Long Anklets Poems

(after Edgar Allan Poe's "The Angel of the Odd")

It was a tidy day and I sat, replete, under vellux blankets.
Sadly, my tea was weak, the bottle of cinnamon whiskey
tantalizingly low, and my feet swelling above...

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Translation of Oothukkadu Venkata Subba Iyer (circa 1700-1765)’s « THAYE YASHODA » by T. Wignesan


This devotional song and poem in Tamil (the principal Dravidian language which has spawned over twenty languages in the southern Indian...

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There stood a castle on the summit of a hill
Now fallen to decay, hidden among bushes wild
It perched like an eagle’s nest on the steep hill
It was owned by a Lord, gentle and mild

Blessed with...

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Deep down my heart veins,

There prevails the clouds of 

darkness that rains

But I condense them like 

morning dew,

Apply on my eyes with its kohl,

And the world hymns, so divine 

and beautiful.



Sometimes my blood runs cold...

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In time when night turned to dawn, I could see, 
It all appeared like sheer fantasy. 
Light-hearted, I put on my office hat, 
And hurriedly in my horse carriage sat 
To drive away myself to...

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14: If the soul meets death when Sattva prevails, then it goes to the pure regions of those who are seeking truth.
15: If a man meets death in a state of Rajas, he is reborn...

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Dismantling Dysphoria -New blood synthesis


All colours evaporated, vitality ceased
Deep agony! Topsy-turvy my life turned 
An inferno of grief engulfed my heart
Surged to the top, pain of bereavement
No panacea, no potions to douse...
Alone she left me...

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tread on! move on! in this life’s caravan,
unending trail of life from dusk to dawn!
pass skeletons in sand from days of yore,
sand has blown over, past footprints are gone

man with limp walks to meet destiny’s...

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hold still, eventide ...
   I am a capricious cad among wraiths,
     waltzing with a mop in
      a Marrakesh courtyard - catching stars
  ...

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Diminishing virtues stripped away
From the flesh
By the fierce brined rods that freely 
Course thy hot crimson blood; 
Dry cracked lips attempting to
Fashion broken words of compliance
That so must needs to be spoken...
But...Ohhh, Meretrix...
My foolish and...

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sometimes I sing 
antique anthems,
of the nights 
I was confined 
  within a bottle
of diamond tears,  
wept woefully
   from the widest sky
that held kaleidoscopic stars~
amidst festooned fields of 
pixie-dust flowers,
hanging like...

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Month December had brought paddy harvest too.        Father was busy in the field for harvesting.             ...

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In a room bubbling exuberance
and a gaiety crowd dancing to beats
we sit across each other ten feet apart,
his whispering pulses become audacious
every second approaching my heart
and I shiver as they unravel my layers,
intimate desires beneath...

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I shoulda seen it coming, but blind I was with love
Had I been cautious, I could have given it a shove

*	           *   ...

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Come As You Are
by Rabindranath Tagore
loose translation by Michael R. Burch

Come as you are, forget appearances!
Is your hair untamable, your part uneven, your bodice unfastened? Never mind.
Come as you are, forget appearances!

Skip with quicksilver steps...

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l.
Opening the closet of narra doors, I sweep through
organza skirts and  gemmed ringlets; my hair
ruffling aimlessly upon scalloped kerchiefs
smelling decade - old hyacinth, Mom’s favorite
ambrosia: she would  lift her anklets
in tiptoed hums, ”night...

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Hell breaks loose through the trusting door
Whining its splintering, wooden hinges
Claws wrapping onto the arches beyond
Gnarled feet pressed on the threshold
Lower limbs jingling with sparky anklets
Ready to catapult and kick with spitting mouth
To shove its...

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SATIRICAL: SATIRIZED EUPHONY

Hissed her path to say No
As amulet dangled on her' dandled
Tis so sweet to trail the forlorn 
As no help came to a hearty hut

On the rafter was a treasure kept
To a loned...

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Quote from the original translation

Awake! for the morning in the bowl of night,
has flung the stone that puts the stars to flight,
Lo! the hunter of the East has caught
The Sultan’s Turret in a noose of...

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there is a brothel there down the street,
built like a palace three stories high,
hear anklets jingle on dancing feet,
with singing and drums as you pass by.

I have chanced within once as a youth,
to savour pleasures...

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hold still …

eventide -
I am a capricious cad among wraiths
waltzing with a mop in a Marrakesh courtyard -
catching stars as they drip with
waxy and wild wonder
into the braids of my maudlin noose
tightening …

jangling, dangling -
rose...

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P o e t r y
the timeless nepenthe
to my aching soul,
a cluster of calming couplets
caressing the ventricular vortex within my heart.
When dark is the dawn,
when cold is the air,
and heavy is the garnet
I wear around...

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Her name was Anarkali, 
an eloquent carnival of legendary beauty.
a dancer in the court of Emperor Akbar.
Deep russet rouge blushed her red,
a silky smile on her rosy peach cheeks 
rich, sensual and seductive...
With the sweet...

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You, the high handsome himalayan peak
And I am flickering flowing river which speaks
You, the graceful harmonic  hesitation of heart
And I am open elegant alive profound poem
You are divine dissolute dense darkness
And I am taste...

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f o r g i v e n e s s
is the window
to unknot the twigs of tainted trees,
where cuffed anklets
around the star-struck skin of
seraphic silhouettes
feel the suppressed sighs
of the ice-moon,
while
cocooned in a nest
of clamorous...

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