Spinning Tales

weaving dreams,
conjuring tales,
sprinkling magic,
and enchanting lives–
it’s all in a day’s work
of a magician,
or just a story-teller.

-Sarah Cheema

Because your voice was at my side

Because your voice was at my side
I gave him pain,
Because within my hand I held
Your hand again.

There is no word nor any sign
Can make amend –
He is a stranger to me now
Who was my friend.

-James Joyce

Haiku

First: Five syllables.
Second: Seven syllables.
Third: Five syllables.

– Ron Padgett

A Haiku

This Rooster
Struts along as though
he had something to do.

-Anonymous

The Laws of God, The Laws of Man

The laws of God, the laws of man,
He may keep that will and can;
Not I: let God and man decree
Laws for themselves and not for me;
And if my ways are not as theirs
Let them mind their own affairs.
Their deeds I judge and much condemn,
Yet when did I make laws for them?
Please yourselves, say I, and they
Need only look the other way.
But no, they will not; they must still
Wrest their neighbor to their will,
And make me dance as they desire
With jail and gallows and hell-fire.
And how am I to face the odds
Of man’s bedevilment and God’s?
I, a stranger and afraid
In a world I never made.
They will be master, right or wrong;
Though both are foolish, both are strong.
And since, my soul, we cannot fly
To Saturn nor to Mercury,
Keep we must, if keep we can,
These foreign laws of God and man.

-Alfred Edward Housman

a Miss

I missed the moon and the stars..
a ray of sunlight…or two?
i don’t exactly remember..
but more than anything, i so missed you, yes..
i have been doing this since..last..august?
no not august..november..yes..NOVEMBER..!
it’s hard to write a poem or a song, when one is missing someone..
and more than that, if you sit down to write one,
its harder to rhyme your words.
it’s like.. pasting that pitch perfect cactus,
on the top of all absurds..
you know..in the process of missing you,
my nothingness has grown busy..
i have tried hard to find you in the hotchy lanes of day,
and in the corners of my vacant dreamstreet..
but none’s too obvious or easy to show you..
and there stops my pen…

i will now go to sleep..i am tired..and my eyes are dizzy..

signal 11:16

Why must I leave home
and strangle myself on this road
that never ends
yet never starts
help me
save myself

-Ali Sultan

Malfeasance

This Parched heart wants not
All the milk of human kindness
Just the dark cold ash
Of your once lit desire for me…

- Neha

why you made a fool of me?

were you not joking then
last night when you said you
never really liked my dance
i mean i thought you liked it
when i danced in fact
i never danced before i met you
you said you liked it and
i worked to improve it but last
night you called it shit could it be
that you were in a bad mood then
in case you were not joking?

-Kunal Goel

On Being Asked to Write a Poem Against the War in Vietnam

Well I have and in fact
more than one and I’ll
tell you this too

I wrote one against
Algeria that nightmare
and another against

Korea and another
against the one
I was in

and I don’t remember
how many against
the three

when I was a boy
Abyssinia Spain and
Harlan County

and not one
breath was restored
to one

shattered throat
mans womans or childs
not one not

one
but death went on and on
never looking aside

except now and then
with a furtive half-smile
to make sure I was noticing.

-Hayden Carruth

A few shairs [urdu]

Kaash meri zindagi mein tum aaye na hote,

Aankhon mein itne khuwab sajaaye na hote,

Itna dard jo mujhe tum de kar chale gaye,

Koi aya na hota tou yeh zulm dhaya na hota,

Kaash meri tanhai mujhse roothe na hote.

–Sheikha.

Waqt dhoka de gaya mujhe lekin

Tumhari yaadein abhi baaki hai

Kitni jaldi doobta hai suraj aur raat

Doob jaati hai apne hi andhere mein.

–Sheikha.

Isi andhere ujaale mein baatein ki tumse,

Jab parchai lagta tha tumhara paas hona.

–Sheikha.

Ilzaam doun bhi agar tou kis ko doun,
Meri taraf nazar kabhi huwi nahi tumhari,
Jalte hai hum khoobsurti se itna kyun,
Mujh par nazrein tiki nahi tumhari kabhi.

–Sheikha.

Ijaazat ho agar thori der aur ruk jaayun
Saari umar nikl gayi ab saansein baaki hai

–Sheikha.

Intimates

Don’t you care for my love? she said bitterly.

I handed her the mirror, and said:
Please address these questions to the proper person!
Please make all requests to head-quarters!
In all matters of emotional importance
please approach the supreme authority direct! –
So I handed her the mirror.
And she would have broken it over my head,
but she caught sight of her own reflection
and that held her spell bound for two seconds
while I fled.

-D.H.Lawrence

In Search of Cinderella

From dusk to dawn,
From town to town,
Without a single clue,
I seek the tender, slender foot
To fit this crystal shoe.
From dusk to dawn,
I try it on
Each damsel that I meet.
And I still love her so, but oh,
I’ve started hating feet.

-Shel Silverstein

A Haiku For Tinku

a black ball of fur,
wet eyes, chubby tail, soft ears,
epitome of love

-Patchy

A Hiccup

to live constantly
imprisoned in your mind’s cell
is same as freedom

-Kunal Goel