SENSE OF SOUL

Sharing one of my poems that was one of the two poems selected for the Bards Annual Poetry Anthology (Long Island, 2014).  Here is the poem:

"These eyes of mine
Do not like the sight
Of people obese
Far from the beauty of the body
But inside, my mind is at ease
When it has a big fat ego
Inflated till eternity

These lait-colored hands
Of mine, do not like
To touch the black
Complexion and the race inferior
But inside there is a corner
Shamelessly black in the heart

These ears of mine
Do not like to hear
Words vilifying and not sounding
Joyful and encouraging, but
Every time I hear
Satan’s voice inside of me
Tempting, demeaning
Hiding the conscience and alluring
Directing to all fear

I do not like the smell
Odoriferous of rotten ground
And slums steeped
In filth and poverty
But inside, deepest crevices
Of the body, lie smells
Unsweet and hidden
Like the path less trodden

This tongue of mine
Does not relish
The alcohol and the drink
But inside the veins, flows
The wine of heaven on the brink

What these external
Organs of sense perceive
Is not dissimilar from
My core, now I believe

But today I want to
Place my greater faith on
That which is perfect
And without prejudice
That which perceives the outside
From the inside hole,
The perfect sixth sense
And they call it the ‘soul’"

-------------Shilpi, Dec 27,2009

The Invisibles

Saw a hawk perched atop the metal fence in the Chapin apartments' childrens playground, a couple of days ago.  Found the piercing gaze of the hawk immensely intriguing, it appeared as though we were competing for who gazes the longest without a blink!, anyhow, that hawk was still calmly poised while I slipped past it, only two meters away from it. Went back and no matter how many times I turn that sight over and over again in my mind, I was curiously driven to "google" for my simple question," What is the symbolism of seeing a hawk right infront of you?"

And there it was, revealed, seeing a hawk symbolizes the messenger of God, so-to-speak the opening up of the soul to higher spiritual powers and being able to have a keen perspective to see things yet being grounded to the earth.

I thought to myself, for sure it is signaling the beginning of a newer phase in my life, but then I am also convinced that I might have as well then seen innumerable “invisible” hawks up till now in life so far.. :)

P.S. 1. The picture is from internet though,

PUT OUT THE FIRE

It is 2:40 am in the night.I am walking on the Ludlow street and everything is silent. Darkness is resting upon the deserted roads.I stop walking and wait for the signal to turn to red from green, even though all street is deserted and i could have not cared about traffic rules, but after all it is USA and at this time of the night, I should be more careful.

Inside the paths of my mind , I feel lost and my soul is incomplete. My heart is on a fire insatiable and incomprehensible, burning away for unknown reasons.

Suddenly i hear a shrill sound and a fire engine flashes by in a hurry. I am careful to remain on the other side of the path.
The slender body of the engine goes away with glowing brilliant red and orange lights on it.I am still on the other side of the road, my feet frozen at the spot

A thought flashes in my mind. Somewhere, the firefighters shall be able to douse the fire where it occured, and rescue the people from the catastrophe.
But it is such a pity that the same fire engine cannot douse the flames rising in my heart and charring it away. I thus stand in wonderment.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Sometimes, it is so strange, that you have the solution-engine passing you by, when there is fire of questions and doubts in your mind, but sometimes, the solutions which work for one situation may not work for the other. Clearly, the fire in this heart cannot be extinguished by the enormous water tank of this big fire engine, but perhaps by something else.

Just then, I sat down on a bench close to the path and there was an endless flow of water, saline though. I realized i was crying endlessly to my hearts' desire. In some time, i felt mellowing of the fire in my heart as my eyes' engines emptied themselves in full fervor.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Many a times, the solution to a problem lies inside us. Just that we need to see it through egoless eyes.