Every Cloud's a Dream

were-

  Yet only spoke of love…

  _________________

  Upon the paths you tread

  It’s a long path you’ve chose to tread,

  In the lands of faraway,

  A long walk through longer nights

  Until the dawn of day

  And though I cannot ease your walk

  Nor your ways to guide:

  I only wish I could be there

  To walk along your side

  To not remove the mountains high

  Nor to ford your streams,

  But just be there, when non else is

  To remind you of your dreams

  And wipe your tears that you may see

  The golden starry light,

  And know that there is Hope beyond

  The darkness of the night

  But if it be of little joy,

  Throughout the tests you take,

  Do remember someone prays

  Always for your sake:

  And at the far end of your pilgrimage

  Waits patiently for the day

  To welcome you with open arms

  And walk along your way…

  _________________

  Awaiting the nor’wester

  The horizon, melancholic, hides the sun,

  Gray clouds start the day,

  A windy breeze ushers a storm:

  A nor’wester on its way;

  When broken leaves will fly abound

  Lost in a reckless mirth,

  And the forlorn clouds will melt their grief

  And crying ‘brace the earth

  There’s life in every drop of rain –

  Yet empty seems the cloudy day,

  Thoughts awakened once again:

  That rather should be left astray –

  Though the day wakes up to the rain’s caress

  Deep inside, there’s parchedness…

  _________________

  Meet you again on a cloudy day

  We didn’t have an umbrella that cloudy day

  The clouds looked ominous initially,

  But when we realized the rains would drench us both

  Didn’t we laugh in childish glee?

  The clouds grew their giant size –

  A never ending army in indigo blue,

  But the wise sky seemed unbothered

  Just like me and you

  The dark clouds looked beautiful;

  Or was it the moment then and there?

  Far from madness, lying on the dewy morning grass

  With a chill building in the air

  And then the motes fell, one by one

  Reminding me of paratroopers from the sky;

  You scold me in your dulcet voice:

  ‘Can’t you think of anything better than soldiers who fly?’

  We were lying on the grass: the cityscape far away

  The rains in soft slow- motion laze

  And ourselves drenched from head to toe

  Both lost in life and all its haze

  Just like the air all around

  Hazy with sheets of autumnal rains

  Yet, there was a sliver of a rainbow hope

  That the sun would shine to melt all pains

  So I looked at you: Your eyes locked deep in mine,

  Those eyes that dissolved the world, its lies;

  But at that moment I despised the rains

  They looked like tears on your hopeful eyes

  What happened then, we both don’t know

  (Or maybe that is what I’d like to think)

  The last time that I saw of you,

  The unforgettable sky dressed in deep blue ink

  I still wonder whether the answer,

  Was it floating in the sky that day?

  I am sure, you’d have said, “How does it really matter?

  What’s important is this time, right now, today”

  I don’t carry an umbrella anymore:

  Perhaps because I don’t need a shield as I did yesterday;

  Perhaps because its absence reminds of you,

  Your last memory, on that day

  Or perhaps somewhere deep inside I hopelessly hope,

  That empty handed, if I saunter on a cloudy morn

  I will find you in those green meadows

  And the past will be reborn

  Sometimes I restless feel and try to run

  But I see the sky and once more stay,

  And hope that when the north wind comes laden with rain,

  We will meet again on a cloudy day…

  _________________

  Realization

  On a cloudy day,

  A gust of wind snatched my umbrella from me,

  Watching it sail,

  I only thought, which of us felt more free?

  _________________

  Rain in the mountains

  Rain in the mountains, call to me,

  “This cloudy day, where can you be?

  The vales have greened, the meadows too,

  Primulas wash the hillsides blue.

  This misty day, truant’s the sun,

  The hills alive, with the rains begun,

  And awake’s the pine, the oak and yew,

  Wild brooks, they sing, but where are you?”

  Miles away, in lands afar,

  Faint echoes I get to hear.

  When I look upon the graying sea,

  Familiar clouds voice silently:

  “Much have you travelled, much did you roam,

  Its time, my friend, to go back home…”

  _________________

  On a rainy Sunday morn

  Sunday was a sunless day -

  Myself so bored I slept away,

  When I heard a whisper in me deep,

  ‘Wake, my friend, why do you sleep?’

  ‘So dark a day,’ I start to cry

  ‘The sun’s not up, then why should I?

  So let me sleep and do my best’

  I reply back in full detest

  ‘But just look out,’ it starts again

  ‘The freshness, beauty and the rain,

  The frothy fields so watery green,

  Why not just play? Are you not keen?’

  And so I rise with a groggy head,

  (But do not step outside my bed)

  I look out through the window pane

  To see the day all drenched in rain

  And then I see a little kid

  Who in the rain does jump and skid

  And plays with muddy hands and toe,

  As if there is no tomorrow

  ‘Looks familiar…’ says I to me

  As I see the child, so full of glee

  Dancing, prancing in the rain

  Falling, rising yet again

  And then I hear a distant voice

  ‘Come inside, play with your toys!

  This rain will make you catch a cold,

  So come inside and don’t be bold’

  ‘But ma’ says the little child

  ‘The rains are slow and very mild,

  Please let me play awhile with glee

  For this day will never wait for me

  And Sunday’s still the same with rain

  (Before the classes start again)

  So please don’t stop me while I play

  I have to live utmost today’

  The last few words hold onto me,

  As I break out of my reverie

  The child, but me from a distant past

  Whose wisdom for long, did not last

  For here am I, many years away,

  Wrapped in darkness while its day -

  The joy of life, awash in rains

  As I hold onto just all my pains

  The voice inside comes back to me

  ‘Won’t you play awhile with glee?

  In this busy life, my little friend,

  We lose the way, seeking the end’

  ‘So wake up friend, don’t sleep and wait

/>   The day’s begun, but not yet late,

  The sun you search is in the mind,

  Seek, and you will always find…’

  The cloudy day, seems bright at last -

  No future nor the dismal past,

  The rain and skies just sing away

  ‘I have to live utmost today…’

  _________________

  Listening to the road

  There always seems a lot to walk,

  Upon the paths we tread,

  And it wearies when we cannot see

  Beyond the turns ahead

  But lost in pain, when despondent,

  We stare upon the way,

  We see footprints of the many more

  Who stood here yesterday

  And if we listen carefully,

  We’ll hear the road to say:

  “So many more have trod this path,

  Then why can’t you today?”

  “Many had stopped oh, just like you

  But on they went ahead,

  For Hope lies in the walk in front

  Not in turning back instead”

  “So shed your tears, but carry on

  Through the oases – sands unknown:

  One day, on walking far ahead

  You’ll have a story of your own”

  “And tomorrow, when another soul

  Stops hereupon as well:

  I’ll show him of your footprints too,

  And sing to him your tale…

  _________________

  A child’s dream

  When I fail to sleep on a spring filled night,

  I look outside my room,

  And smiling watch the silver moon

  That slowly gets to bloom

  And softly wish how if I could

  With all this moonlight here -

  Stitch myself a pair of wings

  With silver, magic, care

  My magic wings would softly glow

  In darkest of the nights

  And cut through space and swirling time

  In flash-of-eye-ly flights

  And take me off to far off lands

  The ‘bode of fairy-elves,

  And sometimes, with l’il mischief too,

  To the eerie dragon dwells

  And there the magical creatures would

  With a tinge of jealousy,

  Dream about my moonlit wings

  While I’d fly in glee

  They’d have their wings of rainbow gems

  And some in dewdrops blue,

  But none to compare with the best -

  My wings of argent hue

  Of course, the dragon ones be strong

  In slithering hides of green

  But travel through the zones of time?

  Well, that would not be seen

  So every night the moon would shine

  My tendril wings would wake

  (You’d question ‘what of no-moon nights?’

  Well, even I deserve a break!)

  My wings would also take me through,

  To times in history, when

  Kings would reign upon these lands

  Or maybe stone age men

  Or nights before exams, perhaps,

  To give myself a clue,

  Okay, not all the tests, but only those

  I failed by a mark or two!

  And