peace trail in the park

the trees in the park

invited me to walk

under their corridors

winds whispered secrets

fresh as freshly pulled carrots

for my feeble frame

pigeons and finches darted

up and down until i crafted

my poem beneath the trees

along the trail i heard songbirds pipe

i may with joy quickly elope

despite sorrow walking beside me

lilacs showered fragrance

lifting me into a tranquil trance

as i walked the park’s peace trail

henry victor      01.04.2007

two little goslings

as the sun went down to settle

in his home before the nightfall 

i went for a stroll

along a man-made canal

and in the twilight my eyes fell

now on a gosling stuck

on a cement crack

making her un-swim able

to run to her company

and she pulled and pulled until

a piece of skin too was floating

so i bent down to pick

to hold and to heal

the injured gosling

but trusting not my stance

that was nothing but pastoral

she swam as fast as she could

with one hand holding the hanging piece

i walked further and much farther

with a helpless thought

and a new pain in my heart

only to encounter yet another

gosling lost and lonely

and again i stretched my hand

picking her from waters cold

to hold her closer to my warm chest

while she trustingly

settled in my palm

henry victor       28.03.2007

 

a peep

that was a brief visit

to heaven; just a peep

i should say, into the garden

in which the only work

is much play

and harvesting to eat

to be gaudy

and gay

enjoying the caretaker’s labor!

for sure, i never planted it prior

making me feel

as if i was there to steal

but the sturdy warden

had a smile

as a bird that alighted

on my shoulder too

place and people sure did woo

for me to stay

to continue my play

but i did change my mind, my way

henry victor      15.04.2007

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

trail

i walk that old trail

with hope to beat a little

the sugar count

but more to leave another trail

my walk along the river

with a little quiver

caused by my bone

not ready to fight a beaver

i return from my stride

excited like a bride

elevated by the groom

himself driving that ride

though it was only a coin

that i added to my loin

but sure there were hugs

and a kiss from that grass crown

henry victor     18.06.2003

strengthening my solidarity

from the fossils buried deep under glaciers

earth, and oceans, your writings of the history

of my world you continuously create and heal

i decipher my revelatory beliefs of you, to call

it my theology, promoting it with my praises

of you so silly, empty, and deceptive to neighbors

and self without strengthening my solidarity

with that life-giving mother nature

the rivers, the plants, the animals and the fowls

including the turkey, a foolish imitator of the peacock

may be then, and may be then, i will have a chance

of not ending myself a sandy, or a stony fossil

© henry victor             27.12.2002

 

 

sailing on words

moods puzzled me those days of no words

and had not mastered rhyme or breaking lines

those days i was a slave to my bad temper

today i sail on winds of my moods

now i long for displeasure and time

knowing my skill to transform tempest

into songs of pleasure that pleases a heart

making soul dance non-stop now

pain in current times i consider precious

unlike then in vain i struggled to sing

for now poetry flows easily like water fall

pushing with force to express all my pain

© henry victor     23.03.2003

reappearance of variety

sparrows bathe in front of my home

announcing the arrival of spring

i pulled to roll my curtain on pane

letting in joy birds bring into my hut

the absence of varied colours around

earlier made body shiver and freeze

so i closed all cold and social increase

with it i shut out light with my blind

now with the reappearance of variety

in shade and shape, the extra energizing

i receive for my path and my dancing

locking up tightly the monotony of winter

© henry victor     15.03.2003

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

© henry victor      19.05.2014

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

my song

my pleadings like smoke came to you

and you listened

my prayers like fog were before you

and me you assisted

my days now stay strong

like rocks of Rockies

my nights are peaceful

like lakes in mountains

 

my heart leaps in joy

like a dancing deer

my plate is full

with extravagant bread

 

my bones are strong

like the Indian iron wood

my past wrongs you blotted

all out of my sight

i now soar higher and higher

like an eagle in flight

i sit with poise like a king on throne

with no guards around

 
i sleep like a log

the whole night in my bed

i am busy like a bee

whole day collecting food

 

in the day of my anguish

you hid not your face

in my distress i called you

you speedily responded

© henry victor     11.10.2003 

snow melting

 

sun-light strong and bright

piercingly penetrating

into my infrequently used office

down below people looking

for profit so cheaper

my silence disturbing

to seek or not to seek

your assistance

i need assistance to resolve

ground filled with snow

and sure, soon it will go

tree empty of leaf

and sure, soon it will grow

thoughts and concerns creeping

into my mind only to fly away

like those noisy sparrows

not sure what i want

menacing money, or an easy employment

with money in plentitude

sometimes, may be most of the time

strong yearning to go

away and be no more

a sense of betrayal, a sense of failure

sense of helplessness

and a sense of emptiness

strong senses silently pervading

ruling heart

and guiding mind

hostility, and enduring consciously

consistent hostility, cause

my weariness and a loss of heart

happenings contrary to my likings

and events to others taste

leading to disappointments

my blindness and my inability

to see snow melting

cause of my weariness

sun-light strong and bright

piercingly penetrating

into my infrequently used office

© henry victor     04.02.2003

priced well for sipping

my hot, bitter sweet tea i do not drink

but slowly, and gently sip

daily in the morning, noon

and in the afternoon

i always make my own

with water boiling at one hundred, and one

in which i soak

until the cup is settled with bitter and dark

that liquid now i slightly colour

with milk, taking extra care

that bitterness stays, in cup remain the black

but adding a single sweetener

again i return the cup and the content

to the microwave

to boil my drink further

until the cup can sure burn my lip

i have in hand my tea to sip

without gulping i enjoy

sipping my life that is aging

like the aged wine priced well

© henry victor        25.01.2017

shifting my space

in days of my blindness

recompensed by rare pleasure

and fueled by ever-growing lust

i went into eventful spaces

occupied by men and women

with desire

and living for delight

but in these days of illumination

rewarded by a recurrent poise

and encouraged by an evolving

hermit within

i go now into empty spaces

not occupied

by deaf and blind creatures

dumb to transmit

the sacred within

henry victor     09.06.2003

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

 

my new home

justin, my three-year old grandson
with his lego pieces built a house
on my coffee table, and a garden
beside, and for my car a driveway

who will cook in this house
from him i queried, for which
he responded quick, ‘thatha’
responding with similar speed

also to my second question
who will eat here
‘justin and thatha’
with no doubts about it

henry victor     12.11.2012

Note: The common Tamil word for grand-father is “thatha”.

freedom

knowing not from where i came
or to where i am going, in confusion
i called the freedom to wash feet
of another my servitude

now lying naked with more naked

whom i freely choose letting
them freely caress my sensitive
spots i embrace enslavement

my being is blind to the line

dividing freedom that comes
from embracing a responsibility
but with joy and pleasures, lust

09.08.2012