Uncut Poetry

Tea-a-Tete with Mum & Dad

So much of me is my parents. My love for poetry is from my mother. My practical life is from my father. And as I have conversations with them, I realize both of them are actually universe's first and the most beautiful poems gifted to me. No wonder, poetry is life. 
 
And today I have two poems, one each for the two who mean the most to me. 
 

Distances: Kaifi Azmi Ke Liye

The gorgeous poetry in the song 'Main yeh sochkar' by Kaifi Azmi from the film Haqeeqat, has heartbreak written into its very fibre.
 
The finality of endings is often unavoidable, often known, but never ever easy.
 
Love's tenure is a story of irony wrapped in an unhealed scar which neither heals, nor desires healing. 
 

Fear In A Prayer's Home

We are so quick to judge violence as communal, religion as bigoted, and protest as biased.
 
But do we realize the person we threw our abuses at is also a person who trudges back to a home, tired, bloodied, pilloried.
 
That this man does believe in the power of a prayer. And when he runs down the street with fire in his hand and screaming God's name, he is merely invoking the name to protect himself from himself.

Map My Body, Lover

What is love, or love-making, worth, if it's not mischievous? It's high is a question of physics and biology, but for it to be life sustaining, it requires playfulness, good old conversation, a lot of giving and a lot of taking.
 
It's one of those strange things where you burn and then come out more alive. 

In Concert

They say everyone is happy in similar ways, but pain catches everybody differently. Even when it is shared, pain is a burden which has to be borne alone.
But pain is also a doorway to compassion, to understanding, to appreciation. And life telescopes through pain, into its most elemental. We are truth, we are awake... even as things fade away. 

Her Grace Without Notice

So much of our mental space is spent in recrimination of those who deserve nothing less than our deepest gratitude, and for what? Small hurts, a word we didn't like, a gesture which didn't suit us?
 
But happily, we all have in our lives people who forget quickly and forgive generously. Their grace is what quietly gives our lives its rich textures. Can we be that person?
 

A Tragedy with Two Faces

Tragedy hits everybody. But it hits some at a livelihood level, others at a heartache level.
 
We can sneer at rich - but we are in this world with our own destinies. To feel guilty about our luck is to deny the very things which give life its beauty.
 
 
But when two worlds meet, grace appears in mysterious ways.
 
(And welcome Tanuja!)

I Can Be Your Poem

So much of love is all about being in the moment.
 
The length, paradoxically, is of little consequence. A lifetime together might have just a few memorable moments, but just a few moments might have a whole lifetime embedded in them. 
 
That's the joy, pain, and gorgeousness of this unhealed scar called love...
 
 

Departures

The relationship of a father and daughter is one of the closest bonds, almost akin to  homespun spirituality. For a father, a daughter is someone so valuable, that battles could be fought for her with the whole world.
 
But like all realizations, children often discover the indispensable nature of their parents just when the universe makes them realize how dispensable each life is.

Yes..

What is life without risk? What is life's worth if we haven't jumped into the dark not knowing anything more than that there is an invisible grace of something infinite out there which will protect us? 
In the brave response to these fears lies the most beautiful offering of life we can ever hope to either give or get....