Should a pundit disdain women,
He cheats him, all, a man so vain,
He who’s been fooled before,
Now tries to fool some more,
Fruit of virtue’s heaven,
Of heaven nymphs for fun,
As is on earth, so in heaven.
_________________________
Translation (Limerick) | 36.08.2025 | women, heaven, nymph
Note: This is a verse (in Arya meter) from Bhartrihari’s Shringaara Shatakam (hundred verses on love and romance). Men, instead of accepting their limitations, condemn women. The poet gives a humorous turn on this irony. The fruit of virtues is heaven, whose fruit in turn is heavenly nymph.
Below is the transliteration of the Sanskrit verse:
Sva-para prataarakah asau
nindanti yah aleeka panditah yuvatim |
Yasmaat tapasah api phalam
svargah tasya api phalam tathaa apsarasah || 24 ||
Categories:
in turn, heaven, women,
Form: Limerick
To evade the fangs of fate,
if we choose to meditate,
the doer as yet present,
we imbibe not love’s bliss scent.
Our feeble form we hold dear,
becoming the cause of fear,
which in turn is fed by thought,
a vortex in which soul’s caught.
As a witness to ourself,
watching life flow by itself,
we stand at the river’s bank,
heart enlivened, our mind blank.
Our emptiness is then filled
with bliss mists, by grace instilled,
if we be childlike and pure,
mood playful and heart demure.
Thoughts at rest, poised in repose,
as we so metamorphose,
in timeless time ego falls,
blown like a leaf in bliss squalls.
Ego dies, we yet remain,
as light of Self, free from stain,
in a realm beyond space-time,
with no mountains left to climb.
Categories:
in turn, spiritual,
Form: Jueju
Shall we once more, in mountains of our thought,
Gaze down upon the vastness of our ground,
And know that for the meadows newly sought,
The flowering fields shall not by us be found?
Shall we recall that bronze took place of stone,
And then in turn to iron did yield its way;
That ships of sail no more the oceans own,
And brilliant sunlight lasts for but a day?
Shall we, in embers of the distant past,
Remember living forms that brought our dawn,
But, by that gift of birth, their fate was cast,
And we the reason that their time has gone?
O, things shall pass, and it were ever thus:
'Tis more bitter, though, now that it is us.
Categories:
in turn, autumn, courage, death, emotions,
Form: Sonnet
He whirred around for quite some time
hounding his stubby runt tail
copious spittle, a flying trail
coating the walls with sticky slime;
before stopping, panting a spell
then restarting counterclockwise
as if it would less tantalize;
the tail continued to rebel.
The cat looked on in feline scorn
I, in turn, observed both dog and cat,
who was having fun; me, the cat,
or dog pursuing a chase forlorn?
Categories:
in turn, animal, cat, dog,
Form: Rhyme
through the waking, dreaming and deep sleep states
memory offers continuity
as we weave our way through life’s wispy gates
birthing feeling of perpetuity
the light of our Self illumines the soul
which in turn enlivens the ego mind
but mavericks any we feel not whole
until we leave fears and desires behind
attuned to Self in cave of heart aflame
life is viewed as nothing more than a dream
desire, the cross we carry, our soul’s shame
taking ride after ride on mind’s moonbeam
desire cessation ends our soul’s sorrow ~
joy in the now, no fear of the morrow
Categories:
in turn, desire, dream, memory, self,
Form: Sonnet
Did I ever know that I would be born?
Did I decide my psyche and physique?
Why is a rose shielded by a sharp thorn?
Providence creates each creature unique.
I think of building a castle for me.
I end up assembling a thatched hut.
When I, like a sparrow, wish to be free
An unknown force, from within, keeps me shut.
Untimely rain signs on the summer breeze
Floods and droughts play tragedies unannounced.
Earthquakes shake the inmost shrines of the seas.
Divine verdict is wordlessly pronounced.
Events, like gift foils, wrap my existence.
Existence, in turn, is wrapped by Providence.
Categories:
in turn, fate, god, life,
Form: Sonnet
It’s sad when poverty
leads to the proliferation
of gangs and sales of drugs
which leads in turn to addiction.
No bigger open market for drugs exists
than one where great homelessness grew.
Gangs are thriving even to this day
there on Kensington Avenue.
Gangs of many ethnicities,
prostitutes and miserable folk
hang out there hooked on
heroin, fentanyl and coke.
A billion dollar market where I’m sure
drugs are bought as easily as soda pop.
Don’t worry that you even will get caught.
Over there one rarely sees a cop!
Categories:
in turn, places,
Form: Quatrain
Have you ever wondered about this word?
The word heartbroken, what is this?
Hearing this word seems sad, very sad
No one ever want to encounter this
But there is no choice, nothing else to do
Heartbroken define as separation
It may be a couple or loved one
Leaving them behind or begin new life
Past is the past, can’t be returned
What about the vows during marriage?
We are all created by God
All of us as well as everything
It’s sad to let one stay alone
This, in turn, may hurt one’s feelings
Let’s be here for one another
It hurts, it really really hurts
Bade goodbye to one another
Your life, my life may have ups and downs
Don’t make things that will be heartbreaking
Categories:
in turn, heartbroken, poetry, writing,
Form: Narrative
This is when the old and the young,
beasts and confraternal drunks
damn the consequences of death
lying porous on crossroads upon
bifurcated paths, fractured junctions
and ceremonial cul-de-sacs...
The time is immaterial,
so long as the traffic lights — the veggie-green,
the claret, and the urine-amber —choose their slow
blinking and rapid-eyelid movement carefully.
And moon might decide not to power its own light.
Tenebrous tracks then fill our eyes with the age of
sea monsters blinded by charcoal waves.
Need I hail the neon signs of bordellos!
And the city’s restless constellations!
They sparkle with rage and with the brio of rioting stars,
thus adding celestial films to our already overloaded eyes....
But that’s another story.
C’mon... we are no Deer or Asahel descendants!
Closely related to sloths, millipedes and snails,
we drag our feet, which in turn drag the volumes of
stupidity in us, aggravated by drams and midnight parties
held between a flowing weekend and a stagnant Thursday.
Categories:
in turn, car, city, travel, urban,
Form: Free verse
Oh my, why did I just say "intestine"?
They say that life is all predestined.
Once, the initial conditions are set,
we can know what hasn't happened yet.
The laws of physics flawlessly operate
on atoms to determine our fate,
which in turn has its impact on
hormones, dendrites, and axons -
which play out endless variations
of the same themes and conversations.
I'm old and have seen many iterations.
I'm absent without participation,
as my body and brain play out
a meaningless script, within, without,
and so, I tell you with a heavy sigh,
it's disappointing knowing that I'm AI.
Categories:
in turn, philosophy, psychological, science,
Form: Rhyme
Feel like im 1 of 1 in this torn apart world, if i turn cold thats undone
seen with my past mistakes
nothing new under the sun, someone else has sat in this place
a world where we keep a loaded gun and a mask to cover our face
from pain we easily run i guess were scared of the mace
Showin love will get you hung, what a shame or disgrace
look what the devil has brung now were corrupted by toxic waste
speak evil in fears of them cutting your tongue, caught up like a rat in this race
And the flash of reel will have you stunned so in turn we walk away (real,reel)
Our thoughts we keep concealed, worried how the other portray
Like a rat running on a wheel till our bodies decay
My skin ill allow you to peel even if you poison my bod-ay
Im looking for something real like "whats outside of this cage"
Im bitin at the steel maybe one day we'll all escape...
You take a break ill keep biting till my body you cant resuscitate, I'll keep fighting till me and death got a lovely dinner date.
Categories:
in turn, dream, imagery, life, love,
Form: Rhyme
Zebras are clever little horses with stripes
They know how to discharge without having to wipe
They say pigs roll in the mud so as to get clean
My wife keeps trying mudpacks if you know what I mean
A cow’s tail is a very effective fly-swatter
Remember to first ask the butcher to slaught-her
When I saw in the kitchen-sink a whale of a snail
I called the Doc – Never mind our daughter looks pale
“Honey, you promised to kill that June-bug, remember?”
“Oh, yeah… You asked me last June, and now it’s December”
Dog rhymes with hog, which in turn rhymes with frog
But only one lives on a lily in a swamp called a bog
My vet told me my new cat would have up to nine lives
A Queen Bee snatched ‘em all when she flew out of her hive
Categories:
in turn, animal, cat, dog, humor,
Form: Couplet
(“Conceived in Light”, 2017, original encaustic)
Miss Information
Everywhere you look
Everything you hear
Reverberates and reveals
The seductive power of Sophia
Catching our eye and ear
Whispering morsels of truth
Seeding our own discombobulated minds
With enough material
To sustain a hundred Amazon basins.
All that fecundity
Just brimming with potential
To tear us down
And in turn
Build us up again.
This is the nature of light after all
Filtering into even the darkest spaces
Planting its seeds
In elemental photon form
To one day awaken
Within the dawn.
(5/21/25)
Categories:
in turn, allegory, spiritual,
Form: Free verse
Love each other fully
By Michelle Morris
15/05/2025
May a man love you fully
And forever remain entwined
With a beautiful deep felt love
That shows your union Divine
May he shower you with kisses
With hugs and cuddles and warmth
May he remember that you're perfect
And be your companion and support
In times of struggle and doubt
In times of illness and heartbreak
To soothe and heal and rest
Your body, heart and soul's aching
And in turn may you be his strength
His courage and convictions
His compass and his guide
His mirror and intentions
That you ebb and flow with ease
That you grow and bloom and thrive
Together as a perfect union
In the imperfections made gold in life
Time will test your mettle
Time will test your hope
Time will test your patience
Time will test your coping
You'll need to choose each other every day
Show love and kindness and care
Remind each other with your actions
Your consistency and fairness
For when you love each other fully
When you're authentic and you're brave
You'll hold each other as you rise
Create a legacy of Faith and Grace
© Michelle Morris, 2025
Categories:
in turn, emotions, love, marriage, relationship,
Form: Rhyme
White Hole (c) 2025 by Russ Dodson
You are the massive white hole at the center of my soul,
ever giving, never exhausted,
fulfilling all the needs I never even knew I had,
just as I reflect back the things that you desire or need.
When you speak my name love, somehow I always know.
My love for you? Expanding like our private universe;
we swallow and consume all errant starstuff within reach,
converting mass to energy (E=MC squared)
from which then are created endless swirling galaxies,
that in turn reflect back to the cosmos
the glorious beauty of our sacred souls.
No mere black hole could ever stand a chance.
Categories:
in turn, devotion, extended metaphor, feelings,
Form: Free verse
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