POEMS
introduction to volume xiv
. This collection of poems, written over an extended period, represents a deeply felt personal response on various occasions and close friends. These poems represent a sometimes-unexpressed aspect of a scientist, social or otherwise.
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A Nonagenarian Remembered (Celebrating a life Irene Ann Heredia)
For the New Year, a prayer, a wish
Prayer/Blessing for a little Angel
A Farewell for Adrian D’Cruz, S.J.
A Prayer for the New Year : Growing older Gratefully and Gracefully
Hidden Promises
There’s a promise with, your name on it
hidden in your heart,
and a hope with your promise in it
treasured in mine.
There must be hope
for a promise to find fulfilment,
there will be pain for a hope to grow precious.
How can I regret a friendship
that has left its imprint on my soul?
For it was beautiful to be able
to walk with, you in trust
and share a dream—
impossible though it seemed.
And if the pain
makes yesterday seem far away
all the more must I reach out in hope
for a future to bring to fulfilment
that promise of our still-present past
1973
For St. Valentine’s Day
May Valentine’s Day
bring you new insight
into the difference between:
love and attachment,
compassion and pity.
joy and excitement.
peace and pacification.
faith and superstition.
trust and presumption.
religion and magic.
and maybe you will share
your vision with me.
Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.
12 February 1979
Forgiveness From the Flowers
How does one ask forgiveness
from a flower
that has been crushed against one’s flesh,
whose fragrance had mingled with
sweat gone stale?
How does one heal
the petals that have been
plucked and sucked
and chewed and spewed
and left behind to rot?
What does one say
to a growing bud
that asked only
for a little space to bloom
and be beautiful for a while
but was denied?
Is there no healing for the hurt,
no mercy for repentance?
Must one keep the shame forever
and carry the pain like cancer?
Or is there a hope
which can bring healing,
a love that is forgiving?
Will there be flowers that bloom
once again in the morning?
Will you let my evening
darken with the doubt?
Or will you speak to me
my silent rose?
5 October 198l
Anxious Women
Why are you afraid for me,
anxious women?
Your love without your trust
would be a burden around my neck
weighing me down.
I will not have the strength
to carry it if I’m doubted
and I cannot loosen myself
from it if I love.
And so we hurt each other
when we came too close
and we can’t keep apart
in our separate solitudes
for our lives are too entangled now
to seek salvation apart.
I hear you when you say
I love you
I need you more to whisper
I trust you
Before you go
Where I cannot follow,
I want to know how you feel
and if you still believe in me
and my trackless journey over unmapped paths:
One you never would have chosen for me
One I cannot back away from now.
But it would seem less terrifying
if you were less anxious.
Your trust would give me courage
to walk to that unknown horizon
Be not afraid for me,
anxious women,
if only you can truly say,
‘I believe in you’
even when I cannot choose
The things you do
Christmas 1981
Feeling
Hold me gently in your thoughts
when you remember
faithful woman
I too will think of you with joy.
At times I feel so close to you
that I am terrified
and wonder why I’m so alone
like a little boy lost
who wants to be found.
I wait for the reassurance
of your touch.
At times I feel so small next to you
I want to scream
at all the monsters
who trample my dreams
and me into dust
while I hope your tears
will wash me clean.
At times I feel so sad with you
I want to cry
but cannot free the tears
still damned within my soul
and so my sadness stays
unbroken by my silence
until you speak
a word of promise.
At times I feel such joy in you
I can do anything
and float away in ecstasy
beyond the horizon
of my fantasies and fears
to another reality
There I find you once again
alive and free.
Hold me gently …
Will you, please?
22 February 1982
Floating on Hope
If we walk together for a while,
we could become companions,
bound together heart to heart,
soul-mates on a pilgrimage,
floating on a hope for a better
more beautiful, compassionate world
for ourselves and others
and every single one.
1982
Grief
Grief cannot be shared,
for it is mine alone.
Grief is a death happening inside me,
a great emptiness, a frightening void.
It is loneliness,
a sickening sorrow at night,
on awakening a terrible dread.
Another’s words do not help.
A reasoned argument explains little
for having tried too much.
Silence is the best response to another’s grief.
Not the silence that is a pause in speech,
awkward and unwanted,
but one that unites heart to heart.
Love, speaking in silence, is the way into
the void of another’s grief.
The best of all loves comes silently,
and slowly too, to soften the pain of grief,
and begin to dispel the sadness.
It is the love of God, warm and true,
which will touch and heal the grieving heart.
He has pity for the grieving person,
for grief is an unending pain.
He came among us to learn about grief
and much else too, this Man of sorrows.
He knows. He understands.
Grief will yield to peace – in time.
1982
A Respite from Uncertainty
Is there a respite still
From our uncertainties
for our little frightened hearts
that hesitate to go forward—
or turn back?
Is there a price
we haven’t paid as yet
to some earth-goddess —or demon-god
for this intimacy we ache for
but can’t contain?
When I look into my heart
I want the walls to come down crashing
to find you free and vibrant.
But what will I find there today?
And where will I go tomorrow?
When there are no walls to hide behind
no mask to wear upfront
no surety to shore up our uncertainty
then perhaps we’ll find
What we’ve been yearning for was always there,
a respite we might have almost missed.
26 October 84
Back Home
When you come back, will you feel
you’ve out-grown the yesterdays
we lived together
in a bond beyond the here and now
reaching out for tomorrows?
When you come back, will you find
Our separate paths have grown
more distant with the days
we’ve lived apart
in segregated worlds?
When you come back, will it be
like it used to or will we
have really grown
even closer for the time
you’ve been away?
When you come home, will you know
I’ve been longing for a lasting
partnership with you?
If you would want that too
on journey to the moon?
When you come back will you come home
to me?
Where I’ll be waiting for you,
Always yours.
1987
Being Broken
Sometimes even broken things
—people, promises—
can be put together
with forgiveness
From your broken Rudi
1987
Being Messy
‘I’m messy, but
love me still,’ you cried.
I tried.
You found that
I’m quite messy too.
Will we accept our
mess, now that we’ve strayed
into each other’s
lives, for better or
worse, forever?
1987
Being Transparent
Can we be more
transparent to each other,
transcend our blocks,
penetrate our secrets together?
16 March 1987
From You
From you, I want
our yesterdays together.
With you, I want
to walk today.
For you, I want
our dreams of tomorrow.
Do you want
the same for me?
1988
Going Away
If you must go, as well you might,
will you leave behind an emptiness
that can’t be filled—
like the others who left before you came?
They moved on to other destinations,
as you might too—
When you out-grow your present hopes and fears
you might cross old thresholds, to a new horizon.
And will the things you take with you
be as treasured as the ones you leave behind?
Or will you grow distant in another dream
speaking in a stranger tongue
across a new impenetrable divide?
1988
Dying
It’s a very personal thing
It died long ago
but we pretend it’s still alive
and lay out everyday things
as though life goes on
and even pick up perhaps…
We tarry over the burial
and we imagine there is breath
finding it easier to continue than stop.
Until the putrefaction makes it real,
the rot fills us with death
choking till we gasp for breath
But only when it’s all burned
to dust and ashes
leaving behind stale tears
will we find ourselves
dead—but dying no more.
The taste of ashes, the smell of dust remains,
It’s all over now, can we begin again?
There’s a krama to be lived out, but where?
A fate to be fulfilled, isn’t there?
The dying’s done, and the grieving’s over too
the night comes gently, will the day be born anew
31 December 1988
Communion
Oh God! At times how I long
for that deeper communion
from beyond my horizons
in the sounds of silence, the music of joy,
the words of companionship, the sharing of sorrow,
the trill of pleasure, the spasm of pain,
the voice of forgiveness, the sacrament of touch,
the act of surrender, the stillness of prayer,
the hope of the future, the nostalgia from the past,
my God, how I want you to come
with me now together!
8 September 1992
Hanging On
A chasm open at my trembling feet
I stare down into hypnotic depths
and feel myself fall free into the empty dark
Erasing all memory, scorching all hope
Engulfing me within its alien womb
A nowhere land with neither past nor future
Just a terrifying, never-ending now.
I freeze my step, turn back to look
Across the wasteland I have left behind.
No footprints mark my restless search
For a promised land of peace and passion
That always seemed just beyond my grasp.
And now I’m hanging on the brink
And waiting for someone
To tip me over
Or pull me up to life.
1993
Fast Forward
Hurtling down the fast track
in overdrive mode,
the video dismembers the scene
into endless shapes,
the images squirm
and squeeze themselves
into formlessness;
the audio squeaks,
the words spit and cough,
in rasping lisps.
Rioting colours, streaking around,
splashing light, crashing sounds,
spasms and orgies, the quiet of night,
premature burnout, flaccid flight.
The world whistles by
with Doppler effects,
yet all the while
life seems staid, stilled
in open country dreams.
And suddenly
a switch trips, the power cuts,
a screech, a crash,
the rhythm’s broken, the tape snaps,
the airbags explode, the seat-belts lock,
the swish-swosh spinning
of arhythmic mime,
strobe light flashes, black on white,
the radio survives with the nine o’clock news.
The rest is silence, all is darkness.
At a dead end now:
lost, aching, waiting, wanting
a gentler redemption
for the remains of the day!
Who will be there?
When it’s too late?
And night?
July 1999
Fear and Flying
Curled up inside you
protected by you,
wrapped up around you,
protecting you.
Flying high away from fear,
standing tall, and walking free,
dreams beyond the far horizons,
ecstasy in new dimensions.
July 1999
Bus Boy
Will you remember
when he takes you bed tea
on your honeymoon
and leaves with a smile
and a whimper?
July 1999
Desolate Devotee/Absent God
I’ve searched so long for you,
or was it really an eternity? I’ll never know.
So what’s a decade or two
to lose and find you once more forever?
And you, my truant teacher,
Will you never wait for me,
my ever-restless pilgrim deity,
or turn away to other devotees?
I’ve harvested moonlight
with my bare hands for your delight,
and moved mountains with my faith
to lay them in devotion at your feet!
I’ve sought the rarest flowers
in my desert wilderness
yet always found your beauty,
still incomparable,
ever ancient, ever new!
Now with bruised hands
and broken hopes
your blood dried upon my face
my soul lies buried under
an avalanche of despair.
Late have I loved thee
but what’s a maya of desolation
for that moment of truth
with you in mystic ecstasy forever?
July 1999
Fate/Destiny
Time heals old wounds but scars remain
in silent witness to hurt and pain.
It might have been otherwise
if only time could be reversed.
New wounds leave other scars,
overwriting old patterns on the skin,
etch graven testimonies in the soul
of life’s unending pilgrimage.
Overlaid memories leach into each other,
unforgiving, unforgiven, unforgotten, unresolved,
the garbage of a past, mortgage for the future,
fateful prisons for the heart.
Scavenging the dump for something lost yet precious:
crumpled letters, soiled pictures, unused tickets, rusted rings,
to pollute another birth, samsara with its karmic fate?
Or reach another destiny, nirvana with my soul-mates!
Verem, 29 November 1999
Divali Haiku
May light translucent
Make life transparent, light up
Shadows, shelter shade
4 November 2001
Divali Haiku 2
Refracted light, dark
Shades expelled, life in colour,
New worlds expelled.
25 October 2003
Divali Haiku 3
Find prism, refract
Ego, together make other
Worlds possible.
25 October 2003
Christmas Earthling
Christmas angels come and go,
sing their song,
do their thing,
flap their wings
and melt into the silent night.
Christmas earthlings come to stay,
bring its peace and joy
to simple shepherds, silly sheep,
wise old man, burdened beasts
make holy the silence of the night.
Herod’s soldiers come to slay,
kill our infant innocence,
destroy our world with violence
make bloody the silence of the lambs.
Will my Christmas bring me hope
against the deathly silence of my night?
Will I be able once again
to sing my song, dance my dance,
spread my wings, do my thing,
light a candle in the wind?
Christmas 2003
Annus Novus, Annus Mirabilis
May you be grateful for all that has been;
may you live in the present alive and alert,
may the future show you new and wonderful things;
may the tears you cry be tears of joy;
may you be with true friends and companions;
may you experience new love and fulfilment;
may this annus novus
be your annus mirabilis!
2003
Giving Thanks
Thanksgiving is to express gratitude
and gratitude as we know is
expectation of favours yet to come!
But who can we better entrust
our expectations to than
those we love and who love us?
But surely our hope must
transcend this horizon to a beyond
that’s never quite defined by the past
or determined by the present,
or what’s the future for?
Happy belated thanksgiving
on this, the last day of the liturgical year.
May we give thanks together
for the many things that have
brought us together
and others that might
keep us that way,
if only through a ‘virtual reality’
until the kingdom comes!
29 November 2003
At Sea
Worn out and weary,
adrift in the stream,
swept out to the ocean,
lost at sea.
Old memories smudged
treasured hopes belied,
precious promises broken,
happy dreams denied
A comedy, a tragedy,
a story untold
a downstream disaster
yet to unfold?
The stream flows relentless
sucked into the sea,
drowned in the ocean,
its own not to be
So go with the flow
ride the high tide,
lift up the anchor,
from the cruel sea hide
No trace on the water
of lives incomplete,
shattered and splattered,
no chance of reprieve
To learn and unlearn,
to reach the unreachable,
so much unexplained
still more unexplainable.
The future’s storm-tossed
on an ocean of possibles,
is beginning anew
a choice that’s impossible?
When the sea churns
to give up its dead,
old learnings yield
new futures instead
When the voyage is over
and the sea is no more,
at last, a safe heaven,
at home on the shore!
25 July 2003
For George Gispert-Sauch
Critical conservative,
emotive progressive,
honest critic, selfless scholar,
sincerely committed,
truly convinced, whose
encouragement and support,
generously serves
causes and concerns
projects and programmes,
the smaller, the gentler,
hard-headed, yet heartfelt compassion,
who set one off rethinking conversions,
inspired me to rigorous discernment,
with gratitude and respect,
admiration and appreciation,
and friendship in the Lord,
Vande saccidananda, forever.
St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, Mumbai,
16 May 2007
A Prayer on your birthday
Have a wonderful birthday and celebrate yourself.
May you be happy and free as you always wanted to be,
may your life unfold in new and wonderful ways,
may you find ever more beautiful people and friends along your way,
may you be always beautiful as I remember you.
2007
For Jerry
My catholic christian
or vice versa, with capitalized ‘c’s?
too Goan to be Roman, yet
able to belong, if he so chose,
everywhere and nowhere
For Jerry,
who covers his true integrity
with layers of unreal rationality,
that obscure his essential morality.
may you give witness to your truth
with beauty and grace
humour and cheer…
may the many directions in which
your life runs away with you
come together in poetry and prose
to re-create the sentiment of
‘All things that are good and deserve
praise; things that are true, noble,
right, pure, lovely, honourable’!
and so transform, transcend
the quiet, desperate ordinariness
of lives around him which he sees
as many odes to joy!
St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, Mumbai, 10 May 2007
A Christmas Carol
To all who feel so helpless
stripped of any hope:
May our helplessness bring us hope,
may our hope make us strong,
may our strength be always gentle.
In hope and strength and gentleness
may we find courage
to speak truth to power,
even in our powerlessness.
As happened long ago
a babe in Bethlehem,
and a man on Calvary;
a short distance, and yet
such a long journey.
But one that did not
end in the tomb.
May he enable us
to reach his good news
to lives more powerless
than our own;
inspire us
to walk with them,
to bring hope to the helpless,
strength to the weak,
gentleness to the strong
and peace and joy to all
this Christmas
and in the years to come.
24 December 2007, New Delhi
For my Angelji
If it’s the pain
that brings me closer,
then I choose the pain
for the sake of closeness.
But I can choose for myself only
and wait for you to choose too.
Even as I know
that it need not always
be pain that brings us closer.
Joy and ecstasy bind us, bond us
And so I’ll never cease hoping
For it to be that way for us.
Will you hope with me,
for us, my angel?
Your Rudi
2007
A Novice takes the Veil
I just had to say
how happy I was yesterday
to share
what was very precious to me
with someone who is sensitive to the spirit
and bouncing and beautiful, and
while trembling
on the brink
of a dedication so deep
that it makes me feel
humble
before a mystery so holy—
that I’m afraid to enter
or speak
least I spoil
what I can only
stand before in
reverence and awe.
It’s funny to feel
I’ll miss you
when we haven’t really been
in touch for some time now
and yet
I know you were there and available
—on the telephone
But you won’t be there or available anymore
and already now
you seem so far away
across walls and grills and veils
but if I believe
I know
you are never very far in faith
and always available in prayer
especially for those
hopeless cases
who need the hand of grace
that only a mystic life can intercede
and then in resurrected life
we can pick up
where we left off
without defences and inhibitions
because we will be made new and beautiful and one.
For a brief silent while then,
Goodbye.
God loves you
and so do I.
2007
For Mary T.
It’s been so long since you’ve written, said a word
that I’m afraid I’m forgotten,
the way you smiled
pushed back your hair
and laughed
and cried
and made me feel so special
because you shared (with me)
what was closer to you
than your tears.
But then this silence
for so long
makes me wonder
and a little sad
because I care
very much
for you / and I want you to be happy
my beautiful Mary T
I want you to awake,
break this silence
with a smile
I can treasure
2007
For Paul de la Gueriviere
always the ideologue,
never a demagogue,
too human to be certain,
too gentle to be with mankind,
you have sensitised generations,
to concern and commitment,
to critique and engagement,
with a passion for justice,
a cheerful good humour,
rare common sense,
ever shy, never sly.
My basement companion,
on a human quest,
a historical process,
to make a brave new world,
with gratitude in solidarity,
and affection and admiration,
compassion on mission.
St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, Mumbai, 16 May 2007
A Dedication to Em
For Em, the gem
whose gentle sparkle
of flickering light
reflects, refracts,
enhances, nuances,
brightens, enlightens
as she polishes to perfection
opaque-resistant stones like me.
With filial reverence, loving respect,
boundless admiration, unbounded appreciation,
and irrepressible hope that
the glorious burst of colours
at the sunset
will only presage an ever more
beautiful, wondrous dawn.
Your (sometimes ungenteel) son Rudi.
26May 2007
Children’s Day
Awesome wonder, anxious fear,
what will your future bring
as you tremble on the brink
of such uncertain expectations?
Sometimes I think of you
and wonder in amazement
awed at all your wanderings,
where they have taken, and will take you.
Sometimes I tremble with anxiety,
remembering the journey
that has chosen you,
and will not allow
respite on the way.
Tell me how you are and where,
where you’re going to, and why,
what’s behind, what’s ahead,
what you’re up to, and what next.
Who you have become
from the promise you have been?
The ups and downs, the turnarounds?
The giant wheel, life’s carousel?
I want to be surprised by joy,
not fearful and afraid for you.
14 November 2008
Easter Prayer
May you be happy and free
as you always wanted to be.
May you find love and respect
that is so important to you.
May you fulfil the human/e in you,
May you ever be
what you were always meant to be.
May your love lift you up
to heaven in ecstasy,
even as you root your feet
firmly on this earth.
3 April 2008
Divali 2008
A happy Divali to you.
May you never
melt down like Wall Street
or break down like Main Street,
or crash down like Dalal Street,
but like a good pedestrian
cross carefully with the zebras,
to the sunny side of the street,
and never have to worry about your assets
(or assettes!).
28 October 2008
The Empty Tomb
From the emptiness of the tomb,
through the throes of the present,
May our Easter bring an everlasting future
That brings alive the earth and us,
making all things new
lighting the darkness of the past,
calming the hullabaloo of the now,
even as it renews our lives, our worlds.
Easter 2008
An Easter Prayer
A prayer for you
from a smaller player,
on the larger stage of a life,
that seems at times
to be puppet theatre,
at others, psycho-drama.
May you be happy and free,
may you fulfil the dream
you were always meant to be.
May your wisdom bring you harmony,
Forgiveness and compassion.
12 April 2009
Dense Logic
‘You are really dense,
and, oh, so logical too!’
When I am dense
I’d best be dumb.
When one’s dumb
one isn’t heard.
What’s not heard
is best not seen.
What’s not seen
is soon forgotten.
What’s forgotten
is as good as dead
When I’m dead
I’ll resurrect
Densely logical, hopefully dead!
2010
Entwined Memories
(For my soul-mates)
With lingering-longing memories
of places yet entwined in tales,
unwilling to be told,
I talk to you in dreams
and sleepwalk into the night.
I speak to you, my soul-mates
to find my faith again
then waken to the dawn
when all my dreams are gone
like fading morning mists.
Only hope remains
to set me afloat once again
when I sleep and dream
with you.
21 January 2010
Chic-choc-let
(For a chocolate lover)
I was offered to a beautiful princess
to be a part of her,
But she bit my nose, put me back and closed the box.
I like them dark and bitter, she said.
This won’t go with cold black coffee.
Am I to blame if I am light and sweet?
So now I sit alone and forlorn
waiting for someone to pick
what’s left of me.
Will tomorrow be different?
2010
Dreams and Promises
(For friends and companions)
Looking into the sunset,
dreaming through the night,
embracing in the dawn,
reaching for the light,
birthing new worlds
to tend together.
Like raindrops on a river
swept into the sea,
merging into the ocean,
fusing destinies,
leaving memories of touch
to heal, make whole
our broken hearts
our wounded souls.
I carry you in my heart.
I swim against the tide,
I set sail against the wind,
I put out into the deep
with dreams of distant shores.
No safe haven there,
just other dares and promises
and dreams to share,
reaching out to far horizons,
sailing restless seas,
no comfort zone for me.
21 January 2011
Easter Greeting
May your hope lift you up
against all hopelessness.
may your love bring you ecstasy,
even as you plant your feet firmly
to walk this earth
in joy and freedom
in hope and compassion.
8 April 2012
A Nonagenarian Remembered
(Celebrating a life
Irene Ann Heredia 22nd Sept 1917 – 21 January 2013)
You rarely called me,
It was I who called you every day and more
just to break the stillness
of your long day and cheer you for the morrow,
so you’d have something to wake up for
each time you’d go to rest.
But when you’d call
it’s always been to ask after me
and whether I was taking good care of myself.
So when you rang me that morning on the train
to tell me you weren’t too well and
that I wouldn’t be hearing from you in a while,
I sensed it was the end game now
and I was left hoping, praying
I’d be there for you before it was over and out.
Gradually as it sank in
I found myself feeling
intensely proud of you
and your journey on your long day home,
for all you’ve been
and all that you mean
to me and so many on whom you left
your gentle imprint.
The empty space you’ll leave behind
will be too large to fill
it will remain an aching longing
at the end of each long day.
I’ll miss you in my emptiness
left to wait and to remember,
feel proud and happy over and again.
Your remembrance will lift and heal,
and float the hearts of those
you once reached out to
and now have left behind.
Memories and nostalgia are
are all that’s left to unite us now.
But when the kingdom comes
We’ll once again relive those days
of long ago and far away,
familiar still for our having shared them once
and now so easy to recall yet once again.
Be no longer anxious, woman,
though it’s been a very long day.
May your sunsets now light up your eyes
to see the stars awaiting the dawn,
the sunrise of another day,
in some other place,
a new heaven and a new earth,
where every tear will be wiped from every eye,
and death will be no more.
And all that was so lovely and precious,
so beautiful and wonderful,
will last forever in new life
that banishes forever
the darkness in our souls.
God be with you, gentle woman,
May he light your way,
and may angels guide you
to your new home.
But never forget we’re walking close behind,
so that the promises we shared together
fulfil the promise that we are and called to be,
to one another and to oneself together.
21 January 2013
A New Future
From lonely graveyards,
lingering memories, lost yesterdays,
Easter breaks into the night.
Lighting up a new future
coming to us gently but surely,
drops of water on a sponge,
grace seeping into the soul,
gratitude filling the heart,
cool breeze in the heat of day,
gentle rain on the parched ground,
dawn peeking over the horizon,
a warm hug on a cold evening,
a touch of warmth to begin the day,
a candle in the darkness of the past…
calming the hullabaloo of the now,
awakening us to new life,
bringing the earth alive,
making all things new,
filling empty spaces in your heart,
creating beauty and joy today
and for our tomorrows,
presaging an ecstasy that
transport and transcends,
recreating our lives, our worlds,
already now but not fully yet.
31 March 2013
Cat girl, you
bonsai but not quite
stretched out and yawning
showing off the contours
of your form
purring those around you
into submission,
you curl up satisfied,
close your eyes
and sleep.
10 January 2014
Haiku
Frail woman loses
battles, wins the war, has peace,
anxious now no more.
4 January 2014
A New Year Prayer
May our conscious desires
awake unconscious longings for
the new heaven and the new earth,
where every tear will be wiped from every eye,
where community and communion
will bring harmony and joy,
where all that we once treasured
will be remembered and saved
in a love that fulfils all our loves.
31 December 2014
East Side Story
Somewhere there’s a place,
Somewhere a place for us,
Peace and quiet and open air
Wait for us somewhere.
Somewhere there’ll be time,
Time together and time to spare
Wait for us somewhere.
Valentine’s Day 2014
Haiku
Celebrating you
On our way home, we long to be
Where you are now.
17 January 2015
For the New Year, a prayer, a wish
May the new year
show you new and wonderful things,
bring you new and beautiful friends,
new life and joy
to your old loves and relationships
fill all the places and spaces in your heart.
1 January 2016
Prayer/Blessing for a little Angel
May the promises hidden in your heart
fulfil the person you were meant to be,
May the paths you choose in life
open to enchanting scenes.
May your fellow-travellers
be companions for a brave new world.
May the dreams you dream
awaken you to beautiful days.
May the friends you make
be yours for keeps.
May you meet with soul-mates
on your way
to enrich each other lives forever.
As you have mine.
14 July 2017
All will be well
I lie at rest with you
and listen to the rhythm
of your breath in my ear
and I am wafted with you
into another world
a dreamland, a wonderland
where all will be well,
all will be very well.
17 August 2017
Happy Diwali
Will this festival of lights
brighten our skies with
ahimsa, satya and seva
not pollute our air with
noise, smoke and sulphur.
May your light shine for others.
Diwali 19 October 2017
A Farewell for Adrian D’Cruz, S.J.
(26 Mar 1939 – 4 Sept 2017)
On my road to Emmaus
I’m so grateful I met you
and you shared yourself with me.
I’m even more grateful you accepted me
and what I shared with you.
We found each other in our broken lives,
in breaking bread together,
climbing hilltops, staring down
the valleys into the dark,
redeeming broken promises,
healing wounded lives,
we journeyed onward to Jerusalem
on untrod paths that sometimes parted
sometimes met and crossed and merged,
yet always pointed to that city on the hill,
where promises are fulfilled and dreams come true.
Now you’re home on top, where you belong
I’m on the way, I’m almost there.
Play guardian angel to me, strong Adrian,
till I am home.
8 September 2017
Conversations in My Head
Thought I’d let you
into my head to hear
conversations there.
Detective stories
lover, writes myst’ries in life,
no clues, no footfalls!
Someday, you’ll listen
to conversations in my head,
speak my name somewhere.
No fool like an old
fool, clowning with bright young sparks,
missing the bathos!
Changing gods/worlds, selves/
people. Taking sides turning
over – mice and men!
Changing gods, changing
worlds, changing people changing selves
makes our worlds
When your cosmic dance
begins will you leave behind
just a mushroom cloud.
D 5, Verem Villas
Bury our hearts by the river here,
to grow a place in the shade for our memories!
10 May 2018
A Prayer for the New Year 2023: Growing older Gratefully and Gracefully
Looking back on the dying year,
May we be grateful for all the good things that have happened,
the care and concern generously given by friends,
and at times even strangers.
May we remember the pleasant surprises,
the undeserved kindness of many,
the unsought challenges that battered us
but then bettered us;
the unexpected joys that overtook us.
May we find it in ourselves to forgive all who may have hurt us,
to heal ourselves of regret and bitterness that may still linger in our hearts,
to banish hate from our hearts and violence from our thoughts.
And so may New Year, 2023, open our lives to a deeper wisdom,
a greater solidarity;
may it heal the loss of friends
with whom our long journeys,
left behind an enhanced wholeness,
a joyful enlightenment,
May the promises hidden amidst the rough and tumble,
the ups and downs of our lives, be fulfilled even
as we listen for his silent steps,
for He comes, comes, ever comes,
‘Every moment and every age, every day and every night he comes, comes, ever comes.’
31 December 2022
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