valentine day

अक्सर होता है ऐसा 
लफ़्ज़ रूठ जाते है सभी 
अक्सर तभी 
जब दिल लबरेज़ हो 
अहससातों से 
ज़बान साथ नहीं देती तभी
मेरी ख़ामोशी के ये फूल
क़बूल कर लो तुम
ये कहते है वो सब
जो मेरा दिल कहना चाहता है
लेकिन दिमाग़ मानता नहीं
आज फिर ख़ामोश हूँ मैं ...
-विनी
१४/२/१६
(वैलेंटायन डे था और फूल दे रहे थे सभी...)

The Dance

The Dance 
I thought that when one danced the waltz, she said,
One simply followed where led, 
Willingly Suspended disbelief, 
And let the music do the rest, 
And? He said, that's not how it is ?
She sighed, it's more like a battle of wits,
A step forward inevitably followed by two backwards,
Leaving one suspended in space,
Cautiously matching pace,
Folding agonising angularities into pleasing shape,
Struggling to obliterate
The movements, the sounds, the smells,
That share that space,
All senses ablaze,
I so wish, she said,
That closing my eyes could,
Make the world fade away,
Leaving just you and me,
Dancing at will,
Ah, he said,
This is what I understand,
The world may indeed fade away,
But who is to say,
That the forward and the backward,
May mirror our lives,
And that we'd be caught waltzing
To the tunes that time played,
From the nadir to the crest,
There really may be no escape.
-Vinny
12/2/16

Voices III

Voices III



You have such a way with words, he said, 
For I have heard your words speak in many tongues, 
Unspoken ,When pensive, suspended on sighs,
Unfurl like the white mists,
Wrap themselves around me,
Cold, unforgiving, all obliterating,
I have also heard them sing,
Mellifluous,soft, lilting,
When elation thrills the senses,
When light banishes the dark,
When joy lights little fires within,
I often hear them in the spaces in between,
At their craft of voicing the intended,
Pausing, the unsaid, pregnant with meaning,
Suspended in time, waiting to be read ,
I hear you ponder, debate the intent
The content,
Weigh the phrase for effect,
And I wonder,
Do you know that you let slip,
A thousand words from between your lips,
Discarded unused,
That seep through the threshold of my awareness,
And find their meaning with me ?
-Vinny
26/1/16!