It felt love

Universe by Neha

How

Did the rose

Ever open its heart

And give this world

All its

Beauty?

It felt the encouragement of light

Against its

Being,

Otherwise,

We all remain

Too

Frightened

- Hafiz

Jal gaya sara badan

My Mother (1912–13) by Abanindranath Tagore

Sochate aur jaagte saanson ka ek dariya hoon main,
Apne guldastha kinaro ke liye bahta hu main.

Jal gaya sara badan, in mausamo ki aag me,
Rooh ka mausam hai, jismein ab rehta hoon main.

Mere honton ka tabassum, de gaya dhoka tujhe,
Tumne mujhko baag jana, dekhle sahara hu main.

Dekhe meri pajirayi ko aab aata hai kaun,
Lamha bhar to waqt ki, dahliz par aaya hu main.

- Athar Nafees, Sung by Ghulam Ali, As remembered - Ma

I am Vertical

Destination by Neha

But I would rather be horizontal.
I am not a tree with my root in the soil
Sucking up minerals and motherly love
So that each March I may gleam into leaf,
Nor am I the beauty of a garden bed
Attracting my share of Ahs and spectacularly painted,
Unknowing I must soon unpetal.
Compared with me, a tree is immortal
And a flower-head not tall, but more startling,
And I want the one's longevity and the other's daring.

Tonight, in the infinitesimal light of the stars,
The trees and the flowers have been strewing their cool odors.
I walk among them, but none of them are noticing.
Sometimes I think that when I am sleeping
I must most perfectly resemble them --
Thoughts gone dim.
It is more natural to me, lying down.
Then the sky and I are in open conversation,
And I shall be useful when I lie down finally:
Then the trees may touch me for once, and the flowers have time for me.

- Sylvia Plath