Author: Mumtaz N K
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Aleph
In search of the mystic opening was I ! A teacher op’d my eyes, Touching magically, Lids numbed by ignorance, Leading me towards The gateway to heaven, The castle of knowledge guarded By gnostics from centuries. *** But suddenly the glitzy world Enamored a naive me. Then, in my heart, desire swelled Thumping at my…
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Cartographies of Longing and Belonging
I. The sidewalks are the same, Though the green has faded Giving way to a browned winter, scrubbed clean. Nestled in the pallid wintery boughs lies the moon, ‘Tis trapped in a triangular web. The liquidy Moonlight’s reflection, melts into amber pools, That mellows the night’s edges. The city’s a canvas Etched on our pyches.…
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No Mathematical Love for Me
Alchemy and mathematical formulae Can’t win me I’m flustered by signs foreign My heart stops, and fear Cloaks me, if you wish to Win me, then explain not Your love with symbols Representing ‘Eureka’ Algebra or Chemistry Instead utter six simple words: At last I have found thee ! **** Imagine,the plight of My poor…
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Whisper My Name Just Once…
#Poattic-5 #Rewind A day, I thought perhaps would suffice I’d rewind the hands of Quietly fleeting time. But can a day ever suffice The love exchanged in a lifetime? *** Alas! Too soon have you left With a searing pain my heart is cleft. One half goes with you As I bid my last…
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Soul's darkest night
Be like the silent twinkling lights That welcomed Ram, Sita and Laxman After a fourteen year long exile. Let red ochred lamps you light Brighten the world’s darkest night. On such nights, Oh cowering soul, Despair not of death-like shadows, For Nachiketa, then returns To lead us in quest of the jewel-like wisdom Hidden in…
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Muted Spectators
Ominous high-pitched voices In some sort of emergency On the phone, calling up for An ambulance, mingle with shushes. Tongues click in despair. A shrill “We-oow-we-we-oow “, Echoing far and wide, Pervades my being as if A dozen sirens were Piercing my ears. My senses, I muffle with Familiar sounds: Hushed cries of a baby,…
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Dare I Ask For More?
Winter brings its bounty Of gifts, when tulip bulbs And crowned lilies bend, Weighed down by crystalline Snowflakes and rime. Winds dare not disturb Frost-laden branches bent. *** All’s buried in mounds Of snow’s chaste innocence. ‘Tis, wild’s wintery quiescence. The world’s still awhile… Shush! None dares disturb! Snowy carpets muffle footsteps. *** Then, to…
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Singed Letters
Your letters, yellowed with time Are Now a brittle trellis carved By silverfish; Singed hearts they paint, Aflame with ochred love, They are. Can they capture gaps filling eons? Or test the hardy vine-like Chords that bind hearts, cleft in twain? **** Since time blurs gaze Words of love pale Like slow dying embers That…
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If Meetings Are Truth
#Poattic-4 #Poetryparlour #Lies If meetings are truth, Then partings are lies. In this cyclic world Rushing hither thither All screaming silences die. And circular points disappear. One hastens through a motley crowd Into the comfort Of a tenuous heart’s tie. *** ‘Tis this silken strand That anchors A time-worn traveler’s Blighted heart, affixing It into…
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Lies and Deceit
How dearly I paid when I learnt about your lies, Honeyed-words glazed in caramel and spice! I took you for my mother, Her shadow you weren’t, rather. My hands were thrust in yours son’s But, Lady you forget, my spirit wasn’t unto anyone given. Your ill will, loathing and envy Forever charred our destiny. Embers…
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Diamond Dust
As the moon slides past midnight, The star studded sky Sprinkles its diamond dust On slumbering boroughs, Unbeknownst to sylvan dells, thickets And murmuring streams. *** Then in dreams Regal Fate Casts her stellar spell, Stepping down To kiss li’l ones, A Wiccan wand, she waves The broken-hearted, to bewitch, And mend teary smiles. ***…
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A Poet's Journal
Emily Bronte’s Journal “You have to approach writing like sex: It’s supposed to be enjoyable, not stressful. If you’re trying too hard, everything will turn out awful and your partner ( the reader) won’t be satisfied.” Mark Zacchio How daily prompts annoy! Poetry, should appear magically: Like twilight’s fragmented memory, Or, catnaps in October sun’s…
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Lantern
The road’s a grey ribbon Tossed through Verdant fields, A psychedelic experience, My soul seeks a release. Away from din I celebrate rambling through Lantern-lit Muddy-brown fields. Oh, for rustic dusks That are dreamy indeed! Swinging lights On a liquid amber Turf with Titian tongues of honeyed-flames Flickering like fireflies In a masonic jar. To…
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And you say I’m not in harmony
”…but what a humiliation when one stood beside me and heard a flute in the distance and I heard nothing, or someone heard the shepherd singing and again I heard nothing, such incidents brought me to the verge of despair,…” The Heiligenstadt Testament: Ludwig Van Beethoven Pounding on the ivory and…