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Vinaya Joseph Poem
Humans are in a mad race,
We live in a world,
Created by desires,
A world of illusions,
A world of ambitions,
I see people making plans,
Short-term, long-term, all sorts…
Set targets and deadlines to attain,
All have become bloody hoarders!
Everyone wants to achieve something,
It’s one goal or the other,
Some hope to acquire wealth,
Some seek health, wisdom, peace,
While others want comfort, excellence, and love
The list is varied and endless…
Life is such a paradox
We run behind satisfaction,
Chasing our dreams,
Amusing ourselves with the little gains,
Creating happiness in our brains,
This adds meaning to our lives,
Gives stimulus to our thoughts,
But this process never ends,
It is a vicious cycle,
We scale one height of success,
And see in the near distance,
Another mountain to climb,
Yet another challenge to conquer
Little wonder then that life,
Becomes a constant struggle…
Where does this race end?
Where is the finishing line?
Perhaps at death's bosom,
And, what do we actually have then?
To boast of…
Nothing, absolutely nothing!!!
We leave behind everything,
We achieved in our journey,
From cradle to grave
And are grounded
All the worldly desires,
That our soul seeks,
Comes to a naught…
In this race
Life loses, death wins
And, this has been the only way,
Through decades of existence
Oh death!
You are period…
Life’s sentence ends with you
You liberate us,
From all the afflictions,
That affection brings forth…
Copyright © Vinaya Joseph | Year Posted 2015
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Vinaya Joseph Poem
Who am I?
I mull over my identity…
And I ponder
Each one of us in this society,
Belongs to a ‘religion’…
To a set or a group,
And each set of people
Have their ‘rules of conduct’
Have own customs, laws and legislations,
I feel I am a misfit,
As I don’t belong to any of these groups,
Though I was born to a Christian family,
When I was baptized,
I did not even know what baptism means?
Yet I got the tag of being a ‘Christian’
Weird, weird world
Who is right? Who is wrong?
What is true? What is false?
Who defines it?
Human beings after all!!!
Here each set of people,
Have a name for their God,
Some say Jesus,
Some say Allah,
Some say Ram,
Some say Laxmi,
Some say Ganapathi,
Some say Krishna,
Some say Kali,
And the list goes on,
It is hard to assign an image of God,
Comes in all shapes, sizes & forms,
In all genders,
Be it male or female,
With fascinating fables,
Surrounding God,
Aren’t all these characters?
Who people worship?
Created by man?
Weird, weird world
We have built churches, mosques, temples, synagogues
And other places of worships,
As our God’s abode…
But have we ever thought,
God created this whole universe,
The creator need not dwell
In these concrete man-made edifices,
He is there within you and me,
Why search for him in these structures,
Weird, weird world
Religion divides humanity,
Into chunks,
Adds to the anarchy,
Creates boundaries and conflicts,
Among humans,
That only love can conquer,
So many lives have been lost,
In this struggle for supremacy,
Across centuries,
Yet humans fail to understand…
Weird, weird world…
Wish if things could change,
And people could realize the worth of life…
Copyright © Vinaya Joseph | Year Posted 2015
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Vinaya Joseph Poem
I feel,
A strange hunger
A hunger for freedom…
Though I have,
Yet I desire…
A deep unfulfilling kind of starvation…
Can never get too much of freedom,
Freedom…
Intangible yet priceless,
Like air,
Invisible yet vital for life,
Embrace but don’t abandon me!
Without you,
I will be like fish out of water
Give me the space,
To live my life,
The way I want to,
With whom I want to,
I understand there are constraints,
I understand that absolute freedom means anarchy,
But allow me to make my choices,
To create my own little world,
Free of dogma and prejudice…
Let me do,
What I want to do…
I don’t dream of an unreasonable world,
But a world of reasonable limitations…
A fair world,
Where justice is not a delusion
Am I talking of an imaginary world?
No, I am not…
I want to be free,
Just like animals in forest
Just like birds in sky,
Just like busy ants,
Just like jumping squirrels,
Just like galloping horses…
Give me freedom…
Freedom from anger,
Freedom from attachment,
Freedom from anxiety,
Freedom from bitterness,
Freedom from craving,
Freedom from chaos,
Freedom from depression,
Freedom from dilemma,
Freedom from diseases,
Freedom from despair,
Freedom from darkness,
Freedom from deceit,
Freedom from dishonesty,
Freedom from envy,
Freedom from egotism,
Freedom from fear,
Freedom from frustration,
Freedom from fright,
Freedom from fury,
Freedom from grief,
Freedom from hatred,
Freedom from irritation,
Freedom from imprudence,
Freedom from jealousy,
Freedom from lies,
Freedom from loneliness,
Freedom from medicine,
Freedom from narcissism,
Freedom from oppression,
Freedom from pain,
Freedom from poverty,
Freedom from pride,
Freedom from resentment,
Freedom from rigidness,
Freedom from sorrow,
Freedom from subjugation,
Freedom from trouble,
Freedom from tears,
Freedom from torture,
Freedom from temptation,
Freedom from vanity,
Freedom above all,
From these mountains of challenges,
That I am surrounded internally and externally,
Let me be like a bee,
That sucks the nectar
From the flower of life,
Without harming it…
Like the beautiful lotus,
That thrives in dirty pond water…
Let me enjoy the freedom,
Without disturbing others…
Free from all bondages,
Allow me to dwell,
To live
And let live,
A life of my choice,
To breathe
The fresh air,
To fill my world,
With love…
Oh, Master
Give this servant
The freedom
From the precincts of life
Allow me to rest in peace,
In the bosom of your earth…
Copyright © Vinaya Joseph | Year Posted 2015
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Vinaya Joseph Poem
Days became weeks,
Weeks became months,
And gradually months turned into years…
I wondered,
God, what did I learn over the years?
What did my relationships teach me?
Each one was special,
Was love a mirage?
An arrangement,
An adjustment between two people…
I truly don’t know…
I wondered,
What lessons my heart learnt?
That it was best to invest in self,
Rather than waste your time on others…
It is a far greater grief,
To have a man’s love,
And then lose it,
For me,
Memory lingers,
I befriended pain in the process,
It became an integral part of my life,
Inherent to me…
Wish If I could go back in time,
And erase the whole experience,
Had I never met some,
I would not have to
Go through so much of hurt,
Was the experience worth it?
I truly don’t know…
It kind of left me,
An outcast in my own eyes
Hard to put my past behind me,
But it always intrudes into my present,
Everyday is a silent struggle
Quiet yet turbulent,
Tough to explain
But...
Looking back now,
I don’t blame anyone,
I am the writer of my own fate,
I let others exploit my innocence,
I was emotionally weak then,
And that’s where I went wrong…
Did bitter experiences,
Make me a better human?
A sort of discovering
My latent strengths,
Did destiny stimulate?
A burning passion in me
To improve myself,
Did it transform?
The breeze into a tempest,
Did it turn?
A dull fable into a masterpiece,
I guess,
It helped me,
To emancipate myself,
From the shackles of relations…
Copyright © Vinaya Joseph | Year Posted 2015
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Vinaya Joseph Poem
Life is a puzzle,
I am trying to solve…
A dark mystery,
On which,
I am trying to shed light upon…
As I struggle to solve this riddle,
I seek from the creator,
To place no fetters on my freedom,
Let me grow
As the world around me changes,
Like the leaves in the wild,
Turn brown from green
Basking in the yellow sunlight,
Dancing in the rains
Let me mature
Like the bees drawing nectar from the flowers,
A pair of mating butterflies
Exploring the garden’s colour,
Let me imbibe nature’s beauty,
Enjoying the fragrance of wet earth,
Like a meandering river in the hill,
Let me flow
Here lies a world in transition,
With no permanence,
In this growing society,
We need to adopt,
And adapt to changes,
O creator,
Let me take pleasure
In your creations,
In unbridled liberty
Let me live
Copyright © Vinaya Joseph | Year Posted 2015
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Vinaya Joseph Poem
Dizzy with heat,
A city prayed for shield,
Against boiling temperatures
Sun, the scoundrel
Stood up to its ill-repute
Of burning with fury
And played a prominent role
In this celestial display
Towering above all characters…
Then enter clouds,
So many of them,
In all forms,
Spread across the sky,
Bright at first,
Then growing dark…
Birds sing a special alarm,
I could see the clouds pride slowly swell,
As multitudes seek its benevolence…
In presence of the angry sun,
Green grass charred brown…
Monsoon in her good graces keeps away,
Till the winds garner strength,
The atmosphere is all charged up
And the sky is overcast
And wandering clouds embrace each other
Their bosoms filled with the milk of love,
In a swift turn of events,
The clouds decides to shower
Her affections on parched earth…
Slowly the sun turns pale and staggers behind,
And lo, I see drops from heaven…
Finally rain arrives,
Accompanied by thundershowers
Man’s holy and unholy desires
All gets washed away,
Stems with weak roots gets ripped apart,
Heat fades away and sickness disappears
And my surroundings teem with fresh greens
And bright new life…
Thank you God
For the healing drops...
Copyright © Vinaya Joseph | Year Posted 2015
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Vinaya Joseph Poem
All by myself,
I kept thinking,
Who is there for me?
The long wait
For that someone,
To share my life with,
Who will be besides me,
Till I breathe my last…
Hand in hand,
To explore the wonders of life
But as always,
Love was elusive,
For me
Many of my friends
Found their soul mate,
But I didn’t
Many a times,
I have questioned myself
Is it me?
Where did I go wrong?
So many times,
I questioned God,
God, what kind of test is this?
What kind of game are you playing with me?
What lessons are you trying to teach me?
I really don’t understand…
My eyes welled up,
Even while I was writing this,
But then, for a moment, I forgot
You are blind and deaf,
A prejudiced God,
Some you favor,
While others you don’t
Some you give,
While others you don’t
Why do you discriminate?
Must not you be fair and just?
What criterion do you follow?
In making your judgments…
How undue?
Justice seems to be an illusion,
In this world of yours…
Millions pray to you for strength,
They say to have faith in you,
How do I have faith?
When you can’t sense my pain?
That I am going through…
And I understand,
That I am in queue’
Millions before me,
Millions after me…
And it is sad that you are taking me
To a point where you want me to break down,
Fall at your feet
And beg for peace and happiness,
In these hours of darkness…
What kind of father are you?
Who wants his daughter to cry?
To fall at his feet for mercy,
‘Our father, in heaven,
Holy be your name,
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done…
Forgive us sinners’
That’s what you taught us trillions
To say, each day
In our prayers…
And I am no sinner,
Why make me one,
I just felt that you are
Plain selfish…
I am not ending these lines,
As my thoughts
Are like a bottomless abyss
That ceases to end…
Copyright © Vinaya Joseph | Year Posted 2015
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Vinaya Joseph Poem
All by myself,
Surrounded only by my thoughts,
In my home,
With no modern gadgets of communication,
No WhatsApp,
No Facebook,
No mobile,
No ‘virtual’ friends,
Away from all,
In the real world,
With my animals and plants,
With my mother,
I sat down,
To weave my thoughts,
Into verses…
Words, words and more words,
Are these verses?
I truly don’t know,
I let my mind,
Let go,
I didn’t bother,
If it was grammatical or not,
I simply let my thoughts flow,
Without any hindrance…
I wondered,
Have I ever written?
An ode to February…
Then again,
My heart was heavy,
As I lost a friend,
Don’t ask me why?
How we take our dear ones for granted,
And it hurts, when they go far
How fragile relations are…
It just takes a few seconds,
To break a bond,
I realized,
How weak the foundation
Of our relation was…
Shattered love
Just like the rays,
On a broken window pane,
How vulnerable,
I have become to emotions…
I thought,
Love liberates,
But it made me,
Dependant on him…
Back again to my self,
I wondered,
People come and go,
What was constant in my life,
Were my parents,
The sun, the moon
And the stars
February mornings
With its sultry days,
Sun was shining,
With a vengeance,
I could feel the heat,
On some days,
Clouds burst in unannounced,
In the evenings
Wet the earth,
Its dark nights,
Moon was shimmering,
Caught a glimpse of her silver hem,
In the pitch black sky
Accompanied by little stars…
The month of love
Tugged irresistibly on my heart strings…
Copyright © Vinaya Joseph | Year Posted 2016
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Vinaya Joseph Poem
I thought
My relationship with you
Was inseparable,
Beyond the frivolities of existence
Everlasting
But then I was wrong,
Everything is ephemeral,
Nothing lasts forever,
Neither you, nor me
I thought love did…
But then I was wrong
Miles away,
I can only hold you in my thoughts,
Make love to you in dreams,
And let it be like this,
For eternity…
Copyright © Vinaya Joseph | Year Posted 2015
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Vinaya Joseph Poem
Totally unfiltered thoughts,
These are mine.
Oh my God!
Look what I am up to,
Capturing thoughts on conflicts between head and heart,
Your mind might mislead you,
Your heart is a very wise teacher.
Only when you remove yourself from the chaos can you see things clearly.
Let’s move on.
Time to chase what I really love,
Time to chase what I really want,
I want to be me,
I want to have fun,
I want happiness,
I want love,
I want to kiss life,
I want the perfection that mom had,
I want to go ahead,
Thank you God for everything,
I have to take risks,
I am done,
Helping people
Thank you so much God,
I won’t let you down
Always trust my gut,
I want to be free,
I took the courage to walk on unconventional path,
I don’t settle for anything less than that I deserve,
I did not ignore the calls of my heart,
If things have to change,
I have to change myself
Copyright © Vinaya Joseph | Year Posted 2023
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