Abstract Deductions

A solemn night & Dickens'

2012-02-08T21:21:00.000-08:00

locking horns

the limbs of trees, against the dim sky

a full moon floats ~ smiling,

nothing really changes, yet,

everything looks so very different

this solemn night

~ One day everything will be alright, that is our hope. Everything's fine today, that is our illusion. ~ Voltaire

********

A little too late for a birthday wish to Charles Dickens…But then, what is due is due....for, he is remembered every time we pass scenes from life like those straight out of his novels. Well, may be so only in our imaginations. This scene of rest at the day’s end is from the life of the chaiwala (tea shop owner) and his tough kettle, by the corner of the street I live…wonder how many cups, the man and his kettle serves in a day....his life-story, and lives of those who come to him, mostly the workers in and around the area.

And, the term ‘indolent disposition’ itself comes from Oliver Twist. May that be my b'lated tribute to Dickens on his 200^th birthday, which was on February 7.

from the darkness

the sonorous rhythm of his breath,

on a corner of the table

the 'indolent disposition' of his tea-kettle –

here, Dickens lives on...

~ A day wasted on others is not wasted on one's self.~ Charles Dickens

~ A boy's story is the best that is ever told.~ Charles Dickens

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://www.layoutsparks.com/1/210405/dark-trees-moon-night-31000.html

Spring -I (iv)

2012-02-05T21:27:00.000-08:00

spring crocuses -

in liturgy, rejoice and be glad

the wind whispers

spring crocuses -
astonished a butterfly,
lo and behold!
here...there...
& gone!

spring crocuses -

an aloofness in nature,

or is it just me?

spring crocuses -

i find no reason
to rejoice,

looking for them, again,

the friends who left

~The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus~ The Bible

~ The butterfly is a flying flower,
The flower a tethered butterfly.
~Ponce Denis Écouchard Lebrun

~Awake, thou wintry earth -

Fling off thy sadness!
Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth
Your ancient gladness!
~Thomas Blackburn, 'An Easter Hymn'

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://www.biodiversityofindia.org/index.php?title=Crocus_sativus

Indigo sky

2012-02-01T22:08:00.000-08:00

from a poetry night, i happened to watch. emotional outpourings of such intensity that may seize you….some, real good; some, more like rhetoric than poetry….and, then....

indigo sky,

into the fumes

the poet flips another poem-

as words crackle

the tinkle of wine glasses

~ The poem... is a little myth of man's capacity of making life meaningful. And in the end, the poem is not a thing we see - it is, rather, a light by which we may see - and what we see is life. ~Robert Penn Warren

~ Out of the quarrel with others we make rhetoric; out of the quarrel with ourselves we make poetry. ~W.B. Yeats

~ Poetry is frosted fire. ~J. Patrick Lewis

~‘Wine is bottled poetry.’ ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

Photo courtesy: Horia Varlan as per original copyright at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/horiavarlan/4272009159/

Gooseberries

2012-02-01T21:50:00.000-08:00

The grocer asks:…’gooseberries?…fresh, ripe they are.’ I smile… Our gooseberries must also have ripened…and children must be coming to pick.

ripe gooseberries-

all those smiles, giggles
I miss, but imagine

& if you would know, Gooseberries have interesting connotations and history –

In our childhood we were told, ‘words of the old and ripe gooseberries ….tastes bitter first, and then sweet’*….and those smiles when the elders get a chance to prove they were right - Yeah, their ‘aah, I told you so!’ moment – My grandmother was one who enjoyed those moments…and her smile – ‘an Aah!’ in itself….Ripe gooseberries bring those smiles back, and of some others...

(*Not sure, if it’s only about the Indian gooseberries).

And, more interesting – the usage ‘old gooseberry’ and ‘gooseberry pickers,’ which invariably brings a smile….and brings back all the smiles and giggles of youth…the times we played ‘old gooseberries’ and ‘gooseberry pickers’ on some and the times others have played on us - as the cliché goes: ‘aah! those were the times!’

On the origin of phrases, ‘old gooseberry’ and 'gooseberry pickers' http://slangcity.com/email_archive/2008/gooseberry.html

Then, more significantly, the beautiful short story ‘Gooseberries’ by Anton Chekov:

http://www.online-literature.com/wilde/1290/

Not sure if a reader…reading the ‘gooseberry’ ku or haiku ( or whatever it is!) will get all that background, for my love for gooseberries. Hence the long note….As a writer and reader, I too love reading the adjoining notes and links.

~ Yes, remarkable the similarity between falling in love and eating green gooseberries. ~ Author Unknown

~If you will call your troubles experiences, and remember that every experience develops some latent force within you, you will grow vigorous and happy, however adverse your circumstances may seem to be.~ John Heywood

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://www.21food.com/products/amla--amalaki-(emblica-officinalis)-dried,indian-gooseberry-fruits-dried-665872.html

Receding winter

2012-01-26T21:04:00.000-08:00

It stood facing the stove all these days - the gardenia sprig in the brass bowl by the kitchen window. With a few sturdy leaves on a lean stem - looks a recluse, an agreeable model for a still life painting. Last afternoon I noticed, it was leaning over the window to the outside, where the winter jasmines were relishing the warm rays of the afternoon sun. As if wanting to join them, in welcoming spring*…though it won't bloom before summer’s full sun.

gardenia sprig

leans over to the sun -

receding winter

meanwhile, outside in the park: no questions like 'of what', 'what for' - it's their world, they know...and they definitely seem happy together, despite all the hustle and tussle...

chiffchaffs chiding

away - nasturtiums
nod in the wind

~ We are all prone to the malady of the introvert who, with the manifold spectacle of the world spread out before him, turns away and gazes only upon the emptiness within. But let us not imagine there is anything grand about the introvert's unhappiness. ~ Bertrand Russell

*Winter jasmines - called the 'welcoming spring flowers' (by the Chinese). And yes, after January 26, we are into Spring in Delhi, weather-wise…by the Spring Equinox, March 20, our summer would have already started.

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://freeflowerpictures.net/flowers/winter-jasmine/pictures_1.html

winter dusk

2012-01-26T20:49:00.000-08:00

pomegranate sky~

isn't winter too,

a passing bird?

winter dusk -

voices from nothingness

diffusing into nothingness

dusky dusk -

silence fills

the void between stars

~ I cannot walk through the suburbs in the solitude of the night without thinking that the night pleases us because it suppresses idle details, just as our memory does. ~Jorge Luis Borges

~ ‘The tendinous part of the mind, so to speak, is more developed in winter; the fleshy, in summer. I should say winter had given the bone and sinew to literature, summer the tissues and the blood.’ ~ John Burroughs

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://www.wallpapersland.net/2011/03/20/lake-at-dusk/

A Pipit, Blackbird and Daisies

2012-01-22T20:22:00.000-08:00

cutting through
my thoughts ~ rehash

of the pipit’s song*

scoring its music

across the Prussian blue sky,

the black bird …

how I wish this mid-winter serenity

was everlasting

white daisies

as far the eyes can see,

winter sun leaves

‘Only nature has a right to grieve perpetually, for she only is innocent. Soon the ice will melt, and the blackbirds sing along the river which he frequented, as pleasantly as ever. The same everlasting serenity will appear in this face of God, and we will not be sorrowful, if he is not.’ ~ Henry David Thoreau

~ In wilderness is the preservation of the world.~ Henry David Thoreau

*Know about the Pipit’s song? http://tagaloglang.com/Filipino-Music/Tagalog-Folk-Songs/ang-pipit-bird.html

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://www.flowerpicturegallery.com/v/daisy-flower-pictures/small+white+daisies.jpg.html

neither

2012-01-19T20:00:00.000-08:00

neither the sun

nor the rain – a splintered

arc of a rainbow

and soul songs

covering the sky

~ ‘Life is like a rainbow. You need both the sun and the rain to make its colors appear.’~ Author Unknown

~ ‘The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears.’ ~ John Vance Cheney

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://www.poetseers.org/themes/poems_about_unity/

Winter VIII (1)

2012-01-17T19:36:00.000-08:00

after three nights of drizzling rain….the winter days:

cold and damp -

contemplating

a sweet ginger tea

Tea...is a religion of the art of life. ~ Okakura

If you are cold, tea will warm you. If you are too heated, it will cool you. If you are depressed, it will cheer you. If you are excited, it will calm you. ~Gladstone

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://www.adm.heacademy.ac.uk/networks/networks-summer-2011/features/2018what2019s-the-environment-got-to-do-with-media-studies-2019-exploring-the-possibilities-and-challenges-for-curriculum-development-in-higher-education

sudden shafts of light

2012-01-15T20:00:00.000-08:00

sudden shafts of light -

in and out, the iridescence

of sun-birds

From within or from behind, a light shines through us upon things, and makes us aware that we are nothing, but the light is all. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary. ~Aaron Rose

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://www.smart-kit.com/s3066/rays-of-light-online-jigsaw/

Loneliness/solitude

2012-01-12T20:42:00.000-08:00

after a long day of work, chatter and being among people, we need our solitude, to clear the cluttered mind, to stretch oneself and call it a day....(& that's when writing/journaling happens). I am never enough with that time...possibly anybody with a passion or hobby is never enough with it...the solo time, the solitude we all need,

but, loneliness....and to hear about that from people staying alone and far...nothing saddens like that:

‘loneliness is a terrible thing,’

she says into my solitude,

my most cherished time – the night sky

marked by the distance

between stars

~ Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing,

Only a signal shown, and a distant voice in the darkness;

So on the ocean of life, we pass and speak one another,

Only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence.

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

~ What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://www.ehow.com/how_6052721_look-single-window-candle-lights.html

Ebony

2012-01-09T22:39:00.000-08:00

A rhyme to the ebony – Yes, I talk to the trees, the plants and they respond…sometimes a leaf buds or falls, a blooming flower, and in Spring - a riot of colours…Yes, I know, even if I don’t talk, all that would happen…in its own time. But there’s a difference when we talk to them, they are happy and/or we are...

first blooms

appear in the mountain ebony,

how far is spring, honey?

~O’ wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
~Percy Bysshe Shelley

~ Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart.~ Victor Hugo

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhinia_variegata

The old man

2012-01-09T22:29:00.000-08:00

The old man, who is often seen lazing his time away by the river bank. Near our place, back home. I have seen him collecting stones from the river bank…and skipping it back to the river in idle times. A pack of stories, the old man is and I know some of them. But, why should that memory come now, this winter morning passing by the misty lake... like almost I saw him there...

the old man sits

skipping stones

through the mist

into the river’s depths ~

winter blues

'I like these cold, gray winter days. Days like these let you savour a bad mood.'~ Bill Watterson

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://www.flashvault.net/tutorial.asp?ID=68

Winter -VI (1)

2012-01-08T04:08:00.000-08:00

white butterfly

folded in its wings

the winter sky

~ I embrace emerging experience.
I participate in discovery.
I am a butterfly.
I am not a butterfly collector.
I want the experience of the butterfly. ~ William Stafford

~There is a privacy about it [winter] which no other season gives you.... In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savour belonging to yourself. ~Ruth Stout

Photo courtesy: flythebirdpath Teddy Llovet, as per original copyright at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/teddyllovet/3662289058/

Another year

2012-01-04T20:42:00.000-08:00

another year -

all things appear

rounder

Holy crap - a haiku that rhymes!

There's hope for everyone. That's what makes the world go round.~ Paul Auster

Photo courtesy: ~ as per original copyright at:

http://www.123rf.com/photo_4964301_round-stones.html

Winter -V (V)

2012-01-04T19:37:00.000-08:00

From a long windy night into the day, from a long ago winter....“in a certain faraway land [where] the cold is so intense that words freeze as soon as they are uttered, and after some time then thaw and become audible, so that words spoken in winter go unheard until the next summer.” ~ Plutarch, Moralia

foggy wind

brushing on the window panes-

a child’s rasping cough

soft rime

rimming the edge of flowers

tracing the night wind

stretching

out of a long night -

the vermillion sun

rising

mist on the window panes

melting - refilling
the pen

mist on the window panes

melting - words
freezing on the pages

~ I enter the world called real as one enters a mist.~ Julien Green

~Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term art, I should call it ‘the Reproduction of what the senses perceive in nature through the veil of the mist’ ~ Edgar Allan Poe

~ The moment we indulge our affections, the earth is metamorphosed, there is no winter and no night; all tragedies, all ennui, vanish, - all duties even’ ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Yes, I was 'indulged' - rather engrossed - in my affection and my work - i.e. writing and art - through the night into the day sometime in January 2005 ....and those few moments come from memory.

Photo courtesy: ~HeatmanMK-III as per original copyright at:

http://heatmanmk-iii.deviantart.com/art/Vermillion-Sky-168300270

Joy/Happiness~ II

2012-01-02T01:48:00.000-08:00

the river basking

in the gentle evening light, and the sky
singing a new melody ~

a hush descends quiet
upon the day, and my mind

~Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.~ John Lubbock

almost white, the cranes

wading…wading….disappearing

into the stillness between clouds

and the winter sky - my soul

too finds its happiness

~ Cranes carry this heavy mystical baggage. They're icons of fidelity and happiness. The Vietnamese believe cranes cart our souls up to heaven on our wings. ~Mitchell Burgess

~ I hope you love birds too. It is economical. It saves going to heaven. ~ Emily Dickinson

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://www.wallpapers4desktop.net/photo/nature/nature_river_sea_evening_sky/19-0-13360

some full moon day - 2012

2012-01-02T01:18:00.000-08:00

full moon of 2012 ~

the Jade Rabbit morphs

into a dragon

No, not in the moment…but looking into a moment in future…some day in this year when the moon must be fairly full: …perhaps I shouldn’t be doing this ‘looking into the future’ thing, but then they shouldn’t be naming the years without reason? ….after the 2011 ‘Year of the Rabbit’ comes…2012- ‘Year of the Dragon’ – Sounds exciting!? –

for me-yes, Quite so...& be it a dragon or rabbit or man in the dark up there, Moon is a beautiful sight!

~ Don't think. FEEL. It's like a finger pointing at the moon.
Do not concentrate on the finger or you will miss all of the heavenly glory! ~ Bruce Lee, Enter the Dragon.

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Netlancer2006_-_Full_Moon_in_Bangalore_(by).jpg

Happy New Year!

2011-12-29T20:51:00.000-08:00

slow waltz

of candle lights~in a flick,

New Year

~The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul ~ G. K. Chesterton

~ Year-end is neither an end nor beginning, but it happens with all the wisdom, experience can instill in us.~ Hal Borland

friendships,

the way it knows

the way it grows

~ passing years

~A new beginning is perhaps the best time to say…

It’s so nice to know you…
And here’s wishing our friendship
continues to grow in the days to come. ~ Author Unknown

Wish you all a Happy New Year! :)

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://www.nerdtreasure.com/37-examples-of-most-beautiful-candle-light-photography/

Winter haiku IV (III)

2011-12-26T23:49:00.000-08:00

An afternoon in the park the other day – The young, the old and the in-betweens...

children basking

in the lance of mid-day sun

winter repose

~The world is as many times new as there are children in our lives. ~Robert Brault

slanting winter sun -

women weave their gossip

into multicoloured scarves

~ What you don't see with your eyes, don't witness with your mouth. ~ Jewish Proverb

December dusk -

the oldest of the old

cracks a joke

~Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.~ Victor Hugo

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Verbena_bonariensis_(1).jpg

Christmas stars aglow

2011-12-19T19:09:00.000-08:00

Christmas stars aglow -

in her hazel eyes

angels descending

for the little girls, and the little girl in all the girls, who dream, or can dream, the childlike dreams of fairies and angels...

~Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time. ~Laura Ingalls Wilder

~ Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful. ~ Norman Vincent Peale

~Keep your Christmas-heart open all the year round. ~Jessica Archmint

Will be off for a while; possibly until after Christmas or longer.....
Wish You All a Merry Christmas! :)

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://www.wallpaperhd.org/wallpaper/1763/Christmas-Red-Star-Ornament-widescreen.html

Winter haiku - III (II)

2011-12-15T20:27:00.000-08:00

bleak midwinter

morning - pigeons vie

raising the spirit

~’Why do birds sing in the morning? It's the triumphant shout: ‘We got through another night!’ ~ Enid Bagnold

cloaked in fog

bone-bare limbs of trees

sun breaking out

~Of winter's lifeless world each tree
Now seems a perfect part;
Yet each one holds summer's secret
Deep down within its heart. ~ Charles G. Stater

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://stockfresh.com/image/639292/twisted-circular-tree-branches-in-a-foggy-forest-wit-a-road-in-the-middle

life, ordinary

2011-12-13T20:05:00.000-08:00

first black coffee

with jaggery and a blob of ghee~
breathing

the scent of an old kitchen,
far away

That is the first black coffee, the Kerala way….The way we used to have at home: Now, it is black, sugared or sugar-free depending on the mood, and a spoon of ghee. And to have in the original way, occasionally: A break from the routine. After the first coffee, many cups of tea…which makes a day. Then occasionally to break that routine, to have a cup of coffee, some days, when one feels like it. Call it a way of life, ordinary.

~The morning cup of coffee has an exhilaration about it which the cheering influence of the afternoon or evening cup of tea cannot be expected to reproduce. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., ‘Over the Teacups’

~A leaf fluttered in through the window this morning, as if supported by the rays of the sun, a bird settled on the fire escape, joy in the task of coffee, joy accompanied me as I walked.~ Anais Nin

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://efoodprocessorreviews.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-drinking-coffee/

December's Moon

2011-12-11T19:25:00.000-08:00

2011 – 'The Year of the Rabbit,' ending...on 11/12/2011, a day after the full moon-

December’s moon

almost full – the Jade Rabbit

all curled up

~ “I like to think that the moon is there even if I am not looking at it”~ Albert Einstein

~Tell me what you feel in your room when the full moon is shining in upon you and your lamp is dying out, and I will tell you how old you are, and I shall know if you are happy.~ Henri Frederic Amiel

Different cultures have seen pictures in the patterns of light and dark on the Moon’s surface. The Western world have seen a 'Man in the Moon; and the ancient Asians visualised a Rabbit (the Moon-Rabbit also called the Jade Rabbit ) – the Chinese have a different legend, the Indians, Japanese have another, with variations. The Aztecs, The Native Americans have yet another...The science of it we all know.

To read the Moon-Rabbit/Jade Rabbit legend http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_rabbit

Photo courtesy: gat0pard0-x0x as per original copyright at:

http://gat0pard0-x0x.deviantart.com/art/The-Rabbit-in-the-Moon-70433485

The rocks and the river

2011-12-08T20:01:00.000-08:00

rocks shaped by the way

the river flows,

the way

the river flows,

shaped by the rocks

~Not hammer strokes, but dance of the water sings the pebbles into perfection.~ Ravindranath Tagore

~What makes a river so restful to people is that it doesn’t have any doubt -- it is sure to get where it is going, and it doesn’t want to go anywhere else.~ Hal Boyle

~Let the mountains talk, let the rivers run. Once more, and forever.~ David Brower

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://education.usgs.gov/lessons/schoolyard/RockDescription.html

The Path

2011-12-05T20:51:00.000-08:00

along the river's path

ahead, behind and alongside

mountains ~

in mist

~ Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. ~ Truth is a Pathless land, J Krishnamurti

~The Path leads on and I humbly follow. ~ The Path, J. Krishnamurti

~To gaze at a river made of time and water
and remember Time is another river.
To know we stray like a river
and our faces vanish like water. ~The Art of Poetry, Jorge Luis Borges

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://wallpapers.varjati.com/rivers-lakes

first Chrysanthemums

2011-12-03T22:47:00.000-08:00

dreams revive

as if in a dream -

first chrysanthemums

first chrysanthemums-

in solitude, heart

seeks its rest

~THE POETRY of earth is never dead: ~ John Keats

~I built my hut within where others live,
But there is no noise of carriages and horses.
You ask how this is possible:
When the heart is distant, solitude comes.
I pluck chrysanthemums by the eastern fence
And see the distant southern mountains.
The mountain air is fresh at dusk.
Flying birds return in flocks.
In these things there lies a great truth,
But when I try to express it, I cannot find the words.~ Tao Yuanming

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://www.ebeijing.gov.cn/feature_2/Traditional_Fesitival/Double_Ninth_Day/Activities_DN/t1022109.htm

white clouds

2011-12-03T22:34:00.000-08:00

white clouds in the blue sky-

the ancestors I know not,

yet remembers in every wake,

looking into the day

I’ll join them

~Far off, I gaze at the white clouds,
I think deeply of the ancients ...
I think of you, recluses:
A thousand years after, I cherish your principles.
Searching their essence, I cannot exhaust it. ...
That the ancients cannot be with me
only I can know how sorely I regret it.~ Tao Yuanming

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://www.freefoto.com/images/9907/04/9907_04_20---Blue-Sky-and-White-Clouds_web.jpg

Navy blue dusk

2011-12-01T20:43:00.000-08:00

navy blue dusk-

from the leaden lake

flap of cormorants

‘Dusk, is just an illusion, because the sun is either above the horizon or below it. And that means that day and night are linked in a way that few things are; there cannot be one without the other, yet they cannot exist at the same time. How would it feel, I remember wondering to be always together, yet forever apart?’ ~ Nicholas Sparks

'My soul is in the sky.’ -- William Shakespeare, 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,' Act V. Scene I.

'The reason birds can fly and we can't is simply that they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings.’ -- Sir James Matthew Barrie

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://www.widescreenwallpapers.org/dark-lake-widescreen-wallpaper-1.html

Indira Goswami- a homage

2011-11-29T19:16:00.000-08:00

November still brings

its loss -her stories,
distinctive, aching,

echoing within

a quiet pain

Eminent Assamese writer and one of most prominent figures of contemporary Indian literature, Dr Indira Goswami, also known as Mamoni Raisom Goswami (69), passed away on November 29. Her Sahitya Academy Award (1982) introduced me to her and her writings. She had won the Jnanpith in 2000. Have not read all of hers, yet a writer very dear to me for the short stories/novels I have read, and especially in my earlier years.

I pay homage.

Photo: courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamoni_Raisom_Goswami

the waves

2011-11-27T22:19:00.000-08:00

the waves of the sea

beating and breaking

on the shores- the old man

and the sky,

silent

~‘What language is thine, O sea?’

‘The language of eternal question.’

‘What language is thy answer, O sky?’

‘The language of eternal silence.’~Ravindranath Tagore

~‘The fish in the water is silent, the animal on the earth is noisy, the bird in the air is singing,

But Man has in him the silence of the sea, the noise of the earth and the music of the air.’ ~ Ravindranath Tagore

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at: http://www.clickgreen.org.uk/research/trends/122661-climate-change-will-cause-sea-levels-to-rise-for-500-years,-study-warns.html

Out of nowhere

2011-11-27T21:59:00.000-08:00

out of nowhere

explosion

of life- girls

in pink,

start to sing

~Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale.~ Hans Christian Andersen

~That I exist is a perpetual surprise which is life.~ Ravindranath Tagore

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://fieldbotany.pbworks.com/w/page/5987158/Field%20Trip%2016

Yellow trumpets

2011-11-27T21:19:00.000-08:00

yellow trumpets

along the misty river bank -

the breeze holding still

as if listening to the sigh

of falling leaves

~‘My boy, one small breeze doesn't make a wind storm.’ ~ John McGraw

~What would the world be, once bereft

Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,

O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.~ Gerard Hopkins

~The wilderness and the idea of wilderness is one of the permanent homes of the human spirit.~ Joseph Wood Krutch

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright

http://www.flowerpictures.net/flower_database/uz_flowers/yellow-tabebuia.html

Winter Haiku II (I)

2011-11-24T20:53:00.000-08:00

lull in conversation

the sound of cracking

frozen walnuts

a winter haiku without a seasonal reference, but for the walnuts. In winters, the lull in conversation, which is normally expected to be seven minutes, often extends - the weather and dry fruits seem the apparent reason....interesting to watch how the natural lull sets in...and how it picks up again - food and weather often being the starters, especially in casual conversations...

~If you ever have to support a flagging conversation, introduce the topic of eating.~ Leigh Hunt

~Don't knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while.~ Kin Hubbard

~Conversation would be vastly improved by the constant use of four simple words: I do not know~ Andre Maurois

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juglans

Misty November

2011-11-22T18:49:00.000-08:00

misty November -

I love it,

only in my dreams?

~Dreams are answers to questions we haven't yet figured out how to ask. ~X-Files

~Some colors exist in dreams that are not present in the waking spectrum. ~Terri Guillemets

Photo courtesy: CaptPiper (Julia Falk) as per original copyright at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/piper/64833032/

windswept

2011-11-22T18:44:00.000-08:00

windswept clouds

covering the November sky –

mind, empty

~A cloudy day is no match for a sunny disposition.~ William Arthur Ward

Photo courtesy: Grey Sky by ~manaskap on deviantART

as per original copyright at:

ttp://manaskap.deviantart.com/art/Grey-Sky-114977127

Orange butterfly

2011-11-20T18:59:00.000-08:00

eight lane highway

zigzagging through the traffic

an orange butterfly

~May the wings of the butterfly kiss the sun

And find your shoulder to light on,

To bring you luck, happiness and riches
Today, tomorrow and beyond.
~Irish Blessing

~If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies. ~Author Unknown

~We are closer to the ants than to the butterflies. Very few people can endure much leisure. ~ Gerald Brenan

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://www.123rf.com/photo_1374233_brown-soil-ploughed-field-in-spring.html

Winter haiku (III)

2011-11-16T21:34:00.000-08:00

morning fog-

dragon breaths

diffusing

foggy morning-

walking slowly, watching

breaths diffusing

fog on the road,

with every step

moving back

~Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. ~ E. L. Doctorow

~Truth is the torch that gleams through the fog without dispelling it.~ Claude Adrien Helvetius

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Foggy_morning_road_-_visibility_at_200_ft.jpg

by the hillocks

2011-11-14T19:58:00.000-08:00

by the hillocks

where the river turns, gulls

silent, feeling the breeze

~The river delights to lift us free, if only we dare to let go. Our true work is this voyage, this adventure.~ Richard Bach, Illusions : The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

~Most gulls don’t bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight – how to get from shore to food and back again. For most gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight~ Richard Bach, Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright:

http://www.indianetzone.com/45/geography_darrang_district.htm

Chrysanthemums

2011-11-13T19:22:00.001-08:00

yeah, crazy about chrysanthemums...earth's promise in November, it reminds of the promises to keep...

November’s

promise -

chrysanthemums sprout

absent sun, ashen sky –
still November
keeps its promise,
Chrysanthemums sprout

Oh! morning dew

on Chrysanthemum

leaves – a promise,

almost forgotten

~ Every one of these symbols is an embodied idea—combining the conception of the Divine Invisible with the earthly and visible.~
H. P. Blavatsky

~Promises are like babies: easy to make, hard to deliver. ~ Anonymous

~ Promises are like crying babies in a theater, they should be carried out at once. ~Norman Vincent Peale

Photo Credit Chrysanthemum leaves image by Ana Dudnic from Fotolia.com

http://www.livestrong.com/article/113102-herb-feverfew/

little flowers

2011-11-10T19:00:00.000-08:00

little flowers

raising to the ashen sky

my eyes too

~'Just living is not enough... One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower’ ~ Hans Christian Andersen

~Flower in the crannied wall,

I pluck you out of the crannies,
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower -but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.~

~ Lord Alfred Tennyson

~'To be a just and correct symbol, it should be such that the moment it is seen by one versed in symbolism, its meaning and application become easily apparent.’ ~ The Heart Doctrine

Photo courtesy: skipnclick: as per original copyright at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/skipnclick/4532873772/

Frog-croak , the myth

2011-11-08T20:38:00.000-08:00

rain

in the frog pond –croak

in my throat

dark pond -

only a croak

‘one day, one night’

Read the story behind , which says frogs are croaking, ‘one day, one night.’ http://www.frogsonice.com/froggy/tales/croak-myth.shtml

(In our language we say, they croak ‘pekrom’)

~We are born princes and the civilising process makes us frogs.~ Publilius Syrus

Photo courtesy: Noël Zia Lee: as per original copyright at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/noelzialee/1305588459/

Bhupen Hazarika - a tribute, a remembrance

2011-11-06T00:22:00.000-07:00

When he sang 'Ganga behti ho kyon,' his voice was as if it held the complete range of River Ganga - her depth, her suppleness, her coarseness, her roaring rage, her helplessness, her resilience… her love, her joy, her peace. He is gone; but the voice, the music lives on…

the river

streaming into the void

between the rocks

PS: In remembrance of the legendary singer-composer and poet Bhupen Hazarika(86), who left us on November 5, 2011

Ganga Behti ho Kyong: Bhupen Hazarika sings on stage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pbyo8QW6vaY&feature=related

The recorded version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzWa6yuLX2A

Dil hoom hoom Kare :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgzz_Wiq-bY&feature=related

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://www.musicindiaonline.com/album/21-Hindi_Pop__Rock/4299-The_Complete_Bhupen_Hazarika/

A poem

2011-11-03T22:29:00.000-07:00

a poem

writes itself with words

that aren’t mine,

or all mine, for a time

I hold, and then let go

words

stir up like water droplets,

in a surging wave,

and fall –

when a poem is born

~Words, words, they're all we've got to go on – Stoppard

PS: what I dare to call ‘a poem’ is actually another ~ not even the first draft is ready, and the two here are kind of byproducts. Perhaps, the experience – for the time when the muse take over the senses- could also be a product, a subject of study.

It has always been my interest to know - how a poem is born and how one ‘works’ on what the muse offers… No, not about what i write in the name of poetry, about any good poem.

& what I call the ‘poem’ – maybe I’ll share some other time.

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://www.sgurrenergy.com/Services/Wave.php

the young and the old - then and now

2011-10-30T21:06:00.000-07:00

late autumn skies-

the bougainvillea

in summer attire

‘There are always flowers for those who want to see them.’ ~ Henri Matisse

long autumn -

another grey hair

on my temple

~The foliage has been losing its freshness through the month of August, and here and there a yellow leaf shows itself like the first gray hair amidst the locks of a beauty who has seen one season too many. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

PS: In memory of an old woman, of about 75 years, with whom I stayed as a paying guest, during my initial days in Delhi, and with whom I used to share my day’s tidings- she would have opinion and advices about each and every matter. And would say, ‘dekho bache, mein ne ye baal dhoop mein nahi safaid kiya’ – ‘Look child, I have not whitened this hair sitting in the sun’ – to say, I should be taking her advices because it came from experience…I was only happy to do that –to the extend possible, of course!

Now as my hair whitens one too many, I feel it’s better to keep one’s mouth shut, when it comes to advising the young! Control, control the innate habit of offering free advice! Well, if one needs it’s always in stock!:)

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://www.scenicreflections.com/media/372214/Bougainvillea_Wallpaper/

where the river curves

2011-10-27T21:40:00.000-07:00

October sky

spreading its misty duvet

where the river curves

....reeds singing to the beats

of a kindly wind

~The reeds give
Way to the
Wind and give
The wind away~ A.R. Ammons

~In the river is the model of creation.

Our lives like the river to the sea.~Anonymous

Photo courtesy:

http://www.123rf.com/photo_8891217_smooth-grey-rocks-and-small-green-reeds-along-river.html

Happy Diwali

2011-10-22T21:07:00.000-07:00

evening songs

between the breaths

hearts of light

‘Let there be light’ ~ Happy Diwali to you all!

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://craftsfromindia.gyanin.com/2010/07/08/clay-terracotta-craft-india/earthen-diyaslamps-lit-during-diwali/

Seasonless - a dedication

2011-10-19T21:26:00.000-07:00

plumeria flowers,
they don't look at the calendar,

or seasons –holding a fleck of sun

in their hearts,

warming other hearts

~ Give away your love, freely and without expectation. Give it away, and soon your life will be filled with love, and you will have set others on the path of love and peace. ~John Robbins

ps: i guess some people are like the plumeria flowers...Dedicated to all such hearts, wherever they are, known to me or unknown.

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://plumeria2u.co.uk/chuppa-chup-plumeria-seeds-5-per-pack-p-1066.html

Autumn V (1)

2011-10-17T22:01:00.000-07:00

autumn leaves

covering the path

bordered by young trees,

which way did the

birds fly?

~ Be like the bird who, pausing in her flight awhile on boughs too slight, feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, knowing she hath wings~ Victor Hugo

Photo courtesy: Christian Toennesen as per original copyright

http://www.flickr.com/photos/toennesen/1528260906/

from this far

2011-10-15T23:45:00.000-07:00

from this far

so easy

to love the world-

in their own little worlds,

in love, or in war

~ ‘The person who discovered the law of love was a far greater scientist than any of our modern scientists. Only our explorations have not gone far enough and so it is not possible for everyone to see all its workings.’ ~ Mahatma Gandhi

~Love is the most powerful and still most unknown energy in the world~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

~Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts. Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life. Meaning does not lie in things. Meaning lies in us.~ Marianne Williamson

~ Love is not a doctrine. Peace is not an international agreement. Love and Peace are beings who live as possibilities in us. ~ Mary Caroline Richards

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://www.desktops-wallpapers.com/landscapes.html

castles

2011-10-13T21:53:00.000-07:00

castles in the pearlescent clouds -

my haiku too follows

….no rules

~There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds. ~G.K. Chesterton

~The haiku lets meaning float; the aphorism pins it down ~ Mason Cooley

ps: A special haiku/'ku for me- as it brings my profession and my passion in one. I have had the luck of working with people who allow, rather promote, working around and above the rules of construction – be it building construction (Laurie Baker, the British-born Indian Architect, needs special mention though I have stopped practicing building construction as a profession a long time ago...he left this world on April 1, 2007 ), or constructing a sentence, or writing a haiku – a freedom, I value so much.

(Social rules? – a different matter altogether…but, that would suit the socio-political blog – may write or may not, for the lazy duck i am turning out to be…let's see?

Photo courtesy: Beat Machine as per original copyright at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bqwec/278666547/

Autumn -IV(1)

2011-10-11T20:48:00.000-07:00

autumn evenfall-

the sky within trails

the trailing light,

.....and the songs

of returning birds

~ Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.~ George Eliot

Photo courtesy: S.hammarlund as per original copyright at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Autumn_Sunset_over_Priest_Lake.JPG

A tribute – Jagjit Singh

2011-10-10T19:46:00.000-07:00

this autumn

marked by another loss -

a voice that will never fade,

a hole in the sky

. . . no star can ever fill

A tribute – Ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh, who passed away October 10, 2011.

Three songs: may not be his best, but which I like to listen to often:

Chithi na koi sandes (Jagjit Singh)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ2CQOKI7B4&feature=related

Kaun Kehta hai mohabbat ki (Chitra, Jagjit Singh)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLofCPtd81M&feature=related

Woh kaghaz ki kashti woh barish ka paani (Chitra, Jagjit Singh)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqDTZJYf5bM&feature=related

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright

http://jagjitsingh.imess.net/gallery/wallpapers/

Autumn - III (1)

2011-10-06T21:13:00.000-07:00

falling leaves

caught in a wide web,

a wind’s long sigh

~'The artist is a receptacle for the emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web.' ~ Pablo Picasso

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/193097

Autumn -II (3)

2011-10-03T20:22:00.000-07:00

leaf-strewn path -

only the wind and silence

making rounds

~ For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together. For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad. ~ Edwin Way Teale

how many more autumns, this fallen leaf

~A wind has blown the rain away and blown the sky away and all the leaves away, and the trees stand. I think, I too, have known autumn too long. ~ e. e. cummings

October chill –

leaves rustling in the wind,

thoughts within

~We cling to our own point of view, as though everything depended on it. Yet our opinions have no permanence; like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away.~ Zhuangzi

~October is a symphony of permanence and change.
~Bonaro W. Overstreet

Photo courtesy: Lorianne DiSabato as per original copyright at:http://www.flickr.com/photos/zenmama/5102310754/

cherry red

2011-10-01T00:45:00.000-07:00

a scene from a few years ago….people who stay in memory for no reason, but for making a moment special and memorable…and you don’t know why they revisit at certain times, unexpectedly….

cherry-red sky

the nomad with ocean eyes

hums a slow song

~ A nomad I will remain for life, in love with distant and uncharted places~ Isabelle Eberhardt

~‘I soon realized that no journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within.’~ Lillian Smith

~ ‘Travelling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things – air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky – all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.’ ~ Cesare Pavese

This is not the song, but one of the many old hindi film songs i like:

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://mi9.com/red-sky_26524.html

Dragonfly

2011-09-28T21:04:00.000-07:00

‘trespassers will be prosecuted’ -

careful, contain yourself

dragonfly!

~It doesn't matter how adventurous you want to be, you've still got to contain your identity ~ Alex Kapranos

PS: scenes we come across that makes one want to laugh, but sometimes need serious consideration!?:)
(the photo's incomplete for the sign-board...rightly so?)

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://wallpaperstock.net/red-dragonfly_wallpapers_14160_1920x1200_1.html

autumn wind

2011-09-26T20:32:00.000-07:00

autumn wind,

a medley of seasons

leaves turn

~Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn. ~Elizabeth Lawrence

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://autumn-wallpaper-ii.en.softonic.com/mac

The Video: well, nothing related to the post; but thought the music has the feel of autumn to it - or so i felt.

twilight over wheat fields

2011-09-21T22:44:00.000-07:00

twilight over wheat fields -

through the space between darkness

and light,

the last cry of a grey heron

trilling the sky

'When despair for the world grows in me, and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be -- I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought or grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.’ ~ Wendell Berry

~ 'Nature provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetites ~ William Ruckelshaus

PS: The poem repeated from the post at Socio-Political blog today. Yes, Ruckelshaus’ quote goes in contradiction to our need for choices said there…there we come to it - our choices are limited. Must learn to live within that, to put it straight and simple.

And, human beings are not any special species on earth, as far as Nature is concerned? It is to sustain one and all, and when it is destructive, it doesn't segregate humans out - Does it? Oh well, enough and more than enough, has already been said!

But reports of frequent earthquakes and natural calamities make on think again and again - Not anything new may be, but still!

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://www.printable-color-pictures.com/sunset_pictures.html

empty park

2011-09-04T21:10:00.000-07:00

The study-room window opens into the park. And in the evenings, the park resounds with their talks, shouts and laughter – either the veterans discussing politics and policies and/or sharing a joke or two, the middle-aged sharing their day’s chores, the young in their tittle-tattle, or the children playing. Great noise, a great sense of life…Sitting in my room, I become part of it, without being in it. But now:

empty park…

their laughter, resounding

only in my memory

~ What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul. ~Yiddish Proverb

~ When people are laughing, they're generally not killing each other. ~ Alan Alda

PS: Again, my computer and blogger system have been behaving in very funny ways when I visit blogs. It logs off by itself, boots, reboots, the files that remain open are lost... Some of my blogs too redirect elsewhere as it opens or doesn't open at all. Yes, antivirus has been running overtime, and my little knowledge as to other ways of cleaning the system is also done from time to time! I am not really sure if it is a problem with my system or that of blogger, nor do I know to rectify it.

The systems service person says blogs can be 'systemically- risky'!(Yes, the guy speaks technical, and is economical with words, to the effect I don't often understand what the problem is!

Anyway, with my knowledge of 'systemically risky' enterprises, and my lack of knowledge of computer systems and applications, I should not be testing any more, but wait for blogger to sort it out itself.

As always, will be looking forward to read. The only activity that seem to go without a hitch is posting….which I may do as and when it occurs.

So, Happy Blogging,

regards,

devika

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://thedesignspace.net/pixelpost/index.php?showimage=35

sea breeze

2011-08-31T20:45:00.000-07:00

salty sea breeze-
listening to sea-songs
in seashells as the September sun
leaves the scene
with a silent sigh

*******

yeah it's only September 1 morning...Obviously it isn't time yet for the September sun to leave....this 'sa sa' moment (or was it a 'so-so' moment!?) comes from some years ago ~ but could well go for any day!

~The sunrise is God's greeting - the sunset, his signature. ~ Unknown

~ For whatever we lose (like a you or a me),
It's always our self we find in the sea ~ EE Cummings

(from 'maggie and millie and molly and may' - http://allpoetry.com/poem/8494117-maggie_and_milly_and_molly_and_may-by-e_e_cummings)

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://www.scenicreflections.com/media/493672/Sunset_seashell_Wallpaper/

Recession

2011-08-28T22:30:00.000-07:00

another recession in the offing -

already these onions,

a deeper shade of purple

~ Life is like an onion: you peel off layer after layer and then you find there is nothing in it’~ James Gibbons Huneker

~An onion can make people cry, but there has never been a vegetable invented to make them laugh~ Will Rogers

No, it (the likely recession) didn't seem laughable matter, as the news said last week...and this Saturday, the onions were indeed a deeper shade - and Oh! the teary eyes...i really was thinking if any vegetable could bring about laughter! it's a crazy world afterall!

Now, the link between recession, onion and shade of it - those who would know, would know? :)

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:

http://www.abcsofquilting.com/FruitsandVegetables.html

trailing

2011-08-24T00:08:00.000-07:00

trailing light
casting long-shadows
of silver oaks across the park,
this moment, a pause,
...an eternity...

~‘You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

~'Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.' ~ Henry Van Dyke

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:
http://lifestyleseeds.co.za/usd/product_info.php?products_id=73&osCsid=669ab1182af339ece45582104b02b6c7

on the empty road

2011-08-18T22:32:00.000-07:00

on the empty road
silently talking to trees and birds
that do not know me, or
my language – slowly, slowly
the mind settles into quiet

~ As I go through all kinds of feelings and experiences in my journey through life -- delight, surprise, chagrin, dismay -- I hold this question as a guiding light: "What do I really need right now to be happy?" What I come to over and over again is that only qualities as vast and deep as love, connection and kindness will really make me happy in any sort of enduring way ~ Sharon Salzberg

For now, I am a little off from blogging and commenting. Some technical issues with my computer system, though that has just been sorted out....and some additional work, which needs normalisation with the schedule. Hope to catch up soon,

Happy blogging,

regards,
devika

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:
http://www.beautifulkerala.org/coco/redcarpet/wynad.php

August moon

2011-08-15T21:01:00.000-07:00

As seen on August 13, 2011:

an ocean of clouds
in the centre, a round island
full moon of August

‘... we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.’ ~ Paul Bowles

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:
http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Full-Moon-and-Passing-Clouds-at-Night-Posters_i3672209_.htm

Night sky

2011-08-08T22:23:00.000-07:00

night sky -
the paths of the butterflies
marked by stars

~ Metaphor for the night sky: A trillion asterisks and no explanations.~ Robert Brault

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:
http://www.tutorialstreet.com/tuts/how-to-make-a-bright-starry-sky/

cloudburst

2011-08-04T20:26:00.000-07:00

cloudburst -
soft whisperings
in the mulberry bush

ring tones
fill the sidewalk -
Friendship day

Happy Friendship Day to you all! :)

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/charitable-gifts

http://www.thedailygreen.com/cm/thedailygreen/images/TY/green-tips-gifts-lg.jpg

Beethoven's 6th, or is it 5th?

2011-08-02T22:14:00.000-07:00

through the clouds,
veiling the sapphire sky
the midnight moon's glow –
wind through the trees resonating
Beethoven’s 6th, or is it 5th?

~'Tones sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes.' ~ Ludwig van Beethoven

~'Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.' ~ Ludwig van Beethoven

~'Music is the wine which inspires one to new generative processes, and I am Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for mankind and makes them spiritually drunken.'~
Ludwig van Beethoven

Photo courtesy: Chris Yarzab as per original copyright at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisyarzab/3712489167/

grave silence

2011-07-31T19:02:00.000-07:00

grave silence
when their hearts burst,
powder puffs

~Each flower is a soul opening out to nature.~ Gerald De Nerval

~Where flowers bloom, so does hope.~ Lady Bird Johnson

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:
http://cmstest.jcu.edu.au/feedbaac_public80_apr/Resources/Presentations/JCUDEV_013521.html

thought clouds

2011-07-27T21:20:00.000-07:00

thought clouds
like flock without a shepherd –
the pen again points
to the pointlessness
of it all

~The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless.~ Steven Weinberg

~ As told in Friendship with God, if we simply decided to believe and act as if first, we're all one, and second, life is eternal, it would render virtually everything we've done all our lives pointless. ~ Neale Donald Walsch

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:
http://mmem.spschools.org/grade5science/weather/altocumulus.html

usual corner

2011-07-24T19:44:00.000-07:00

usual corner
of the library -
in the icy-draft
scent of books, memories,
that aren't mine

~I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library~ Jorge Luis Borges

~A library is the delivery room for the birth of ideas, a place where history comes to life~ Norman Cousins

Photo courtesy: http://www.fromoldbooks.org/pictures-of-old-books/pages/p7110009-grose-antique-books-with-candle/

long July evening

2011-07-19T20:37:00.000-07:00

long July evening
the sky, the sea, looms
in an ineffable light

~ The evening sings in a voice of amber, the dawn is surely coming. ~ Al Stewart

~It seemed to be a necessary ritual that he should prepare himself for sleep by meditating under the solemnity of the night sky... a mysterious transaction between the infinity of the soul and the infinity of the universe. ~Victor Hugo

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:
http://www.beachwallpapers.in/wallpaper/hawaii-sunset/

rainy mood

2011-07-17T19:51:00.000-07:00

rainy mood -
taking the longest route
home

~A rainy day is the perfect time for a walk in the woods. ~ Rachel Carson

~Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet. ~ Roger Miller

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:
http://www.123rf.com/

moonlit walkway

2011-07-14T21:06:00.000-07:00

moonlit walkway -
stepping aside for their
long-shadows to pass

~ All action takes place, so to speak, in a kind of twilight, which like a fog or moonlight, often tends to make things seem grotesque and larger than they really are. ~ Karl Von Clausewitz

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:
http://nature.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/66518/

delirium

2011-07-14T20:03:00.000-07:00

delirium-
wind rippling
through the corn fields

No, not one moment…a juxtaposition of two separate experiences, at two points widely separated in time. It could work as a haiku? Not sure; to me, it seems to. May be, one a remembrance of the other.

~ Life creates itself in delirium and is undone in ennui ~ Emile M. Cioran

~Love is not altogether a delirium, yet it has many points in common therewith.~ Thomas Carlyle

Photo courtesy: antaean as per original copyright at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8656572@N04/2616961262/

blue-grey

2011-07-12T21:51:00.000-07:00

blue-grey clouds
a cool breeze pass, caressing
my weary brows

~‘I want my mind to be a sail, susceptible to any breeze
that might be blowing across the lake of consciousness.’ ~ William Collins

ps: again the haiku is not very present. may be from the day before, or before that. forgot about it....but this morning's heat kind of brought it back!

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:
http://library.thinkquest.org/26804/systems/clouds.html

dawn lightning

2011-07-10T19:46:00.000-07:00

dawn lightning
cracks the sky vault open-
‘cuckoo’s sovereign cry’*

‘cuckoo’s sovereign cry’ comes from a poem by William Wordsworth:

"The Sun Has Long Been Set

~ The sun has long been set,
The stars are out by twos and threes,
The little birds are piping yet
Among the bushes and the trees;
There's a cuckoo, and one or two thrushes,
And a far-off wind that rushes,
And a sound of water that gushes,
And the cuckoo's sovereign cry
Fills all the hollow of the sky.
Who would go `parading'
In London, `and masquerading',
On such a night of June
With that beautiful soft half-moon,
And all these innocent blisses?
On such a night as this is!" ~~

William Wordsworth

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lightning_strike_jan_2007.jpg

soft drizzle

2011-07-06T19:44:00.000-07:00

soft drizzle
the white butterfly
flaps its wings, twice

Yes, Chaos theory and butterfly effect… a slight change at one place in a nonlinear system can result in large differences to a later state. Like the presence or absence of a butterfly flapping its wings could lead to creation or absence of a hurricane.

Let’s see what happens… A Déjà vu haiku for sure…and, if someone claims a copyright, I can sure give it to them. :)

~'Healing rain is a real touch from God. It could be physical healing or emotional or whatever. ~ Michael W. Smith

Photo courtesy: www.Copyright-free-photos.org.uk; as per original copyright at:
http://www.copyright-free-photos.org.uk/butterflies/08-large-white-butterfly.htm

somersaulting

2011-07-03T20:26:00.000-07:00

somersaulting, a sparrow
rejoicing
in the cool morning air
which day is it,
summer, or is it spring?

‘People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy.’ ~Anton Chekhov

Photo courtesy: per original copyright at:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DSC_3059_1_72_-_Sparrow_In_Flight.jpg

seeing

2011-06-30T21:50:00.000-07:00

seeing the earth in birth,
and looking at the sky in death
is the way, she says* -
in between, the life
so short, so beautiful

*I should give credit to my grandmother-in-law, here...she says it often. To mean how grounded and rounded a human life is/should be.

~We are all different flowers in one garden ~ Anonymous

~It's only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth -- and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up -- that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had.~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

~To think and to be fully alive are the same~ Hannah Arendt

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:
http://www.123rf.com/photo_4392358_a-frangipani-flower-fallen-on-bricks-with-wilted-leaves.html

sporadic rain

2011-06-28T19:52:00.000-07:00

sporadic rain-
in the glitter of fresh leaves,
I see
a reflection of my youth
far gone

~ One can find so many pains when the rain is falling.~ John Steinbeck

~ The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain. ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:
http://im01.thewallpapers.org/nature/leaf.php

summer chaos

2011-06-25T03:29:00.000-07:00

bee-eaters land
on mayflower boughs,
summer chaos

~ Do what we can, summer will have its flies. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

~ Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability.~ Sam Keen

~ In summer, the song sings itself.~ William Carlos Williams:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JmVTejQbCA&feature=related

Photo courtesy: Bee-eaters as per original copyright at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee-eater

calm before

2011-06-22T21:10:00.000-07:00

...knowing should make it more effortless:

calm before nightfall,
in the ocean breeze
gulls gliding, effortlessly

~‘As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such a twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air—however slight—lest we become unwilling victims of the darkness.’ ~ William Douglas

~I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom. ~Simone de Beauvoir

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kerala_Backwaters_Sunset.JPG

Morning glories

2011-06-19T20:53:00.000-07:00

morning glories in the sun
I go back to sleep
at 7 AM*

*7 AM and I go back to SLEEP:-- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx_HupIHX7M&NR=1

~ ‘The morning glory which blooms for an hour differs not at heart from the giant pine, which lives for a thousand years.’ ~ Alan Wilson Watts

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:
http://csustan.csustan.edu/~tom/pictures/source/morning-glory-3.html

PS: I am getting harmful cookies and viruses that’s hampering with my google accounts as I access blogs. It’s affecting my work as well. So, will not be posting, visiting blogs to comment until that is sorted out. As always, will be reading, and looking forward to it:

Happy Blogging

best wishes,
devika

Dedication: Resilience

2011-06-17T06:12:00.000-07:00

...Dedicated to all the weed/ wild flower lovers....I am one; more than the potted and cared for flowers, I love wild little flowers, and you will read the reasons below:

Lethargic mornings are hell. Today was one…Walking in half-waking…wild little flowers pop out to bring you cheer...we smile.

Do you call them weeds in your language? Whatsoever, to me they are beautiful flowers, like a dream blooming from the depths of sleep...

walking slow, half-waking
wild little flowers zooming in,
the world zooming out

~~I learn more about God
From weeds than from roses;
Resilience springing
Through the smallest chink of hope
In the absolute of concrete....
~~Phillip Pulfrey, "Weeds," Perspectives.

~Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them.~ A.A. Milne

~One man's weed is another man's beautiful flower.~ Anonymous

~One is tempted to say that the most human plants, after all, are the weeds. ~ John Burroughs, Pepacton, 1881

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:
http://www.forestscene.com/Flowers/slides/WildFlowers-orig.html

Green Planet

2011-06-16T21:29:00.000-07:00

Every time I walk on the dewy, green lawn in the mornings, barefoot, it’s William Butler Yeats on my mind...and several others – lovers of the greens...but then, who doesn’t love greenery and green, one of the most restful colours (I need to see the guy who associated green with envy!

A green planet is by all means the vision and way for future...for clean water, fresh air, sustainable livelihoods...many a life, livelihoods and lifetimes being dependent upon it – green landscapes automatically becomes the dream of all, and in all likelihood Earth must also be liking a green attire for itself mostly....I imagine so:

dewy lush green lawn-
I tread ever softly, quietly
over the dreams
of the poet, the Earth
and mine

~ Tread softly because you tread on my dreams ~ William Butler Yeats

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:
http://www.zone10.com/growing-a-lush-lawn.html

after a shower

2011-06-14T21:16:00.000-07:00

after a shower,
through the young elephant-ears
sunlight serenade

~ 'Perhaps it will seem to you that the sunshine is brighter and that everything has a new charm. At least, I believe this is always the result of a deep love, and it is a beautiful thing. And I believe people who think love prevents one from thinking clearly are wrong; for then one thinks very clearly and is more active than before. and love is something eternal--the aspect may change, but not the essence. There is the same difference in a person before and after he is in love as there is in an unlighted lamp and one that is burning. The lamp was there and it was a good lamp, but now it is shedding light too, and that is its real function. And love makes one calmer about many things, and in that way, one is more fit for one's work.' ~

~ Vincent van Gogh

~There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more.

~ Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

~ It is the artist's business to create sunshine when the sun fails ~ Romain Rolland

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Elephant_Ear_Colocasia_esculenta_'Yellow_Splash'_Leaves_3254px.JPG

sound of a jet plane

2011-06-08T21:09:00.000-07:00

sound of a jet plane
parting the sky – again, the faces
of friends long missed

~ A friend loves at all times, and kinsfolk are born to share adversity ~ The Bible, Proverbs 17:17 (NRSV)

~‘One measure of friendship consists not in the number of things friends can discuss, but in the number of things they need no longer mention.’~ Clifton Fadiman

Photo courtesy: ‘images by photoeverywhere’ as per original copyright at:
http://www.photoeverywhere.co.uk/linking.htm
http://www.photoeverywhere.co.uk/travelstock/sky_trail2608.jpg

sun down

2011-06-06T21:57:00.000-07:00

sun down
in the sea phosphorescence
the day’s lament

~ We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch - we are going back from whence we came ~ John F. Kennedy

~ The sea calls - come live in my heart and pay no rent ~ Unknown

Photo courtesy: as per original copyright at:
http://www.brothersoft.com/sunset-beach-theme-2501.html