Every Cloud's a Dream

chagrin-pain

  While others paint their hearts in warmth

  To write the songs they sing

  And the hopeful ones compose the joy

  They think today will bring

  And every page, it pleads us all -

  To be a little bold

  To scribble down sentences black,

  If not poems in gold

  So that when sunsets kiss the day

  And night begins to fall

  The pages that were handed us -

  They’re not left blank at all…

  _________________

  The shepherd and the swan

 

  "Where do you fly, in such haste,

  O bird in shining white?

  Why do you fly, do tell me friend,

  Is it in peace or plight?"

  The smiling swan decides at last,

  To halt upon its flight,

  And give the wearied human child,

  A reason to en-light

  "I fly, my friend, to a hidden land,

  Beyond the valleys green,

  To a wonder land so beautiful,

  Not many eyes have seen."

  "A land of plenty joy and food,

  A land without a pain,

  Where spring, she reigns for twelve months,

  With neither cloud or rain."

  "A land where one needs never work,

  Or toil like this all day,

  With streams of wine and skies of cream,

  Bejewelled are its ways!”

  "So will you join me, little one,

  To see the truth I sing?

  Will you choose to live therein -

  The eternal land of spring?"

  Smiling then the shepherd boy,

  He replies silently,

  "When Winter goes unseen, my friend,

  What use is Spring to me?"

  "I have a humble modest life,

  I have my sheep to care,

  Though wealth and riches have I none,

  I have a lot to share."

  "Your land may full of glory be,

  Rich food and drink, you say,

  But my humble food is sweeter still,

  For I toil for it all day."

  "And though each day is harder still,

  At night, I rest to smile,

  That yet another day I’ve seen,

  That I’ve crossed another mile"

  "So let there be hardships a bit,

  They give us hope in turn,

  Let there be pain-melancholy,

  Or happiness we won’t learn"

  "For its only when you see the dark,

  You seek out for the sun,

  And when at last it shines at morn,

  A greater warmth there's none."

  "So fly, my friend, don't wait for me,

  Your journey you restart,

  This stark and humble land's my home,

  It's where will be my heart."

  "And someday, we might meet again,

  With you, happier that day,

  But don't forget, I'll be happy too,

  For I chose to walk my way..."

  _________________

  A teardrop

  I guarded your teardrop -

  Your silent parting gift to me

  I guarded it with my little heart

  To last unto eternity

  It was you I’ll ever have –

  So I had to shield it from this world

  A silvery drop – my universe

  Upon my palm lay curled

  And I guarded it from the jealous sun

  Lest it may dry out soon

  And I guarded it from the caprice night

  So as not to slight the moon

  Come howling winds or thunderstorm

  Wide awake was I –

  Until I crossed the seven seas

  And thought I heard it sigh

  You seemed to wish the salty seas

  How could I refuse?

  And so with a heavy heart at last

  I threw it to the blues

  And in that moment understood

  It was you who had set me free,

  Now, a part of the timeless waves,

  You were immortal to me

  _________________

  Tears

  Whatever soothing words I use,

  I can never feel your pain,

  And yet, I'll look into your shimmering eyes

  And wipe your tears again

  _________________

  One day in the times ahead

  One day in the times ahead,

  When we will walk our different ways,

  Life will keep us busy both,

  And time will fade our yesterdays

  We will be sailing in the sands

  That turn the clock of time for all,

  We’ll seldom turn to look back past

  To Spring that smiled for a season small

  But maybe someday just by chance,

  Perhaps a sunset or the rains

  May bring alive a memory

  For yesterday to wake again

  I might forget your tender smile

  Or the wavy locks upon your face

  Our bare foot walks on dewy grass

  Those pastel shades of our wonder days

  But this human heart will not forget

  The painting that we both had made,

  A small prologue to our story long,

  Eternal locked in time undead

  I’ll wonder then where you would be,

  And hope that you would think the same

  Maybe for a moment brief,

  But a moment yes, left all untamed

  And the heart will warm to a silent smile

  No more tears that mature day

  Until Life reminds us then -

  To keep on walking on our way…

  _________________

  Sudden thunder

  Sudden thunder,

  Sparkle rains,

  6’o clock

  And it pours again.

  The musty air,

  No longer dry,

  Will greed again

  And clouds will cry

  The city bored,

  Can only run,

  No time for rain

  (Or wind or sun)

  Umbrellas sing,

  In unison,

  Scrambling feet

  For the day is done

  Scurrying cabs,

  Frenzy wild,

  Like the place itself

  Madly styled;

  Tomorrow 6

  The show’s again

  But who’s got time

  For silly rains?

  _________________

  When Sam crossed the scarecrow

  I remember reading Tolkiens:

  In holidays, years ago,

  With monsoon clouds outside unfurled,

  And deeper shades of darkness,

  Painted in my imagined world

  The magic stayed inside the book

  But what got really etched

  Were events, heartfelt that they were

  Resounding in Life now and then,

  Year after every year

  But most I think of Gamjee Sam

  There, leaving his lovely Shire

  Saddened, pensive, even lost,

  When he finds the scarecrow -

  That scarecrow that he's never crossed

  "This is it, (Master Frodo)

  If I take one more step,

  It'll be the farthest I've ever been..."

  And yet he crosses on to find

  Worlds and times he'd never seen.

  The lines were hid,

  In a deep recess of the mind

  Until, without a choice one day

  I had to leave worlds behind

  And walk upon an unknown way

  The tiny teardrop that was shed

  It felt at last -


  Pathos of the hearts that burn,

  When you leave the worlds you always knew

  To do what you had never done

  Miles I walked, and more remains:

  Joyful ventures, even pain.

  And writing on page after page,

  I played my role to realize

  I grew up more than did my age

  And after walking miles today

  Oft' I do turn back -

  To gaze that day, when all alone,

  I left my fears at home behind -

  To cross the scarecrow of my own

  Which makes me think how

  Each of every us,

  Is a Samwise hero in his eyes

  Winning over hostile worlds,

  In a frail and little hobbit's guise

  But 'the Shire' waits for us always,

  When one day,

  We shall walk upon the homeward way

  To apple orchards, flowing streams,

  The warbling birds and the children's play

  And watching all the sunset hues

  We'll smiling think,

  How the Sam in us had bravely roamed,

  With scars upon his little feet,

  To win this world and come back home...

  _________________

  Hope

  When little drops of precious life

  Are left in days but few,

  The pensive heart does only say,

  “I wish I had just knew, -

  How swiftly would this candle burn,

  The wick is all but done,

  I wish I knew since long ago

  When the candle would be gone!”

  But if the youthful heart be wise,

  It’ll sigh, yet smiling say,

  “I’ll burn the last drops of my life,

  To keep darkness away…”

  _________________

  Lines written on an autumn day

  The boulevards have all aged with time,

  (I see them now that I have to leave)

  But when I’ll move to distant lands,

  Will these trees miss me and grieve?

  Or like a leaf in autumn times,

  My memory will age and die,

  Will this land not remember me?

  I only think and sigh.

  The rustling wind –it questions me,

  Why I make this pensive plea,

  My smile, it softly then replies,

  That there’ll be souls like me unwise,

  (And even weeping thinkers some),

  To replace me here in times to come.

  But will there be a place like here,

  With trees that mellow without a care?

  And when to distant lands and times,

  I’ll lose myself and fly away,

  I won’t forget how a part of me

  Was left behind here yesterday.

  How even cloudy sunless days

  Stole my heart in the lands I strayed…

  _________________

  First rains

  The Artist in the skies above

  Paints my morn in gray,

  And yet the raindrops spilling forth

  Add colors to my day

  For they are the first rains on the bloom -

  And who can fail to smile?

  Rains that bring the child in us

  Back to life awhile

  The child who dances with the rains,

  Awash from head to toe,

  Forgetting wherefrom he has come

  And where he needs to go

  The child who wants to stitch a pair

  Of wings from silver clouds,

  To sally with the rainy winds

  With