Into black and white

Into black and white

22-23 March 2015

 IMG_8485

 

Night time brings the dark

That sits supreme over all

Live in beings’ frame

Slight is the heartbeat in chest

When shadows overcome light

 

Darkness engulfs shores

As seashells crunch under feet

Aimlessly walking

Mind steers direction in heart

As path to somewhere ends stern

 

The sea’s thunder calls

Deafening recognition

Of forgotten voice

How does one forget whispers

Of beings once clad in light?

 

Sand seeps through my toes

Grim testimonial of times

Where nothing would last

Mind probes last thoughts in blank walls

As stars etch in a new slate

 

A flicker lights night

And moving shadows walk tall

Into black and white

Duality is in thought

Though soul knows of times neutral

 

 

I see fire

I see fire

17-18 March 2015

 

fire1

 

Fire’s embers burnt

Strong and powerful forces

Primal signs of life

Throbbing mind set colours true

As all shades to red seemed wane

 

Hissing sound of spark

That once before fought so brave

Yet drowned in water

The tank brimmed with pictures there

Yesterday kept resurging

 

Ice cool breath faltered

In between mist and cold rain

As fire now blazed

Memories alit in flames

Found no respite in water

 

 

Icy fire raged

On the brink of tomorrow

As coal chips broke off

Mind to the heart is a trail

I see fire in its Wake

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0-44muW17Q

A deathly pallor

A deathly pallor

12 March 2015

 Pulse18

 

Night’s sky breathed aloud

Jasmine like a streak of light

Called to the wild side

An intake of wilderness

Throbbed in my mind’s eye again

 

The owl hooted once

Its cry silenced by the night

That prepared for doom

The knell rang on as I knelt

Neither submissive nor wild

 

The rose felt its thorns

Through darkness that hid its gait

In reminiscence

Pictures against my mindscape

Shuddered with stark remembrance

 

The lanterns hissed out

As storms danced into their lights

Darkness then prevailed

Cloak of night like a fog reigned

A while as I let it creep

 

The winds blew their hearts

In clouds that scattered silver

Like coins strewn in sky

Pennies would have outweighed thoughts

As they roamed without purpose

 

Remnants of us glowed

Ghostly ink against pink flesh

A deathly pallor

Gaunt cheek though pale stood firmly

Its twin it offered no more

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl-X8jpgJlw

I am

I am

3 March 2015

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I am no token in your dreams

Towards a bridled emancipation

I live a life full and in my streams

There is no governing consideration

I am no lollipop-doll batting eyelids

To the tune of some Pied piper

The path I walk on rolls and skids

I am of the cast fruit the riper

 

I am the girl who one winter night

Walking through the dark alley

Met those who knew not left from right

And guided her bones to the gulley

I am her soul that slept no more

Trapped in a dark inhuman space

Where cold pervaded her to the core

As heart lurched towards her battered face

 

I am midsummer wars’ brittle whore

Who one day spread her legs like a fence

Ridding herself of the monster she bore

And brought forth the birth of indifference

I am the child she let out with no pain

Among many a bewildered yet sullen face

For whom there was nothing to gain

In rekindling a lost sense of solace

 

I am the splintered boy on the beach

Surrounded by what once used to be a home

Whose broken hands a toy would never reach

As his homeless soul would now ever roam

I am the witness of a war born of folly’s pretext

On the primal right to protection of space

A land to house years’ unhappiness next

Acquired through a knitted political lace

 

I am the grey and forlorn widow

Whose tight sealed lips mourn no more

A husband gone from mind like a blow

Leaving only body and heart sore

I am born from wedlock of no nation

No borders will beckon to my mind

My only name’s calls are in alienation

Where infinite beholds infinite behind

 

I am a withered yet full green leaf

That looks upon a hurtling tree

That once was like to coral a reef

I am all that once danced free

I am the moon when it meets the sun

And kisses it with ice clad passion

I am the sun for which moon comes undone

As ice melts down with compassion

 

I am the many and the one

I am tomorrow’s anger and today’s quiet

I am listless loss for there is semblance of none

I am today’s wrath and tomorrow’s riot

I am a taut belly’s writhing hunger

I am through with what’s not right

I am tomorrow’s path lying yonder

I am of the broken weak the might

 I am

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS6ZKzNvKas

Traces of you

Traces of you

1 March 2015

 Parting9

 The moon waxed in sight

Of sparkling lilies that shone

With eerie brightness

In glaring light of your thoughts

A haunting split in heart lurched

 

Stars high receded

Giving in to the dark night

That crawled over us

Like an octopus creeping

Lurked the traces of discord

 

Night’s black ink rejoiced

Taking over all terrains

That skies led astray

You wronged me in directions

That led to our every way

 

The sky vibrant cried

Its muffled voice in grey clouds

A requiem stark

In wailing of our heart’s death

I left no traces of you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqQgdt6pgV4

In Time

In time

22-23 February 2015

 swirling brown waters

 

The river bank swelled

Charged with rushing brown waters

That had stirred Earth’s guts

An illogical stirring

In me reverberated

 

Deltas formed ashore

Triangles of water coursed

Through light seeping sand

Like ink etching through mind’s slate

A landscape of memories

 

Trees roots uncovered

Shook unwillingly off earth

That onward slid fast

Moving perspectives thus flow

Within a mind uprooted

 

The wind blew howling

Sand that pranced like dancing flames

With madman’s fervour

Elementary madness

Rushing through my frame reached heights

 

The sky glowed and snarled

Alternating light and dark

Different yet same

Change immemorial in me

Reflected alternate shades

 

The horizon lurked

A backdrop to whirling times

In nature’s power

With no reigns in mind I slept

Through wars that raged in no name

 

Leaves raced through dark skies

Tossing and turning in fright

Shivering green sparks

Ideas quivered in thoughts

As eyelids stayed firmly shut

 

In skies formed patterns

Mathematical whirling

Of earthly matters

My mind then awakening

In time echoed in spirals

swirling sand

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FluecqKY7ts

Dans le doux silence de l’air / In the sweet silence of air

 

Dans le doux silence de l’air

17-18 février 2015

Newmoon1

La nuit s’étendait

Manteau de pluie noire couvrant

Le voyageur las

L’esprit lacéré d’attente

Accumule noires stries sifflantes

 

Le rossignol chante

Sa chanson forte d’habitudes

Résonne comme un glas

Un cœur en hiver s’élance

Saupoudré de glace qui fond

 

Parfum de jasmin

Répandu en nuit l’embaume

De murmures secrets

Ce chuchotement insistant

Hante mes pensées de blancheur

 

L’œil miroite en ciel

Pâle semblant de lune nouvelle

Qui vaillante se dresse

Ainsi l’âme suit retraçant

La route des anges trépassés

 

Le coq chante déjà

Le réveil d’une race humaine

Sous vide suspendue

Dans le doux silence de l’air

Les rêves exhalent un soupir

 

 

In the sweet silence of air

17- 18 February 2015

Newmoon2

The night stretching out

Black coat of rain covering

Weary traveller

Wait lacerated spirit

Gathers on whistling black streaks

 

The Nightingale sings

Its strong song of all habits

Sounds like a death knell

A heart in winter rises

Sprinkled with ice that’s melting

 

The scent of jasmine

Widespread in night embalms it

With secret murmurs

That insisting whispering

Haunts my thoughts with its whiteness

 

Eye shimmers in sky

Pale semblance of a new moon

That valiant stands

Thus soul follows retracing

The path of the dead angels

 

Cock already crows

Wakening of human race

Under vacuum held

In the sweet silence of air

Dreams are exhaling a sigh

 

 

 

Note: Ecrite d’abord comme une série de tankas en français (un essai puisque j’écris d’habitude les tankas en anglais), je l’ai ensuite traduite en une série de tankas en anglais. Written first in french as a series of tanka (a trial as I usually write tankas in English), I then translated it into English as a series of tanka as well

 

 

Tomorrow no more

Tomorrow no more

13 February 2015

  ashes4

 Silent voices called

The trees that relayed to leaves

Distant summer breeze

The sun shone on his dead skin

That sparkled in summer’s heat

 

A peacock spread out

Eyes alit with promises

Of awakenings

Tightly shut lids woke no more

To colours smeared across skies

 

The earth exhaled sighs

As waters bubbled in seas

That stretched vivid blue

Velvet languidly silent

Gushed forth with bubbles no more

 

Pale blue skies turned grey

Listless grass swayed to strong winds

Like wings of pixies

Fairy tales moaned of parting

As the mind like banshee wailed

 

Withered brown leaves writhed

Under winter’s sun that glared

Talked no more of warmth

Neither warmth nor melody

Reached the still mind in winter

 

Shadows changed their course

The river flowed now upstream

Undoing prayers

Spell-cast in its deep waters

That lovers took as refuge

 

Silver fish shimmered

Slithering among the blue

Tails blazing with light

Of mystic scales that split gills

Whispering waters spoke low

 

Earth cracked in blisters

For the pain of leaving you

As the birds too cried

I, chest heaving with goodbyes

Washed my face in your ashes

 

ashes

 

 

 

 

Requiem in steel

Requiem in steel

27-28 January 2015

 IMG_5803 (2)

 

Sun glints on fire blades

Alit roads of metal speak

Of cuttings of light

The scissors took to my mind

And carved away silent paths

 

A window now shone

With sparkle of steely might

Extending below

A steely will stretched ahead

Breaching old oaths of softness

 

Sun suddenly fled

Leaving panes engulfed in dark

With shadows of light

Half-truths like half-light stood stark

On a backdrop of intent

 

A shimmering pane

Welcomed eyes that sparkled back

In the dying light

Remnants of memories lurched

Towards forgotten future

 

Darkness fell silent

On surfaces of sleek sheet

That bore no traces

In heart that loses itself

A steel-clad requiem plays

 

IMG_5803 (3)

 

 

Death of a leaf?

Death of a leaf?

22 January 2015

 Leaf5

The leaf flew in wind

Hungrily eating the sun

That beamed on all Earth

A ray from far beyond time

Came to mind’s eye in secret

 

Green and translucent

Veins like needlework playing

Patterns of light food

Images flashing, shining

In inner soul’s retina

 

Like brilliant green flag

The leaf ate, shone and flew high

While the days walked by

Nights and days passed in tremor

Of whispering points of time

 

Pernicious yellow

Coloured late spring the green leaf

That slowly hung head

With end times now beginning

Even crowns bowed to common

 

Onward went bowing

With weight of days that followed

A red leaf once green

Memories too would ripen

Slow like a fruit without root

 

Bright red as ember

To onward journey it fell

A brown leaf turned grey

As greying head stored no more

Of yonder tales of wonder

 

Falling leaf cried out

Its anguish covered by wind

That shook the mighty

Frail body sees its own frame

With sad thoughts of oblivion

 

As leaf fell to ground

It saw its roots, its bark high

A glorious sight

Glory be with your whole self

As you see the tree now shine

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JzYr1T-OoQ