(Spanish people find September to be very sad:
they call it "the little summer of the quince".)
Somehow, the silver birches simply know.
This splendid heaven, pure refulgent blue
can not abide. The grass fronds, stiff as glue,
like swifts and grillos, uninclined to go,
are troubled by the carking of the crow.
It’s autumn, and the rains are overdue.
A corpse whose hair improvidently grew,
September is deceptive afterglow.
At dusk, a silence falls across the close:
the trees stand tall and motionless, morose:
now unobtrusive, heretofore verbose:
tart evergreens like laurel, tamarind,
immortal olives, silver in the wind,
sing “adios verano, adios!”
Categories:
tamarind, autumn,
Form: Sonnet
Sign of new tomorrows?
The old ones may just say.
Agony, pain, sore sorrows!
Doubt, dread and dismay!
Wilted flower, came the rain?
Death, ye did disdain!
Thunderbolts across the main!
Blighted by the bane!
Soar above us, carrion crow!
Dappled light, thy roe...
Weathervane, point well to woe?
Reap just what ye sew.
Thus in springtime, new and strong.
Elders, ye belong?
O for heroes without song!
Sin's light, scuppernong...
Aim for hearts, O Cupid?
Well, sir, that's just my job.
Prisoner, enjoy thy bid!
Burglar, time to rob!
Rabid fire in darkness burn!
Hail, O sacred sight!
Tamarind a-taciturn!
Poison, photon, plight!
Jewel whom the hard sun off shone;
Surface yours: as bone?
O volcano, seen thy cone?
Debtor, care to loan?
Flickering the flame in fall?
Yes, and here is why:
Funeral, cast well thy pall!
Treacherous to try!
Gold long by prospectors sought;
Sparks of life were wrought?
Deadly venom, often bought?
Foreign wars a-fought!
Cold the coals of chaos!
Forever smolder bright!
Dancing stars of fine-flung gloss!
Reign eternal, Night!
Categories:
tamarind, absence,
Form: Rhyme
1.
quiet morning _
petals love the watering hand
2.
shadows of a tamarind tree _
your company
3.
jute bangles _
smell of perspiring hands
4.
light warmth _
cups love having tea from your teapot
5.
pale yellow hydrangea _
our moonlit evening walk
_____________
July 2, 2025
Categories:
tamarind, imagery, nature,
Form: Haiku
A Night of '89
Footsteps at midnight
the knock no one dared answer.
Dogs howled in silence.
Charred Bodies on the road,
eyes still open to the sky.
The crows never ask.
Posters on the wall
by morning, the faces fade.
Smoke curls from tire pyres .
Mother lights a lamp.
Her son's shoes still by the door.
She dares not whisper.
Gunfire in the dusk,
then a scream the wind carries
who will name the dead?
Red water flows past
the paddy field in full bloom.
No harvest this year.
Schoolbag on the step—
its owner taken at dawn.
Chalk dust on the floor.
Whispers fill the lane.
Even silence has been killed.
Eyes blink like shutters.
A list with red marks—
young names, crossed out by the state.
The clerk still records.
Cicadas still sing
though men hang from tamarind trees.
Life pretends to go.
Categories:
tamarind, anger, cry, death, fear,
Form: Haiku
Tinge, thy colors terrific.
Weather wave, point where?
Heaven and Hell, this may stick!
Brick upon the bare.
Red the rampant real? Rind? Rhyme.
Tornados in time.
Wind above the city, chime.
Tequila, thy lime.
Yak upon the mountain;
Which way doth trouble lurk?
Rubbish, fill the garbage bin!
If you work, you shirk!
Psyche, soul tormented;
This place sure stinks of doom!
Lyre of love lamented!
O curse on pharaoh's tomb...
Bloom upon the tamarind?
Reality grinned.
Sin, thy light the whole world pinned!
Challengers a-chinned...
Roll that boulder, vagrant king!
Silver is thy sting!
Drenched upon but undying!
Rail about the ring!
Levels sinking in the pool?
Silent lies the spool.
O young people, keep it cool?
Flayed dismayed, fair fool...
Ghoul, thy magic terrible;
Golem, shall we ride?
Room within the brazen bull?
Bailiff, how you tried...
Categories:
tamarind, analogy,
Form: Rhyme
Generation, slide like land?
Fall into the sea?
Toil, tamarind! Much is planned!
So then, file my plea!
Weather, looking bad of late.
Volcanic my hate!
Cross the world or just the strait?
Better set the date!
Thunder, roll above us all!
Floodwaters to rise!
Fate and Fortune, fill the hall!
He who seeks the prize:
Here is one last riddle!
Nothing is to last?
Play, O second fiddle?
Goblin, ghoul, and ghast.
Yellow as the sky on Mars?
Get them when they come!
Flicker, harpsichord! Thy stars!
Deadly beats the drum!
Wall atop the northern waste?
How bad does it taste?
Nighttime women, staying chaste?
Turkey, long for baste?
Calibrate! Do not be late!
Suffer from it first?
Garment white as powder! Bait!
Plans of foemen burst!
Categories:
tamarind, baptism,
Form: Rhyme
Aim dead center, O aeon!
Era, this is now.
Ergo, O my stern scion;
Come to anyhow!
Looking-glasses are like wind.
Reality grinned.
Terror, tiger, tamarind!
Sacred til he sinned...
Gaunt the gambrel goblin?
No smile a-face today.
Whirling dervish, loud the din!
War, be on thy way!
Grey of the nebula pond;
Why is waiting good?
Yellow-speckled viper yawned!
Gone but understood!
Kingdoms are like prophecies?
Yes, in this context:
Rife, roil, rampant, rare! Disease!
Hell and Heaven, hexed...
Sort it out, O sordid sigh...
Do not ask us why?
Sylvan silver, art thou shy?
Bargain basement buy?
Syllable, unleash thy wrath!
Letters, break the chain!
Poems, place us on the path!
Language, take the lane!
Young is this old harpsichord?
Harpy, use a sword?
Bull, matador. Which gets gored?
Folly gets you floored.
Holly. Mistletoe, thy doom.
Poison, flow like wine.
Ivy, rune, ice, ancient tomb.
Cyanide strychnine.
Categories:
tamarind, baptism,
Form: Rhyme
Knights of the nebula pond?
Kingdom Gone, return.
Witch and wizard, wave thy wand!
Tamarind taciturn...
Knight errant by lightning struck?
O for help to call!
Cult black magic, I've got truck!
Luck, best drop that ball.
Stuck with indecision?
O plight of prisoner.
Seeress, here is worst vision!
Reality, blur!
Chained atop the atoll wild?
Mother, stillborn child.
Young lovers unreconciled.
Slaughterhouses tiled.
Mild, art thou, O fickle Fate?
Helpful is such hate!
Intellect, be not ingrate!
Gold, go to the gate...
Wait a second, Fortune.
In what hole ought I fill?
Tomb of pharaoh? Trick or tune?
Boon, how to pay bill?
Where then to dig? Why split my wig?
Swine, bequeath to pig!
O dark matter, space is big?
I don't give a fig!
Garden lost from ancient times?
Wind, rattle those chimes.
O for boxes about mimes.
Drop upon, my dimes...
Mariners immemorial?
Land ho? Not just yet.
Ergo, editorial?
Poisonous thy pet.
Forget? O river Lethe, thy sheath!
Belladonna, bequeath?
Mistletoe, art best in wreath?
Hollyhock, thy heath...
Categories:
tamarind, absence,
Form: Rhyme
Thought, with intelligence? When?
How about the proof?
Setting fire to where and when?
Devil, art aloof?
Fire inspiration, thy pun.
What to do for fun?
Good sense, laddie, and reason!
Fly not close to sun!
Cold fusion, thy harpsichord.
Crystal glass a-flow.
Demon -sultan, fife and sword!
Hell and Heaven, row...
Toil and turmoil, tamarind.
Dappled roes a-fly.
O Reality, how ye thinned!
Grinned the gangrel Sly!
Water of the chasm deep?
Haunts within the sleep.
Void, abyss, around step creep!
Dragons, time to reap!
Vampires, paint thy eyes black!
Do not face the day!
Spend thy life holed not in crack!
Poisonous to pay...
Coals of dark fire, sing in me!
Fling, O fancy-free!
Dynamite and destiny!
Stay awake for she...
Categories:
tamarind, sweet love,
Form: Rhyme
Summer speaks:
“O wandering Wind, why do you sigh so soon?
My sunny days are not yet through.
Must you come with dry and falling leaves
To cool my fire, my joy, my golden hue?”
Autumn replies:
“Dear friend, I do not come to take, but to change—
To wrap your songs in softer light.
Your warmth has shone so strong, so long,
But now the world asks for rest, for night.”
Summer protests:
“See how the mangoes still drip with sweet,
How the koel sings from tree to tree!
Must all my bright and happy hours fade?
Must I now bow and give in to thee?”
Autumn answers softly:
“I only paint your last goodbye—
I touch your skies with calm and peace.
The fields you warmed now glow with grain,
And your last storm’s tear finds gentle release.”
A silence falls.
The sky is still. The tamarind trees don’t sway.
Then Summer smiles, and drops a single flame:
“Go on, dear sister, sing your lullabies…
But tell sweet Spring—I called her name.”
Categories:
tamarind, adventure, art, beautiful, best
Form: Rhyme
Psyche, in the morning hours;
Belladonna flowers?
Dancing stars in silent showers?
Glimmers, glows, and glowers!
Ariadne, webs to weave?
Wisdom, will ye grieve?
What ought mortals to believe?
What ought I conceive?
Kali Mother, over boil?
Face down in the soil!
Military, might, embroil?
Serpents, coals a-coil...
Queen Tomyris, papyrus?
What indeed to write?
Cyrus caught a virus?
Reality, fade white!
Crabapples brew for Crassus?
To "most indecent" go!
No use skipping classes!
Revenge for him, my foe!
Tyrannosaur with face a-stern?
Tamarind taciturn!
Canis Major, what to learn?
Dinosaur, discern....
Heaven, storm, thy journey long;
Inspired by a song?
Fate and Fortune, blow a-strong!
Daughters, doth belong...?
Over, soul? Remote? Control?
Position, thy pole.
Nearby stars, hope, golden bowl?
Mole, dig toward the vole.
Categories:
tamarind, change,
Form: Rhyme
Our love is like a bowl of curry
Sour and salty, then sweet and spicy
It lingers and savors slowly
Explodes a burst of umami
Perhaps the lemongrass and lime
Gives aroma of our passing time
What is life if you're not mine?
A lonely shrimp floating on a brine
It is often misunderstood
A healthy meal doesn't taste so good
But affection that is unwooed
Is unreal as cheap fast food
As I took a sip of tamarind juice
A peak of pleasure it produced
My heart melted and infused
Knowing your love I'll never lose
This is our love story
That sees beyond taste and beauty
True love shall never hurry
But waits until it's ready
Categories:
tamarind, food, love,
Form: Free verse
Where are the bamboo
Banana husk, dad's stone chair
Mom's vegetable pots.
Where are the rice fields
Peanuts, peas, potatoes
Corn, cassava, sweet and tamarind.
Where is my childhood place
I look for every sunset
Just look out at the simpliest things.
Now I have to fill up everything
To open up the road, open everything else
Why I am not happy at all.
This is the progress you said
Converting farmland to townhomes
Why choose the mountain anyway.
My heart breaks seeing greediness
Easy money dislocating happiness
On the lowly and the unprotected.
How long avarice living the land
Of simple living hide in the sun
God forbade how small conscience is.
Is urbanization answer loophole minds
In the lowland of wizardry breed
Is this what Third World country thinks.
Categories:
tamarind, happiness, perspective, political, success,
Form: Free verse
Mulligatawny, soup for you,
Uniquely, peppered, seasoned through,
Lots of ingredients, we might use,
Lentils, a mustard seed or two,
Interesting flavours, we might choose,
Garlic, chillies, tamarind too,
Adapting, finding, something new,
Trial and error, tastes good, it's true,
Always learning, that's what we do,
Warming, nourishing, filling too,
North, South, East, West, the whole world through,
Your soulful bowl, of poet's stew.
Categories:
tamarind, appreciation, food, imagery, poetry,
Form: Acrostic
"recently scenes of early life have stolen into my mind, like breezes blown ..."
- Quote by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (from his writings)
When I was young and innocent,
I enjoyed life just as a child,
Had fun with friends magnificent!
Playing games out there in the wild,
Running around free, playing catch,
Chasing dragonflies, how we smiled!
Sharing jokes, we were quite a batch,
Climbing trees to pluck and eat fruits,
Not bothered about scrapes or scratch!
We had our own share of disputes,
Got o'er them just as children can,
Followed grand whimsical pursuits!
Sometimes we walked, sometimes we ran,
We thought our childhood life was cool,
Cycling around, we hatched such plans!
We gorged on 'chaat'* outside our school,
When I was young and innocent,
Trusted each other as a rule,
Had fun with friends magnificent!
*'chaat' is a sweet and sour, tangy Indian snack made up of raw vegetables, puffed rice, boiled chickpea, boiled potatoes, tamarind chutney, spices, etc.
10th October, 2022
For Constance La France's "Writing Challenge - Past Memories - "T" Forms" contest
Categories:
tamarind, childhood, friendship, fun,
Form: Terzanelle
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