Post period neglects

Gods made of granite, are unearthed.

Some are broken and some damaged.

The sculptors wouldn’t have expected

That their sculptures would be treated

In a cavalier manner later.

I make arts to be left behind.

06.10.2015

Shame is a propeller.

Fail marks in English in curriculum

Earned me shame to handle English later.

I’m now a popular poet in English,

Thanks to my shame that drove me up in it.

05.10.2015.

All is well.

All is well that begins well.

All is well that ends well.

All is well that runs well

In the mid at least.

The rest are deadly unwell.

05.10.2015

Kings are culprits.

A war is between two countries.

The fight is between two armies.

Enmity is between two kings.

No enmity between two armies.

Soldiers are in fight and to death.

Kings are safe, culprits though.

05.10.2015

Gratitude and affection

Gratitude is shown to parents;

Affection is shown to children.

Gratitude outweighs affection

In that it functions without sway.

02.10.2015

To power up the brain

Body suffers from oxidation,

Inflammation and toxicity.

Brain suffers from oxidation

Inflammation and toxicity.

Over-oxidation is deterioration

Long inflammation is ulcer formation.

Deep toxicity is amputation

Worry is oxidation. Be calm.

Anger is inflammation. Move on.

Hatred is toxicity. Take it easy.

All these at naught, one is insensitive.

All these in spate one is self damaging.

Check them, to be sensibly sensitive.

Antidotes help to power up the brain.

05.10.2015 

Joy from freedom

 Success is a joy; conquest is a joy;

To attain or to achieve is a joy.

To get applause or attention is joy.

To love and to earn love too are a joy.

To undertake these, you have to impress

Others, which may or may not be feasible.

Freedom is no need to impress others.

That state is bliss and joy of it supreme.

Needs curb your freedom; wants curb your freedom.

Wants put to naught and needs to minimum,

 You can increase the avenue of freedom.

Joy from freedom is self dependent.

05.0.2015

Advice is suggestive.

Advice is suggestive.

Don’t become possessive

By expecting it to be

Carried out by takers.

Don’t get offended

If it is rejected.

Don’t hesitate to give it

If you are sought once more.

Advice not carried out,

If it ends in loses,

Don’t point out the loss

And leave it to his thought.

04.10.2015

To share the success

A horse came first in a horse-race.

The jockey took credit for it.

The owner took credit for it.

The horse beamed with pride for its feat.

Its legs also took pride for it.

Even its tail thought as a part.

03.10.2015

Mind the environment.

To observe people helping each other

Raises in you the happiness level

And put you disposed to loving others.

To observe people fighting each other

Lower in you happiness level

And put you disposed to hating others.

Environment  determines your happiness.

Mind the environment your child lives in.

02.10.2015

Apprehend the manner of death.

Better to live merrily

Even if it hastens the end

Than to live healthily

To prolong with bore the end.

What if such healthy living

Sends you to early disability

Or to any fatal illness

With a prolonging suffering?

01.110.2015

The Horse is to my liking.

Even before going to school by cart

Drawn by the horse, I know you as a child,

As you did dance to the tune in the circus.

Ever since I saw Queen Jansi with her child

On her back in the picture, I felt riding you.

Reading characters in literature

As riding, and seeing on the screen heroes

Riding about on horses with singing,

I rode you in mind with passion built up.

Your sight of side views blocked by side screens,

You behave obeying to your controller.

To the versatile women being house bound,

Societal outlook beyond home is denied.

Your moves designed to a few squares in Chess,

Far from your windy speed in the horse race,

Reminds me of my moves between the kitchen

And the bedroom, which strengthens my feelings

That you and I are in a bind by all,

And dear horse I love you still more so much.

By in Tamil

Mrs. Madhumitha

In Anthology, Poetic Prism, 2015

E mail madhumithaa2012@gmail.com

Translated to English by Rm Shanmaugam

Seeds, the Supreme

Seeds are fertility, connect and sacred.

Seeds are the past, the future and the present.

Seeds are the link of life evolution.

Seeds ensure the extension of life force.

They are ancestors and offspring as well.

They are the storage of heredity.

Some meet deaths as food so as to give birth.

They need our attention more than God does.

30.09.2015

To reach God

To meet their wants, some go to God.

For an escape, some go to God.

For protection, some go to God.

For afterlife, some go to God.

Who go to God for repentance?

Who go to God for turning good?

30.09.2015

Arrival is sweet.

A birth is welcome with sweetness.

A death is irksome with bitterness.

Any friendship at its birth is sweet

And turns sore at its death most often.

A failure of harvest leads not

To abandoning of sowing, though.

30.09.2015

Kindness is beauty.

A well cut figure demands no cute face.

A revealing cleavage needs no cute face.

A cute face stands out in absence of these.

An unkind heart will kill all these features.

30.09.2019

Forgiveness has three stages.

Forgiveness completes in three stages:

Forgiveness; Reconciliation; Healing;

Forgiveness is accepting offenders

As a damage control exercise.

Reconciliation is rebuilding

Relationship that was strained or broken.

Healing is the resultant harmony

Total physically and mentally.

Human beings are relational beings.

To be human is to be inter-human.

It is human to beg for one’s pardon;

It is more human to offer pardon.

30.09.2015

Out of control ^

Today was good; today was fun.

Not to all but to some it was.

Tomorrow will be good or fun.

Not to all but to some it’d be.

Some are not the same all the time.

It rotates but not equally.

Some are lucky and some not so.

Time and events are out of control.

28.09.2015

Kings would compromise.

Cold and hot aren’t opposite to each other;

They are the two extremes of the temperature.

Opposite to them are the animals who sense them.

Leaders ruling and leaders in opposition

Aren’t against each other in their interest.

Opposite to them are the people ruled by them.

Rulers misappropriate and retire scot-free

At the connivance of their successors.

Soldiers are fighting with kings compromising.

27.09.2015

Zero, the Shoonya

Zero (Shoonya) is not Nothing but much more.

It varies as the product of equations.

Zero = +5-5

Or +5-3-2 and so on.

Zero is not Nothing but is equal

To such infinite equations made.

Zero is like no profit and no loss,

Income and expenditure varying.

There is no perceived without perceivers.

The sense of touch gives the feeling of heat.

Hot and Cold aren’t opposite to each other

But temperature is opposite to perceiver.

Perceivers and the perceived have existence

Only relative to each other in life.

Perceiver and the perceived are opposite

Of each other like +5-5.

Every action has an equal reaction.

Each object has an negative object.

Creation and destruction form a pair.

Birth – Death = 0.

The universe has come from zero;

Into zero will it go at the end.

25.09.2015

Why is the standard on decrease?

Brain was the asset of Brahmins;

Ego was the asset of Kshatrias;

Mind was the asset of Vaisyas;

Skill was the asset of Sutras.

Segregation of Hindu Castes

Had kept pure breeds and their skills.

Mixed occupations have come.

Traditional skills have been lost.

Reservation to job is on.

Is there equal compensation

Gained to raise the standard of life?

Education, bureaucracy,

Ministerial and judiciary,

Post independence of India,

Have suffered efficiency.

Common man has lost faith in all.

Doctors and judges aren’t in awe.

24.09.20115

A needless hypothesis

Dogs and rates are territory conscious.

So is man, who is vehement in it.

It is for management of their resources.

It is this which puts a man against a man.

Territory consciousness led to groups.

Groups led to gods and then to religions.

Kingdom came and started defying religion.

Religions and kingdoms maintain boundaries.

Religion has groomed civilization;

Religion has laid down morals to follow.

Kingdom has taken over these functions.

So religion is promising after-life.

Religion is genetically programmed

Among sects to hotly vie each other.

Religion is used to do more harm than good.

God has become a needless hypothesis.

“It is not necessary to believe in God

To be a good person. In a way

The traditional notion of God is outdated.

One can be spiritual but not religious.

Some of the best people in history

Did not believe in God, while some of the worst deeds

Were committed in His name”- Pope Francis.

22.09.2015

Bodily pains need money.

Love lost, I get pain; wealth lost, I get pain;

War lost, I get pain. A strong mind can bear it.

Health lost, I get pain. No strong mind can help.

Only medical aid and money can heal.

20.09.2015

Good or bad, a name dies.

Odour, fragrant or pungent, will die soon.

So will a man’s repute or scandal.

Both spread and stay for a short while.

We have forgot evil people as well.

20.09.2015

Gratitude is the harvest.

Gratitude is spontaneous thankfulness

To someone who has benefited you.

Gratitude is much more than thankfulness:

Being keen to return as much as you can.

Ingratitude needs no extra effect.

King Lear has suffered filial ingratitude

At the hand of his two daughters in the end.

To be ungrateful is an easy path.

Jesus with divine power cured lepers.

All left at once merrily except one,

Who waited for Jesus to offer thanks.

‘Don’t thank me; it is He who did it through me.’

Express gratitude; expect no gratitude.

Gratitude is the minimum harvest

Expected of the service done by some.

Harvest must encourage cultivation.

Remembering the dead is gratitude.

Being a well wisher is gratitude.

Waiting to return helps is gratitude.

Even a beggar can exercise it.

21.09.2015 

Violence of the youths

Male is more aggressive and violent.

Propensity for violence rests with it,

Thanks to the overflow of Testosterone.

Males must have energy to hunt and mate

Violence is on increase more from men.

The onus lies on mothers rearing sons.

To take pride in service and sacrifice

Must be the lesson mother teaches them.

Sports and Games are suitable outlets.

Art and Music are the ventilators.

Mothers must teach them to be content

With what they are endowed, with no greed.

19.09.2015

Power of spirituality

We seek prosperity

Through wealth, comfort and security.

We seek spirituality

Through clairvoyance and premonition.

The motive for both acts

Is same: identification

And not any salvation

For which spirituality is meant.

18.09.2015

About salvation

Reading scriptures, reciting hymns,

Visiting shrines, doing charity

And spending time in devotion

Will not take you to salvation.

Rather you’ll become arrogant

And grow disdainful of others

With the strength of God in your side,

Which would block you to salvation.

To all, death is the salvation.

Till death, suffering is in the card.

Post death no suffering at all;

All born will attain salvation.

Neither by study of the Vedas,

Nor by austere penance,

Nor by charity or rituals,

Can you see me in transcendal form.

(Krishna to Arjuna in Gita)

16.09.2015

The cause of comradeship

You and I cling to each other

Against him, who opposes us.

Fear of him binds us together

As thickly as his strength commands.

16.09.2015

Death retirement

Death is the final retirement,

And the cruelest of all those,

In that you cannot witness it

Nor recollect it or the past.

15.09.2015

Results affect not antecedents.

He and she met and fell head over heals

In love, soon to be separated

On account of one vacating the place.

He and she met and fell for each other

In love, soon to be separated

From the cause of the one getting married.

He and she met and resolved to join

In love, soon to be separated

Following difference of opinion.

He and she met and were drawn by a pull

Of love, soon to be separated

When a prince entered and snatched her away.

A boat fated to wreck before the shore,

Would give the sailors the enjoyment

Not to be curtailed by its end in wait.

14.09.2015

Hate helps love.

How can I like who frustrate my works,

Who have cheated me, or stood against mine

Or who are selfish and an escapist?

Hating them enables me to love others.

13.09.2015

How is woman chaste?

Women are chaste as with low libido.

Or as in sublimation of arts and works

 Or as grown in a guarded society.

Stigma and guilt are constant watch dogs.

13.09.2015

In unequal terms

The world exists not in mutual term.

Tigers eat deer and not vice versa.

The might rule the weak, not in turn.

Man cuts down trees with no wrath from them.

Males chase females with no retaliation.

The world runs in unequal cyclic way.

13.09.2015

Man’s skillful craft

Stories are made to histories.

Histories are made to stories.

Man excels in make-believe art.

Foolery is his skillful craft.

13.09.2015

Honour beggars.

He is a beggar who stands before you

With a bowl held out, throwing an eager look.

He might be a fake of those in the line.

You must drop a coin, with lack of proofs.

Thousands accused may escape conviction

But an innocent must not be convicted.

Let this rule apply to the beggars too.

Honour any beggar unless you find him a fake.

12.09.2015

Who damage the earth fast?

No animals use tools;

They use only their limbs.

Men use tools and drop bombs.

That damage fast the earth.

13.09.2015

Five unfortunates

Good breed not getting education,

Good seed not heading to harvest,

Good women not blushing or the noble erring,

And mismatch marriage don’t do good.

Based on a quadrant verse of Inna Narppathyu (19) of Tamil Literature, having 40 verses on the undesirable

குலத்துப் பிறந்தவன் கல்லாமை யின்னா
நிலத்திட்ட நல்வித்து நாறாமை யின்னா
நலத்தகையார் நாணாமை யின்னாவாங் கின்னா
கலத்தல் குலமில் வழி.19 இன்னா நாற்பது

Family Deity

It is my family God, made of stone,

Standing aloof away from my village.

What cult He belongs to, none of us knows.

He is not the one who has made the world.

Generation after generation,

We worship and propitiate to him,

A warrior to ward off evils,

To fulfill boons and meet our curses.

Other gods we would change from time to time

And space to space according to fashion

But not He whom we more fear than love.

He is in our gene, no matter where we live.

In spite of tragedy we encounter,

Suffering and sorrow we undergo,

Still we believe in His efficacy,

And do tonsuring to each child born.

Only philosophy we know of Him

Is we should forget Him on no account

Lest we invite His wrath and cost our lives.

He is the one by whom we swear no lies.

11.09.2015.

Imitation

Civilization is imitation.

Imitation is innovation.

In each innovation, holes are plugged.

Imitation brings growth by correction.

11.09.2015

Epics aren’t histories.

Has Lord Rama lived

As the Ramayana has depicted?

Has Lord Krishna lived

As the Mahabharata has enacted?

Epics are pictured

With a view to entertainment of mass.

Epics are written

With a view to literary merit.

They aren’t histories.

What they say are what their writers have said.

10.09.2015

Learn from other mammals.

No mammals other than man wanted

To leave footfalls of them after death

Nor do they raise monuments for the dead.

They’re wise to mind not the afterlife.

09.09.2015