बरसों हुए होंगे

बरसों हुए होंगे

याद नहीं है अब,
बरसों हुए होंगे,
रोए ज़ार ज़ार,
रूह की तकलीफ़ जज़्ब ना हो क़तई,
कुछ यूँ के देह काँप जाए,
वक़्त के उस लम्हे में,
एहसास जब चुक जाएँ सभी,
सिर्फ़ साँस सुनायी दे सिसकी सी,
बरसों हुए यूँ रोए ज़ार ज़ार,
और यूँ भी नहीं के,
ज़ब्त है अब ...
विनी
२१/२/१६

In stitches

In stitches 
I am falling apart at the seams, she said, 
You unravel me  bit by bit , stitch by stitch, 
But what scares you so ? he asked 
Soon I'll have lost my facade, she said, 
It's scary to be so exposed,
Haven't you done enough,
I'd rather you wrapped me up,
But don't you see, he whispered, 
How essential this is, 
For Unraveling the old just might,
Give us the threads to weave, 
A new tale featuring you and me, 
Oh , I fear the tangles,she said, 
We might just get knotted up, 
Or drift apart, 
Or we just might, he smiled, 
Find enough material for waft and weave, 
And spin a whole fabric, stitch by stitch ... 
-Vinny 
5/3/16

loss

Loss 
I've lost you to these walls you've erected, he said, 
It's as if we never were, 
And that all I have is an insubstantial being, 
The nymph my imagination thrived on , 
No longer inhabitants my dreams,
Why is it that She is no longer seen ?
A solitary tear rolled down her cheek,
I lived in the seas of hope and rode the tides of expectations,
She sighed,
Those waters find not the shores, I find,
I've been adrift so long, I've lost sense of time,
These walls, they do anchor me within,
The belied hopes banished without,
Contained therein , serenity , I find,
You've lost me to my fears my dear,
I can now,only ride the tides of time.
Vinny
13/1/16

Of War and Peace

Of War and Peace 
It's the white noise that always got to me, she said, 
Incipient, it seeped through to my soul, 
Rattled my consciousness,
Till I could think no more,
Forcing a retreat.
And did you find peace ? He asked,
No , the world followed as did its conundrum,
Every which where I went,
My spaces shrank,
And I cut myself up into little bits,
Always in retreat,
But found no peace,
The invading armies, all conquering.
Perhaps you could ponder, he said,
How did the noise get in ?
Perhaps you let it in,
Fearing the emptiness within,
Brought on by the retreat?
Let down my defences and,
Manifested my death wish you mean ? She said,
That may well be,
For peace must really lie within,
And all I ever did,
Was to let the white noise seep in...
-Vinny
26/2/16

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!