CAN WAR BE ABOLISHED

Throughout history men have felt

The desire to wear cloak and belt

Go out upon some battle fields

With guns, ere, with swords and shields

All that they could achieve

Was killing and making someone grieve

Could they not have tried to talk

Kept their arms and used some chalk

Man is part of nature’s scheme

God’s eternal peaceful dream

Like the early morning dew

Every day we are born anew

We can try and spread the love

Transmit the message of the dove

Put an end to war and strife

Understand every one’s need for life

Then we will not think of battle

Then our sabres will not rattle

Words and thoughts will rule the day

And surely will keep war at bay

MOMENTS IDEALLY

Like Dew Drops on 
The Lotus Leaf

Moments of my Life

Lie stretched out before me

At my momentary touch

Each one will roll off

Irrevocably and certainly

To water the roots of my Karma

Each one will encapsulate

The emotions of the moment

And convey its essence

To the nature of the Tree

Let me approach them in

Full command of my faculties

So that each one carries only

Attributes of Fragrance and Blossoms

Let me continue to endeavour

That the ardour of my Being

Makes them evaporate

And my Karma is neutral

@Vikaas Nafde ' Emoticons of a Rambling Life ' 

CAPTIVITY

There are bars across the windows

Bars across the doors
Take away these bars
For now and evermore
-          Old Cowboy song

Whether its location

Or an occasion
We are captives
Of our situation

Man-made bars

Or be they circumstances
Could also be emotions
Captivating our heart

Can’t go where we want
Can’t do what we need
Can’t just follow the heart
Into eternity

Caged like the winged one

Wishing for the open skies
We flutter and make noise
Without any replies

We should be masters

With the key to the door
Come and go as we like
With the means to do more

Are we condemned to

A sentence - less wait
Or are we our pleading lawyer
To fight and win the case

Our intention is to move

The means are not there
This is captivity my friend
To deny you cannot dare

Its not the shadows of the bars

That run across your floor
It’s the darkness of your wisdom
That locks up your door

ARISE !! Find the strength

Bend those bars
Dig that tunnel
Strike the lock

Come and go as you please

Say what you want, do as you feel
Hook on to freedom
Pull in the reel

A Funeral

I was at a funeral

It seemed like my own

People, faces milling around

Some familiar some unknown

They were talking in whispers

As if they were in dread

That they would be overheard

By the one who was dead!

I sensed every word that was said

The praise and the damning matter

Was happy to note that there was more

Of the first and less of the latter

They were not really shedding tears

As they did as they aught  

Completing the formalities

For their own peace that they sought

In my new-found silence and stillness

I rose from the congregation

And went along my merry way

To my new assignation 

There was Light, the blowing of trumpets

A welcome with Divine Song

Not looking back to that house, I left

After staying there well and long

My Epitaph on a stone put by someone at the place 

Here lies a man who loved to rhyme

Though he never saved a dime

All his time on words he spent

Then silently to this place he went

An Encounter? Incident?

When he saw her he heard

A crash of cymbals , and

The start of an unwritten symphony

To which his heart was beating time

She smiled – he experienced

The fragrance of a shower of petals

The blinding light radiating from her

Hid all else around !

They met –her voice excited him

Her intelligence stupefied him

Her zest for life caught him up

Its wave swept him off his feet

They talked and laughed, Shared meaningful silences

Seriously, gravely, laughingly – sometimes angrily

Lived through a gamut of emotions

Enough for a lifetime

They started drifting apart ,

A little knowingly then farther unknowingly

Drifting till nothing was left – save

The knowledge of existence

More of each one’s Self than the other’s

And for both it became to remain but

An encounter - with what?

Do not ask …….

They would not be able to say

Except perhaps that 

It was an incident shared

By strangers who remained thus

A CHRISTMAS GREETING

As Christmas time draws nigh

I wish to be with you

For I can always try

To be under the  #Mistletoe

I can see the tinsel and glitter

In the warmth of your home

And you in all your splendor

Brightening up each room

May the spirit of the season

Warm hearts of all around

And let there be no reason

For your feet to touch the ground

I wish you never shed a tear

I wish you always smile

Christmas comes but once a year

So .. Have a Splendid Time

Ambition vs Capabilities

Ambition and capabilities

Two factors in life

Interconnected

Interlinked

Not necessarily compatible

They say –

“ Judgement of ones capabilities

Must decide one’s ambitions “

Perhaps.

Judgement? One’s own Judgement ?

Tinged with Ego – Perforce

Lens of Ego

When seen through

Tends to heighten

Images

Lengthens and Broadens

Making appear

Manifestation of that

Which is not , actually

Ambition is set

Capability put to work

Only the result proves

Compatibility or Incompatibility

OF ambitions and capability

Artificiality

Morning has come , don the garb

For the day’s Act on the world’s stage

The old look young the young look knowing

Artificiality is rife each plays his role

Time moves on, pulling with it

That which is false and

Leaves behind the truth

To decay and die

Evenfall adds spirit to the drama

Lights come on only to hide reality

The glimmer blinds eyes

But enlivens Sensation

Slowly, slowly Actors retire

To sleep mask less

While the Author writes a new Act

In which we may be – or may not!

THE ACTOR

Each night and every morning

I go diligently through

My lines and actions

For the day’s performance

My face prepared

My costume donned

I step out of the wings

CENTRE STAGE!

Some days it’s smooth

The Playwrights nuances

Coming through the

Matrix of the players work

Sometimes we miff our lines

(We were too busy to prepare)

Sometimes we are confused

By others wrong entry and cue

(Our misjudgement)

Sometimes we are deafened, by

The clamour and the din

Imagined applause

The orchestra too loud

Those many oversight

Which deafen us to

The Prompter

In the wings