Mythical Dove!

Picking my shoe
I walked to hit, to kill
The cockroach
Hovering under my table
Like a fighter helicopter
Even as my horror
And anger ascended
I saw a dove like bird
That descended
And picked the roach
Before it multiplied
Her kind, a nuisance
And in my heart
The sense of annoyance

Henry Victor 23.11.2007

Holy Club!

That tremendum mysterion
The sense of Holy, I saw
I sensed strongly around
Hence I joined that club
Named: holy catholic church
Wheeling and dealing on holy
And I saw them
Bathing in the river
Walking further
The upstream I dipped
Myself in clean water
Returning I found
Myself out of that club

Henry Victor 18.08.2008

Shut Out

Mother embraced me despite my errors
Numerously that I committed so frequently
Patiently seated with me on the ground
Holding my untrained hands gently, but so firmly
She taught me numbers, also the alphabet
Until my feeble being, transformed into a man of letters

Power in Church shut me out, fearing errors
Even before I could vocalize the inherent faith
Impatiently, stamping boisterously on the ground
Holding clenched fists above head
While the hierarchy was so reluctantly manoeuvring
With it, they also shut out, all traces of truth

Henry Victor 31.02.1995

Why Weep?

O Willow!
O Willow!
Why weep?
When you neither
Have to hoard those flowers
Nor to guard those fruits
But are free to dance
With winds in summer
And snow flakes in winter

Henry Victor 13.01.2003

Change

“Twice, no one can enter
The very same river”
Two point five millenniums ago
Buddha, succinctly, said so
Which has been too true
More than any other truth

Change, for me, not
From dog to horse
Neither from that simple
Travois to mighty truck
Nor from carrying that spear
To take up an AK

But sure change is my worth
From considering my breed
More important than the other
Is that little, I left behind
I’ve begun to think, for sure
With my big learning, I
Equal with that janitor so couth

Henry Victor 03.05.2001

I Sketch the Path

In the midst of evil, sufferings and corruption
From where there is much anger, hatred and dissention
And in the context of conflicts, confusions and ignorance
That I sketch the path I intend to smoothly traverse

Every time I come up with an answer that is convincing
And I am about to settle down with some certainty
My feeble hopes get thoroughly shattered
Like the sand castles of children washed by the unmindful waves

Again I strive for better and unmistakable answers
For my puzzling complex questions pertaining to life
That needs to be worked out for settling of my soul
But this time even with greater force I am drowned

Oh you, the mysterious mystery
Will you not satisfy my searching mind
And eventually calm my wandering soul
While reducing my burden that I may with ease wade across

Henry Victor 26.11.1992

All a Yard Sale!

The Mongolic King
And the Burger King
Facing each other
Tanning
With Vo’s Nails
And Super Cuts
Sharing the same yard -
One Parking Lot
Ricky’s All Day Grill
Grilling
Night and day
While Booster Juice
Doing the rest
For those walking
Into Liquor Depot
Claiming
To Save-on Food!

Henry Victor 11.11.2004

Fashioned to Fashion

Your right hand made me
While your left arm cuddled
Me towards your breast
I’m now an earth-seed
I am flesh and blood
Aware of my puny self
And shaping, and re-shaping you
In my own indistinct, murky image
Until I mature to bear
Fruit of self-giving
And my flesh is warm enough
To incubate another life
The very purpose and destiny
That prompted you
To fashion, and re-fashion
My being in your distinct image!

Henry Victor 15.04.2004

Wider Vision I Pray For!

Help me see that beyond
Through the thick glass I erect
And the smooth mirror in front
That my vision may stretch
Catching the wider width
Delighting in length
Height and depth
That none is excluded
And none is blocked
By that which already is within
Refusing a disposal into commode
Lest my occasional fart
Stink and drive my neighbours out
Far away from my clouded self

Henry Victor 17.09.2004

Synchronicity

A synchronicity in the number plates
I see of the automobiles
On the road in a given spot and moment
This increases my curiosity filling heart
With amazement
And my mind with a mull over
In all this, my number
Two three six remain at the bottom
With my will to synchronize the dissimilar
To create a colourful harmony
And recognize that underlying unity
Beyond the apparent dissimilarity!

Henry Victor 17.09.2004

Guts and Serenity

Grant me guts and serenity
To celebrate life
Both momentous and eternal
That by craving for eternity
I miss not joy that’s momentary
And indulging in joy
I fail not to sail for eternity

Henry Victor 20.10.2004

stinging of the scorpion

last noon as i was enjoying my lunch
and engrossed in taste, below that table
gently her tail bending, an ugly scorpion stung me!

beast, then walked back a few steps and smiled
even as i suffered with pain so excruciating

friends across the table abundantly sympathized
with me now in stiff soreness, not daring
to bend and kill, or stamp with boot foot
the monster that hurt, earlier, my friend too!

henry victor 22.11.2005

Note: Photograph here is a craft, a creative imagination of Isaac Justin Victor, my eight-year-old grandson!

Mongoose in the Chicken House!

My wife and I woke early in the dawn
By the noise inside
From our chicken house, beside
My mother’s house I, now, own
I did move fast
And my wife too came at last
To see a mongoose enjoying the feast
On our chicken
Now blinded by the laser light
From red eyes of the evil beast
That made me too to hesitate
To pick a stick
To take my revenge on the brute!

Henry Victor 16.11.2007

Lord of Pots and Pans

Lord of my pots and pans
As much as you dwell in heaven
You also inhabit my kitchen
Which I like to keep it clean
And holy by my remembrance
Of your constant providence!

Even as I busy my self
In getting meals ready
And washing up the plates
Make me a saint who delights
In nothing but your presence!

Henry Victor 27.04.2007

(Adopted from Brother Lawrence’s Prayer of 1691 CE)

My Submission

You created us and it is you who sustain us
It is in you that I live, move and have my being
It is you who unfold my moments
And sculpt my age even as I carve my instants

So in the silence of my heart
I submit my will to yours
Waiting for your promptings
To shape my thought

The freedom you have bestowed
I struggle to channel for chiselling
That bloating ego blocking your grace
For my unfolding into that bloom you choose

Forgive my haste to select
Before my soul finds time to consult
Your invisible greater spirit
That hovers over my gut

Slow me down to enjoy your joy
That the chickadee brings
And the magpie drops
While the wind whispers into my ears

Henry Victor 09.03.2008

Rabid Dog!

I saw an old rabid dog in loose
On hill, he went after a little mouse
When the mad dog could not get that rat
He doubly went nuts, digging the mount!

When smell of louse would not let him go
And rascal mouse too hid himself so
The rabid dog charged another rise
Barking more, justifying that enterprise!

It is not that tiny rat that poses
A giant threat, but that rampant madness
Sooner if the dog is not chained
None will there be for us to ascend!

Henry Victor 17.03.2003

Jesus Lizard

Like Jesus lizard walking on water
I sail swiftly in my tiny boat
In this wide ocean, the vast world with dozen conflicts
Within that ever expanding endless cosmos
With me are two companions
Trusting my wisdom and strength

I, in my voyage, pass the burial ground of dinosaurs
Colossal and robust creatures
Those mortals of millions of years before
To live luxuriously dined on much morsel, leaving at end only a fossil
I stop here silently to meditate on my momentous mortality
My pretensions of immortality welded well with my ego

My team that I tug trusts totally
The speed I determine for my craft, a pace that’s too cowardly
To recess to reflect under carpet, dirt and depth below
Lest vessel with squad sink into that deep ludicrous absurdity
Of half-truth, uninformed opinion, prejudice of every kind
Superficial love, charity not spiced with justice, and much more

Henry Victor 03.12.2004

An Encounter with the Storyteller

Learned lawyer, with intentions to drown Jesus
In that high tide of theological thoughts
Bombarded with questions concerning eternal life
Drifting also into an endless ocean
Of pseudo philosophical analysis
Hoping Jesus, the carpenter, unable to swim
Will eventually surrender, if Jesus did not sink!

But Jesus, the storyteller stunned the lawyer
With just a little story that strangled the prosecutor!

“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho”
Jesus, began his story
“And fell into the hands of robbers
Who stripped him, and beat him
Going away, leaving him half dead

Now by chance a priest went down that road
And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side

Likewise a Levite came to the place and saw the injured
And passed by on the other side

But a Native while traveling came near him
Seeing him, he was moved with pity
Went to him and bandaged his wounds
Having poured cold water on them
He put the injured on his own vehicle
Brought him to an Emergency Center
With no counting of the cost!”

Ending the story abruptly, Jesus stirred the emotion
With that provocative question:
“Which of these three, do you think was a human?”

Adding to it an affirmation of his faith:
“Be human, and you will be housed in Eternal Home!”

Henry Victor 17.08.2003

Frost on frosty night

whose woods these are, i’m sure, i know not

my house is not in any one of these hamlets
that i drive through this snowy evening
and my wife will not want me to stop here
to enjoy the Westlock woods fill up with snow

my Ford Focus will think it stupid

to stop when there was no skidding
on this icy road near the Devil’s lake
with temperature below minus two zero
on the darkest evening of this year

the cd player sings it well

expressing a pleasant mood
the only other sound is the engine
that warms my leg space too well
to keep me from freezing this winter

roads are winding, slippery, and dark

fear of deer, moose and coyotes
keep me slow and hesitant though
but to my daughter i promised a hug
and kilometers to go before i sleep

henry victor     08.01.2003

Blacky, the Stray Dog

Blacky, that’s how my little daughter
Caringly christened Bruno, the stray dog
After months we also met his owner
Who loved much, the four-legged creature

Blacky, at dawn would slip out of our yard
Even when we tied him with the strongest chord
After sun set he will need, never to be told
To keep guard of our unfenced fold

Blacky, had two homes to guard
With two titles, ‘pet’ and ‘stray’, together to hold
Daytime faithful to owner, chasing, always, any burglar
Nighttime compassion to stranger, driving, every evil intruder

Blacky, we needed so much in that garden
Closer to that lake, with no homes firmly planted
Pitched blackness was all, in night, that was seen
With tales of haunting genii that weren’t benevolent

Henry Victor 17.07.1999

My Mother's House

There is no water in my mother’s well
And someone else, already, occupied her house as well
While she, to the new home, has forever gone
And my father too, will go there soon

My father retired at the age of forty-two
After serving the national army for years twenty-two
I decided not to return to my mother’s place at forty-two
After living and enjoying it for years thirty-two

Into my mother’s well, once I fell
To remember that, forever, very well
The house she lived was twice destroyed
Once by cyclone, and the next, by pogrom of genocide

About her house, my mother’s thought, I shall never know
For sure, her well, quenched my thirst, and also more
While her house, provided space, for me to explore

And at the end, to my mother’s place, I shall go

Henry Victor 18.08.1992

Devil’s Face!

Where and whenever I navigated to dodge the devil
God was absent, filling space with hypocrisy that
Builds permanent monument to the sacred -
His, the devil’s, distinct trickery
Church lending the strongest support
There crucifixion is the award for sincerity
The bulldozing of truth and justice
Devil thus continues his rule that
Has a religious face, and
His many disciples, nay, almost all from that
Chapel where Jesus gets his lip service

Henry Victor 31.05.2003

Note: Reading the first word of each line downward will reveal a proverbial truth.

Another Poet!

Time moves swiftly like a rolling stream
Waiting not for me, or for my pal
Carrying with it only the top soil
Leaving behind persons in vain dream

I, a lousy sheep, roll on warm bed
Letting go the moving with no dam
Chasing flies sitting on lazy ram
Without, to that goal, running ahead

At best, I cry for that spilling milk
Like a poet composing empty words
At worst, I’m like those still, naughty gods
Unconcerned for those weaving fine silk

Henry Victor 09.05.2003

chopping, clipping and cutting

i perceived the rumbling in paradise

calling me to the task of chopping

branches of bigger trees permitting

not pampas grass to scarcely survive

 

i heard clearly the echoing in hell

calling me to the task of clipping

wings of hawk rising higher, soaring

faltering to feed the hatchling in vale

 

i see plainly the perpetual voice

calling me to the task of cutting

arms of the archdiocese and knocking

it down to let in the Nazarene noise

© henry victor     24.05.2003

My Grace to a Little!

I was sitting in my Ford Focus
At a famous fast-food restaurant
Happen to gaze my rearview mirror
I do rarely with forward focus

Then I saw that pathetic, most pitiful
Skinny, soiled little black kitten
On ridge behind my car so colorful
Prompting within me a quick action

Before fruit of my gracious attention
Could reach this tiny feeble kitten
A huge gray tomcat sprang out of bush
To grab, gobble my grace to a little

Henry Victor 16.05.2003

The Poet!

I saw that poet picking yesterday’s crumbs
His only possession, the typed manuscript
Dwelling in solitary habitation
With no one peeping through his window

He’s that lonely hill, far from other hills
Songs of praise never arrive at foot
He has withstood snowstorms and much rains
And that’s his staple food and strong drink

He dumps piles of papers at his door
Nay rejection notes, with more jeering
Harder than real rocks they throw at
To cover him alive with his tears!

Henry Victor 07.05.2003

My Mother

Older Army Sister was my mum
To many at Anbuvalipuram
New sub division named by Tamil erudite
Kuntrat Kudi Adhiahlaar in his visit

Dickie’s Mum was she when my brother
Made his mark in town that did not bother
To shun him out in spite of his vigor
Making things very heavy for those sober

Joe’s Mum she became later when death
Transformed life that not even tough wealth
Failed to achieve in that one lifetime
With that name mother passed into life prime!

Henry Victor 12.05.2003

An Itch and a Twitch

My window curtains are wide open
I’m watching people on road ahead
Bound for some work, or returning home
With groceries and drinks for their kid

My mind too is not truly closed
I’m thinking thoughts of spotless gold
Bold and eternal, surviving coldness
Like that of Frost and Service of old

My spirit too is not in that rest
With many an itch and a lot of twitch
Like that damn deer dancing near the road
Finally killed by that stupid car

Henry Victor 25.04.2003

memory and forgetfulness

i’m amused, amazed by your solitary heart

from which my memory and forgetfulness
flow into mine as a sacred gift and a trust
i need to employ in all my wakefulness

i’m baffled, bemused by those contrary elements

operating within me simultaneously to embrace and reject
you the prime source for my holding tight and the negate
of your negating my negations of you, your rudiments

i’m certain, confident in your inclination for plural

ways of dealing with color and creed, both in multiple
and i will find special favor among yours, not unequal
among the other, affirming that mine is never too little

© henry victor     18.05.2003

John the Baptist

John the Baptist grabbed no chair to sit
Nor pleased any powers, or towers of his times
He was simply a voice from the desert
The strongest reed of the prairie crust!

John was the music of vales and hills
That cherished not the herds of cowards
He danced not to beats of country drums
Nor cared for the civilized city thumbs!

John was a sensitive stethoscope
Listening to heart beats of the divine
Dancing in the spirits of the poor
Resizing, re-leveling hill with valley!

Henry Victor 02.04.2003

Contemporary Confession

You are the very source of my life
Though you always remain unseen
Invisible to my eyes with limited focus
And incomprehensible to my puny mind
Leaping like a monkey that lacks patience

I sit not quietly, to carefully weave together
The available evidence for your being
Ending at the end in doubting you
Failing to feel your presence pleasing to heart
And compelling to my conscience

I am rarely ready to choose your will
And walk in the path that you choose
As it winds through the dark valley
Lacking fame for self, with repeated failure
And deficient with worldly wealth

You have always remained sufficient
For the saints who cherished your presence
They learnt the art of quiet mind
And the heart that houses only your throne
Emptying their vessel, they sailed calm

But I am growing like that plant bent
And choked by crowded surrounding
Desperately moving towards the life
Giving sun to shine on her body
To yield a few fold before drooping to die

Hence I pray you stoop down to lift me up
To that realm of your regular presence, grace
That I may breathe in and breathe out
Nothing but your life giving silver rays
To make my limbs strong and stout

Henry Victor 25.01.2008