Nearing Journey’s End

‘…your hair was bound and wound

About the stars and moon and sun:’—W.B. Yeats

Many a miles we traveled together

Sunshine and starry nights as guide

Dark clouds and moonless nights

We stumbled but always had each other

Words superfluous, we were bound by love

Words not spoken we could clearly hear

Now at journey’s end, we have no fear

Even with eyes closed, faith will guide us there

Even if we can not hear each other

Looking into each other’s eyes, we can decipher

When our sights will fail us, gentle touch will suffice

Even if unforseen calamities do happen

Pathway to our hearts will remain open

And when all our senses fail, my dear

We will know time to say goodbye is near

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This poem is in response to Jane Dougherty’s A Month (November) with Yeats Challenge day Twenty Three

Life a Fellow Traveler

God, in his wisdom, does not tell us when our journey will end. Otherwise there will be no charm in living. Uncertainties are the sparks of life.

Life took my hand
At journey’s start
Many a roads we
Traveled together
Climbed many mountains
Traversed the deepest valleys
Ebbs and flows
Low and high tides
She stayed by my side
From time to time
I did ask
When is journey’s end
She kept on moving
Still holding my hand
Fellow travelers
Joined together by
Inseparable bond
Keep moving
Moving forward together
Journey’s end, unknown
Destination does not matter
When the time comes
Will still be together
Journey new, uncharted

Wrap-Up

Wrap-up my journey today
Really thrilling while it lasted
Alternating euphoria and depression
Prodding me to continue on
Under self imposed deadline
Posting a poem before midnight every Wednesday

Web of stories with warm and warmth
Why worry when it’s always we, not I
Wish I could fulfil all want and need
Wonder sometimes the wisdom of continuing
Weekend warriors or wimp
Wounded hearts bleeding for women’s rights
Wildfires destroying weeds and wildflowers alike
Wedding bliss marred by bulging waistlines
Within us all is an insatiable wanderlust
Wait and waiting for wind of change in this world
Wheel of fortune never translates to winning
Walk in the woods thinking of what’s wrong
Weary wife keeping wake for family well-being and welfare
Writing in the wall of perils of climate change ignored
What do we know about
Wrong or right, wise or fool
Welcome to a world where fake news make us drool
Woven fabric of humanity stretched thin
Winter of the human race may be beckoning
Warning me that it is wrap-up time for
Wonderful fifty two weeks journey to come to an end

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Write Anything Wednesday

My Little Angel Got Her Wings Today

Dropped off my youngest one in college today and drove back to an empty house.

Eons ago,  no

Barely seems to be

A fleeting moment

In time, when

One evening not so long ago

Sweetest little angel

Visited my home

Her wings clipped

But her beautiful smile

Would make me fly

Tried my best

To nurture

A journey

Not always easy

Ups and downs

Smiles and heartbreaks

But never a

Dull moment

She got her wings

Today

Ready to fly

Wish her to

Fly so high

Free

With eyes focussed

On her goals

Even the mighty eagle

Needs a branch from time to time

To come down and rest

When my sweet little angel

Tired and wants to rest

These old shoulders

Will be waiting

These old hands

Still strong to embrace

To give her a

Well deserved rest and a pat on the back

Weakened Warrior: Week 15 of My Fifty Two Weeks Journey with “W”

This was written yesterday night but did not get posted.

It is getting harder to keep up with my weekly post for Write Anything Wednesday.  How do you create anything when the brain is tired and body just wants to shut down after a long day. Wish the event could have been Scribble Anything Saturday. But on second thought, that would have created a war with my better half.  Weekends do not belong to me, weekdays belong to work.  So what does belong to me?  I do not have a viable answer to that.   Last week I was thinking of becoming a weekend warrior. More and more, it seems to me that I am becoming a weakened warrior. Resolve is faltering, commitment to writing is slipping. Barely do I have enough time to read all the wonderful blogs.  My better half has a foolproof remedy. Start exercising one hour in the morning  to strengthen myself.  What for? I am not joining the army to fight a war. All I am trying to do is win the battle against falling asleep so that I can finish writing my blog.  If I had one hour to spare in the morning, won’t I have slept one more hour to recuperate my strength? But I will have to show respect to the commanding officer, so I concur wholeheartedly and try to stay alive to fight my battle another day.

Another day, another time. Something happened during the day today that really affected me badly. However I do believe that everything happens for a reason. We may not see the connection when it happens, but long afterwards we can connect the dots. So I am sure that whatever happened today must have happened for a reason that would be clear to me in due time.  Only if I can stay hale and hearty till that time instead of my current state of a weakened warrior.

It is well past bed time and if I stay awake any more, tomorrow at work not only I be a weakened warrior, I will be a sleepy, weakened warrior. So no more thinking about a word starting with “W” for Week 15 of my fifty two weeks journey with “W”.  Both the words, weakened and warrior, start with “W”.  Who wants to read a poem about weakened warrior? so weakened is out the window, warrior it is.  I have more than twenty four hours to finish the poem, should be enough time even for this weakened warrior. Now only if Kristi(Writerish Rambling) does not forget, like last week, to send her Write Anything Wednesday post in time.

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This post is in response to WRITE ANYTHING WEDNESDAY – MAY 11TH, 2016, Daily Post Community Event, organized by  Writerish Ramblings

 

Week 11 of My Fifty Two Weeks Journey with “W”

With the recent rains we had here in NorCal, spring has presented itself in all nature’s glory. Yesterday, I along with a few of my friends, hiked around nine miles from my house along Los Alamitos Creek Trail to Almaden Lake.  Everywhere one can see, it was green all around punctuated by vibrant and colorful wildflowers and spring blooms. At some parts of the trail, one would not have been wrong to assume that this might be a part of a rain forest except the weather was cool ( a balmy 60F) and not sweaty at all. I was going to post a blog in continuation of my earlier posts of Spring is in the air and Spring is in the air II when I realized that today is Write Anything Wednesday.  So this post is my endeavour to kill two birds with one stone.  I could have written a post titled Spring in the air III and then another post for Write Anything Wednesday.  That nine mile hike must have tested my old bones. The spirit is willing but the body is not cooperating at all. The result obviously is one of the many shortcuts that I had taken in my life. End result of not a single one of those shortcuts had been rewarding.  I shall definitely understand the unsympathetic reactions from my valued readers to this post.

The top two right hand corner photos are from my front yard. As I started the hike from my house, I thought it would be appropriate to include these two.  We have two flowering cherry trees in front of the house. The trees bloom with pink flowers in the spring.  Within couple of weeks after the flowers bloom, the trees suddenly become dark green with new leaves. Unfortunately day before yesterday it was raining on and off with some wind. When I was about to start my hike, I realized that the wind and rain had made a flowery pink offering to mother earth at night (that can be seen in the second photo from top right) and we won’t have the blossoms much longer.

While I was randomly babbling, I realized that I have not chosen a word starting with the letter “W” for my poem for Week 11 of my fifty two weeks journey with “W”. Wednesday is sixty percent over and I do not have much time to think and then write a poem  with it.  As I look back at our hike yesterday, I realized that though I was mesmerized by the wild flowers, I was more impressed by the weeds all around. Just a few months back the color of the landscape was brown and in a month or so it will go back to golden brown again. However the weeds, without any help from us, come back year after year, robust and vibrant with multicolored flowers. I know that if I propose to replace whatever is left of our garden, after five years of drought and water rationing, with a weed garden, I am going to get an earful. Just imagine, with a little bit of TLC and without much water we can have a beautiful weed garden.  So “Weed” it is, just not the smoking kind. Now off to think and find some idea about what to write about weeds.  First thing first, need some food for the growling belly before my food for thought.

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This post is in response to Write Anything Wednesday 4-13-2016 , Daily Post Community Event, organized by  Writerish Ramblings

Featured image photos by author.

Week 9 of My Fifty Two Weeks Journey with “W”

With today’s post I will be completing two months of my yearlong, twelve month, journey. That’s completion of one sixth of my journey, sixteen point six percent or rounded off to seventeen percent. Definitely sounds better than nine out of fifty-two or forty-three weeks more to go. I think that’s what statisticians do, fudge the numbers to make it sound better to get their points across. That’s the same tactics politician adopt, look at the same data set and proclaim that the economy is improving or unemployment is decreasing and the opposition proclaiming that economy is tanking and we are worse off than when they were in power. I am digressing here. Did not want to talk about numbers and statistics but about an inspiring news item I read today.  Yes Virginia, sometimes dog bites man is also news.

I was reading my morning news today, of course in internet, when a headline caught my eyes : ” 5 PhD thesis on this class III – dropout poet”. Poetry being my passion, I was naturally intrigued to read the story beyond this headline and will like to share with you the story of Haldhar Nag.  Mr Nag , born in Indian state of Odisha, had to leave school at a very young age of ten years when his father passed away.  Though he lacked formal education, he did not leave behind learning. Starting his working career as a dishwasher at age ten, he wrote his first poem at age forty and had not looked back since. He was awarded the Padma Shri, one of the highest civilian awards in India, by the President of India on Monday. His literary work will be a part of the curriculum of Sambalpur University in Odisha.  Inspiring story indeed.

When I was reading the story of Mr. Nag, I started thinking about the word for week nine of my journey with the letter “W”. For today, I can not think of any other inspiring word than “Wisdom”.  Does it come with age, experience, learning, bookish knowledge or formal education? Or life itself is the best teacher if we are willing to listen and learn? I don’t have any answer yet nor do I proclaim to have an answer by the time I pen my poem starting with “wisdom”, but I sure do promise to explore.

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This post is in response to  Write Anything Wednesday 3-30-2016, Daily Post Community Event, organized by  Writerish Ramblings

 

Week 7 of My Fifty Two Weeks Journey with “W”

Write Anything Wednesday-March 16

I am two days behind schedule for this post but I am a strong believer in “better late than never”.  After a brief trip back to my country of birth, start to finish seventeen days of which I spent one full day  in transit waiting for my next flights and two full days of flying back and forth, I am finally back home. Of the twenty four hours of wait, I spent fifteen hours in two different airports during my return trip. Contrasts between those two airports are extremely telling with regards to the impact of oil wealth on the development in the middle east.

Now back to the question of what word to chose for week seven of my journey with the letter “W”. I had mentioned in a comment to my fellow blogger sparshsehgal (The World Beyond Sight), who is a wonderful poet, that I do not think beforehand what word to chose for my weekly journey, I just go on doing my normal thing and the word falls into place. This week I was so tired from my journey that my brain had a total shut down and refused to think.  So I was not even sure if I would be able to complete what i had started six weeks back.  Sparsh came to my rescue when he commented back that persistence is what counts.  I dragged my tired body that complained loudly and was reluctant to leave the comfort of a warm bed after a long and tedious forty four hour journey , door to door.  As I was writing this post, my mind was going back home and the wedding of my nephew that I attended. Voila! “wedding” starts with letter “W”, if I can write a poem starting with wedding and about wedding.

P.S.  Please visit Sparsh (The World Beyond Sight), not because he nominated me for a award that I have not seen yet nor for his help in getting me out of bed but because he is a wonderful poet.

Journey

Where it had begun
I left my heart
Where it will end

Unknown

What to expect

In my path

Unsure

Changing landscapes

Take me back

To another journey

I took eons ego

To an unknown land
Heart heavy with pain

Leaving everything behind

That I knew

Expectations beckoning

To start anew

Long past that journey
Made my home
In that distant land
Does it matter

What lies ahead

At the end of

The unknown path

Come what may
Enjoy the ride
Embrace the unknown
At journey’s end
Make the destination
Your own.