Z for Zebra Crossings

Z for ...

Zebra Crossings

The vehicle of a person's life,

Runs carelessly on highway of fun,

Till the worldly zebra crossings,

Force it push hard on brakes.

The zebra crossing of high school,

Then of job, followed by marriage,

Well that has a huge signal also,

Then of kids and finally of age.

Y for Yardstick

Y for ...

Yardstick

What I find acceptable
You may find that wrong,
Your one perfect circle,
Might look to me oblong.

People are many,
Thoughts don't mingle,
Why is it, even then many,
Measure all by yardstick single?

A to Z April

A to Z April

I was a first timer on this incredibly challenging, fun and learning challenge. Throughout April, I kept on thinking about the topic and the post and as soon as a picture was framed in my mind, I felt extremely kicked and could not wait to write it down. Keeping the theme for the challenge in sync with my blog theme, that is, Everyday Inspirations and deciding to write in verse, yes, I do think those lines were more verse, less prose :-) proved much more difficult than I could fathom initially. A lot of times, I did feel like quitting. Then what kept me going?

• Heart-felt comments by fellow bloggers. Thank you for stopping by and leaving behind your treasured footprints :-)
• Amazing posts that I got to read. It was a wonderful and delightful experience to see the creativity and imbibe the lovely thoughts coming from many a beautiful minds :-)
• The incredible efforts being put in by the organizers in running this challenge.

Confessions

• I was lagging many times by a day or so and was horrible during the last week. And my consolation to myself was, if posts can be written in advance and scheduled, then they can be composed a little later also, that's cheating I know, but that's how I thought.
• I could not visit enough blogs throughtout the challenge and plan to compensate during this month. Thanks to organizers for keeping the linky list active for a longer time.
• I surprised myself as I had never ever imagined that I would be able to churn out 26 poems in such a short timeframe and that too in English as I feel more comfortable writing poems in Hindi.
• At the moment I am not sure if I would be participating next year because I would neither want to lag or leave midway nor would I be able to write in advance and wait to post as I am too impatient for that.

Parting Thoughts

I am glad I signed up, participating in this challenge has been a very fulfilling experience for me. A big thank you to each and every one associated with the challenge.

X for X-Factor

X for ...



Image created by David Castillo Dominici
Image taken from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/



X-Factor

Tears were flowing, emotions choked,

At the funeral service of the young man.

For the young bride, all seemed concerned,

Till someone observed, 'What a fate for the beauty'.

'Such tragedies should not touch beautiful people',

All agreed at once in a collective sigh as if

The 'un-beautiful' are born to suffer without sympathy

And the X-Factor of beauty is a ticket to life of privilege.



W for White and Black

W for ...

Images Source : Wikipedia

Colors, Black And White


Colors make a rainbow,
A beautiful sight
Colors make a peacock,
A bird of delight.

Squares black and white,
Give chessboard power role.
Keys black and white,
Are guide to piano's soul.

Colors are to impart,
A visual appeal,
White and black give,
The creative feel.

V for Vines and Tree

V for ...

Image Source
http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/Portals/0/Gardening/Gardening%20Help/images/Pests/Poison_Ivy631.jpg

Vines and Tree

Once upon a time there was a tree,

Quite happy, healthy, standing free.

Then sprouted a vine to embrace it,

They looked good together by every bit.

With time the embrace grew tighter,

The tree looked like a captured fighter.

As more vines grew, the tree grew old,

Sapped of juice, robbed of life, untold.

Yet the world adored flowers and scent,

Of the vines climbing, smiling without repent.

Why not, when the tree is the mother,

Vines are family, society, who don't bother.

U for Umbrella

U for ...

Image Source Wikipedia

Umbrella

The umbrella shielded him from the sun,

But of what use was it in winter chills,none.

Though for him, it took beatings from the lashing rain,

Yet to carry it all along was a little pain.

She cared for him, cooked him nice food,

If she asked questions, he did'nt find it good.

Though she gave up her life for his sake,

Her advices, he found, not so easy to take.

One day he lost umbrella and she was gone too.
Scale of loss was felt deeply in an instant or two,

On exposure to this evil world and wicked weather.

Umbrella could be bought again, what about the mother?

T for Train Journey

T for ...

Train Journey

Anxious about her fate and choice,
With teary eyes and a broken voice,
With lots of wishes and some money,
She started on the long train journey.

Travelling through the racing backdrops,
Of fields, forests, towns, rivers, hilltops,
Like the scenes outside, her feelings inside,
Kept ebbing, surging as her tears dried.

With clear eyes she saw her co-travelers,
Who looked good, not bad bad anglers, 
Some of whom in the same state of mind,
And they all smiled, leaving tears behind.

And so started the real train journey,
With eager strangers for company,
Sharing juicy nuggets of their lives,
Like jokes from treasured archives.

There were people she met daily,
What she knew of them was scaly,
Hard to see through and external,
As if a facade, impermeable, formal.

In the train it was different to say,
Sharing space for an entire day,
To see them talk, sleep, eat, emote
So close by was hard not to note.

So she knew the travelers better,
Parting advices failed to hold her,
As she bonded with those people,
She sensed new excitements ripple.

Like the fast train that had her shifted,
Far and wide her thoughts had drifted,
De-boarding was not end of a journey,
But an FB status update, a new journey.

S for Silence

S for ...

Silence

Silence the most powerful expression,

It shows both approval and objection,

It may mean admiration or admonition,

It stands for consensus and dissension.

It cares, it hurts, it may even frustrate,

Into victory or loss, it may translate,

It may kill an argument or fuel a debate,

It may pump up ego or make it evaporate.

It is gust that blows away emotional pages

It is understood by cultures and languages,

Across nations by people of various ages,

Even before they learn to use their verbiages.

Speech is the gift, that makes us unique,

To chose not to use it is a power technique

On fabric of speech, silence is an applique,

Adorned beautifully to add to its mystique.

 

R for Roomie

R for ...

Photo Source Wikipedia

Roomie

Twelfth birthday came knocking at my door,
Brought me the teen years and a lot lot more,
In the form of my first real friend, a dear friend,
Who took me out of the simple land of books,
And made me worldly wise to traverse the maze,
Built of confusions and temptations of teenage.

I was a river tumbling down through the hills,
In the mood of destruction, always in spate,
You were the dam who held me down,
Changed my course and tapped my potential,
To nurture my thoughts with the restrained waters,
And brighten my soul with the generated power.

You were my audience, you were the critic,
Who complimented sincerely and censured honestly,
You were my microscope, you were the telescope,
To show me the perspectives beyond my limited sight,
You were my lighthouse, you were the ship,
To take me safely on the voyage of exciting discoveries.

Thanks to your tastes, I learnt to enjoy little luxuries,
Of music, poems, flowers, rains, swings, crushes, beaches,
Your conviction gave strong wings to my lofty dreams,
And when I woke up, two years were gone, we had to part,
But by then you, who showed me how a friend should be,
Were my roomie, sharing space forever in the room of my heart.

Q for Queues, Unusual Queue

Q for ...

Photo taken from Wikipedia and slightly altered.
The licensing terms remains same as for the original image on Wikipedia.

Queues, Unusual Queues

It takes people longer to shop,

Bill counter is the one last stop,

How can a queue form over there,

As customer why wait to pay,

Bet the system is wrong there.

We queue up to cast our vote,

To make the leader of a sugarcoat,

Why can't we just sit back at home,

And send the vote on mobile phone,

It's 'who cares for public' syndrome.

P for Pink Pastries

P for ...

Image taken from Wikipedia and altered

Pink Pastries

The trays filled with pink pastries,

And many more tempting savories,

Locked inside the lovely glass case,

Brought smile and tears to her face.

'How can I get the pink pastries

At least, if not other savories',

She was thinking day and night,

Yet a plan remained out of sight.

A treat not even seen as leftover,

Always made her heart sink lower,

Yet her craving was never killed,

  It only left her upset and thrilled.

Thus she grew up in want and dreams,

Held together by painful seams,

Where pink pastries became a symbol,

Of all that made her feel terrible.

O for Optical Illusion

O for ...

Image Source Wikipedia

Optical Illusion

On bended knee I proposed to her,
She smiled, then burst into laughter,
The jaundiced eye of my tired brain,
Took that for an approval in vain.

Someone cleared my optical illusion,
That laugh meant mockery, not affusion
Of a new relationship as I had seen it.

To avoid illusions, optical, audio, I admit,
Going fancy, proposing with a ring,
As they do in the films, is the best thing.

N for Namesake

N for ...
 












Namesake

Why was I named after a person famed,
For lacking virtues, why am I blamed?

I am tired of the constant comparison,
Bored of recognition without a reason,
Please look at me, not at my name,
Which has glam, but all the same,
I want a simple, subdued life,
Happy, free from unwanted strife,
Coming from constant public glare,
Forcing spectator to turn a player.

I didn't chose this name for me,
Please let me what I want to be.

M for Music, Melody, Magic

M for ...

Music, Melody, Magic

Sitting in a lazy corner, wishing to chat with special someone

Rings the doorbell or the phone, the caller is that same person,

The bell now sounds like music, soothing music for the soul kind,

Astonished you exclaim, 'Telepathy works, you read my mind!'

Well that's music, that's magic, music in eyes, magic in voice.

Discussing a controversy, raking brains for a catchy phrase,

To best express a golden opinion, to outwit others in the chase,

Two friends end up saying same things at the same time to strike

Chords of melody and merrily proclaim, 'Great minds think alike!'

Well that's melody, that's magic, melody in thoughts, magic in voice. 

L for The Last Leaf

This is my most humble attempt at putting the gist of O.Henry's masterpiece 'The Last Leaf' in verse. My sincere apologies to all those who might feel offended at my attempts to kill the soul of a brilliant piece of work, my skills are really limited.

L for ...


The Last Leaf



The Last Leaf

Once upon a time, inside a squatty studio,
Situated in the maze of Greenwich village,
With a death-white face, ready to bid adieu,
Johnsy laid counting, the ivy vine foliage.

Terrified with the doc's observations,
Panicky with Johnsy's last leaf fancy,
To Behrman, Sue disclosed her emotions,
To him going with the leaves looked infancy.

The rains beat the vine hard in the gushing wind,
Yet the stubborn leaf refused to fall,
And forced Johnsy's views to rescind,
To set her on a path of recovery, clearing pall.

Behrman was gone around the same time,
But the masterpiece he used to always tell,
Was left behind in all its glory, on the ivy vine,
Painted by him the night, the last leaf fell.

(Epilogue)
A masterpiece not valuable enough,
To be auctioned decades later as a lifeless art,
But one of its own kind of priceless stuff,
Blessed by Him for saving a dying heart.

K for K

K for...

Wield power remaining mute 

K

K is a unique character,

How to wield power, how to contribute,

Without being vocal and remaining mute,
We can learn through this letter.

(Without K )
A strong knot that tames elephants becomes a not,

A knight in shining armour is reduced to a night dark,

Knowledge loses its existence, knife loses its spark,

Yet have we heard of the K in them, no we have not!

J for Jingle to Song

J for...

Jingle to Song

My life was just another jingle, 

Scattered sounds lacking melody,

Living for a dumb purpose single,

To sell junk to any and everybody.

It was sans an individual existence,

Much like an hyperbole' assortment,

Which looked catchy but needed reference,

When she entered without announcement.

Lyrics changed, expressions improved,

To become, by adjusting notes all along,

A beautiful musical piece that all approved,

So she upgraded me from a jingle to song.

I for Ink, The Elixir for Thoughts

I for ...

She stepped back

Ink, The Elixir for Thoughts

After painting the hall walls in white and blue,

As she stepped back lovingly admiring her work,

Jumped off the ladder platform, the can of blue,

Splatter buried the wall pattern in a single jerk,

Instead of tears, started flowing old memories,

Memories of the early days of writing stories.

That one story seemed very close to her heart,

Characters seemed better than Agatha Christie,

The scene description looked like a canvas art,

More than Sherlock Holmes, her plot was twisty,

Conceited as she touched the papers on her table,

The ink bottle fell and made the letters invisible.

Oh how bad it hurt, the elixir to etch words forever,

Had erased those very words forever in one swipe,

She rushed to engrave them all over again on paper,

Her senses seemed sharpened by that ruthless snipe,

The words sounded forced, characters appeared lame,

The poor plot, instead of conceit, now evoked shame.

Wiser by the enlightenment, she had felt huge relief,

The trash got trampled before the world could see,

That's how begun her tryst with the ink and the grief

That was really brief, made her as strong as she could be,

To hone work till perfection, her lips made a smile small,

As she could now see the better fate awaiting her hall :)

H for Happy

H for...

Happy

Happy joined a new school after the fateful afternoon,
And became the favorite student of her teachers soon.

Her classmates wondered at her manners, true to her name Happy,
With an innocent deftness, she sidestepped their comments snappy.

Her genuine grace and contented smile were objects of envy,
All were eager to find where she lived, the place must be twee.

One afternoon they furtively followed her to where she went,
She entered an orphanage and they hid behind a signboard bent.

They peeped into the courtyard to find her surrounded by kids,
She was helping them with their studies, oh what noble deeds!

Then she played with the kids there and they waited curiously
For her to finish, when the matron found them hiding suspiciously.

'We following the wonder girl, but only to find where she lives, her grand mansion',
Said she, 'This has been her home since she lost her parents to the bomb explosion!'

More blasts followed, this time inside the callous skulls of her till now envious classmates,
In that sudden glare they saw, hitherto concealed behind the smiles and uniforms, fate's dictates.