Monday 30 March 2020

Musing Madhawa - Viraha Madhawam



Musing Madhawa - Viraha Madhawam
by Sindhoor Varkoor



Finally, I got around to reading Musing Madhawa - Viraha Madhawam by Sindhoor Varkoor. The book is a collection of poems, which flow like the music from flute of Madhawa Himself.

Varkoor has this fascinating way of expressing a great deal through very few words. And this amazing knack for leaving things unsaid, still conveying them with great precision. Here are some of my favourite lines.

"The bond in clasping hands
- that talk in a language only they can comprehend,..." (Poem: Never Happened)

'Li'l bits of me
Get lost in you
Slowly every moment..." (Poem: Bits Of Me)

"How many wreaths should I make
For a love that dies and dies everyday?" (Poem:Wreaths)

"I stopped thinking
All about you

Right now

I am still not thinking
About you." (Poem: I Stopped Thinking)

"I emerged
Out of fire
And nothing burnt me
More
Than you." (Poem: Your Sita)

"....
I wear pain
Like old clothes
Very comfortably..." (Poem:Pain)

Sindhoor Varkoor, may you be blessed with more poetry. I wish the title of the book had been just 'Viraha Madhawam' though.

Saturday 28 March 2020

Voyage of the Sun

K. Krishna Das


A re-versification in English of Seena Sreevalson's Malayalam poem, Sooryaayanam, from her collection of poems, Kukkinikkattayum Punnagachettum.

സൂര്യായനം

നിന്റെ വഴിയല്ല
എന്റേതെന്നറിഞ്ഞിട്ടും
വഴി
അവസാനിക്കുന്നിടം വരെ
എന്റെ
സ്വപ്നങ്ങള്ക്ക് കൂട്ടുപോന്ന്
നിന്റെ
വഴിയിലേക്ക്
തിരിച്ചു
നടക്കുന്ന കൂട്ടുകാരാ
എന്നില്
നിന്ന്
നിന്നിലേക്കുള്ള
ദൂരമാണെന്റെ
പ്രണയം

- സീന ശ്രീവത്സന്

Voyage of the Sun

Our paths were different
yet you came along
following my dreams
until the road was no more
and now that you go back
your way, my friend,
this distance stretches
between us
as my love.


Friday 27 March 2020

Quarantine




I don't meet the world
nor does it me, but nature
stops by my balcony.

©

Monday 16 March 2020

Peace


Party when some stay
It's party when some leave, say
the same 'tis with peace.

©

Wednesday 11 March 2020

So what of it?


So what of this life
lived and fought
sustained and survived
for years so long
they don't count anymore?

So what of this mind
that rejoiced and sorrowed
fretted and feared
that yearns to unburden
and just let be?

So what of this heart
that beat and faltered
loved and lost
that bled and drained
too tired to beat anymore?

So what of this body
groomed and perfumed
adorned and draped
when the soul struggles
to break free?



Saturday 7 March 2020

Freedom




Freedom

Heart beats out of rhythm
on a lonely street
breath is on hold
when eyes at random meet
both going still -
breath and beat -
as I am alone again
on this deserted street.
Feet pace down
at the night's echoes
and rush on their own
through lurking shadows.
I linger for a while
in the dark, wraithlike
to bear again
the glare of streetlight,
turning away
from the preying night
braving the burning
gaze of daylight,
daring, outdaring
step by step, by degrees.
Yes, I am a woman
content to be free.

© Sujatha Warrier

Monday 2 March 2020

Rain


Rain

The clouds are so very dark and deep
Or is that only what I could draw
Perhaps, she must be praying and yearning
To get out of this seasonal prison of Sky
Strange was her journey, fearful was her transformation
Time has heard her thunderous cry
She has smiled again with the flash
Dancing in the ecstasy raining down free
No more she, a dark pregnant rain cloud
But a bright tiny drop of life.

Gopakumar Radhakrishnan

A drop of life sinks into waiting arms
wetting parched lips
soothing scaling wrinkles
of a forlorn, barren land,
streaming through shrivelled veins
filling earthen heart with hope
sowing new seeds of energy
fading into eternal skies
into a new womb, a new cloud
and a new life cycle in eternity.

Sujatha Warrier