Is it enough?

When we met six years ago
I'd fallen for you at first sight
We became closest friends, but
It never went anywhere beyond

And there were many reasons
For you to not accept me then
I was poor, I was out of shape
I was younger, totally an alien

But you were always with me
Protecting, supporting through
Struggles life generously gave
And I always kept wondering

Wasn't just love enough?
Why were so many things
Important for relationship
To pass the feasibility test

Since then six years passed
We graduated from college
I got a job in a different city
You went abroad for change

And yesterday we spoke again
After many years and people
That passed over between us
And finally I got my answer

Not that you said it, but in a way
I did listen that yes love is enough
Even a relationship is not needed
To live life, no matter what happens

Catch 22

I wrote hundred poems
All about your absence
But how'd it have been
If you're actually there

I doubt I'd have written
Any single line or phrase
I'd have been too consumed
To've thought anything else

In the strange contradiction
I discovered you since losing
If I had you - I'd never find
Beyond ourselves anything

Doldrums

I inherited a handy sailboat
From my generous parents
I was taught basics and left
To care for the boat myself

There was always the option
To keep back in my yard safe
It'd be unscratched and cared
But sailboats are meant to sail

So I packed my bags one day
Said hasty goodbyes and left
To the mighty blue sea ahead
Confident I'd navigate myself

The sailboat first glided through
The waters like a knife on butter
I had enough supplies for myself
Refilling at the ports on my way

I did see a bit of world travelled
The strange customs and foliage
But stuck to the seas that I sailed
Away from shore time stagnates

But slowly all the years added
Sailboat got weary very unlike
My earnest self that remained
Longing sea wind on my face

And thanks to my disregard
For maps I started reaching
Uncharted turbulent waters
Violent tides and hurricanes

After a particular wild spell
I had reached Equator close
And all of a sudden the wind
Stopped as I was up nowhere

At first it felt really so strange
Thought I was a veteran sailor
I could handle any wind there
Surviving without I'd not cared

But now there's absolutely no
Choice but to stand and wait
All the supplies to be rationed
Attend to my sailboat's repair

In a sailor's worst nightmare
Filling journal with thoughts
Few stray tales here and there
Until a wind pushes me again

My last love

You are my last love
Because my heart can't
Take any more of strain

They'll put placard on me
List out my good features
Try hide my unsightliness

You are my last love
And you are beautiful
As I myself fade away

You are my last love
And you do mean a lot
But unlikely I will say

You are my last love
But its better this way
There'll be peace again

Speak to me

Sometimes life whispers
Sometimes shouts at me
Yet life I never do listen

But suppose life I did
Listen and followed
Life what you told me

No more splits or spills
No more broken pieces
I'll be whole, I'll be me

Is not

What is love I wonder
What it's not I do know
It's not any attachment
Neither is it base desire

It is not companionship
Ask a guy friend zoned
Isn't about filling needs
Ask anyone who's used

Isn't about being warm
Anyone can fake smiles
Nor is it incessant quarrel
Who'd stand anyone rude

It's not going out on dates
You've so many to choose
Of course it's not marriage
There'd not be such abuse

Love is not writing poetry
Else poets won't be losers
It's not the mushy movies
Look at actors' real lives

Believing in love is like
Believing in God actually
There's little proof for it
One must find it to feel

Majority of us who don't
It's better to be an atheist
Than follow silly dreams
Reality will so soon bust

Colours

Few splashes of red
Some tones of blue
You colour me life
You paint me true

Keep writing

I keep writing despite
Many attempts to stop
Pouring my heart out

Isn't it pointless now
Today's world poets
Have no more place

We are a dying breed
Maniacs in disguise
In garb of normalcy

Tied down by fetters
For basic necessities
Following the system

System which feeds
Clothes and shelters
Binds us to the earth

But our soul wishes
To fly mystical lands
All peaks and abyss

No wonder thus poets
Are fragmented within
Leading double lives

One as a slave toiling
To make all ends meet
The other an alchemist

Mixing words to form
Potent potions to find
Gold from base things

Leaf and stone

Leaf torn from tree

By the fierce wind

Now floated in air

On the wind's arms

It danced upon free

Spiraling to its end

Finally it was free

From fate's tyranny

Being stuck always

The tree's nurturing

Now a sad memory

But life never waits

It fell upon a stream

Drifted further away

Till submerged down

Resting on a crevice

Of a rock very old

Which held it tight

'Let me go', leaf said

'Before I disintegrate

With flowing water'

The rock said, 'this is

The way I am, I don't

Move, I hold steady'

The leaf by then

Faded into water

Rock stood still

After billion years

Rock melt to lava

Fluid in magma

It kept circling earth

With magnetic waves

Searching for the leaf

Trillion years later

Sun burst supernova

All turned space dust

Tiny particles of the

Leaf and stone united

And danced eternally

Waiting

I'm slightly emotionally exhausted... I'll take a break from writing for a while. Sharing one poem I wrote long back... But possibly my best poem till date. Here it goes...

Waiting

And so Radha waited

Its been weeks since

He left the village

To the big city

To conquer heights

Win glory and pride

She wished to write

Letters, pleading him

To return at earliest

But she didn't know

Where he was staying

With whom he plotted

She lost her appetite

And her sleep worrying

For her beloved's well being

After a week of agony

She spent locked up home

News came from far

The demon in Mathura

Has been slayed heroically

Krishna was now a king

She rejoiced happily

Went to the river

Where they used to meet

But her reflection scared her

Unkempt hair and bloodshot eyes

So tonight she decided to sleep

But the dreams were scary

There was blood and battle

And Krishna a hero, not a man

Morning Radha woke

And decorated her home

Flowers she picked herself

And she waited for Krishna

To return... war and madness

Had taken its toll too far

Slowly in daze a month passed

All her letters were unanswered

Till one day she heard a rumour

That Krishna had happily

Married a princess and

Lived in a grand palace

She didn't believe a word

Screamed at her friends away

And she still waited and waited

Seasons came, seasons changed

But Radha remained longing

Till it became a legend

Krishna a God and she a devotee

Truth became a fantasy

And the fantasy... the Truth