walk through the woods

i walked in the woods, your dream garden

hoping to have a glimpse of your face
that i may lay at your feet my weight
caused on earth by trickery and cruelty

i searched for your soul in this Eden,

this forest where angels dance with you
but haunted also frequently by women
and men with premeditated brutality

i observed there the stinking human shit

the remains of an unidentifiable animal
the partially decayed corpse of a pig
and a deer hiding from this intruder

henry victor     25.05.2002

praying a psalm

my awareness of your presence on earth

is more important than owning  my breath!
your subtle existence despite my denials
critically breathe purpose to the cosmos!

in this broken world your face

further gets distorted by chants
of your name arising from tongues
denying space for your silence!

as i survey the skies in the night

the working of your invisible fingers
the moon, the planets and the stars
established beyond the human cities

when i see the seas, the dreaming in your heart

and the massive whales haunted by human trickery
as i consider the jungles, a vision of your mind
and the enormous elephants hunted by manly greed

i see my smallness and pause to look up for help

to break barriers that create inequality among
the diverse beings with their multiple creeds
caring and healing all beasts, birds and fish

but who am i that you should stop

to listen to my pleadings, my helplessness
i know, for sure, you care for me, your created
being to do your peace, piece together your beauty

henry victor     27.05.2002

rained your love

with your love you came into my empty

space, my soul, parched like a dry desert
deprived of years of rain with all life turn
to mere skeleton, making me run to dance!

after you rained your love on me, now

a brook, i chase you, a young life, rolling
on ground laughing out loud my heart
and mind with all its content rearranged

creating your image in my soul, my cup

overflowing with new memories of massaging
your feet, scrubbing your body and narrating
stories that you playfully dump as boring!

25.03.2014

  

fear and doubt

i gave my hand to take her

and together we built a home!

leaving her to make the fire

i went out to pick fruits, nuts
and more to cook
and a blanket to cover!

next morning, to go out

again to gather
i looked for my razor
only to learn another hand
in my absence, has removed
his facial hair
increasing also burden in my heart
sowing seeds of fear and doubt
to grow on my face!
 
henry victor     09.03.2014

fences and thorns

i settled, earlier, with quietness

even when thorns pricked as i picked
the flowers, or at times the fallen petals
capturing in my mind the beauty

and the fragrance making self, my heart

to leap and dance to the beat, the music
you write with your constant dance;
but a perpetual pricking of the thicket

and the endless bleeding of my hand and feet

makes me wonder whether i have strayed
away from your garden into a cacti jungle
or is it that you resent my love to jingle

with your beauty and fragrance

in flowers considering it a pilfering
from the garden you are jealously guarding
with fences and thorns that prick!

henry victor     05.06.2002

 

trapped in the cave

i am trapped in my old home
still cleaning toilet, driving time
and again to the grocery stores
and much more but in darkness

as dark as it is inside a cave,

stumbling on rocks and waves
of scorpions that sting but not kill
a hermit enjoying not his solitude

that short leash making me to sit

on dung of my yesteryears, a guilt
now stinking with shame and decay
depriving me of pants, drive to leave

henry victor     05.03.2014

stand

with an empty pail i stand to cross

the road flowing with speedy traffic
but i know not my path, nor the point
i need to be later at the evening hour!

will i, then, meet an angel to help

me dodge death at the road-side
filling also the empty in my hand
to make my travel worthwhile

and, at last, climb on the stand

to be announced a true victor
even if i am deprived of an angelic
visitation as i continue to stand
 
henry victor      05.03.2014

no road

i am repeatedly at cross roads

and every road i see in front
invites my eyes to walk, to enjoy
the scenes, promising also the secret

path to the depth of my soul

the God within, my own home
from where there is no more walking
no more work, nor search for rest

some roads i trod went to money

while others took me to grab and heap
and some showered on me great status
but none to self just under the feet
 
henry victor     01.03.2014

Photo Credit: Gitanjali Victor

being a grace

grace walks in my soul’s neighbourhood
like the gentle breeze sneaking through
the million hair on the surface of my body,
my form establishing my presence here

a space i chose to live, move, and to learn

the purpose of my being now that i decided
to break the fifth Mosaic commandment
hoping to increase the content of my name

among the maze of oil fields in the land

of opportunity, prompting, also, a becoming
elsewhere, in my mother land, a brain drain
denying those desperately needing my mind
 
henry victor     28.02.2014

my excess

i betted

on an injured horse

again and again

calling her mine

despite her kicking

on my face

every time i bend

to tend her leg

battered

earlier by a spouse

with her passive aggression

taught me no lessons

on self-care

stupidly

for long

holding her hand

tattered

now, beyond limits

still a mouse

i have let into my heart

to roam

to nibble away

my body, mind and soul

to enjoy

my washing

of the growing tiny feet

henry victor     27.02.2014