Falling in love

If I had one more heart

I would readily give it to you

And to you and

perhaps to you too!

But you see, the one I had,

Is already taken

Yet everyday, I keep falling in love

For my senses are so easily enraptured

I fall in love with your sunrise

I fall in love with my dusk

I fall in love with traditional cooking

When the heady aromas envelop

I romance aromatic baking

For it brings a smile on my kids’ faces

Makes my home smells heavenly

And store bought cookies replaces

I fall in love with the angelic tangle of arms and legs

now asleep without a care

Whose sibling rivalry and revelry fill my home

As well as my life and soul

I fall in love with your words, your turn of phrase

What you say and what you leave unsaid

I fall in love with the verses that reach out to me,

The stories that only your mind can create

Your unique experience that you kindly share

I fall in love with the pictures of blooms and pets you send

I fall in love with the magic of movies

And their world of wondrous make- believe

I fall in love with many a books

Their life like characters and their authors

And the belief and conviction that they portray

I fall in love with the music I listen to,

The singer, the writer and the musician

I fall in love with the raindrops falling

The overcast skies and the crescent moon

I fall in love hopelessly and completely everyday

And as my whimsical heart waxes and wanes in love

The one who captured my heart many moons ago

Sits in a corner looking indulgently

At the shenanigans of my wayward heart

He draws me close and holds my hand and says

” Your heart is not my captive, let it love and love freely

As long as I have a place in your heart

Accommodate as many loves as you can”

Thus, in freeing my heart, he captures it again.

Dream

The fondest dream alights lightly on my shoulder

snagging my interest and thought process

then flits away like a kite bobbing

taking me to the wonderland of utopia

my heart shouts hurray

so sure that I would clinch the rarely possible feat

of making an impossible aspiration come true

but just as quickly the dream vanishes

I am left grappling with

the false sense of hope it bestowed

haplessly I watch it flutter helplessly

before spiralling into oblivion

harsh reality taunts me

orders me to forget the extinct flame

but I cannot let go

for if there are no dreams

what will man live for?

The decade tag 2010-2020

I have been tagged by Sadje for The Decade Tag.

The Creator of The Decade Tag is Jesusluvsall’s Blog

Play Along Guidelines
Please share a link to the creator of the tag-jesusluvsall.wordpress.com

Share some highlights for you over the past decade and if you want, a few low points.

The last decade was one of slackening the frenetic pace a bit. Hubby stayed home for longer stretches. The kids entered teenage (sans the misplaced angst!)
I saw many in the family from the previous generation pass away. But the highlight was decidedly reuniting with school friends, all thanks to the social media. There are eighty of us in touch with each other and last year most of us together attended a few weddings of the kids of friends.

How are you planning to spend the next decade in improving your health?

Well, taking care of health, in earnest, started last decade with hubby being diagnosed with high blood pressure. I plan to continue with mindful eating and regular walks.

Have you noticed your tastes in music, literature and clothing change drastically over the last 10 years?

I wouldn’t call the change in my tastes drastic but yes, they have changed gradually.
I have started listening more to blues and folk music.
As far as books are concerned, I have lost my appetite for huge tomes. I prefer shorter, quick reads now.
My sartorial choices have become more in favour of bolder colours.

How would you rate your last decade in terms of achieving life goals?

Goals keep changing…you achieve one, there are others in its place! So yes, last decade was good but there are miles to go…

Do you think our planet will be doing well in the next decade?

I don’t want to sound like a carping Cassandra but looking at our leaders, I am filled with pessimism.
But common people fill me with hope and I do pray the collective efforts will make our planet more inhabitable.

Thank you for the tag, Sadje. Anyone interested in answering Sadje’s questions, please have a go.

The fourth estate

What was once a given

is now suspect

A completely dispassionate reporting

accountability to the public

is a daffy idea now

The watchdog has become a gazelle

giving in to the temptation of greed

falling nothing short of sycophancy

A handmaiden of the powerful

the press goes off on a tangent

on issues germane

Gone are the days of all or nothing

suffering from a crisis of identity

it equates patriotism with obfuscation.

Citizenry

They say it is not discriminatory

They say people are overreacting

They say they just want a piece of paper

They say it is as simple as that

But the mind boggles

How the numerous papers issued by them

Mean nothing now

A paper that I don’t have

Is supposed to establish my identity

I watch the slow death

Of democracy in broad daylight.

You can read about the provocation for this verse here.

Is right, right?

When those who wield the power, stoop to conquer

And there are those whose conviction is their guiding light

When thoughts need a permit to express themselves

Then heart rebels with all its might

When those perceived weak have the strongest voice

And the powerful have blinkered sight

When people refuse to accept that grey exists

For black is not always black nor white is white

When the right presumably is not always right

But uses might to suppress what’s right

When there seems no light at the end of the tunnel

And there’s no sign of a morn after the darkest night

Then the flickering hope that resides in the breast

Refuses the bait of cynicism to bite

In the scheme of things hope maybe laughed at

But it gives despondency a good fight

For it knows hubris will one day meet nemesis

Shattered pride will all be left of the right

Because you can use sleight of hand sometimes

But cannot dim the truth burning bright.

Finding my voice

I draw curtains, switch off the lights

put away the gizmos

and disconnect with the world

I need isolation to connect with self

I need darkness to see within

the quiet to listen

to the timorous but persistent voice

that was being drowned by

the cacophonous clamouring outside

the voice of reason that was shouted down

by volatile, vociferous and vituperative vocals

nonplussed I had sat

on the fence of neutrality

balancing on a razor’s edge all the while

hoping things would change on their own

as I watched like a bystander

the chicanery of the overtly righteous blinded me

but the honesty of the ordinary emboldened me

bloodied but wise I step off the razor

and reclaim my space

to join those who are right

my voice refusing to stay muzzled

I finally find my voice to speak and to be heard

it may not be a roar but

it speaks in tandem with those speaking the truth

for in the end, truth always prevails!

Hello friends. I have been away longer than I intended to! Wishing all of you a very Happy year ahead. May the bushfires in Australia stop, may there be peace in the Middle East, may we all do our bit to save the environment and may the ongoing student unrest and protests in India end on a positive note.
It has been a long hiatus from blogging for me. I have missed reading and interacting with you all. I intend to catch up soon. I would also like to thank those who have started following my blog recently. I will surely visit your blogs soon.
I hope to be able to read and and write regularly in the near future.

The call

In the beginning

the serenading surf beckoned him

intermittently

disregarding it

he went about his daily chores

then the sweet song of sirens became insistent

the roar and the quiet of the ocean crashing around him

woke him in the middle of the night

he looked at the woman lying next to him

her arm curled around his waist

a serene look on her face,

oblivious to his turmoil

unaware that sea was calling him

torn between the two,

he felt helpless

like watching sand slip through fingers

a heavy weight keeping him anchored

while his soul was writhing

for the salt spray on his face

the breeze in his hair

and the cyan expanse around him

away from the quotidian caterwauling

into the serene tranquility

and the porpoises,

Oh the porpoises!

beckoning him and enticing him.

gradually he was like the living dead

she noticed the faraway vacant look in his eyes,

his withdrawal and his silence

she did not want to live
with the shell of the man she loved

so, she released him

to go back in the arms of his first love

The sea.