if words were mine to command

if words followed my command
i would never demand
time to swallow my pride
but rapidly fire a fitting reply

if words followed my command
conversation would not lack
that fizz and that knack
to create an impression

my foot would stay down
and not wind its way around
towards my wide open mouth
in order to confound
and take my pride down south!

Oh! if only words followed my command
i would write fine prose
and verse would bloom
like a budding rose

then my dear reader
you would stay here
and not fritter away
in search of better wordleaders

thoughts

words hide
words decieve
but words never achieve
the killing gunshots
of torturous thoughts
that chime with the mind's ditty

the thoughts stay in
the words stay out
yet barriers can't hold
the tide when they flow

the wise say
think positive
for words send our thoughts
and thoughts mould our actions
to destiny's flag do they fasten

to reach the flowering gardens
leave behind the murky waters
create your own sun
which the clouds can never hide
do if you that
your destiny is yours
to find that unsetting sun
is a new thought
to find that mind
i will have to leave me behind

The thousand autumns of Jacob de Zoet- review

The thousand autumns of Jacob de Zoet is my second book by David Mitchell. The first one was Ghostwritten. I read it ages back in college and loved it, the stories and the way they wove around one another was very interesting. So I picked up this book expecting a bit of the same magic and originality. I got the originality but the magic was eaten up by the details.
The story is set in the late 18TH century in Japan. Japan is a closed country. No one is allowed to travel outside its boundaries and only the Dutch are allowed to trade from Dejima. They are kept enclosed and not allowed to converse with the inhabitants other than those officially helping them. In such an environment arrives Jacob, a zealous and conscientious clerk. In Dejima he sees Miss Aibagawa, the only Japanese lady allowed in Dejima to learn from the knowledgeable Dr. Marinus and falls headlong into love. The love is almost unsaid, the barriers are too high and Jacob's wooing words constrained due to spying ears. But the story is not only about love, it is about that part of the world in the 18th century. David Mitchell tries to tell every detail in that environment and that I think fails the story. I am not much for reading details and end up jumping paragraphs to find the story. There are a few twists in the tale that make it more interesting, but due to the details, the pace of the story gets amply reduced. it echoes the traditional dance movements of a soft swaying Japanese dance with exotic costumes and heavily made up faces- interesting to watch but a little too exotic.

Leap forward

It’s a big leap forward
And its waiting to be leapt
Take the plunge
And you will pass the test

Nothing ventured nothing gained
Life is exciting in such a plane
Renew, rejuvenate,
be alive to the moment for its never too late
to come to yourself!

Needless Need

They didn't do enough
They didn't care
My heart was left bare
'Coz they weren't there

Your needy soul
Cries out in despair
But did you ever think
Of matters beyond your needy kink

Their heart was right
Their love was there
But you loved crying in despair

The sun never parted
The weeded overgrowth of your heart
A well trimmed path
Was never your destined path.

Messy, overgrown, strangling, strangled
Was how your life bled
Sundered in your needless need
Your desires and your creed.

The first book that made me cry....

I was 8 or 9 and was reading my way through one of my grandfather's old, dusty and musty Condensed Reader's Digest Stories. Till date i love those old musty books, smelling of moth balls and dust rather than books that smell new and untouched by human dust or hands. But I digress, so there I lay and read 'Old Yeller'. For those not familiar with it- it's set in the wild west and is the story of a boy and a dog called Yeller for his tawny fur. It is a story about friendship, heartbreak and love. The story builds up to a highly emotional scene where the boy has to shoot Yeller for he became rabid fighting off a rabid wolf to save the boy. The lines that never seem to go from my memory were 'he came wagging his tail towards me.....(after killing the wolf)'.......and then the boy had to shoot him while Yeller looked trustingly at him. SOB!


I can still see the illustrations of the story on the musty pages in my mind. It was a story that has lasted for years in my memory and recently when I looked it up on the Wikipedia it was listed as a Children's story......it was not childish at all and the feelings it brought up in me were too terrible to have as a child, or maybe childhood means visiting sad emotions with an innocence that will forever brand them in your memory. It taught me the meaning of carrying a burden for I was and am sure that the boy will never forgive himself for killing his friend to save his family. The price on either side too hard to pay.

after a long time

Lets get started
writing verse
pruning fiction
making words not friction

it has been long
but now is the time
to make words belong

what did i do..
I discovered Auden
lost my way through libraries
found my way back to a wordy den
a path unwittingly construed
and wittingly shed
disillusioned ideas and myopic views