Posts

How does media influence my life?

“What is this life if full of care, We have no time to stand and stare, No time to stand beneath the boughs And stare as long as sheep or cows.” How do I describe the influence of the two great loves of my life? It is akin to the stirring I felt when I truly comprehended my first poem — ‘Leisure’ by the Welsh poet WH Davies. Suddenly I could smell the wet grass, feel the texture of those wooden boughs and actually feel life slipping by. Davies’ idea struck me like the gong of a school bell that shatters the studious silence of midday. I feel that only poetry can aptly capture the effect ‘Television’ and the magic of words had on a mere child that I was. Television gave me my first ever real ambition in life. I aspired, as only a little girl can, to become a police inspector, like the little village girl in red-ribboned plaits in the Doordarshan serial titled ‘Udaan’, the first of many successful serials to come in Indian television. Television, which was in its infancy ...

Bravehearts

I took you to the mountains Because the seas had always broken my heart I took you to the highest of human hopes In the vales So I could douse my fears in cold biting winds I took you to the mountains Because I am a river And you see Because Sometimes I am also the sea! Don't - let go of me, yet Until Our souls have broken together~ Like a beautiful egg yolk on a Sunday pan The span The yolk You laugh At my joke The poem leaves It's rope ...........................................................................

Of nights and other tales...

On a moonless night I hug this silence tight- Yet a clamour of sleep Of those counting sheep Hark There are shadows now At this ungodly hour Wisps of smoke billowing in the wind Dogs in protest Drunks on their way home A lone black cat crosses the street- Are night those things Where the unseen people on the stars Dream of us Sinister Eerie- what does this night want of us The day is a great leveller It makes demands over us While the nights demand only Currency from other kingdoms of sleep Unseen unheard yet only ever imagined The only fast friend of the night Is the streetlight Burning brightly Flickering awayon its nightly vigil With the pole star for a friend~

Just a June

I have a new voice now- silver partitions in my hair Thick silk laughter ringing in my ear I have a new tread,  Of  slow freedoms I've traded style for smile And reason for treason My brastraps hold me in place  Even as i get unsettled with this pace I have a new fear of freedom and an old rebellion for a joke As my vanity roosts inside a pair of unused heels All of my loves lay buried in time's wheels Sometimes I think I am a woman now, but then maybe I am just June One step and two missteps my new dance Perchance - i am now perched on a new romance Womanhood crept on me like a silent dry cough- Caught me by the bone And made a strange rattle  that only I could hear alone. Lakshmi Ajay

A short riposte

                          ​                    Rather than simmer and fade away~                    a slow death                    Let our knowledge of each other spark treason and drive us apart-                    Rather than make unwieldy choices to live with,                    Let's learn to live without -                    Our questions.                    Let your fears be gentle on you, at nights, you will remember me by,                    And let my fables be drowned in silences as I put away the books t...
"Look at these nights busy making candles, goading the wax to fall in sleet; t rying to pass them off as sleep- lighting the wick with a flick of dreams" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Powerful...

In this world today, while we're living Some folks say the worst of us they can, But when we're dead and in our caskets, They always slip some lilies in our hand. Won't you give me flowers while I'm living From Truman Capote's 'In Cold Blood' Chapter 2 A smoky mountain song