calling out to you

I tried calling out to you
Until I cried myself hoarse

I lit up a big fire and
Tried sending smoke signals

The fire burned steadily sending the signals
Until it was put off by the heavy rains

I tried to send my pigeon with the message
He flew until he was gobbled up by your hawk

I then walked across hill and dale to reach you
Until I collapsed from fatigue and could move no more

I still lie there in wait looking for a way
To behold your beautiful form night and day

Your impregnable fortress

The weather  was quite tranquil and placid
Until you went by, causing a terrible storm

Therefore I went in search of you
To many a distant lands

Finally I came across your impregnable fortress
Unable to find an entrance, I was under much duress

I tied a message to my pigeon and sent it to you
However the hawk guarding your fortress gobbled her up

I then tried to talk to your gatekeepers
Fortunate are they for they are your companions

However they refuse to talk to me
Or allow me to enter your realm

And yet I wait outside your fortress
Seeking a secret tunnel somewhere

Seeking an entrance inside your fortress
To be forever in your beautiful realm

Just as Hallaj

Just as Hallaj declared his oneness with his beloved
I declared that thoughts about you have swallowed my self

However speaking the truth, one has to pay the price
Society and authority begins to despise

For the people in the city call me a drunkard
Intoxicated by the wine of your beauty

And yet like the Abbasid Caliph you punish me
By ignoring me altogether and going away

Separation from you is like the gibbet
From which hung the  body of Hallaj

How painful do you think this can be?
Thoughts about you have swallowed me

Without my self where be the pain?
There are only your thoughts come rain or shine

The beauty of my beloved

I travelled to a distant land
And camped in the forest at night

The fox came up to me and said
"Look yonder at the moon in the sky"

"Look at her incomparable beauty" said he
"See how bright she appears tonight"

"She is pretty and a delight to look at" said I
"But she pales in comparison to the beauty of my beloved"

"For see there are craters on the moon " Said I
"But my beloved is blemish free"

Then came the Antelope near the river
"Look at the beauty of the river" said she

"See How cool and soothing are her waters"
"Can there be anything more beautiful than this?"

"She sates the thirst for sure"  Said I
"But the sight of my beloved is more pleasing"

"My beloved's sight makes me forget hunger and thirst"
"So soothing and cool is her presence to me"

"The river with all her beauty still contains impurities"
"Where as my beloved's beauty is the most pristine thing in the world"

Then came the great black bear
"Look at the fireflies in the night" said he

"How beautifully they light up the forest"
"Bringing light and destroying darkness"

"They are bright indeed" Said I
"But my beloved is like the sun to me"

"Her presence lights up the entire sky for me"
"There is nothing in this universe brighter than she"


In the morning I met the bee
"Look at the beauty of the rose" said he

"Look at her in full bloom"
"Her beauty and color are vivid and picturesque"

"She is a  divine beauty no doubt" said I
"But my beloved is god's finest creation"

"For there are thorns in the rose too"
"But my beloved is softer than the softest petals"

Without abandon!

Loved you have I, without abandon
And yet you seem as distant as the stars in the heavens

I thought you were the oasis
But you turned out to be a mirage

I looked to your lighthouse for guidance in the rough seas
Yet your intense rays incarcerated my ship

I sought shade under your tree
And yet that very tree collapsed on me

The cow ran from the tiger
Only to run into a butcher

I ran into the house seeking shelter from the storm
Only to have it collapse on me


The sparrow came out to catch a worm
Only to be snatched and ripped apart by the hawk

I came looking for your healing balm
Only to get searing pain in return

 I came looking for heaven in your midst
Only to reach the gates of hell instead

And yet I continue treading on the bloody path of thorns
For greater than all this pain and suffering is my love for you

The Antediluvian world

Hear now, this story of a paradise
Narrated in the dialogues of antiquity

Written by a scholar of fame immense
Plato, the philosopher from  Athens

The story as told to Solon the lawgiver
At Egypt in Alexandria by many a scholar

There was an island not in the Aegean
A rich powerful state beyond the Mediterranean

For beyond the mighty pillars of Hercules
Straits of Gibraltar also one of it's names

Was the great civilisation called Atlantis
Great was it's wealth and mighty it's weapons

Mysterious were their crafts
Unknown and strange were their gadgets

Not only were food,water and gold in plenty
The crop of the civilisation yielded the harvest of goodness in bounty

However is there such a thing in this world
That can withstand the test of time,new or old?

For though the weapons and the wealth increased
The morality and virtues of the people decreased

There came an insatiable thirst for power
This resulted in a hunger to conquer

Their armies laid siege on one state after another
Devastated the islands of the Aegean with war and plunder

Just when it looked as though destruction
Was going to sweep through the Aegean

There came the mighty army of Athens
Dear to Athena, the daughter of Zeus

Like the mighty thunderbolt of Zeus they struck
And held the Atlantian army in check

While the Atlantians prepared for another onslaught
The earth beneath them gave way to a rude jolt

Waves of water rose around the island like mountains
Fire spewed forth from the earth's insides

Of no use were the stupendous crafts or the weapons
The earth and sea engulfed the island of Atlantis

Save some people who fled to Egypt and Israel
Everyone else was to nature's hunger a meal

For much was the wealth and opulence of Atlantis
Belittled was it by the power of the Gods

The great paradise called Atlantis
Was destroyed because of a shifting in the heavenly bodies

Those who are lavish in enjoying pleasures
Whose greed renders them heartless to other creatures

For them there is nothing but death and destruction
Concludes Plato, a scholar of supreme reputation

Thus ends the story of a paradise lost
The moral is to "goodness and virtues" hold fast

For greed and immorality are like a fire
That will destroy the very house where it does reside


--Inspired by the dialogues of Plato

A strange phenomenon

A strange phenomenon is this thing called love
The stronger it is, the stranger it gets

Further and further it keeps me
From one who is to the heart so dear

Your beautiful memory is like a lighthouse
That made me brave many a terrible storm

That kept me sailing in the huge lashing waves
That helped me evade the monsters of the deep

That helped me survive without food and water
That helped me eventually dock safely on your port

And yet, now I see your light flickering
This to me is heart wrenching

For without the lighthouse of your memory
My ship will sink deep in the dark murky abyss