In hope of better karma

In hope of better karma

In the midst of the squalor
The stench, all human life
Teeming in millions, poverty
Beyond belief a mere existence eked
No hope, save, with luck, the next time round
Reincarnated more fortunately, an upgrade
Not bottom of the heap, dung heap
Flies, barrel scraped
A country which spreads no safety net
To catch its poor or sick, its elderly
Or sad or mad
See here a miracle has bloomed
Green landscaped lawns
Shaded walkways, quiet order
And central, rising, glinting in the glare
Merciless, a Golden Temple
Such wonder Bollywood or Disney might have dreamt
But this the vision of a local boy
So all the more miraculous
Astonishing
The masses come to pray
To walk in circles, chanting, and in hope
The gods will then be good
Will ease their pain
Or send the rains, a baby
Long-desired, or marriage partner
Kindness, some better karma
B Sc for student son
A doctorate for a daughter
A way to climb beyond the filth
The struggle and the gutter
Where politicians lie and cheat
Corruption fetid in the air
No wonder then the people come
To marvel at the yellow gold
Whilst calculating weight and price
To bow their heads before the god
And walk in circles, chanting
In hope of better karma

25th January 2010, Guest House Veppaneri, S India

Nagadevi

Even now, your life reduced to barest bones
A cage for monstrous pain,
And all your fierce woman's flame
To bitter ashes
Even now, you struggle upwards from the bed
Whispering of coffee
Hospitality still imperative
And you the mother in this home


Impotent the words in both our tongues
No comfort in regret
The shock of your diminishing
Is shouting in our eyes
Perhaps you feel our sorrow
In the touch of fingertips
For silenced by the pity here
Compassion's all our gift
To you, the mother, heart and soul
Beloved in this home

17th January 2010, K V Kuppam, for Nagadevi

Best described as love

Best described as love

With just a few words
Perhaps fifty Tamil me, and you
Two dozen English
Plus, your phrase,'Body language'
Smiles and laughs and hugs
Not usual in your culture
But borrowed now from us
Together, in our strong determination
To communicate
To tell each other we are glad
So happy, rumba santoshum, to be back
Pulled from village house to house
Each family with food or drink, a welcome
Warm to give
One year on returning home
From home, stretching our languages
Across the barriers of age
And lives lived half a world apart
To a perfect understanding
Each of each
That what we share here
This day, this place
Is best described as love

14th January 2010, for Balaji, Raghu, Suresh and their families in Sitaramanpet, with love

Like a prayer

Like a prayer

Side by side the women stand
Small, sari-clad
Fluidity and elegance in every careful move
Silver anklets on bare feet
A sweep of sequin border
Falling like the stars
The well-worn everyday routine
Peel chop grind wash
Coriander coconut and rice
Is quietly performed
Beautiful as ballet
Offered like a prayer

14th January 2010, BTC Guest house, Vappaneri, S India, for Selvi and Vidya

All the lovely others

All the lovely others

New year, blank page
Nothing yet written
Though pleasing words are buzzing
Vying for attention, willing
Me to choose, best smile
Plastered on, coo-ee, waving
Winsome, wanting their moment
Ink on the page

New book, number 4
Moleskine, naturally
I've been seduced, signed up
To that charming, manufactured
Myth, me and Picasso
Bruce Chatwin, we artists
Aficionados of its style
The pleasing size and feel
Left thumb spreading
-Though new soft cover?
Jury I think still out-
But most of all, convenient
And portable, to catch
Them as they fall
The chosen ones, eventually

It's hard to make the first mark
On that pristine snow glare
Page, this road then, not that
All the lovely others,
Possibilities not realised today
But that's creation for you
A poem or a child
These words, these genes
Uniquely strung, just so
And who would have it otherwise
This January day
First lines committed, something writ
Fresh prints across the snow

10th January 2010, Premier Inn Heathrow

Let's hear it for the Chi

Let's hear it for the Chi

It's all about the Chi
You see, the moving of it on
A needle here, in
Liver 3, correct deficiencies
From A to B or even Zee
She strives to make it move
Stagnation in the liver
Woe, think torpid sluggish pool
So banging head a blinder
Sitting just above the eye
With vomiting for England
But get it going, lively
Tonified a-buzz
Step it out with vigour
What neat results you'll see
So you and me together, let's hear it for the Chi

10th January 2010, Premier Inn, Heathrow, for Rosie with love

A rampart raised against the dark

A rampart raised against the dark

Is it now the eighth or ninth

Slow plodding day of Christmas

Over-heated indolence

The New Year rung and toasted

Fingers crossed, a better world

Than last?

When throbbing head I venture out

Mummified against the cold and bite

With layering of scarves

The day now dropping into darkness

Shops still lit and sparkling

How desperate the ringing tills

And in the Laines the lights are strung

Electric blue in filigrees

Beneath the gorgeous sky

A milky turquoise deep and rare

Then three bare trees

Silhouetted white

Bright Christmas shimmering

Perhaps an easy trick

Still, fleeting for a moment

My human heart's consoled

And a fragile rampart's raised

Against the creeping dark

2nd January 2010 Brighton, after John Burnside ' We are all building ramparts against the dark'. For Anna with love

Perfect as a Jill

Perfect as a Jill

My dearest friend

This long long time,

I think of you and smile

You, never big enough for grander given name

But perfect as a Jill

The first and best good news of '48

Yours and mine, our special vintage year

A friend to me

In need, indeed

Or all my whole life through

My listener and comfort

An arm of consolation, small shoulder for a weep

But much more frequently

The two of us have laughed

Together from our youth

Heedless of teachers disapproving

And puzzled partners

Not sharing in the mirth, hysteria

Missing quite the joke

No wonder then I treasure you

And wish you all that's good

This New Year, dearest friend

Beloved birthday girl

30th December 2009, Brighton, for Jill with love