combining

i lack no strength, courage, hope and love

but a sense of purpose, in my heart is absent

to translate abstract godly virtues into acts

putting merits in a fleshy body, mind and soul

making human values to become a living being

walking, talking, dancing and singing with joy

to combine into a single feathery bird, those two

the dancing peacock and the singing cuckoo

or the eagle soaring higher to dive into chasm deep

and the hen scratching surface and embracing chicks

to protect from that devious, dirty raven who steals

not just the light but every little creature on this soil

© henry victor     19.08.2010

hypocrisy

honey was dripping from food he served

in an elegant golden plate shone, in

his hands, ornamented with gold, while his

mouth, with no stop, dropped words of sweet talk

knives many, invisible and very sharp

in that banquet hall spread all over

his eyes fixed on target to stab, while

heart contemplated that one murder

© henry victor     15.08.2003

Note: First words from each line read together from top to bottom will provide a proverbial phrase!

my languish in land of plenty

unlike my daughter running and floating

in air like a lark in the meadow

far, far from the corrupting cities

i drive through the rolling hills

taking also note of the abandoned

abundant agricultural machinery scattered

beside deteriorating log houses of the prairie

a space i exchanged for shores of the oceans

and at the end of the hot summer with rain

enough to keep me cool but no grassland

for me to graze, unlike the lavish cows

lewd horses, and lazy lamas, i ponder

but with no Pysanka, the talismanic power

of the Ukrainians nor the dream-catchers

of the first nation to transform

my misfortunes into a land of harvest

or that Albertan store house of gasoline

with a steady pumping of slow moving pumps

while i languish with hunger and a loss

of direction in this land of plentiful plenty

© henry victor     01.09.2003

overcoming hate

 

strengthen me with sinews of love

that i may never use hate

to defend me, or mine

even if i am approached by assassins

from behind and secretly

in this loveless world

and much distorted love;

continue then to inspire affection

within my innermost sector

even if i end becoming a pauper

with many sleepless nights

and merciless moments

© henry victor     10.09.2003

refusing myself

 

i love to accept all those who come to me

and all they bring to me to sell

to exchange, or to give as gifts

both grace and all mercy

but my smallness thwarts my deed

refusing that is not my race, color, or creed

snubbing, also, my own breed

giving freely into my control, my greed

with this i also refuse myself grace

like refusing a beggar who seeks to plead

or a debtor requesting yet another chance

but let freely a cheater to defraud

© henry victor     30.08.2003

my will

am i overly stubborn in imposing my will

rejecting your will, in my failing to see grace

in freight unloaded, regularly, at my feet

or, am i lively, very vibrantly, otherwise

adding life to a decaying soul like the mountain

lion, the cougar, pouncing dissolutely at the hunter

with his gun like will hounding the creature

who as a hermit already withdrawn to a cavern

my quest, however, is for wisdom, that light

from the abundance of your mercy to isolate

the black thread in the dusk of my life, and yield

to your will even in my defeat suspending mine

© henry victor

Note: Josephine’s shirt here reads, “When I grow up I want to be me”, expressing, perhaps, her MOM’s inflexible will!  (IHV)

spam in space

spam in my cyber space like the sperm

always came in greater numbers

i tried to unsubscribe and more i tried

the more it multiplied

i left them untouched with uncontrolled

anger in total control

it worked, and one by one

spam ending as a tail-less sperm

© henry victor     03.09.2003

P.S. “Thatha! Stop this nonsense and say something sensible!” – Josephine (in the photograph)

a vision for my mission

i am like a chameleon constantly checking

the very strength of my post i occupy

doubting deliberately as doubting Thomas

until i am absolutely sure i can never be sure

to settle like a barn owl in my barn house

poised within despite scores of unsettled pressures

content with picking to eat rodents that destroy

life so precious while rest of the world slumbers

© henry victor 29.08.2003

 

beyond the crown, the miter, and the gown

without the king’s patronage my ancestors alleged

poetic muse will not flow to the street

without the bishop’s consent my associates assume

ministering the marginal is invalid

without the professor’s sanction my progeny profess

search for wisdom does not begin

yet with all my stupidity i did encounter

immortal songs outside the palace

enduring mercy outside the cathedral

and endless learning outside the university portal

© henry victor     11.09.2003

a rascal

like a three-year-old child i imitate

the men and women of the bard

picking someone else’s pen i scribble

feeling in heart like other poets

i have also left an enclosure

with a flute for my songs  

for others behind me to sing

with affection and wisdom

my associates do not deem

the un-rhythmic squirt squiggling

ignorance, but in me, a rascal

they see an immortal poet

a sage amongst them, a rebel

a prophet with a new vision

to transform deteriorating structures

and values of disintegrating cultures

© henry victor     11.09.2003

younger today

 

what i failed to absorb, to grasp

from my parents and a female partner

i am beginning to learn from daughter

much younger and sharper

i learnt something yesterday

and got rid of my gray beard

my hair i have combed and oiled

not much is lacking today

fine clothes, shoes and money in purse

now i have worked towards complicated

goals than trifles and had attained

insights to chase my dream with ease

© henry victor     05.09.2003

sandwiched

sandwiched between the jagged immortality

and the feeble mortality

i carry within me the great sea

with her pounding waves

on its sandy soil

are scattered shinning shells

where even a silent shrimp

find a safe home

in surrounds of rocky reeves

while elsewhere

with those changing seasons

including the fallen leaves

and broken branches

the abandoned agricultural implements

witness the deer carcass

protected by a coniferous forest

henry victor      11.09.2003

my roads

i have traveled many roads

highways and byways of varied size

and countless length

i have often journeyed with much load

and at times with none

hardly an extra change of clothes

many nights i have slept on roads

counting the uncountable stars

while being stung by beastly bugs

and malicious mosquitoes

in my sojourns i have met numerous spirits

including Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad

frequently in perfect harmony

and at times at squabbles and war

in these wanderings

roads that were not closed i cherished much

that i may reach home like a mother bird

to feed the nestlings

but now a road that is closed is what i desire

that i may never leave home

© henry victor     09.09.2003

grace i seek

i seek that grace

that sought me at Calvary

i seek that grace

that paid for my release

i seek that grace

that erected an altar in my heart

i seek that grace

that ordained my soul a priest

i seek that grace

that is absent in hypocrisy

i seek that grace

that overflows in common sense

© henry victor     03.09.2003

bird feeder

my new bird feeder, another

avowed addition to my extended solidarity

with the community of winged creatures

had a larger opening at the bottom

for seed to easily slip

soon i realized i made a hole

in my wallet too

i, therefore, covered the gap

with little pebbles to control

the outflow of my loonies

realizing later the very act

of my calculated charity

with all my good intentions

towards my little friends

in fact, i built a solid wall

to shut them out

© henry victor     09.09.2003

the three magpies

 

three magpies, first i thought

invaded my lawn

inhabited usually but now deserted

by those numerous nattering sparrows

the tiny birds i fed

to their full stomach

ungrudgingly with my generosity

i curtailed towards my kith, kin and kind

first i considered the three magpies

as intruders bent to take advantage

of my kindness

declared in my new bird-feeder

but soon as the three ignored

and went past my exhibit

i realized myself a stupid selfish glutton

that wants not to lose my control

© henry victor     15.09.2003

few of my poet friends

 

remarkable are my many poet friends

winning, among friends, some fame

a greater reputation in their own minds

though struggling to earn +a decent income

foremost among these dancers is Zinga

self-righteous, self-proclaimed a Nigerian chief

an angry immigrant to a terrain too unfriendly

he now like a sober sage proclaims, affirmatively

the old English maxim: ‘all that glitters is not gold’

justifying also his unwillingness to change with times

hence denying, within self, traces of a chameleon

as i move on after failing to uncurl the dog’s tail

then comes Brimstone, the brilliant bask

singing morning, noon and night from work to escape

arguing the need to speak truth through a mask

claiming, unlike me, a Tamil writing in English

he also thinks the language of his colonial master

he is a migrant poet, and his face is behind a mask!

Leister is the other, licking the others’ liquor glasses

basking in coffee shops, establishing his charisma

only after failing to find his worth elsewhere

but in a land that alienates the new arrival

he networks with the underdogs

constantly kicking George’s ass

thriving on the exploits of his comrades!

last but not the least is a damsel, Dorothy

writing with the pen name Dana

claiming to be like the beaver

a true daughter of the soil

with little education and more with her skin

very confident that her poetry, for sure

will fix peace in the warring world!

© henry victor     18.09.2003

imitating the cougar

help me imitate the patient placidness

and the love that let goes

inbuilt in psyche controlling the strong

the swift, and the slender mother cougar

let the same permeate my mind and nerves

pervading my life even as i prepare

my only daughter for her life ahead

knowing, at the end i cannot live

my daughter’s life!

help me, then, learn my lessons

well from the truly self-governing

sage of the jungle: the cougar!

© henry victor     20.09.2003