Half Dead!

I was on my way from the war-zone
To the peaceful territory when I fell among
Many robbers, who stripped me,
By paying a worthless small song
For my large land and huge property
They beat me with their traditions and prejudices
That made me appear a useless alien
And went off leaving me
Half dead while they multiplied
The easy profit of my hard toil
And my careful long term assets

Many priests did pass by
And took me with eagerness
To fill their pews and coffers
The Levites too followed them
Who stood by with their pious glance
To lift me to make me support their cause
Samaritans were too many
To hire me for cheap reward
Damning me in the permanent inn
Until I finished my green papers
To clean their stinking ass!

Henry Victor 03.01.2002

My Luggage

Fifty years of life, learning, and luggage
Five million rupees worth of asset
Ready to seek fertile soil, but at present
Reduced to seven pieces of baggage:

A Chinese alarm clock
A pan to cook Tamil breakfast
Coins to get to the airport
Carefully selected photographs

Dictionary to dictate denotation
Diary with names and addresses
Fabricius’ Bible of 1777 (not for reading!)
Fennel seeds and Dianil tablets for excess sugar

Gifts for prospective friends
Games to play in the plane
Priceless papers defining degree
Precious documents permitting to ‘pee’

Some cotton clothes for company and self
Sandalwood soap, silky socks and shoes
Underwear’s to last only for some years
Umbrella to take cover from cosmic curse:

Arriving in the new home I discovered
Arrival of my luggage is to be delayed
While I rapidly learnt my sending root
Without withering too to be postponed

Henry Victor 09.07.2002

bedside stool from my mother

miles, and miles, i have carried

carrying on my shoulder, on my head

and also on my back

from bunker to bunker i carried

cherishing, protecting that memory

from every single aerial bombardment

your bedside stool, a simple symbol

painted in green, your choicest colour

before i finally dropped

while over loaded with doubt

of continuing my journey

through dreadful mire and dangerous sea

in any case, i realize, in my journey

beyond, in that ghostly world

to which you passed so long ago

i must be swift and delay not

where at the journeys end

i will find no room for a bedside stool

henry victor     04.11.2003

my unlit grotto

i wait silently seated deep inside my unlit grotto
listening to your footsteps falling rhythmically

i anticipate my total but broken being knowing
joyfulness that emerge from the music of your hum
and negate desire for transient pleasure, trivial fun

while willing also to go through purifying fire, pain

this has now become my stable pre-occupation
for i, your servant, hence endlessly entreat you
my governor, honoured lodger of my unlit grotto

henry victor 15.01.2003

Untitled!

Your omniscience edges my conscience
And I discern you know my inside
Motives thoroughly; carefully you
Observe my travel and my resting

Your omnipresence wraps my presence
Fencing me very tightly where and when
I attempt to escape your attendance
No matter I’m in hell, or heaven

Your omnipotence makes me potent
Evolving mind and heart into being
In my mother’s womb, counting bones I carry
Fathoming my all that is concealed

Henry Victor 23.06.2003

Immigrant

Uprooting myself, and packing my belonging
Into just a small manageable size
But with a lot of hope, joy, and adolescent excitement
To encounter greater civilization, more humane humans
I am, now, an in-secured immigrant

Amusing, those few harmless in the host land,
Lamenting not their ignorance of other cultures,
In whose atlas is absent, the country of my origin; they
Excuse me, for the lack of their accent, and
Note of me, silently in heart: from distant planet, an alien

Instigate I, also anger and vengeance
Not in too many, but in few with evil and malice
To whom the whole truth – my economic welfare
Ruining their interests; and I,
Uninvited guest, to the land of plenty, imports
Diversity, that which they hate; to
Ease tension, they desire my leaving –
Room into which, for them, I am an intruder

Similar are not the other in greater number
To whom charity, but not informed by very plain
Reason for the commencement of migration,
And willingness to share their excess, the unwanted, with
Needy and poor, the wretched in sojourn,
Giving them a different identity; they gladly
Ease my burden, within their boundary
Realizing that I am, in midst of them, a powerless stranger

Gone back, I would have, to my own hell!
Unless there were those who speak truth in plain words:
Economic welfare of host-land, prime reason for opening doors;
Samaritans, they are, in the true sense!
To them, therefore, I am none but an honoured guest

Uprooting myself, and packing my belonging
…
I am, now, an immigrant…

Henry Victor 08.04.2001

Death to Life!

Death, the destruction of the bee
At such a great height
Leads not to the end
But yields to a new hive
From which honey ooze
Boosting novel life!

Defeat, destruction of my victory
After much endurance
Leads not to the end
But yields to a fresh muse
Transforming thoughts
Into lines, prompting peace!

Henry Victor 23.01.2004

Noise and Ooze

My commode has been making noise
That my wife tried to fix it
Only to make it worse
And now it started leaking too!

By the time I saw it
The washroom was flooded
And I’m no plumber to fix it
Neither am I an idiot to avoid it!

So, I did with manly mettle, mettle with it
And tightened, at the end, the right nut
For both the noise, and the ooze to prevent!

We did leave home thereafter
I, carrying a washroom in ooze
While my wife, walking in perfect poise!

Henry Victor 16.09.2003

Futility

I saw in me a comical behavior
Filling water in a leaking pot
And to this I added another routine
Task of faithful locking gates
Of my yard, behind and front
With fine padlocks
While the entire fence
Of my enclosure had crumbled down

Henry Victor 14.05.2007

Untimely Death!

I had a kitten in my house
That protested
With many protestations
The sharp teeth of her mother
That carried from place to place
Looking always
For better security
More wellness
For her tiny baby
The strong assertions
Soon ended
With the untimely death of the kitten
Under the paws of a massive
American Mastiff
The pet of my neighbour

Henry Victor 25.05.2007

New Sharpeville

Dove, the daughter of peace
With her two friends, from Noah’s dinghy
Alighted, this spring morning, on my neighbour’s roof
With still a little more melting snow
Her pals, different colour, guys or gals, I don’t know
Since the three wore unisex garment concealing curves!

Did she come here now to claim back her house
On that ex-Portuguese fellow, my fellow citizen’s rooftop
Or, did the trio come to announce the new Sharpeville
While on this day of March 21, 2006
I am still stuck in that old one of 1960!

For sure they made my mind drift
From Sharpeville massacre to ship: I now thought
Where is the boat berthed? What was life like in that yacht?
How do I decipher the depth in that human heart?

My intuition then prompted me to meditate that togetherness
An easy exercise when an escape is the single notion
Coming down from my morning meditation
I timidly queried: Will you fly back to the craft tonight?
Or, bear a little cold until the white stuff melts
To build that new Sharpeville with no apartheid!

Henry Victor 23.03.2006

Comical Circus

Last evening I was at a comical circus
With Dragon dressed like Michael, the fierce Archangel
Whipping that female wolf
And those four foolish foxes
Making them to perform circus
To entertain men and women with plenty
And plenty of time to kill
Prompting audience, mostly of advanced age, to applause!

To increase the intensity of comic
The altar too was censed
With perfumed incense
Choking some, and driving more
Increasing among the Edmontonians, the level of carbon
Thus the Dragon celebrated with great triumphalism
Therein, stooping down, the Angel Gabriel
Whispered into my ears, “a perfect ecclesiastical circus”!

Henry Victor 02.11.2006

The White Bookcase

For my feet to move with ease
I needed, very badly, a bookcase
And I was offered a white shelf
Though my mind, in it
Recognized a perfect fit
For my books as well as the wall’s paint
My heart detected yet another spirit
A subtle devil that soaked the surface
That smelt like a soiled rat
Prompting my head to spit out
The white bookcase offered as a gift!

Henry Victor 19.10.2006

Drowned in Misquotes!

To learn more, I wanted, of vegetarian
Food, free of all animal fat
So I walked, and walked
Drifting into town’s veterinarian
Ground, only to be drowned
In a flood of misquote after misquote
Pulled out of context
As if pulling parasitic tick
From the village shepherd’s sheep dog
These ticks detected, dissected, and distorted
Dressed, however, now with roaring laughter
And then was served
On ominous crusade platter
As food from heavenly abode
That tasted much venomous to my tongue

Henry Victor 02.10.2006

Canadian Creed: Manifesto for Multiculturalism

I believe in One God, colourless and colour blind
Creator and preserver of multicolour people, multitude of races
I believe in the Maker who provides abundant resources
Not for hoarding, nor for controlling, but for unbiased sharing

I believe in Jesus Christ, born of a common Asian woman
Bullied, ridiculed, marginalized by deprivation of a pulpit
Before realizing his potentials in a land of opportunity
Thus he was murdered and buried with African refugees
Asian immigrants, and the alienated Aboriginal folks
But his resurrected spirit storms through songs, stories of freedom
That emanate from the spirit of informed optimism, persistence

I believe in the Holy Spirit, remover and roller of every middle wall
I believe in the Human Spirit, creating humane, human community
Promoting cultures with numerous scents, savours, and surfaces
Battling to eradicate every obstacle that thwarts
That final recognition of One Human Community

Henry Victor 27.01.2006

Not Tigers

I see monkeys all around me
In this desert place
Not a single tiger, a model
Of that real Jesus of Nazareth!

I see many monkey tricks on the stage
In the Church
That announces the wind of new creation
The wild proceedings of that being
Sporting the oceanic Leviathan
And stalking the Mountain Goats
Breaking down barriers
Filling up valleys of unjust emptiness

Henry Victor 14.02.2006

Teen and Teacher

My daughter has moved from pop to coffee
Coffee with caffeine is now her cup of tea
And my wife has tried to persuade the teenager
To opt for the drink that’s decaffeinated
Cup with less addictive substance, the much preferred
Only to meet with a defeat
From one whose taste buds is now well whet!

My daughter has moved from hugs to religion
Religion with self-righteousness, now her lesson
And my wife has tried to convince the teacher
To teach that creed with less of conceit
Corridor of compassion to those outside the campsite
Only to meet with a defeat
From one whose prejudices are strong and straight!

Henry Victor 11.02.2006

Buds Into Blossoms

Oh Lord
I wait for you
To open the buds
Into blossoms
You glance at me
And I shall bloom
Into a beautiful flower
Whose perfume
Would betray
The secret
Of your sweetness

Henry Victor 25.01.1981

The Distant Star

Help me shine
Like the distant star
With no props from earth
Nor strings from sky
Unaffected by the drifting clouds
Nor frightened by the passing sun
But waiting patiently to be seen
Never failing to lighten
The cosmos that is so dark

Henry Victor 05.08.1993

Half Naked!

Yesterday to help my fellow citizen
I, with great haste, willingly volunteered
In her hard hour of ominous need
I did walk in her moccasin
But today from my post I am relieved
Finding that I am needed no more
She also ripped me off my garment
And makes me walk half naked
Expecting me, otherwise to opt
An early exit from neighbourhood
Leaving her conscience at ease
And herself in comfort of crime
Calling the same a moving forward!

Henry Victor 18.04.2006

To Smell the Will!

Eternal God, you remain ever unseen!
But your desire to hear us
Put you so closer to us
Closer than even our own jugular vain
Consider now, mercifully all our pain
And be present with your gracious presence
Empower us with your spirit, your sweet fragrance
Enabling us to smell your will
And living that with greater thrill

Henry Victor 12.04.2006

pretty pebbles

two pretty pebbles i picked
as my journey wound through beaches

vales, desert s and mountains

these healing stones of different
colour, size, shape and weight
demanded my undivided attention
and exclusive approbation

i probed in mind with imagination
larger, and my body with superior strength
to reshape one to a silver ore
and the other into gold in core

but ending dumping both
on the way side dump
with it i lost the magical power
the pebbles brought to my path
henry victor                26.04.2006

Queen of My Garden

You were hardly four years
As you ran around the dry flat ground
With no fence around to mark what was bound
To be yours, at least for some years
To own and enjoy with yours
The orchard that I made with great pride
Creating in my own life many a great stride
Through that land others mistook for a pond
With a cooler wind closer towards the dusk
As the purple berry tree held the western sun
From burning your skin
And the only other tree
That gave you your first lessons on climbing
Adding to nature’s goodness is that wood apple tree
That also gave you and your friends
Soft and fleshy juice in a cup of hard shell
That softness of that ground I did transform
Even as you grew taller to bicycle
And later to ride that motor bicycle
As mum returned from her errand
Until one day you were bribed and I had to let go
Your claim for that land that had desired to crown
My princess, you, as the unchallenged queen of my garden!

Henry Victor 23.04.2006

Red Lotus

Oh, the immaculate red lotus
The queen of flowers
The seat of Buddhas
Tell me, this grown-up foetus
The secret of your excellent status
In spite of the trotting trend
That you grow in the muddiest pond,
In the stinking ground

Oh, the flawless red flora
The crown of vegetation
The seat of Buddhas
How is that neither mud
Nor the filthy fluid
From which you derive your nourishment
Touch not your tender petals
Nor corrupt your fragrance?

Henry Victor 14.02.1995

Appa - My New Title

You bestowed on me
A title I cannot earn
Either by diligent learning
Or through much hard work
But it comes with much love
A warmer affection
Melting my heart
Exciting my whole being
“Appa”, (dad) is that magic word
That finally brought poise
To a life of emptiness
Now, when you are not around
I go to sleep early
To hear that magic word
At least in my dream -
For I am at present a sure slave
To the comfort of that status!

Henry Victor 21.08.2004

Gitanjali

Gentle you were, in your smile
Involuntarily shaking limbs, until your
Tiny frame, into my hands, it slipped
Amusing me with gorgeous amusements
Negating in me those moments of meaninglessness
Joyfully, with tiny fingers
Affecting more life into my faltering being
Like the season of spring
Invigorating the shuddering mother earth

Vanished with your birth were
Ills that crippled us for fourteen years
Causing us to sing those songs
That makes God leap and dance!
Overwhelmed by a sudden birth, and
Remembering Tagore, we named you Gitanjali

Henry Victor 08.03.2001

Your Absence

I realize your brief absence
From home to visit with your friend
Makes me a frozen dead iceberg
And I shudder to imagine that one day,
I must, with no excuse, let you go!

Your going away
Even for a brief moment
Makes that lively home
Into a funeral parlour,
An empty house
With dead, lifeless furniture,
Along with stuffed silent dog,
Dead, motionless picture,
The painted paper flag,
And the other unresponsive creature

All these, in full, come back to life
Only when you return with your commanding
Voice that gives meaning and cheer
Transforming the empty house
Into a lovely home, making
The stuffed dog to bark and wag her tail,
While the furniture wails and groans
As you hurt and throw down your weight
And the picture begins to move
When the flag leaps to life

I realize your brief absence
From home to visit with your friend
Makes me a frozen dead iceberg
And I shudder to imagine that one day,
I must, with no excuse, let you go!

Henry Victor 01.01.2002

Flying From the Nest!

I know you must fly from that nest
That housed your body and soul
For those eighteen long years
From which you always looked out
While your mum and I kept
That constant flying in, to protect
And strengthen every feather
In your wings to take off one day to find
A partner to make your own nest!

In that process of my constant flying in
For such an enormous extended time
I have lost my sight beyond that nest
In which I also had lost my soul
That cradled your most beautiful being
Making all my flying and fruit gathering
Now, utterly meaningless, tearing my heart
Multiplying my tears to endlessly flow
While I struggle, in my mind, to let you go!

Henry Victor 13.03.2008