As I thanked God, it was the best
Showing gratitude towards humanity, it is the best
Feeling that someone or something was looking over
Luckier than a four leaf clover
I was happy, it was true
Don't want to feel bad, don't want to feel blue
But be grateful, it's nice to say the least
To not say bad things, don't be a beast
Look at the good and not the bad
Say everything is cool to people, it is rad
Get away from the negativity
And just be happy, don't be bad
What am I saving?
What did I come with?
What will I go with?
What is use of knowing?
Why we still are greedy?
What will end my search?
If knowledge doesn't do.
Sense of self, apart from body,
put by others and so on.
I often wish I was luckier.
But I am highly grateful too for whatever.
My dead face makes me shut up,
And pushes into a deep hole which has no end.
When i love you, I think of you
Like the early sun's warmth arising
enveloping my body to make it glow
Listening to the birds singing
With a sweet tune a ringing
Your image in my mind
Reminds me of what I have found
With just a few clicks in the past
I'm forever grateful that we connected
It is much more than I expected
Although we're miles apart
Technology plays it part
Translating the words we say
The words, the feelings, it conveys
Without it we would have been lost souls
But fate has helped us reach our goals
The distance tears my heart often
And then I see you face, what a fortune
I'm luckier than all the sevens
You are a gift from heaven
When I love you, all the above are true
All because I think of you
Jack sits in the wheelchair in the grass
a rebel nerd, he thinks of the time
when he cycled up Teton Pass
by a stream through walls of pine
Obsessed, this viewpoint vampire
his memory full of hill and vale
A landscape loon, an odd desire
But now his body is his jail
The harried nurse to her surprise
Distracted from a patient's cries
sees a vision in Jack's fogged eyes
lakes and forests and crimson skies
[chorus]
In each scene, views so grand
At six thousand feet, he biked along
Never quite reached the Promised Land
But the last verse is not the song
Kate sits in the same old age home
A relic from a bygone show
Her friends long dead, she's now alone
Her melody no longer on the radio
She was warm and could be all heart
Now a meteor in afterburn
She knows that bodies fall apart
Resigned or not, the wheel must turn.
[outro]
Jack and Kate were luckier than some
They were free, knew right from wrong
They lived a long life, and had their fun
The last verse is not the song.
I wish I could tell you
How I feel
When I wake to see
You sleeping next to me
I wish I could describe
The rhythm of your breath,
Rising and falling
Like mountains and empires,
Emerging and dissolving
Into warm, tranquil seas
And in the sweep of your tide,
I remember that I am mortal,
And luckier still
That I’m alive to see you—
So still and peaceful
In your temporary death
And in the swell of the sea,
A tear comes to my eye,
Reminding me
That I am salt
And water
Breaking against the present moment
But, because I cannot tell you this,
Instead, I lean down,
Gently, carefully,
And kiss your fragile head.
To my future love,
one word is all I need
too many are spoken falsely
too many so sudden
then fizzle to an end
Pity me
from one to another
I shall only give
when a man gives in return
But alas
the sky is luckier
then I
when the dark
finds his beautiful sphere of love
His Wife
Comfy cat did not watch the news.
Did not worry about robberies or home invasions.
Slept soundly through sirens, whistles and police chases.
Rolled around the bed in happy uninhibited ways.
Luckier than any human in history.
Lucky I to have fate so sublime
And luckier yet to tribute this rhyme
To my astute, bright, superb team slime.
Foremost is Janki - a pure-heart dime;
With wise saws, quick wits, lively and prime;
Trustworthy, motherly, wonderful all time.
Next is Gautam - clear, clean and pal prime;
Helpful, reasonable, sharp yet simple chime.
Tejas - a perfect, punctual, sweet lime,
Ready with answers, active, apt thyme.
Kiran - conducive, kind, Hindi rhyme;
Talkative, approachable, yet sublime.
Vidhi - a guide, mentor and convoy mine;
Constructive, just, cool, without any crime.
Jinal - young, dashing, sweeter, fresh thyme
Gained goal: teaching those who taught – no crime.
Local language is taught by the chime
Named beauty Hetal - neat, nice, bright stime.
Ashaka, a helping hand, is fun-time.
Paridhi, another aid is beauty’s shrine;
Sensitive, stress buster, acts peacetime;
Understanding, lovely, soft at break time.
Last but not least is Shivram meantime
Shayri, history, Geo; lazy no crime.
All gems bright true and precious sublime,
Bestowed by the almighty in time
For my assistance in this school prime.
Here my mono rhyme thanking all the slime.
Put upon a pedestal thin as a razor blade
where you must balance precariously
for the higher it’s raised the longer the fall
It’s simpler to say and do nothing at all
It’s far too risky to care
to put yourself out there
You slipped once before
perhaps you were pushed
It left a nasty scar
which is quite a coincidence
You’ve never been the same since
as when a child’s innocence
has been stolen away
Wisdom is won by such wounds
but much can be lost too
We are all simply people who
eat, drink, piss, sh*t and screw
until we come to our inevitable end
A few are fortunate and do it
in penthouses, mansions
fancy flats in exclusive sections of cities
sleeping on satin sheets
while some must settle for a single room
a shack or the streets
At least in one respect they’re luckier than you
The world doesn’t give a damn what they do
Our grandkids came to visit
With their parents - what a treat!
We laughed, played games, took walks, explored -
The package was complete.
Of course, there had to be a few
Small snags along the way,
Including some enthusiasm
With a price to pay.
The sliding screen door to the porch
Took quite a bruising blow
When someone ran right into it -
That’s how things sometimes go.
We didn’t make too big a deal -
Thought it could be replaced -
For home repair skills aren’t assets
That we have embraced.
But to the rescue came our friend -
More handy than we knew -
Who, with a borrowed tool and patience,
Saw just what to do.
Some fiddling around and then,
Voila! Our door’s repaired.
A lovely end result for which
We weren’t quite prepared.
How lucky to have friends like that
But luckier by far
To have the grandkids visit,
As rambunctious as they are.
Spectacular is the luminescent trail of a fallen star
whom the Heavens regret it's goodbye;
and speedier than meteors they go far...
while the astonished stargazers' eyes fantasize!
They will lose sight of the radiant spectacle...
staring at other stars luckier than they are;
nobody could guess their destination in a limitless universe;
the beauty of the celestial bodies is fragile and adverse,
it can fade any moment, its fate is unpredictable...
are humans and planets connected to the bizarre?
Imagine an astronomer making a new discovery
and finding out it had evaded the set boundaries
it was confined to by the force of spatial gravity
and how perplexed he would be by its disappearance?
So we would be when the loyalty sworn to someone vanishes
and makes hope crumble abruptly and doom our existence!
Be wary
be chary
Life's scary
beware
O, faint-hearted one
please reject this advice
Don't be afraid
to roll the dice
Life comes around
just once as they say
The more things you try
the luckier your day
Yes, I do have a black tie he said
He showed up with it stuck to his head
His wife was not classy
Her gown was quite trashy
They were escorted to the flower bed
The next couple was luckier than that
They brought along a dog and a cat
hidden in their coats
Were put onto tugboats
Tossed out to sea past the graveyard flat
When I was a kid, my granny adopted an orphan girl;
I felt insecure upon knowing she would snatch her attention
One time I told that lady to step out of our house
I didn't know that granny heard what I said
She hugged me saying, "You should not treat her like that,
you are luckier and more pampered than her,
if we will not love her, who else would?
Besides, homeless like her deserves
to be taken care of "
I felt contentment after hearing those words,
But one day, as I talked to that lady
I found out that she was receiving more money
than what granny used to give me for school allowance
Asked granny about it and again hugged me, " You are luckier than her".
Note: 14 lines
3 May 2021
For "Footprints" Old or New for a Prize Poetry Contest"
Sponsored by Carolyn Devonshire
3rd place
Museums are quiet except
For crackling parquet floors,
Wooden squares, a game board:
Checkers or maybe chess
Of various right angle, grain striations.
Parallel to paintings in oil, red lines
Begin a court for pickup basketball.
But whether subjects of famous battles
Or romances between animals and gods,
They are stuck in a frozen frame moment
Like mammoths in some La Brea Art Pit
It is this instant we are to see anew
Each brush stroke, a wisp of hair,
A dab of white, a cloud condensing,
I lean close.
An unseen alarm makes a statue come alive,
A funerary, votive docent who guards
Mesopotamian and Egyptian antiquities.
She curses me in hieroglyphs translated
And dictated from an Old Kingdom tongue.
My crime: too close to art.
As if my admission, and apology
Were not punishment enough.
I could have cast my eyes
At strangers surrounding me.
Vatican visitors are permitted
To touch the Pieta statue for luck.
Suspecting it has only so many
Touches before marble succumbs,
It’s luckier not to take a chance. (1/30/02)
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