Satellite Apartments

apartments

in space

for aliens

arriving

or humans

escaping

hurtling

revolving

rotating

38,000 miles per hour

within earth's orbit

sunrise sunset

every hour

destination

moon

mars

venus

or

being thrown out

by internal controls

or external objects

or gravitational

or magnetic forces

meteors

comets

other planets

or

galactic debris

or stars

or whatever

life

its longevity uncertain

as when terrestrial

so also orbitally

Colossus

The Colossus holds up the sky.

He can't remember for how long 

since he was torn away from a cliffside 

and tortured with chisels 

and propped up 

and consecrated 

and prayed to 

and frozen into place 

by expectations.

The sky looks angrier 

than his unmoving eyes have seen. 

It was a burden 

which his broad shoulders could support; 

now it threatens like an enemy. 

It couples with earth 

to rock him on his pedestal. 

He must uphold. 

He cannot bend. 

If he falls, ashes. 

Ashes. 

We all fall down.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, a play by Tennessee Williams adapted for film in 1958 and again in 1984, was one of the earliest cinematic productions of Williams' work. The 1958 film, directed by Richard Brooks, starred Paul Newman; Elizabeth Taylor as Maggie the Cat; and Burl Ives. It was nominated for six Oscars.

As much as the original play was recognised in the theatre, the film was a great entry into the popular imagination for Tennessee Williams. It was very polished, even though it was hard for people to appreciate Williams. He was always enigmatic, difficult to understand: almost, given the period of his creative years, bordering on mild to extreme perversion; or else misunderstood.

For more information and a plot summary, see Wikipedia.

The American Consulate in Chennai had a regular program on book discussion, where the learned heads of teaching institutions, and writers, were invited. It amused me that at the end of a discussion of Tennessee Williams' work which I headed, several of these gathered around me with curious questions: How did I know Tennessee Williams so well, when others hardly understood him? Had I met him personally? I replied that not only had I not met him but honestly, I had not even read the book, except for the text on the cover and a couple of random paragraphs.

Furling and Unfurling

the sun

furling and unfurling

a new day

a new beginning

a new arrival

a new departure

the new 
as in old

-------------------------------

Bhashwati wrote:

The words,

A new departure

the new

as in old

holds the key. 

The day furls even as it unfurls, the hours of light pass into the depths of darkness. The same familiar cycle forever and yet often the heart craves and the mind yearns for lasting light, for arrivals divorced from departure, for life free of death... as if such were even possible. 

But if conscious life must live, it can only do so by denying all consciousness of reality.

And the image brings to mind an old song by Jaan Nisar Akhtar, Javed Akhtar's father, : 

Katra katra pighalta raha aasmaan

Rooh ki waadiyon mein na jaaney kahaan

Ik nadi dil ruba geet gaati raahi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzI4icCY50o  

Dawn

dusk

either beginning or end

first stirring of life

or the last image

chanced upon by

aged unseeing eyes

an image

of dawn or dusk

of beginning or end

not seen but felt

before the last breath

from scattered pieces

of mind

last breath

in wondrous glow

of dawn or dusk

Memories Overlapping

memories overlapping

other memories

likewise overlapping others

intermingling

until they diffuse

and fade away

into nothingness

--------------

Bhashwati wrote:

What an unbelievable composition with what a wide range of elements in the same frame.

Vaise i dont get it why people chase that elusive being called god when there is the miracle called light that one cannot admire and worship and appreciate enough.

And how you manage to play with it is no less miraculous.

Life, the Alluring Prison

My offering, with a thousand salutes, to all my fellow prisoners.

Ek haseen haseena zindagi

khamosh tammana

berahm aasmaan ke niche

bhitar baahar

A beauty, life beautiful
silent yearning
under the merciless sky
shackled
within without

Runaway God

Immune

as in unaware

of good and bad

happiness or otherwise

wise beyond wisdom

Lend Me Your Ear

Elemental Home

The Glow

between the pristine bloom

and its fall