Monday, June 21, 2010

Rain Poem

It rained yesterday,
After an unending wait
Of summers
Stretched so long.

And I sat
By the window,
To sketch
Each falling drop
The way the earth smiled
Teased by the rains.

Lines that I could read
In the long summer nights
When we sat by our windows
And prayed for rains again.

This evening,
I read the Rain poem,
But the words had been
Washed away,
The lines had turned
Brown again.

There is no poetry in rain,
These days.
 

Poems are not written...
On little green twigs
That grow in my garden and die
So soon.
About naked children
Running in streets
With joy
Soon to be lost.
Or about maple leaves floating
In pools of muddy water
On broken roads.

There is a woman
On the roadside.
Her skin, brown,
And hair,streaked with dust;
Her eyes are deep
Pits of emptiness.
Her lips are dry
Parched with thirst.

Her husband doesn't speak
These days.
He did smile when it had rained
For a moment,
And then cried
For some nights,
Turned quiet forever.

She sighs and looks
Towards the empty paddy fields.
The roof of her home
Leaks in the rains.
But she cares not.
If only the paddy grows
This year.
Or else?

There is no poetry in rain,
These days.
The woman told me,
"The rains were too little".
It will rain again
I smiled...
"Too late, may be!"
She sighed.

Poems are not written
Sitting by the window
Every time rain tickles
The sad face of earth.

Poems now lies silent,
And brown
Like the earth
After the rain has flirted
And gone back.

When the children
Try  to sleep,
Hungry.
And their eyes are wet
And shallow
Faces brown
Like pools of muddy water
On broken roads.

Poetry tosses and turns
In bed at nights.
It's verses
Are wet with sweat
Mixed with blood.
And lips are sealed
Forever.

(c) Ankur Srivastava

7 comments:

Unknown said...

its awesome yaar...keep it up

kirti.. said...

stunning...
agreed.. there's no poetry in rains these days..

but your poem had a silken flow.. smooth as it cud be.. gently caressing the thoughts.. instilling a touch of sadness..but a 'sweet sadness'

and yes..

this piece of yours has amazing imagery!!

Sneha Shrivastava said...

very well written.:)

Ankur said...

Thank you Akanksha, Kirti and Sneha... thank u so much

Purvi said...

Absolutely beautiful! Very my kind of poem!

Deboshree said...

This is so unfair. I simply can NOT move away from your blog.

This one is my newest favourite. Indeed, how often do we ignore the reality of things. We live on confidently in our fool's paradise whose walls and roof are as leaky as the poor woman's abode. And our lips too are sealed to several home truths.

Saying I loved your poem would be a major understatement.

Ankur said...

@ Deboshree..
Such wonderful compliments :))
I will write some more soon now