POEM: Paradise Unknown

In a meadow, amid a dark forest
grows a grass so green it glows.
Never sets foot a pilgrim or tourist.
Where it lies, only an old local knows.

Plus, the grazing creatures of the forest
who wander that way when dining time comes.
It sings but silence — no insect chorus.
No sound is heard, save one’s own thin heart thrum.

Burdened is the keeper of that meadow,
with a secret for which some would murder.
But paradise is too frail to be known
to the heartless hand of human herders.

Paradise trampled is paradise lost.
So, the keeper keeps his secret at all costs.

Tree Haiku

two live oaks
stretch toward each other —
a faux hug


eucalyptus,
silver trunks glow warm
in setting sunlight


one tree field,
its canopy echoes
floating clouds


a faint smell —
the secret message of an
arboreal cabal


in tree time,
the world must unfold in
seasons — not days

DAILY PHOTO: Jama Masjid, Delhi

Taken in October of 2013 in Delhi

POEM: Baudrillard’s World

What’s it take to turn a symbol into something which is something [rather than symbolic of something?]

Treasuries turn high-rag paper and indelible ink into slips for which people will give one a shirt or a bicycle.

-Paper and pot metal as symbol of value

Admen turn color and font into a dollar more per kilo of a chemically-identical product. [The dollar can be used for someone’s ill-advised gas station hot dog.]

-Brand as symbol of value

Countries are defended by the potential to use weapons — not by their actual use.

-WMD as symbol of defense

Social media presents a lot of talking and the illusion of listening.

-Screaming into a dark forest as symbol of communication

Stories and verse get turned into potent chemical reactions in the body.

-Vicarious living as symbol of living

The letters of this post are symbolic of philosophy, which — in turn — is symbolic of something meaningful, which — in turn –… which — in turn –… which — in turn–…

POEM: Fantastical Forest

Rounding a mountain forest trail
from lee to the wet side,
I walk amid mossy branches
draped thick enough to hide
an ogre, troll, or a dark elf —
let ‘lone the old oak’s eyes.

So many hidden paths diverge,
and me without a guide.

DAILY PHOTO: Ridges, Himachal Pradesh

Taken in June of 2015 in the Great Himalayan National Park

POEM: Locusts Gone Biblical

Photo Source: Jonathan Hornung (via Wikipedia)

Locusts, you were supposed to come
after the hail-fire storm.
The winged-buses got ambitious
in their desire to swarm.

 

Of course, pestilence of livestock
queue-jumped the frogs and gnats,
but that’s just ’cause a few people
think livestock includes bats.

 

Maybe it’s too late for this chain
of disasters to work.
Perhaps, we should call them all off…
[cue “Three Days in the Dark”]

DAILY PHOTO: Two Views from Inside Kalyana Mahal

Taken in October of 2019 at Gingee Fort

DAILY PHOTO: Backwater Birds

Taken in July of 2017 in the Backwaters of Kerala.

POEM: Hypnagogia

I lie falling asleep —
purple Rorschach blobs
forming,
transforming,
& unforming
on the black field of my inner eyelids.

The veneer of reality felt thinner,
but my efforts to poke a finger through
shoved me back into the warm, soft reality of my bed.

[I’d so wanted to “Here’s Johnny!” my way into
an alternate dimension.]

And, once more, I’m a prisoner to reflexes
that snatch away subtle worlds.