Scratch

Art =

2010-07-02T09:36:00.002+05:30

Art = Walking by, and as the setting sun floods your eyes, you realise that this air in your lungs, and this wind on your skin, and this tangy, salty taste of the ocean on your tongue are mere clues to who you are and what this life and this universe means. So you stop, for just that one moment, to salute the vast coincidence that conspired, almost playfully, to show you all that you belong to and all that belongs to you.

At "Z" in Berlin

2009-10-07T01:55:00.003+05:30

Mr. Springsteen
Silence interrupts.
Ave Maria
everyday
in gold and white
Almost aloof
and untouchable.

Red clads this!
Red clads this
instance of pause.

As walking away
The treasure
behind
The red cloak
Is left behind.

--------

Towards Someplace
Murder
can't be sold.

I lay still
A moment
Shot.
Yes, shot!

Straight
toward
Hell.

-------

Man in a Black Hat
As footsteps fade
wandered into
cold asphalt
Cobbled past
Those that
have no fate.

While everywhere
The same
echoes
Echoes
Victor Hugo
Ardromache!

Your swan
lies still
to date.

Silence

2009-10-02T21:37:00.002+05:30

Strangely
even as the leaves
move and shiver

I hear
my blood
nosily
trouble itself

Hear engines
and sirens
scream

People
shouting mad
staring loudly

TV static
and shrill
tinny glass
lines scratch
high-pitched

drawing lines
across forehead
and earlobe

Indian stars
blink blink blink

It took me three days
to hear the silence
at my window
overlooking
Huflandstrasse

Berlin.

Swan Songs

2009-09-21T08:51:00.002+05:30

1.

So many
tiled floors
as foot touches
hard, gravelly
corners

Heavy metal
cutting through
shafts of skin
Ah...

Objects to inspire

In this city
of steel and concrete
While here
Just by my bed
lies this poem

Andromache! - The Swan
An ode
to Victor Hugo
My song

2.
While words
slip
In and Out
Crisp and cutting
white lines.

White!

Like a swan
on concrete tiles
dragging webbed feet
along
paved streets.

Asphalt!

Ashes to ashes
This dust
burning my eyes
Victor Hugo
This be your song.

3.
Over fed
Overate
I stare at this
Swan song

In a pond
He said
Webbed feet
on Asphalt

While the
azure
waters
of another time
glimmer
just past
gone.

This ode
This song
This stone
Concrete
Steel

cut red-white
lines
into
one
long
moment

While I stare
on and on.

4.
Caught within
Expanded metal
Boxes of steel
Orange and blue
lines
Straight from my heart

This quiet swan
- white patch of afternoon madness
Stops me a moment
- a song

Of concrete
and steel
and blood
and dust

Settle.

- As Victor Hugo did.

His swan
My calm.

5.
Moonriver
Surprise! Surprise!
Intricate
ice maiden

White window
Heavy
White cement
The perfect white
blends light
left and opposite

The Gulmohar,
clad in blue-green-gold
tiles and white
...Below

1st September, 2009
Poetry Workshop at Samuha

Going Nowhere

2008-11-08T14:00:00.007+05:30

Have a peek at my little book of poems and sketches created while I traveled on the Lounge Piranha Going Nowhere Tour Oct '08 bus at my website - www.archanaprasad.com >>

Broken

2008-09-15T10:09:00.002+05:30

Stared at your
hand drawn
mind drawn
lines.

Stories of
so many
wrapped up
lives.

Twisted and
bent, Ogres
of some other
times...

Makes mockery
of all that I
so shallowly
enshrined.

Cat Nip

2008-09-01T19:08:00.002+05:30

Scratched and scarred
I lay forgotten
in the dust of wars

Tortured until
broken - i confessed
to sins that only

the gods could tell.
Of Gods - our demons
demonically enslaved

Who would walk me
back to my innocent
days. To times when

I looked at this one
monolith of faith
I call cat-like to
your earthen grave.

Stomach

2008-07-30T17:09:00.000+05:30

Stomach raw
Nerves on edge
Blue skies
are memories left
Unsaid.

Lotus Feet, black
on clear-faced stone
Red-orange flowers
of love forlorn

In fervent prayer
you appeared
A moments' rest
before -

caught in webs of
lies and deceit
my human mind
forgot your
divine feet.

11th July
Srivilliputur.

Lotus Feet

2008-07-30T17:07:00.001+05:30

Dancing past in fickle quest
I watched as black dams withheld
your far flung freedom,
your clear-faced stream
I watched you relinquish your dream.
A battle more real than all that lived
granted requiem by your Lotus Feet
Flowers bedecked this divine vision
I breathed in this moments' apparition.

12th July.
Srivilliputtur.

RAIN

2008-06-11T18:10:00.003+05:30

Your eyes seem to lie
of things hidden
that you will deny.

Your hands on me
surround, while free
I struggle to fly.

Hold me back
taste teardrops
from on high.

So perfect.

So gentle.

This rain on
a moonless night.

Pink Demise

2008-05-21T14:58:00.009+05:30

Walked into and drowned
in that orgy of
pink marble lunacy.

Spoke of things to come
Ornate and opaque
staring into that home of insanity.

Then, just to
end that crazy night;
high strung and
bone tired,
i made myself
a souless vodka delight

And raised my glass:
To lights of soul
To drunken fools
To corporate purses
To heartless pursuits.

To The Leela Palace

Semblance

2008-04-25T11:30:00.002+05:30

Dirty floors
on a hard day.

Searched again
while all those
neon moments
faded away.

Saw glimpses
of all that you
are today

Ironical

I waited.
Waited!
For your this day.

Funny How

2008-04-11T13:12:00.003+05:30

Funny how in moments the skies will turn
Funny how when things are lost...they're returned
Funny how all those feet will push on by
blind to the words you said with your smile.
Funny how sometimes
the sunrise waits for you to raise your eyes.

To Kamal

Clay Angel

2008-04-07T07:03:00.002+05:30

Angel of clay
You broke in my hand
My wings
wishful, wistful...
While dreams left
my eyes like snakes
into clouds of neon sighs.

In this rain,
in this light
look from faraway
through sunset skies.
Hold on...
while the stars burst forth
and touch you where no one tried.

To This Day

2008-04-07T07:02:00.002+05:30

To this day I stand,
face the sunrise,
Salute the skies.

To this days' broken moth-wings
I raise my eyes
See the other side.

To this day
to this chance.
To when we met
to you
to yours...

For Sean

Slip: Envy

2008-04-07T06:55:00.003+05:30

While my feet slip away
Float past - a palanquin
Of fairy tales and sorcerers.

Look in curious cat,
the goblins of mud
have come over.

Partake - Holy Sacrament
of Blood, Body and Mind
Now, gentle forgiving hand:

Wipe one last scratch
of Envy
from our foreheads -
Calm the night.

Sketch-book

2008-04-01T13:20:00.004+05:30

I saw each page turned
through to the next
through to your eyes.

Lines drawn out
paper thin. Fine,
Just so fine.

One small respite
fresh like lime,
through to my jaded eyes -

I smiled.

Always smile
red shoes...
to that paper soft sun-shine.

-
For Allen

red sickle

2008-03-17T23:10:00.002+05:30

Hacked at and carved into
thin and taut, this skin
beckoned into and hidden.

Poked at and passed-over
I prayed, prayed on
beaten into submission.

can no one see this -
this that so held near
Holy, this virgin decision.

Thin line

2008-03-17T23:03:00.002+05:30

Drawn taught
this line between
all that will
All that's mine
and me.

Let you scar
this sacred
through jaundiced eyes
stare at me
And all that's mine.

Far too sacred
far too pure -
Far to away for you
for all that's yours

Lightyears away
membrane of glitter
scratched lines of silver
into foreheads of beaten gold.
Golden - pure dew. Pure.

your predjudice has tainted
tainted.
stop!
now stop!
No more.

Score

2008-03-17T16:51:00.003+05:30

Wander through
waves beating it out
into the space
that you and I made.

Unwanted for sure
while insects
of time and people
crawl past. Busy!

Touched something
without you as words
crashing, beating
scored once more
over me.

Scrape

2008-03-13T14:13:00.002+05:30

Cupped this sunshine
in hands of slate.
Rode a heat wave
to touch
Mercury's iron face.
Watched and smiled
ah! Games people play
Smoke rings curling
my hair curling
Clipped. Trimmed.
Costly preening,
when all else fails.

Simple

2008-03-10T12:14:00.003+05:30

Floating
five headed
and hardly there.

Staring
forehead scorched
and life kissed.

Slept with
distances
and simply put

your tongue
Not mine.
But hardly scared.

Prayer

2008-03-10T11:56:00.000+05:30

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow
domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the
dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought
and action--
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
(Rabindranath Tagore)

Kingdom Come

2008-03-07T12:15:00.003+05:30

I'm empty.
Removed. Remote.
The jungle of wild flowers
Swallowed me. I begged to be
Traded all of me
For a sliver of sun.
Blinded by the sharp.
Now knowing and struck dumb.
Empty. Left Undone.
Just white noise
God to His Kingdom come.

Outside

2008-02-29T13:51:00.001+05:30

Green birds peering
into carperted melancholy.
Out in an afternoon dance
with sunlit streaks.
My love-nest is freedom...
that's what the birds tell me.
My madness is the cup of nectar
that the world needs.
Drink.
Receive.

Intestine

2006-09-26T15:42:00.001+05:30

Crumble and collide and
repeat 10 thousand and one times.
My virus cannibal -
my my oh my.
Eaten from inside -
i watch this feast of intestines.

Green trees -
green lawn,
roses n white dresses.
laughter of hide and seek
won game.
step of life -
I climb...I climb.

Blue

2006-04-13T12:57:00.002+05:30

Blue gray and white.
tired troubled minds walking on
one more duty, one more song.
blood rushes and white to black,
Sleep with dreams deprived.
And yet another day
another thousand songs.
i sing on, i play along.