down for a better look,
There were no trees till the far street nook.

I saw telephone wires in their place,
A row of lives, put out at rapid pace.
I walked gloomily back to the balcony,
My heart shocked and filled with agony.

Years to grow, minutes to cut down,
Cruel world I thought, my face a frown
I stood there clinging to the railing grill
The world suddenly seemed very cold and still..

Just look.....

Just look… (Written in the 1st year of my brother's college, 2000. I actually used to write letters to him (not e-mail and I sent this to him on pretty stationary))

Pretty flowers, in the wilderness they bloom,
Teach us to spread joy and forget our gloom.
Their life so short, they wither away at night,
Yet all day long so cheerful a sight!

The winds that blow, the waters that flow,
Tell us to keep going, when our hopes are low,
Even when our destination we do not know,
Earnest efforts bring rewards in tow.

The mountain that once made the water-fall,
Is now a plain, the river has taken its toll!
The wind did not stop till it laid on the ground,
The great oak that had dared to bar its path.

The sun tirelessly travels the sky each day,
Without a pause or rest, come what may.
That is life for you, a race to be run,
Time and tide – they wait for none.

Sophie. (2000)

The Horizon...

(This was 13 yrs ago...I just found it now.....)

There the sun sets,
There the music stops,
And there everything ends.
The lonliness in my heart rises;
I stand watching the sight,
The sky blending in with the sea,
The sun, the treasure of the sky,
Now half in the waters not high!
I wonder about the partner,
That nature made for me.
Of whom I know nothing about,
Without whom I am quite alone.
In search of whom I move,
Yet I know not where it will end..
The closer I get, the farther it moves away....

Sophie... (1997)

The Query...

Oh eyes! What do you seek?
So listless and oh so meek!
Is it something from the past?
All the times that did not last?
(Or did they even exist?)

Oh eyes! Why do you glare?
Where is the fault, against what can you flare?
Is it the futility of it all?
The sequence unreal, but so real the fall.
(All that for nothing?)

Oh eyes! Why the tears?
So uncalm and so many fears!
Is it shattered dreams and crushed lives?
Or the future that never arrives?
(Will it ever?)

Of Dreams and Reality....

(Written in 2002, found when I was packing my diaries to go back to India..)

She was running blind, searching perhaps-
Happy and carefree - just she and her dreams.
And then it happened, now she asks herself - how?
She had been young and naive,
Flattered perhaps at the attention she never got.

She knew the hurdles were too many,
Yet she ran - on and on.
Fretted night and day about things to come,
But not once did she consider giving up the race.
Content and fulfilled deep within, still she knew,
The catch was not worth the chase.
And the treasure not worth the trouble.

She realized she was asking for it,
But she could not give it up,
Perhaps it was her reserve of joy,
In an otherwise empty life.
The mind knows but the heart seldom pays heed,
After all the mind worries too much,
Are hope and trust not the delight of life?

Knowing she was after something that never was,
That if she ever got close enough,
There would be nothing but her own disappointment.
But even in her frustration, it was better that way
The thrill, the excitement was in the chase,
The anxiety, romance and drama too,
The real destination was nothing to her.
She smiled sadly at the saying,
The moon a pretty sight from the Earth,
Up close just sand, rock and stone.

She hoped that it would just disappear,
So she could not go on even if she wanted to,
And then live in peace with herself and others.
And finally it happened – pop it went,
Suddenly it was no longer there.
She was free – she had broken her chains.
She had to be happy, she knew it.
Yet it did not feel so, she wondered why?

All the fiction of a colorful mind,
How true – one sees what one wishes to.
She made a diamond of a piece of glass
And chased her own illusions.
As she saw it shattered in front of her,
A single tear trickled from her eyelids,
For her diamond that had never been,
A second tear rolled down her cheek,
And sealed her buried dreams, new ones to seek…

Sophie. (2002)