growing stature and status

i am growing, increasing in size

with more wisdom, needing for self

yet another leg that third leg

to lift all that extra weight

i am growing, increasing in stature

and status; hence towards a cozy couch

to which i would be guided

with much praise and fan-fare

that comfy bed, to me will provide

an uninterrupted sleep

with neither nightmares of jealousies

nor daydreams of self-pomposity

henry victor      14.01.2007

town is empty!

death is in the home, inside

or is it out on the road

i am, right now, confused

Wednesday cannot be so quiet

that too at 8.00 A.M!

i have this ghostly feeling

being unkind to my little girl

making her walk the ghost town

she detested so much

before picking enough courage

to finally fly away from my cage!

i myself would not linger

around a cemetery for so long

if i am not an undertaker

busying with burying pain

and counseling the grieving town

henry victor     26.09.2007

minerals and snow

i need your grace for me to grow

like my cactus on my window
sill depend on the light of the sun
i let in pulling aside my curtain

i need an opportunity, on floor

sufficient soil me to stand, to show
my flower and fruit, to root at last
that i, your applause proudly harvest

i need also minerals and snow

for withering of body and brain
in my soul does not happen even
as i, my Master’s path, follow

i need someone to lift his brow

so others too may pause to glance
while your love i clearly announce
inviting others too with me to grow

 

making her nest

i observe my daughter growing

from dependence to independence
breaking away from comfort and security
from living under my shade and shadows
to that making of her own nest!

and i congratulate her though inwardly it hurts

sometimes like an anginic piercing in heart
and i know this must happen
and it is to this end my parenting
should journey towards!

this makes me wonder

whether it is a sign of immaturity
that i keep coming to you seeking
shade and shelter under your invisible
wings like a chick running into her mother
hen’s wings every time a raven fly past by her!

teach me then the art of balancing

between my dependence on your providence
and my need for independence
another aspect, the other side, of your providence
demanding my growing into maturity
of body, mind, heart and spirit
that i will eventually be equipped to judge
critically, and create the new city
with you in the ocean i am placed!

juggle

i do not juggle with three balls

the coloured and the soft
neither do i juggle three stones
the triple solid in the air

but i juggle Fred, the four

and the forty four years
and also that sliding
in between the moments

and wonder the purpose

humans come to live
in their turn to juggle the living
the dead, and the thereafter hours

henry victor

 

 

the fruit

the fruit in my hand

is for love i like to expand
but i hesitate to give
for there is a worm inside

the skin shines with colour

multiple and the wave within me grows
larger but i will, very soon, yield
for the sake of the seed

hidden, deeply buried within
to grow, to give
more fruits for my hand
and songs for all around

19.05.2014

floods and sludge

cooking food, cleaning pots, pans, plates

and other cutleries surged, overflowed
like a spring river in my May days
and nights with no pause even to evaluate

either their relevance, or the quality of my life

that now carried floods and sludge with speed
though i, like brother Lawrence, the sage
applied my heart and soul working to bleed

without counting cost but rejoicing

in my washing feet cracked and dirty
a relevant, realistic imitation of Jesus
than that ritual on Maundy Thursdays
 
that made only my ego bloat year by year
but neither the present work with great love
satisfies my inner person whose still small voice
i hear not very clearly to change my path

henry victor      21.05.2012

releasing the anchor

fear of depth and hesitation
mind’s preoccupation
with shark is only in the shore
the beginning of a voyage
an opening of a business

further in open sea challenge
is to enjoy those gulls mindlessly
surfing, sitting on the ocean

as rowing your little vessel
continues, like a walking exercise
of a man stingy with time,
to cross the chasm

02.08.2012