new dawn always welcomes you

राम आ रहे

2024-01-21T20:34:00.003+05:30

है विश्व में नाम अमर ये

अब फेरायागा भगवा ध्वज

वर्षो की प्रतीक्षा में थे वो

आज लौटेंगे अपने धाम सज धज ।

मन को भाते राम हमारे

अब करिए मंगल गान

प्रभु पधारे हर्षित उजियारे

सकल करिए हमारे साज काज ।

बरसो से लगाए थे जो आज

चले गए कई लोग

अपनी बलि चढ़ा कर उन्होंने

कर दिया ये उद्घोष ।

उनकी शहादत को नमन है

नाम छपेंगे स्वर्ण अक्षरों से उनके

वापस लौटकर नहीं आ सकते

देख पाते वो अगर, इस युग के राम होते

श्री राम की अर्चना कीजिए

करिए उनका उदगान

आज पधारे हैं प्रभु राम हमारे

अब करिए मंगल गान ।

Never Forget

2022-02-06T21:29:00.002+05:30

The eyes you can see in their eyes,

the tragedy, the infernal deflagration.

The suspension of life, the absence of death.

The smell of burning heart, still on the cloth,

Still in the air, in the land, underground.

What did we do?

Walls around the eyes, around people,

around heinous actions.

The moratorium of the human sense of the world,

pointing out the guilty ones, the moral weight,

can forgiveness be possible? One hundred trials,

reconciliation and truth, the memory of the whole

humankind.

but people forget, people have already forgotten,

the last witness, the youth, the young must save the future.

the winter, winters, eternal winters, snow in the hair

in the eyes, in the heart.

Take the baton, and never forget!

©Shri Ram

Un trapped

2022-01-16T19:37:00.017+05:30

I was trapped betwixt

Who they thought, I should be

And what I wanted to be

Languishing under her gaze

I strove to be better

I tried to become more

And always found a wall

Her offhand comments

And judgmental words

Held me back, kept me down

Until I truly believed

That I was all could be.

And then I met you

You saw the man

I kept hidden way

You saw the truth

Within the lies I made

with encouraging words

And a quiet strength.

You opened me up

To who I wanted to be

Let me spread my wings

Until I could soar.

©Shri Ram

Ride

2021-10-05T20:22:00.006+05:30

Where do I begin?

I tagged along but you throw me in

Set up for a wild ride

Things have been thrown at me coming from every side

I duck, I roll, I throw them all back but

You've never even noticed any of the attacks

I run, no, I've been sprinting

I'd do a marathon if I have to

But you just seem to never have a clue

of what I'd do for you

I do all that you asked me

You ca't see what I've done

I march on, push through, with no sign that you'll come

I won't let it stay this way

Now I',m doing this for me

Breath in

Change this mindset

Time to show myself what I'm capable enough to do

I'll jump and I'll fly

I'll prove and prove myself until the day i die

This is where it begins and now I'm on a new ride.

Rise

2021-09-17T20:17:00.002+05:30

I am rising to the depths of the ocean.

Touching sea lilies

and feather stars

Shaking hands with

tentacles of octopus.

Basking in the luminescence

of planktons.

Collecting pearls to take them

as a proof of my survival in the abyss.

Darling!

Don't loose your mind

I am living irony

I find beauty in the doom

I don't fall

But rise in the depths

of ocean, darkness and the unknown.

You Will See

2021-05-04T12:00:00.005+05:30

Today i write for souls that know no light

Lives that seem like bad hand writing

Where each passing day seem like a hang on

A hang on of countless losses and few wins.

Today i write for the broken spirited,

Whose first kiss were from lips of betrayal,

Betrayal that grew into unwanted hands

Unwanted hands that keep visiting their bodies,

Leaving it a shadow of what it used to be.

Today i write for the silent.

Whose tongues have been quite for so long

That the sound from their own voice,

Frights them into shells,

Lonely hearts that wear goodness,

Goodness that spread all over this damned place.

Today i write for you,

I write for me too,

I write for your all worries

I write for the whatever you have locked in

I write so that you can find solace in these words.

On days these words fail you,

Days you spite yourself

Days you break beyond recognition

I pray you always remember,

That grief feeds of everything

Even beautiful things.

Your grievances will pass,

You'll see

Everything that never had a place,

will have a place.

Words

2021-02-17T22:12:00.002+05:30

Words are all i can give

scrabble tiles endlessly rearranged

floating through the ether

each loaded with emotions

that would fell the finest swordsman

I long for the day i can see you

when we can embrace each one another

when these words can be expressed

not through sound or screen

until then all i can give are 'words'.

Dormant Thoughts

2021-02-02T14:53:00.009+05:30

here i am

with dormant thoughts i thought extinct

grinning from ear to ear

my smile like a rope bridge

that leads to somewhere great

my eyes sun and moon

shine to remind

its never too late.

i have the courage to cross the gap

to embrace that which comes next

to feel again

to be again

to act and do my best.

how it is

that every time i think i know who i am

something wonderful happens.

©Shri Ram Maheshwari

The Moment

2020-12-25T12:02:00.001+05:30

©Shri Ram

Never Rhyme

2020-06-22T00:27:00.011+05:30

why don’t my poems

ever rhyme

why can’t they just

abide by the rules

why do they just

resemble a stream

of unintended consciousness

why don’t my poems

ever rhyme

keep themselves in line

have a little more

respect for the form

and not just skip away

with faeries

and what about

punctuation

for which it shows

no inclination

how come my poems

never rhyme

and stay beyond

their welcome

how come my poems

never rhyme

and never know

just when

or how

end.

©Shri Ram

Redundant Verse

2020-06-13T23:46:00.009+05:30

I’d like to write a poem

but I simply can’t be bothered

I’d like to write some prose

but I know it never goes

how or where I want it too

and

despite these metered lines

that you may recognise

as rhyme

there’s a lack of reason

and sorry,

but I must decline

any kind prosody

or balladry

or mimicry

of poets past

or any kin to elegies,

soliloquies when all I have

is entropy

slipping, dripping,

tripping from each verse

or something worse,

a curse,

a hearse of dead reflections

terse and unrehearsed

prosaic estimations

of dashed expectations

idle affectations

monologues iambic

nothing short of tragic

a dramatic lack

of magic,

a troubadour of versery

I’m not,

as is so plain

as that stain

on your character to see,

just doggerel of fantasy

lyrical calamities

soporific vanities

my poems thrown

like shit against a wall,

“vers libre!” my arse

so amateur this mask

a hemistich or

dropped-stitch

or stitch inside my side,

and never just in time,

an itch that must be scratched?

pull the other one

the one with bells

jingle bells and

shady ‘tells’

and echoes from

the deepest,

darkest well

into which

long ago

I fell,

if I could write a poem

I would, of course,

how easy-peasy it would be

“a piece of piss”

I might just say

in a flippant sort of way,

anyone can do it,

don’t they say

with words

words

these absurd

approximations of the truth

metaphysically aloof,

then poof!

the spell is broken

with half of it

still buried

unforgiving in my skin.

-Shri Ram

The bus

2020-06-12T21:41:00.004+05:30

The bus

An innocent setting

I'd ridden them many times

I talk and laugh with friends

Or look out the window for the view

It was until that day

A year or two later I'd realise

That all was not as it seemed

You'd think I would have known

That the silence didn't fit

I didn't save him

I didn't understand the signs he showed

Why he wanted a distraction

Why he couldn't talk

I thought she was playing

And I didn't connect the dots

She hurt him in front of me

And I didn't see it until it was too late.

Shri Ram :)

This Is Not A Poem

2020-05-29T23:28:00.006+05:30

This is not a poem but I want you to sense my sincerity,
To sympathies and steer at me.
To be captivated by my prose,
And to dig the way it flows,
As I pour out these words like some kind of messed up cognitive therapy.

This is not a poem but I’ve practiced it anyway,
I’m trying not to wrap my heart away.
Trying to remain raw and honest,
Just like we always promised.
But it’s hard,
And I wonder hard,
On what to say.

In a poem I would be forthright and concise,
Idealistic and more than a little contrite.
I’d paint the world as if it were,
Black and white,
Or else an endless,
Brilliant array of colours just as simplistic.

I’d talk as if the world had a structure and a sense that could be trusted,
As if gods ways were only mysterious in that they could be busted.
I’d sound wise and together,
Like 25 years had given me an understanding of the world that was worth slamin’ down with some rhymes
I’d make it sound as though I understood,
Myself,
And it would be a lie.

This is not a poem so I hope I can be that special kind of complicated honest,
That only comes after a long night of talking.
There’s a campfire and a silence,
A lull in life leaving a gap just wide enough, to be brave.

This is not a poem so I hope I can tell you that I know nothing for sure,
Very very little for maybe,
And a lot I know nothing about.

This is not a poem so I hope I can tell you that I do believe there is strength in vulnerability,

But only in that it exposes my complete ignorance of any useful answer.
Letting go of the pretense that I have,
Worked anything out,
Or
That I mean to.

Shri Ram :)

I Am Wrong

2020-05-28T22:05:00.017+05:30

What looks narrower

When trapped astray

Narrow tightness squeezed

The more dimly cooped up

When you hate to push in

After being weak, blame myself

There is no intention to hurt you

A lump is hard had to swallow

The more frozen the tongue

Tightly closed tightly

Something stood still without budging

In the heart that still "sounds"

Needless to wait "hopefully"

Which is felt to have come

More and more the rigid colder for move forward

Step away pull back

Avoiding all losses

Feels like sin hangs demanding

What you have done must be answered

Forgive me for having started it

Hope "good" still want to see

Seemed to run out of strength to be able

There is no mercy!

indeed I am wrong...

Shri Ram:)

Hope

2020-05-27T21:54:00.007+05:30

For most, hope recedes and swells.

Akin to the tides of the sea
The fear,
The rhythm quells.

For the unlucky the tide recedes.
Sea floor left bear.
Out past the low water mark.
Desert to the horizon.

But we who lose sight of the sea,
When the tide does turn.
Are engulfed by a massive tidal hope
Impossible to spurn.

Shri Ram :)

Darkness

2020-05-26T13:20:00.005+05:30

In the dark.

In the dark they met.
In the cold, dead, hopeless, darkness they came together.

All around them death and destruction
All inside them confusion and soul reduction
They came together
Tired.

An idea
For warmth, for hope, for companionship, to cope
They would create, a spark, a fire.

One brought a heart as hard as flint
The other convictions dry and cracked as kindling
Together they built their fire.

They turned towards it, towards each other
and
the darkness faded
Their worlds were filled with blinding light
Consuming warmth
It was playful, it was beautiful, it was theirs
They smiled
For a time the fire grew strong, it grew knowing the reflection of its light on their faces, knowing their laughter and smiles.
It danced for them and grew hotter still wanting to swell the pride in their eyes.
BUT
Once tall enough to see past the proud faces, their smiling eyes,
it saw
It saw the darkness
It felt the cold
It heard the destruction
It was never told
It was never told of the world beyond those faces
And soon it started to grow old, dim
The darkness was consuming
The cold was too much
The distraction too vast.

It flickered and struggled, grew dimmer still
It could no longer from this world hope distill
With a heavy heart as hard as stone and convictions as dry as kindling bone.
It lay dead, just ash, still warm to the touch
Dead as ash like its parents past.

One to Eight

2020-05-23T21:53:00.008+05:30

One by one

They took what they wanted

Until they were done

And I was left gutted.

I wanted to keep

The pieces of me

But it wasn't a leap

To see what they see.

A body to mate

In an intimate way

And I was too late

I had little sway.

Then there is the eighth

They let me have a choice

They make me feel safe

And like I finally have a voice.

Pity

2020-05-19T12:27:00.007+05:30

Pity comes easy to us

For the poor,

For the vegetable vendor,

For the homeless

for the homecoming labourers

For the stray animals

For the one-sided lovers.

Pity – I think, is pain’s twin.

They come together,

Running into your arms

Also with a sigh sometimes.

“Bless Them!” says pity

“Thank you!. That made me better” says gratitude

“You have your own problems as well” says pain

Red Paint

2020-05-16T21:28:00.012+05:30

A blank canvas at the artist's disposal

A plan for monochromatic red

Red.

Mother's favourite colour

The colour that carried her fiery passion

In her dresses

Her lipstick and bindi

The costumes she wore for marriage

The colour of the roses left at her death portrait.

The artist starts to paint on the canvas

A calculated stroke of a warm cherry red.

Red continues....

The evening light caught on a red silk tie

The boy always in red

Casually wears a red plaid jacket

A red backpack always on his shoulders

The red followed him everywhere.

And I followed the red....

I gave puzzle pieces of myself

She listened to my ramblings

She praised my accomplishments

She seemed to greatly care for me.

When no one else would

But before long the red grew darker

She started to dismiss my ramblings

Her praise disappeared into ashes

The pieces manipulated by her hand.

A deep dark red slashed on the canvas...

Did the girl ever love me?

Reckless, dangerous and messy

Or was I just a fun new toy?

Covering the warm cherry red...

Red was such a beautiful colour

But now it just ruins the canvas.

©Shri Ram

Intrigue

2020-05-14T11:55:00.003+05:30

At first I was here to observe

Because I was curious

Because I wanted to see

The changes that they had made

I wanted to understand their methodology

Unintendedly I became seen by both sides

As a figure of authority

So I played the part

That they, all, needed me to play

Night became day

Those I had been supporting departed

I considered doing the same

But now there was someone new

And I found that

For reasons I don’t yet understand

I like her

I feel like

For reasons I don’t understand

She likes me too

So I decided to stay

A little while longer

I decided I would wait

Until she was free to leave

And, as I waiting, I awoke here

So now I I am left to hope

That, some day

My sight will fall back upon her

That, when it does

I will still be looking at her

Out of my corner of my eye, as she

Slyly, believing it is something she

Is getting away with, concealing

Is watching me, as I watch her

From the corner of her eye.

Shri Ram:)

Where would you go?

2020-05-11T23:35:00.001+05:30

Where would you go?

On late night walks with dad

The moon and stars as guiding light

Shoes in hand and the feeling of sand

The crashing waves soothe the soul

Where would you go?

Out with friends to a party

Secrets revealed in every truth answered

Jokes and laughs from reckless dares

The possibility of drama is the thrill

Where would you go?

Immersed in comfort foods and movies

The swell of a broken heart

Mistakes and pain linger in the shadows

Please spare me tonight

Where would you go?

Sharing intimacy in silk sheets

I'd rather just forget

To stop drowning in past memories

Forced passion just this once

Where would you go?

Because my answer kept changing

And now I'm not sure anymore

Shri Ram:)

Stand And Suffer

2020-05-09T21:28:00.003+05:30

If we are the ones who suffer

Stand and suffer for all the world to see.

Do not suffer insignificantly

Suffer in extravagant colors.

Load them into your weapon, squeeze.

Blast! enemies in the face with your

Reddish silent screaming.

Send greenish/brownish dimpled fleets

That upend their puny frenemy deeds.

If you are to suffer, dump it in the see

Don’t tote a fleet of poisoned pasty

Bleep and poplar trees.

Learn while standing atop roots made of

The grand universe,

With all that green and sunny energy.

Transference.

Blast thine enemies with beneficial

Indifference. Live

It is a grand day and sun goes down

Every night.

Shri Ram:)

The Genesis of Dreams

2020-05-06T21:05:00.013+05:30

I have grown accustom

To all those I care for

Turning a blind eye towards me

That I forget I was the one

Who decided my presence in my life

Could serve a little more than a detriment

Now you didn’t object

I suppose, after all our time together

You have grown more accepting

Of the fact I am seldom wrong

I doubt this goodbye is forever

I don’t think two souls

Such as yours and mine

Are truly capable of saying, goodbye

I write about you, sometimes

I doubt you recognize yourself in my work

I don’t know how it is that you think I see you

But I’m quit certain it is different than reality

I have become who I am

I have found the strength to be myself

Because I had the ability to ask myself

What would I do, if the woman I now love

Was the one that I have forever known as you

It was thought that demanded I take action

That demanded I changed my reality

But even though everything I do in this regard

Is born of the question

What if it was someone I love as I do

It will still, probably, always be a question

That need to be asked

Atleast while I am still of this world

But no amount a desiring it be otherwise

Will ever change my mind that yours is the voice I hear

When all that there is myself, and another.

Shri Ram:)

A Boy With A Demon Tattoo

2020-04-27T23:34:00.002+05:30

A passing eye would think

he was a demon spawn

dark is evil, right?

Somehow seething hearts

turn in night glory

since stars glisten

brighter than the sun

in moonlight's rapture

blessed holy by

Angels' matriarchy

in the virgin's sky

he soothes the world

with resonent laughter

words of silver-tounged

imagination of muses

a heart destined

to heal broken foundation.

He has suffered many feats

chasing absolution and perfection

for almighty cast him from grace

knowing he would rise once more.

Shri Ram :)

Poet's Lock Down

2020-04-26T00:35:00.003+05:30

One cup coffee is now too much

One full food plate is expensive

Green salad luxury.

One dream never comes true

One house never be in name

Unemployment raising heads

Dragons biting hopes

Not anyone knows, no one too sure

Other than sunrise and sunset

Few seasons crossing hell

Buzzing around confused race.

Someone cooking rice

Smoke of bread also seen

One bowl, more than two.

Monument of temple

Deity fasting, starving through

Materialistic stone cold sober

Declared death's kingdom.

Holding hands of beloved, in imagination

Poet cooks food delicious

Then went out for walk

Speaking of a garden, some of wonderland

Some on shore, becoming crown holders

On behalf each other.

When water drops in a thirsty throat

But leave lips dry

Thrust never goes away

Unless water pass through lips.

Who is master?

Who is devotee?

Who crafts?

Who's artist?

Long Island waiting to see a glance

Heaven momentum just swim like dolphin

In clean blue wavy sea wine

Surfing surface in sufferings

Peace restore in concept of rebirth.

Shri Ram :)