Found and Lost

Shoonya is nothingness. It's that nothingness that encompasses everything in the universe. The world, as we know it, takes birth in this nothingness and dies in this nothingness. What remains always, the truth, is shoonya. 

Found and Lost is my search for myself which begins from emptiness and ends in emptiness, though I get lost somewhere in between.

Found and Lost

I search.
I search for myself
in crowded, clamorous places
while I am all adrift
somewhere in the void,

in the stillness
where creep in my thoughts
that gather in knots
only to free up
and find themselves lost,

in the silence
where I find my voice
that reverberates,
runs up and down the scales,
and then slowly fades,

in the speechlessness
where I choose my words
for that perfect eloquence
to eventually stutter
in utter meaninglessness,

in the emptiness
that fills and overflows me
until it’s replaced
by a fullness in the exact measure
of its nothingness.

©

Breath

Yercaud Poetry Festival 2021, the fourth edition of the series, was themed on "Air". The title of the event was "Breathe Poetry – Reclaim Life". "Breath" is one of my poems contributed to the anthology of the same title. This video is a souvenir of the event.

Breath

The world is equal, you said. Like all blood runs red. But that’s truth distorted. For some, it’s red. And for some, it’s red black. Like a binary tree, it gradates from red to black.  For, they have bled. They have bled for long, and their wounds have clotted.

The world is equal, you said. Like the sun shines on all. A tale nothing short of tall. On some, it shines light. And on some, bright. So bright, now there are dark skins and black lives. So black, not a ray of hope can pass.

The world is equal, you said. Like all are made of elements. With dimensions. Of time, space and substance. Well, that’s naïve, if not dense. For, the world looks through some. As if they are empty spaces. They might as well be fragments.

The world is equal, you said. Like the air is for all to breathe. Now, if that isn’t falsity! Air breathes white lies into some. And then black lives cease to be.

Your law kneels
Way too hard on me
I can’t breathe!

©

Spark and Fire

The event was the Yercaud Poetry Festival 2020 - the third edition of the annual festival. The theme was 'Fire'. The first edition was themed on 'Earth' followed by the second themed on 'Water'. The event was sponsored by Rotary Club of Salem Galaxy and coordinated by Soul Scribers' Society Salem in association with The Hoi Polloi.