Penitential Sky.

Twenty Word Tuesday by Bulbul

Colours.

The sky is dressed in penitential colours as an atonement in advance for the havoc it is about to wreck.

Leena.

Flower Child

I loved a girl.
She wore sunlight on her hair,
wove peace lilies on her dress,
promises in her pocket,
of love, hope and endless summers.
She sang too long
and hoped too much.
Now she loves the moon.
My flower child
My fabulist.

Goddess We Worship

Pic credit: Deviantart.com

With my nose pressed against
the frosted glass of the window,
I see the Goddess
in her shrine
hear chants of worship
in some obsolete language.

With a cold tap on my shoulder
she invites me in.
Then I see her
skin chipped,
black eyed, nose squashed
mutilated,
corroded and
rained on.

Why Is She a Xanthippe?

Women become xanthippes. Why?

Imagine this.

I asked him, ” Did you get the milk and bread?”
He said ” Understanding the question is half the answer”
I said, “I will then serve philosophy as breakfast”
He called me ‘xanthippe’
That’s how the fight started.

I say, behind every Xanthippe, there is a man who always forgets what she asked him to do.

Forgive Without Conditions.

Twenty Word Tuesday by Bulbul

Hope

If you choose to forgive me,

do it somehow,

without conditions.

Don’t give hope today
and take it away tomorrow.

Leena

World Poetry Day

Yesterday was World Poetry Day. I woke up to a tag on Twitter by a generous soul, who added me as one of his favourite poets.

Though I don’t post what he called as poems, on WordPress, I do engage in plenty of short write prompts on Twitter.

I would say that words and I are old lovers, while I have spent my half-life with Chemistry. Now I have both.

It is not easy. And I am still learning to write. Some days, words just flow easily. And other days I have to sit tapping my pen.

And I do love the struggle. Filling blank pages with verses. Then striking and rephrasing, till you get it right.. somewhat right.

This one is for the verses I am yet to write.

A million poems
sleep in my heart,
like fireflies in winter,
waiting
for a warm summer night.

English jagran.com

Book Review- 4 Pillars of Abundant Life by Ashok Wahi

Every tomorrow will come as today

Ashok Wahi

If I hadn’t  known Ashok Wahi, from WordPress, I would have missed reading ‘ 4  Pillars of Abundant Life’, at least for a long time, till I would happen to come across a review written by someone somewhere.

The reason being, I have read many Self help books that reveal the secrets of happiness and success. The secrets were always the same, but dressed up in different attires, depending on the author’s artistry with words.

Most of the time, I felt that they were giving advices from lives they never lived, even when they were narrating stories.

This is what places ‘4 Pillars of Abundant Life’ in a different space. As you turn the pages, you will feel all that Ashokji  experienced so as to finally derive at the profound wisdom, that he is sharing with the readers.

I can no more address him as Ashok, though he is a dear friend,  unseen, and a benign presence in wordpress space, who has been constantly encouraging new writers with his reflections. It would be disrespectful, now that I have met the sagely version of him who shared this deep wisdom with me as a reader.

I believed that I was privy to almost every secret of happiness and success. But obviously there are more.

I did not know why my personal life and the life of my family had been suddenly moving towards the lane of happiness and success than ever before, in the past year, when most of the world was suffering with the pandemic and loss of job.

I did too. I had been teaching for 21 years and I loved what I was doing. I was contented with the lives I was transforming, both of students and my team of teachers.  Several reasons compounded my unavoidable exit from a role that I loved playing.

Then I started writing and I felt happier. It was unbelievable. How can I be happier by not doing something that made me happy for the past 21 years?

The happier I became, the more grateful I felt and success started finding its way into my family. 

Now with the insight I gained from this book, I know that the selective environment of the corporate that I was working with, was toxic and had been stealing my happiness even though my ever positive mind led me into believing that I was happy.

A grateful person is always happy, and a happy person is always successful

Ashok Wahi

All along the way, you will find Ashokji’s wisdom pinned for you on little grey boards.

I already have highlighted a bunch of my favourite quotes from the book.

What you leave behind was never yours. What you spent, you had, and what you gave away goes with you.

Ashok Wahi

Once we understand enough is enough, we realize that we have more than enough. That is abundance

Ashok Wahi

Ashokji does not stretch what he wants to say beyond enough. You can read it at one go. But I suggest you do as I did. Circle around one pillar a day. Pause to ponder over the insight that is used in their magnificent architecture. Read each inscription carefully and commit them to your memory, so that you can summon them to be beacons to guide your soul when in doubt.

If you have spent World Happiness day, not so happily, you should read this book.

Forever Autumn

Love
was trapped between
the kerfs
of what we said
and we meant.
Out of reach
yet visible.

We tried
to retrieve,
nevertheless,
what were kerfs
becoming abysses.

Then,
we let love go
and sighed
‘Now for us
it is forever autumn’

In Flight

Cee’s Black and White Challenge

Anything in Flight

I got a few in flight clicks of the painted stork, that visits us during spring. It was a clear sky with no clouds in sight.

Cormorants in formation

I included the weaver bird, as it is not perched but is busy building nest with its partner staying upside-down.

Egrets

The Hidden Armour

Twenty Word Tuesday by Bulbul

Week 29- Bride

All they could see was her bridal finery, not the armour of faith that she had accoutered her soul with.

Leena