Friday, March 26, 2010

PALLIKARNAI POEMS

Pallikarnai,one of the prominent waterbodies that once provided life breath to Chennai (Tamilnadu, India) is now a garbage dumpyard. It now serves as a moving symbol of how the civilized can threaten the environment.




I

Pallikarnai
Resounds
In the Alps.
Retches the himalayas.

Foams
In the Ganges.
Forays the volga.

Muddles
In the Amazon
Mucks the Nile.

Incarnates
In myriad moulds
And disguises
Around the world.

Masking the demon behind
Hoodwinks the beholder
Letting none to snare.

II

The subjacent hell
Pandemic heaps of plastics
Annals of the soil receded.

Putrifying greed
Kicked shut
The eyes of mother earth.

Clinging the remnants
Eager to sprout
Future laments.

Wailing of
Strangled stars
Unceased.

Abandoned birds
Scribbles the dirge
In the blazing sky.

III

Fire unfurled
Everywhere.

The stretching blaze
Scorched the city
Stoked humen bodies.

Their mind
Charred long ago.

Unable to bear
The acrid smell
Wind collapsed.

Streets whirls around
Stuck in the hounding wheels.

The world
Tosses upside down.

IV

Flies
Abducted the city.

Assaulted school buses

As tanks
Demolished the sky scrappers.

As missiles
Sped up to homes.

In hungry mouth
Dropped bombs.

Eyes were plucked out,
Lips consumed.

Dismayed sky shrunk.
Stars severed down.

Corses
Drifted in drinking water.

Wings are swords
Legs are spears.

Flies.

V
Before dying
Wriggling soil
Asked the children

Would you give
The leafy eyes
Only to see me?

Before the fall
Writhing earth
Entreated the children

would you give
The ears of green trees
Only to hear me?

To the world of the matured
Went the little ones
Searching leafy eyes and ears.

Will they return?

If return
Will the soil and earth remain?

VEMBANADAN LAKE

Vembanadan lake.

A canvas
That never dried.

Sky flew down
And sat on my shoulder,
A loner.

On the green meadows
The book of dew drops fell,
Scattered and torn.

Night swells.

GIRLS IN THE TENNIS COURT

The short skirt
Hovers up.

Eyes perceive
On the lingerie
The dark future
Behind.

Pondering over the
Luscious breasts
They'll taste
Of cooked meat.

The exposed thighs
Like the shapes made of
Sandstorms in the desert
Become the feast.

Don't want to see anymore.
No curiosities left.

Women, no longer a surprise.
Nudity isn't a topic of discussion.

TRAVEL POEMS

VAISHALI

Nalanda to Vaishali
Only a birth's distance.

Still it felt farther.

While travelling
Distance increases
Not deceases.

DELHI

Here,
Resolutions
Made.

A one-eyed kite
Never flies above dollars
Executes it.

The tourist guide hesitated
To reveal the rest.

He seems to be
Afraid of someone.

KASHI

Tales of salvation
Told a lot.

Had Ganga possessed
THe fury of Kali?

While dipping in the river
No doubt,man.

Emerging out
Yes, what is it?

MUMBAI

The eyes of the city
Oscillates
Like a pendulam.

They don't show time.

Want to know ?

Keep a dead watch
On your wrist.

KUSHINAGAR

Though Sri Budha
Had dissolved
The soil lacks fertility.

Human corpses
Make soil rich.

The plants and trees here
Herald not luxuriance.

The dead
May not be human.

I'm mystified.

May not be God.

Then, what?

DHARAVI

Sea of tiny sheds
They call home.

Made of torn mats
Rusty tin sheets
Decayed palm leaves
And hopes.

Ganga of drains
Saintly mosquitoes
Himalaya of epidemics.

Not in television
Blank in tourism guide.

I wanna be there.

Where is Dharavi?

VARANASI

A Vararuchi
Among the commuters?

A Dharmaputhra?

Rails are old and beaten.
The trains
Never belong to this age.

Poem lingered lips.
An oldy asks,
ARE YOU RECITING MANTHRAS?

He was on his way to Kashi.

The train came.

In the rush
The old man thrown out.

Instead of manthras
He murmured curses.

I still hums verses.

ALAPPUZHA

Hands of backwaters
Wrap the universe.

The dragon fly flutters
Wings stuck in
His own life blood.


Alappuzha lies
As the heart of a sea bird
Soars far off.

NALANDA

There was a university,
The guide said.

A request.

Don't click cameras,
Please.

History has no rebirth.

Atrocious lies
Everything.

BOKARO

Day light

The steelcity
Doesn't glitter.

The people
Working in the plants
Seems civilised.

Their flaked lips
Moved like ratchet wheels.

May be indicating
Immigrated civilisation.

But people around
Resembled aborigines.

Worn out history smiles.

The civilised and uncivilised!

Resounds siren.

BUDHAGAYA

A bodhi tree
Scattered temples.

Saffron clad sanyasi
Pees in public.

An eccentric got
Enlightenment here.

At gaya
The railway station.

While walking along
The sleeping and huddled shapes
I've lost another dream.
(Damn the dream,who needs it!)

THIRUPATHI

A spot forgot
To be wiped out.

Shaved heads of men.

Anti smell of
Turmeric and sandalwood paste.

Holy manthras
Remained undigested
In the electric light.

A heaven
For slaves.

RAJAGIRI

The present
Scales the mountain
Enduring the unbearable cold.

It might be a slip out.

Is it the temple atop
Caught their fancy?

It can also be
The inborn trait
To conquer the heights.

Unbrushed morning yawns.

In a journey
Why did the resting place
Become afflicting?

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

LOVE POEMS

I

You are a drop of ocean
A tip of sky
A pinch of cyclone
A colorful night.

You are my eyelid
I craved for you.

You reached like a wave
Pulled me like a sea.

II

If you tunes
Birds will talk.

I'm the riddle
Fill me up.

III

In the banks of a river
I'm waiting.

Virgin water
Splashed on my face.

The moon brought
All the stars in the sky.

Sheet of dew
Fell on the grass.

Time chokes in my heart.

IV

I'm in a cloud
Night engulfs.

Death stalks
At my feet.

You are dawn
Just vanished.

V

Discussions

Something has
Missed out.

Lightning.

Shadows of yellow and green.

Suddenly drenched in rain.

VI

Where were you
All these days?

Where were you hiding?

Something is burning.

VII

Bits of love
Gentle breeze
seductive nature
Nameless fragrance.

Exiled in unknown.

VIII

I reach the sky
Sans effort.

To bring the moon
As carpet for you.

Then turned to pieces.

IX

With swaying hands
A flower came.

Lips made
Melody inside.

Mesmerising dance
Twinkling stars.

A tide in my heart
Sweetness in roots.

X

I died gradually
Lost everything.

Earth and space in you.

Shower me
Quench my thirst.

Regained verses.

XI

Silence.
Silence.

Why there is silence?

Your eyes says it all.

XII

Love soars
Wings infinite.

See you in earth
Forgotten by god.

Whole world slumbers.

Monday, March 22, 2010

POLAR POEMS

RAIN

Did it begin rain
In seashore?

Weaving web
With strands of rain
Waiting for prey?

Does it remind
The lassie of first love
When we parted
On a rainy day?

Is the strumpets
Stripped their nudity
Licks the scratchy privates
Of the world?

Do they protect
The vicious world?

The rain
Flows thro' satellite veins
Fluttered,churned.

Thinking of
Music of rain
Felt the nausea of the
Great ages left?

Rain in the seashore?
Who knows?

DISTORTED

Arabian sea
Encroached the city
With chopped head
And swelled legs.

Clouds fought like black cats
Spirit scented rain raged on.

The world lay
As if in a morgue
Varied dance accrued
Atop it.

View distorted/

FANTACY

Her cotton sari
Ensnared the city
Hands spirited
Neck sought to strangle
Legs fly
Hair soar madness
Ears melted cell phones
Heart collapsed the sky.

Alone
In a house
Sans address.

INDU , THE FIVE YEAR OLD

Dragged off to school
The little girl sobbed.

Fortressed school vans.
Enchained buildings.

Crying scapegoat.

Getting out
Savage.

BEHIND A YOUNG MAN

Aged man.

Won't see the young
See the eyes
The scorching tears.

Seizes the young
Epistles of love.

Hides the hues of youth
In saffron spirituality.

Aged man.

INDIA

India is a bird
In the map
Ready to soar.

Bengal and Assam
A wing.
Gujarat and Rajasthan
Another.

The pinnacle
Jammu Kashmir
Gazes.

Delhi and Punjab
Stirs the body.

Kerala
Hangs on tail
A stylet.

LOOK

A vulture feeds corses ?

A myena that sings ?

TO FATHER , UNTOLD

We discussed poetry
In rented homes.

Claws hiding
They asked.

What's the use of poetry?

Airconditioned Professors
Growled.

What poem
Without honors?

Pasting flaky smile
Breaking the world
The editors roar.

Poem,not printed at all?

Benumbed in cold
We chased to poles.

We quarelled
Fondness rustled.

You
Frequented toddy shops
Befriended young men.

Before your poetry
Rocked skies
You went away.

Folk memories
went too with you.

Defiance
Bravado
Conflicts
No more.

Time
The turbid water
Everyone catches fish.

I'm waiting
turn to come.

GIRL IN JEANS

Strolls with men
Moves like men
Observes time
Possess political acumen
A polyglot.

Sits as she wish
One leg on the other
Or kept wide open.

Thwarted my male look
With a NO.
LET THE WORLD CHANGE
For an I LOVE YOU.

Proud bossom
Naughty butts

A pass at her
In a crowded bus ,
Your genitals suffer.

Midnight.
Coimbatore.
100 feet road.

In the terrace
Tried to grab
She smothered
My cheeks.

Never believe men
Preach progress.

DAMSELS IN KUTTANAD

In Kuttanad
The damsels
Never outruns girlhood.

Like lakes,
Stirs in gentle breeze.

In the brook
Perches becomes stars
At their sight.

At the twinkling anklets
Water lilies flushed.

From the untied hair
The blackened shadows flies.
Seeing the ebony bossom
The sky bloomed wide.

Prof : K.P.APPAN SAYS

He tries to mould poems in a style of his own.
He creates poetry searching the beauty with a difference.
His poems delve into the core of youth.

...........................................

This is a delicate natural craze.
Passion towards poetry is a self torture.
From this self torture too the poet gets perturbing insights.
Justification and beauty of this discomposure is the poetry of Sabu.
............................................

To one who is indecisive and always in quest,poetry grows into his unrest. (K.P.Appan,an eminent literary critic in Malayalam)

PROFILE

Sabu shanmughom is a bilingual poet,traveller,freelance journalist.
A collection of poems,Akashathile Arupikalku[Mulberry edition]in his credit.
Poems and essays appeared in Anthologies,Yuvakavithakuttam[D.C books],Malayalathinte PranayakvithakalMulberry],R.Ramachandran,Kaviyum Kavithayum[Poorna edition],Murivetta Sheershakangal[Pen books].
Also appeared in major Malayalam Dailies,Periodicals,Web magazines.
Edited a little magazine,Bahuvachanam.
Worked as correspondent to Al-Ameen daily,( Kozhikode) in the great presence of the freedom fighter E.Moidu Maulavi Sahib.
Scripted for shortfilms,documentaries,television shows.
Wandered all over India for a period of eight years doing odd jobs.
Now living in Trivandrum.