Tag: nature

VERSE | BE STILL MY BEATING HEART

On By Mahvash K. M.In writingLeave a comment 
Be still my beating heart 
It’s only the setting sun 
With its fiery orange hues 
Tinged with scarlet and indigo
They’re the colours of a day that’s done
Be still my beating heart 
It’s only the setting sun 

Be still my racing blood 
It’s only the ocean wide 
It’s waves unfurling liquid lace 
Onto my upturned, sun-warmed face
As I leap into the rushing tide
Be still my racing blood 
It’s only the ocean wide 

Be still my aching breast 
It’s only a trail in the greenwood glade 
Hemmed on the edges with wild flowers 
Glistening in the wake of a spring shower 
It’s only the whispering leaf dappled shade 
Be still my aching breast 
It’s only a trail in the greenwood glade 

Be still my breathless lungs 
It’s only the afternoon sky
With a rainbow that has looped around 
The azure blueness like a crown 
A beautiful palette of pastel dyes 
Be still my breathless lungs
It’s only the after-rain sky

Be still my quickening breath
It’s only the lover’s first kiss
You’ve been on that road before
You’ve flown where the eagles soar 
And also curled up where the earthworms live
Be still my quickening breath
It’s only the sweetheart’s first kiss

Be still my beating heart
It’s only the setting sun
The mystical ocean and the greenwood glade 
The after-rain sky and the lover’s kiss
It’s the enchantment that nostalgia has spun
Be still my beating heart
It’s just life in perpetual thrum.
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VERSE | SEASONS WHISPERER

On By Mahvash K. M.In Joy, poetry, verse, womenwriters, writingLeave a comment 
Where are you going my little one 
With your hands full of summer flowers?
Why do you have that smile on your lips?
Why do your eyes shine like stars?

I’m coaxing with play the Summer away 
She’s never ever happy to leave 
She’ll pout and she’ll wallow, go all shades of yellow 
She’ll moult in the throes of grief 

But when I pick up her bloom-strewn dresses 
And laughingly whisk them away 
She follows along singing a song 
And her sister takes up the reign  

I’m the whisper of the breeze flowing in the trees 
I’m the drops of morning dew
I’m the patter of rain on sun-kissed earth 
I’m her fragrance as she breathes anew 

I’m the usher of times, of blossoms and snow
I’m the forger of grand season farewells
I’m the music and cadence of the rhythm of life 
I ring all its wistful and joyful bells.

VERSE | HIDDEN AWAY

On By Mahvash K. M.In poetry, truth, verse, womenwriters, writingLeave a comment 
The rain is falling in sheets upon sheets 
Jumping into puddles, skipping over feet
Performing a symphony as it flows
Reaching a crescendo down the street
Where whirlwind eddies and the sidewalk meet 

The koi in the pond in the building know 
Something is up, they flicker and jump
Out of the water again and again 
But the ripples on the surface aren’t enough 
To join in the play of the skies above

They don’t feel the glorious downpour
Charge into their silent world thrumming
They swim up and down around and around
Waiting, waiting expecting something 
The sensory pleasure of nature dancing

But the koi will float in agitated oblivion  
To the playful frolic of the monsoon sky
As it cavorts with all of earth’s creatures
But not with the pond and not with the koi 
Our faithful tributes to a world gone awry.
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VERSE | SOULFUL INTERLUDES

On By Mahvash K. M.In poetry, serenity, verse, womenwriters, writingLeave a comment 
I look at the leaves
Serrated edges, little flowers 
And I wonder 
About its identity 
The shrub growing under the amalthas tree
You would know
You always knew 
As we walked in the street
Outside the house 
You could name every flower
And every tree
Every creeper
Even the sickness 
That gripped some of the leaves 

You looked at these 
Concerned, everything else forgotten
The fact that your own body 
Was racked with disease 
That ever-present pall softened 
By the enormity of your being
Your own pain erased 
And at that time, in that moment 
I too forgot
The wheelchair that you were in
That you were ill; that we were grief stricken 
I dived right in, feeling, seeing
You weaving magic around everyday things 
Flowers and trees grew chimerical wings

The swaying kachnar 
The beskirted Ashokas
Bobbing profusions 
Of jasmine and phlox 
Fragrant bunches
Of nargis and freesias
You pointed them out with happy ease
And worried when any of these 
Were less than their perfect selves
And I too smiled and looked
In wonder
At how joyfully you revelled in it all 
Holding infinity in your lit up face
Offering up so much love and grace

And for those moments 
I too forgot 
The pain and the grief 
It was you and me 
Sadness free
While you took me on ethereal trips
Where nature in all her fullness
Unfurled - beautiful, calming, brave
We were carried away on a gentle wave
The pitted leaves 
Still vital and green
Were the only things we needed to save

VERSE | BREATHE

On By Mahvash K. M.In poetry, serenity, verse, writingLeave a comment 
Stop and listen - do you hear 
The wind blow through the trees?
Let your mind soar up a little 
To the rustle of the leaves

Stop and look - do you see
Her golden yellow wings?
As the bee floats round the flowers 
Gathering nectary-sweet things 

Stop and touch - do you feel
The texture of the bark?
Of the grand old banyan tree 
It’s head swaying up with the lark 

Stop be still - let your heart fill 
And your atoms all slow down 
As you walk through the ethereal realm 
Of nature as she abounds

VERSE | THE ROSE

On By Mahvash K. M.In poetry, truth, verse, writingLeave a comment 
I looked in rapture at the rose 
As it waxed in the sun
A bold and brilliant orange 
In its emerald column

It was absolutely perfect! 
Its beauty was sublime 
There was little reason 
In the soil to bide its time

I felt a maddening urge
To pluck it off its stem
To put it in a vase
To covet that lovely gem

The sunset-coloured rose
Would glorify my room
The garden would do without
This one splendid bloom

The yen turned to despair
That rose I had to have 
And so the stem that held the bloom
Felt the force of my bare hands 

The break, it was not clean
Nor did it cleave in two
The stem that bore the rose
From the part that bore the roots 

The rose hung limply down now
Its head grazing the ground
Its petals seemed to fold in
As it moaned without a sound

I watched its resplendence 
Its spirit and its mirth
Flow out of it bit by bit
Back into mother earth

A lancing stab came tearing in
Somewhere around my heart
I had mauled and ravaged
Nature’s precious art

I can still see the rose 
As it lay waning in the sun
Like a little cut that never heals
The memory of it still thrums.

VERSE | THE LAST FLIGHT

On By Mahvash K. M.In poetry, truth, verse, wildlife, writingLeave a comment 
I look ahead, scan the horizon
The sun is just rising, brightening 
The world around me
I feel nature’s potency run through my veins
With all its might
Each muscle and each tendon tightening
I am ready for flight

My feathers gleam, I spread my wings
I catch a current of air as it sings
I lift off and soar 
At one with the world around me
I climb higher, and higher
I listen to the hum of the stratosphere 
I can hear the cosmic choir

I glide, I soar, I sail, I fly
In the startling blue of a cloudless sky
I dip, I climb, I plunge, I rise
I shoot ahead as the crow flies
I whoop in the throes of sublime joy
CRACK! I feel the fragments of lead 
Of human sport. I plummet to my death