Literature Review

I know now of the Happiness
In knowing what Keats
Thought about Cats
Or what Robert Frost
Thought of Love and Thought

Now it is just one of those
Papers that talk of Cellulose
And the Chinese with their frenzied eyes
Producing research like plastic toys
I hate to admit but it could be true
That I care more about some Dr.Hu
Who's recent work seems to challenge
Everything known about Climate Change

The poet is now half forgotten
Like Ether left in an uncovered Flask
My words expressing stranger's thoughts
And a little grumpy about the Task.

Harmony

Little Joys have nimble limbs
Twinkle toes and tipsy moves

Like the uninvited sprinkle showers
That refuse to drench and choke
And play hide and seek
With your elderly black umbrella

..Or the big white cat sitting on the pavement
Licking her grass-kissed, overfed, pink paws
With her tuna fish tongue
Looking smugly at your futile frenzy
With her emerald green inertial eyes!

Unexpected blooms of Gardenia
Along an everyday,presumed sidewalk
Fragrant flowers popping out of rain kissed leaves
That make you slow down and sometimes..
Even pluck a few under the ambush of the starry night

Anonymous chocolates on your desk
And inexpensive cups of Chai Latte
Good music in your mailbox
Custom-played to inspire you!
Honest attempts at playing bad guitar
And looking for places full of solitude to practice
To save your few,close friendships.

And then a little trouble, a little pain
To get it all
In perfect Harmony!

My Favorite Song

It comes back
Like lavender in old linen
Or like the hint of vanilla
That speaks of mum's cream-smeared
Butter-soaked,soft, tiny hands

I sang the same tune when I was sixteen
With half drunk dreamy eyes
I sing it again today
As I begin to summarize

Everything that changed unknowingly
Between the mathematically accurate beats
As I grew up between the frozen notes
The same verse and the same lines

It keeps me company as I toss a Salad
I half-listen to it as I run
A part of my mind's ear
Over-played yet unsung

I forget it for a while
Between papers, books and Coffee Shops
Then we suddenly meet at a corner
Like a whiff of freshly baked muffins

I see how my Life has changed since
The last time I sang along
For Better or for Worse, I would never Part
With the Return of my Favorite Song!

Starry Sky

I walk across a hundred fears
And I think of You
On the Evening full of Despair
I gently sing to You
From the giggling brooks that beckon
And the Orange Earth that heaves
We are born in the musky roots
And fall off as Autumn leaves
One of Your tender whispers
And everything missing is found
As I fight Reality and Illusions
You gently put your arm around
The hymns sing of sins and pleasures
A million sorrows die
Then at the end of the Bridge waits a Promise
Of Your endless Starry Sky!

PS: Please do not interpret this as a love poem. It is my version and my effort of translating one of my favorite Grace poems from Marathi.
PPS: Please do not compare the original with this one if you actually figure out what the original version is because obviously they are no match. I wrote this because I have been thinking about the poem for a very long time. :)

Footprints

As a little girl I walked on the seashore
And turned around to see
My footprints on the wave-washed sand
And wondered how I would want them to be!

My feet grew long,round and pretty
And the ocean got smaller
Within the folds of my memory
And I measured my prints in Cold Despair
In Friendships, in Love and in Victory

A little Joy and then a little Sorrow
To check Euphoria with Anguish
A host of seashells to make a pretty anklet
And sometimes just a dead jellyfish

I made scores and I kept accounts
Of the Good, the Bad and the Surreal
Making my own mark on the sultry sea sand
Struggling with the Common and the Ideal

Now all the footprints are washed away
Into the waters where the Dolphins dive
But books that I kept as a curious child
Have blossomed into my Life

Dear Notebook

Dear Notebook forgive me,
For I confuse you with eccentricity
And bring you half way through your pages
To where Chemistry meets Poetry

If they open you legally
Like they should in a world full of Rules
You would enthral them by Logic and Statistics
And thoughts from various schools
All neatly organized and highlighted
For the ease of a probable Return
And paper markers with question marks
Where there is still a lot more to learn

For those who don’t follow rules
And flip through the other way round
You reveal a mess of merry thoughts
That float without a ground
Between the lines, inclined to the right
Self-obsessed and unkind
Like the clouds that turn into pictures
Or wavy hair against the wind
Adamant verses that refuse to grow up
Or a Happy Thought broken
By the persistent cell phone ring
Words, recycled and forgotten

I never let you finish
Straight from Left to Right
Your salvation is somewhere in between
Schizophrenic and full of the Night

But would it make a difference
If I confess that you are the reason
For all the Joy and Peace in my life?
So even if the world finds it odd
And frightfully abnormal
For you to be so scientific
Front to back
And recklessly disorganized
Back to front
We could make sense
If we just stay together!

Us

What do we have between us?
That seems to set us free
Like a fragrant Gardenia on eighty five
That lingers on page three
The farther we stand, the closer we grow
Past Horizons we try to see
I see you as you see yourself
And you see everything that is not me

The Day is full of Electrochemical Detectors
And Pumps that whine in Glee
The Dusk lights up with shimmering lights
And the Night is a Reverie

There is so much room for Theatre with you
I can be all that I can be
Worry and Anger - or a Giggling Schoolgirl
Using Indifference to hide Jealousy
And the sheer amusement
Or the Happy Realization
That this nameless camaraderie
Lets you see through all the Jazz
And show me the Real Me?!!

It percolates into everything I do
And I sing as I chop the Broccoli
Scribble verses at the back of my lab book
Organize the lines methodically
For once it is not about the Future
Nor about the imperfect Past
I wonder if it is about the Present either
Or just the moments in which these Daydreams last?

Sometimes it is You and sometimes Me
Sometimes song and Sometimes hush-hush
But the Happiness and the Innocence seems to dissolve
What might stand between us.