Japanese Zen Garden
I created this garden for you.
With silent winds and a still heart.
Where radiance unfolds its fragrance,
filled with a sweet nosegay,
I offer you Egyoko-bowls of blessing,
Jewels of wisdom.
As we listen to the koto zither,
Plucks its strings, echoing through
through Bonsai trees,
We feel Fuubutsushi takes hold:
The atmosphere is filled with objects
For your delight while reading haiku.
This invitation is my request to you:
whisper of the lotus, a moonlit pagoda,
Bamboo shades beside flowering sakura.
Cherry blossoms echoing the Jade River
Of ancestral tradition.
While we sit in a kanen moment
under the glowing moon,
The light reflects off a mediating
Samurai statue.
Surrounded by karesansui, the day
landscape that prompts Shizuka,
A quiet calmness.
A still circle resets upon the pond,
And koto tones sing behind the
Wind chimes in the yoake no shijima-
The profound quiet of daybreak-
at the end of the unfolding night
In absolute stillness.
Here, in Kokoro no Niwa-
the garden of the heart, my soul
amongst the forgotten notes,
We share Haru no Neiro:
The melody of spring.
fell
poisoned
burned in blaze
drowned in wild flood
shot by an arrow
stone wall collapsed in sleep
claws lost their grip on brick wall
last life lost, fell under a train
nine lives spent chasing fate's dark design
but lives fold back into hidden nines
digits encircle to new lives
27, 36
their digits add to nine
lives begin again
cat's life revives
fate resets
nine more
lives
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
the old year exhales~
a scrap of confetti clings
to the bottom of my shoe.
midnight laughs, half-drunk,
while my resolutions dissolve
like sugar in champagne.
somewhere, a clock resets
its tired hands.
somewhere, a last firework
forgets it was ever lit.
I linger on the verge of a day
not yet formed, my pencil
poised over untouched parchment.
Love stories?
My girls, we're 20.
It’s time we grow up.
We’re not princesses dozing off to bedtime stories,
our mums reading us about knights in shining armour.
We know love’s been exploited, right?
It’s old-school now.
Sure—I’ve hung posters of an ideal man on my walls,
as if subconscious could manifest through desire.
I know they’re society-driven contradictions.
I chose them anyway.
I’ve run my mind thin over “elevate your standards”
and “if he wanted to, he would.”
But how do you help it?
Love cuts through reasoning.
It flips your world, resets your systems,
reduces everything to one person.
After years of maturing, growing,
of trying to erase these foolish feelings—
I still arrive at the same place
as the sixteen-year-old self.
I still call out to him.
Every second.
I still want him to come to me,
to bring peace so I don’t have to keep running
from the safety of his embrace.
But you, my girls—you get it.
You’re lovesick too.
So no, I’m not sorry.
I still love love stories.
Death is calculated.
According to me.
The weirdest person ever.
Everything just resets anyway.
Like a puffy eyed reset.
Lifting us up.
Forget about what happens.
There’s too many memories balanced on my being.
Nothing bad can happen to someone weird.
If something bad happens…
I guess I am too.
All alone.
It felt like no one would ever die.
When you do something so dangerous without hesitation…
You stop what death is.
Death is,
The weirdest person ever.
Just make him feel awkward in his cloak.
Just make him feel worse.
According to me.
And still he died.
According to them.
Spring, always
just a few weeks away.
Dark branches begin to bud wet
I knew you couldn't stay.
How I remember our first Fall,
and the long Winter most of all.
I must make amends and start again,
isn't it funny how love resets.
Wi' misty hands of time
we're bound to forget,
our fading summer.
Forgiveness is a dilemma -
Offering goodness freely where none was given,
can suppress rightful anger, grief,
accountability, cause and guilt.
There are two sides to the rub for
getting mutual relief, and getting over the hurt caused.
It relievers the burden of resentment.
It regains the sense of control, with peace after turmoil.
It repairs trust and resets mutual understanding.
But, what forgiveness gives,
it can take away and be harmful as well.
It can suppress rightful anger and grief, you may need to feel.
It can be a form of denial, laughing it off, taking it on the chin.
It can open you up to repeats with no consequences.
Not forgiving, not forgetting,
can be a grim form of protection and learning,
building resilience, making you stronger
in the face of adversity.
Some wounds need justice, not silence and
acceptance disguised as graceful forgiveness.
What gives with forgiveness
is what it gives to the giver,
first and foremost, in the dilemma flip.
sunrise resets time
as regular as clockwork
few markers standing
AP: 1st place 2025
sadness leaves body
calm peace overtakes my fears
mind resets itself
the day is about to rise
and again i could not sleep --
i breathe in the freshness of the morn
and in the stillness of this air
emerges from yonder the horizon
a hush aglow that calls to me
it's calming, it's soothing
like a voice i recognize from afar
almost music to my ear
and for a graceful moment i’m hypnotized:
two eagles soar across the sky and suddenly
the world seems to me in perfect harmony
AP: 1st place 2023
photo taken by Chandana Ramachandran
If consciousness dies
is that all there is
or does some higher state
reimagine what was
When consciousness dies
will birth reoccur
no longer indentured
to time and its spurs
If consciousness dies
do rainbows of light
take over our essence
transcending our sight
When consciousness dies
is confusion bereft
as reference get buried
—and prescience resets
(The New Room: March, 2023)
Beyond despair
new light is found
where wasted moments
live again
Befriending capsules
lost to time
the air forgiving
free of sin
Beyond all hope
there lies a wish
where cherubs promise
saving grace
And hopes and wishes
are reborn
as memory resets
—love embraced
(The First Book Of Prayers June, 2012)
Shall be well praised
Grace of thy sky
Where beauty does rise
This miracle unfolds
Each time it is told
Built through trust
God loves us
Well kept
As time resets
Through the ridge of God's shoe
We seek for you
A path to walk free
Jesus loves thee
We wished upon
Where do we belong
When indeed we are
His brightest star
Now within sight
Believe what is right
You were asked to explore
Chose and answered God's door
To see us be more
We reach for our love's core
Miracle was shown
Moment be known
This is my own
( updated today Jul 22 2026)
Near Love's jasmines breeds
the weeds of jeopardy
Attitude threatens the petals
Stable and sweet one moment
Miserable the next,
Inner insecurities prickle
Nitpicking on trivialities
Ecstasy of passion yet resets
I fall for amorous lap
Yet my heart still bleeds
in a silent chorus
My heartstrings the choir
with guitar strings
The thorns of roses prick
Nuptial jasmine leigh withers,
every thundererous weather
But always regrows
in connubial bowers
and love's spring showers
The chorus a poet bleeds
in ink and quill...
Tears of joy and sadness...
Colour Schemers
Arab Traders excavated
Europe laid the foundation
The New World framed it perfectly
The rest of the races roofed it
This …
Inordinate economic concupiscence
Shadowy sham, animated by a violent passion
An extraordinary alteration
So…
Nature convulses
Human dignity reduced to
Colour: Black, white, brown, yellow
But …
The scale corrects itself
The clock resets
The scheme falls apart
Because …
There is only one humanity
It’s you.
It’s me.
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