Digiart 1 Geese

From digiart

This photograph was taken by me at A1 Plaza/ NH 47/Nellore Dist/AP and converted into a digiart/watercolours using Fotosketcher.

Haiku 55 pollen

green billiard table-

a line of ants

carry pollen grains

November 21, 2009

© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009-all rights reserved.

http://poetrypoem.com/openmind

Haiku 58 mouldy fig

 




flea market- 
a mouldy fig 
brings her ware  




November 21, 2009

© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved. 

http://poetrypoem.com/openmind

Haiku 57 flea market

winter flea market-

new habits sell

old memories

November 21, 2009

© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved. 

http://poetrypoem.com/openmind

Haiku 56 tub

from a tub of water
under the window
the moon in my room




© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved.
http://poetrypoem.com/openmind

Trees

All these photographs have been taken by me during a trip with family to the Kabini Wildlife sanctuary, Karnataka.

Back to The Cyberworld

All these photographs have been clicked by me.

Off to 
Chennai-Bengaluru-Kabini 
on a 6 day holiday...
will be back 20th Jan...
please don't forget me


In the meanwhile 
please read my poetry at http://poetrypoem.com/openmind 

Fibonacci Poetry

There

was

a man,

a man who

sojourned far and wide

from old Italy to a port

due east in ancient Algeria of Africa,

returned armed with a treasure, Method of the Indians,

for counting money as one would

hypothetical

babies of

rabbits

as

if.

Leaf

face

flowers

nautilus

the human figure

in veins and arteries branching

molecules and compounds and geometry of crystals

sequence amazing as if an artist’s eye at work

the scales of a pineapple sweet

bracts of  pinecones

nature’s art

a gift

all

 this.

1,1,2,3,5,8,13,13,8,5,3,2,1,1

September 24, 2009

© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved. 

http://poetrypoem.com/openmind

Haiku 54 cell phone

silent valley-

my cell phone falls

into the crystal stream

November 21, 2009

© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved. 

http://poetrypoem.com/openmind

Haiku 53 capricorn

sleepless eyes

trace the lines-

capricorn

November 21, 2009

© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved. 

http://poetrypoem.com/openmind

Escape In Death

Limping through the jostling crowd the man waggles

Towards home and wife to tell the sickening news

Luxury and comfort a distant impossible ask

Survival and continuance a big question mark

The monsoons fail as in the preceding four years

Spurious seed and scantly sourced precious waters

His crop this year was meager reduced in quality

Middlemen like fine sieves waiting copiously

Value for produce never matches the effort

Farmer the last in line when the talk is profit

Never gains filter down to him who toils the soil

His life is drudgery with many waiting to foil

Benefits for hard-slog for blood sweat and tears

Snatched from him before his mouth it reaches

Lenders like hawks watch every movement

Ready to scoop-out any morsel money scent

A land of billions with deaths in thousands

Population and illiteracy perpetual scars

Haves and have-nots, the divide growing

Death here longed-for by many suffering

Hide and hole up a choice no longer available

Verdict pointing to only one direction feasible

End the torture from all encircled, humiliating

Whole family form pact to end misery alarming

Gulp down pesticide obtainable effortlessly

To never suffer from a plight, saved eternally

Such is the dilemma of farmers countless

In the land India, here death goes heedless

(15^th June, 2006, Nellore)

© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved. 

http://poetrypoem.com/openmind 

Dreamsoldfair

I heard the lucid laughter slice the air

The hurly-burly gaiety of Dreamsoldfair

In knickerbockers and belled droopcaps

Prancing around were pixie gnomes.

I spy a fairy and wonder why they hide

Bluebell over toadstones dangle

Where screampies were hawked.

I hop onto the path of purple cobble

Looking at wares put up for sale

Dreamsnapup the first shop to stop

A pouch of golden magic powder

To add some pop to my snappy nap

Steering clear from the jar that holds

The nasty brown snap up chowder.

Next I step into lively Dreamstrapit

To buy one dozen braided leather straps

Need to tie down troublesome dreams

Which annoy with their slippery tricks

Avoid I have to those cruel traps

In snarey pits they trap cute dreams.

I really love the next stop I make

At bright sunny shop Dreamoodare

Discs of luminous moods to take

For the daring dreams I love to dream

Canned doom air I refuse to breath

Sold in jars corked down safe.

I chance upon old dingy Dreamslitold

Had some old dreams that need be sold

Here they are mercilessly slit, I am told

I plan to trade them for some new-lit ones.

Appeared before me a man behind the counter

With a long chin with a curly pigtail beard

His eyes bore into mine, searching

I think he sees those secret dreams sleeping

Hey! Old devil! ! What are you doing?

I panic to see the words and papers

Stream out through my eyes and my mouth

Into a dark hole on the ceiling

I quickly draw my bow and arrow

Plan to nail the old man to his shadow

Then suddenly a wave of understanding hits

Held pointed my uncapped pen to the hole

And down come the words streaming back

Into my pen, safe and sound.

Later when I sat down to write on paper

Each letter each word a different colour

Each line each stanza a different flavour.

I think I caught some other’s dreams too

Enriching my poems with dreams new

Hush! Let me silently thank the evil old man.

(June, 2006, Nellore)

                             © Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 
                                     - all rights reserved. 

http://poetrypoem.com/openmind 

Haiku 52 carom

carom board game-

her laughter

clears the fog

November 21, 2009
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved. 

http://poetrypoem.com/openmind

Haiku 51 hopscotch

school of fish

in the open sea-

hopscotch

November 21, 2009

© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved. 

http://poetrypoem.com/openmind

Dreamer- Rictameter Verse

Dreamer,
You I salute,
Into lands you venture
Where no answers follow questions,
Where questions as two-tongued as vipers are
Whispered in rapid succession
As you hover wide-eyed
In ether land,
Dreamer.


Dreamer,
You I salute,
Into hearts you venture
With coy ease, prevail forever
With poems that smile through anguish and tears,
Leading you gently on tiptoes
Into his unique world
In ether land
Dreamer.

September 30, 2009

© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved. 

http://poetrypoem.com/openmind

Like the Cinquain, the Rictameter has a two syllable increment with each line, and a two syllable closure. However, unlike the Cinquain, the Rictameter does not stop at eight, it continues with a line of ten syllables, and instead of a two syllable closure, it decreases each line by two syllables per line until the closure. The closure being a repeat of the first line, so it is advisable to make it eye catching and definitive.
The syllable count is as follows- 2R.4.6.8.10.8.6.4.2R.

Double Talk

Photo Credit

Centuries of stereotyping
Has set in concrete minds
Reinforced by the need
To get the menial jobs done,
Created a species alien to man
Ruled and used and wooed to comply.

Branded she is in everything she does
GOSSIP she does while men just communicate
SCHEAMER she is while men strategize
She NAGS on and on while he just insists
Mask in place she is DUPLICITOUS but world-wise he is
if the mask were his
SHREWISH she is while men just shrewd and clever
Progress makes her NYMPHOLEPTIC
but he is but a go-getter
Lateness gets her the LOOSE WOMAN tag while man
relax and bond late into the night

Women everywhere are rewriting rules
Labels flying as new domains open
Retaining her name and meeting him halfway
The revolution is here with wheels spinning faster
Get off the brand-wagon and join in the fun
Remember she does the cooking ‘coz you don’t know how.

April 2009
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved.
http://poetrypoem.com/openmind

Haiku 50 soufflé

soufflé today-
rolled up newspaper
seven with one blow





November 21, 2009
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved.
http://poetrypoem.com/openmind

Dismantled Memories

A building took years of construction to establish
A deafening sounds as the structure meets the ground
Brought down by explosive in her womb well placed
With it plunge stories lived now instantly erased
The dust takes days to settle down and vanish

Walls are just walls that are built around spaces
People in it give them the character they profess
Some hushed some boisterous scenes they witness
Every room to those willing to listen sure speaks
Laughter and sorrow often mixed in level doses

Stories bizarre speak in furiously inaudible sensations
Creepy feelings at the nape of the neck held stiffened
Very rapidly are tears and fears by walls absorbed
They close in as if greedily hungry for possessions
As emotions cling ghost-like in cracks and fissures

Silently audible in a room are happier sounds
A room sprayed yellow with cheerful luster
Moments of pleasures treasured in every corner
Baby gurgles and glee of playful glad dweller
Whispered sweet nothings in flashes of passions

I see the biographies go up into the air above
Separate from the dust that hangs to menace
Colours that dazzle of every shade of the rainbow
The grey and the pitch black slower to rise
Hanging on to the structure as if nowhere to go

(9th June, 2006, Nellore)
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved.
http://poetrypoem.com/openmind

Haiku 49 mussel

lips parted in passion-
green mussel
on the jetty piles





November 21, 2009
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved.
http://poetrypoem.com/openmind

Haiku 48 leaf

autumn richness-
a golden leaf
into my wallet





November 21, 2009
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved.
http://poetrypoem.com/openmind

Did The Sea Change?

Time worshiped in vain life altars
Brio dreams zip in tired halfshut eyes
Adrenaline push thick clogged vessels.
Bonds valued as stocked bull runs
Love now devoid of devoir bondings
Spilling lost souls on sidewalks and alleys.

Oh! passing sojourner on earth’s largess
Earth warmer now than ever before
Damned are gases and solvent spilt forth.
Two centuries passed since driven wheels
Ploughed the dirt to form scopious paths
Lunging forward now on unplumed wings.

Are we the reason for the Warming Earth?
Or are we too small to influence the Universe in flux?
Two centauries ample to affect a sea change?

Change is nucleus to the space we float in
Too removed from our sphere of influence.
The dinosaurs claim no credit for the Ice age.
No control we can prate over nature’s umbrage.
We pump our egos thinking We create change
Megalomania, I think we need be accused of.

We are too small to reign in the monster
Created by greed for comfort and power.
Let things go on as planned destinies
Find instead your universe in embracing arms
This sphere you can control and influence
Choose to illuminate or in darkness live.

(21st June, 2006, Nellore)
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved.
http://poetrypoem.com/openmind

Haiku 47 mosquito

cyclone forecast-
a mosquito twister
above my dark hair





November 21, 2009

Design Of Life

Did you hear that silent flutter, louder than thunder?
Breaking heart?
Or is it a cupid’s arrow?
Tears would fall?
Or is laughter the call?
Know not till the eyes, tells it all.


Did you feel that flowing river, faster than time?
Torturing thoughts?
Or is it blissful love?
Gnawing the soul?
Or is it a happy wedlock?
Know not till the laughter, tells it all.


Did you see that lazy mountain, slower than slumber?
A sorrowful life?
Or is it content times?
A forgotten story?
Or is it a well-mourned one?
Know not till ultimate death, tells it all.

(14th May, 2006, Nellore)
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved.
http://poetrypoem.com/openmind

Desert deluge

Golden sands stretch
simmering in the noon time,
The land of death
an isolated pulsating beacon,
A desert draped
in the chronicle of ancient time,
The scorching heat
and the sand dunes beckon.

Amazing legends
of romance and heroism,
Sing longingly
in the pink castles of royalty,
Pink, blue, golden
cities greet in mysticism,
A quiet retreat
from the harsh wrath of reality.

Proud moustaches
of men with vibrant turban,
Painted pots poised
delicately on smiling beauties,
Hidden faces
in bandini* odhni* and heavy jewelry,
The colourful Ghagras*
in a rebellious swirl of festivities.

Rajasthan has seen
drought that squeezes her dry,
No Rain God answers
the soulful Bhopas* echoing pitifully,
Eight years of drought
crushed spent looking at the sky,
Till the heavens one day
opened and rain poured relentlessly.

People danced
with elation as welcome drops fell,
Like a prisoner of war
thankful thirsty parched land drank,
But the cloud burst
pouring down vengeance from hell,
Under 25 feet
of deluge water many villages sank.

Houses gone
washed off in the seething torrent,
Lost is life
To the rain they had waited for years,
Cattle, crops all gone
with the water that came to torment,
Watchful eyes now
look at the desert horizon with fears.

A flash flood submerged area in the Khawas village, Barmer district of Rajasthan part of the Great Indian Desert or Thar Desert on Saturday, Aug. 26, 2006. Some of the villages are submerged under 25 feet of water. The children below 8 years in these villages have never seen a drop of rain in their life!

(30th August 2006, Nellore)
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved.
http://poetrypoem.com/openmind




Bhopas: The Bhopas are priest singers who compose music in honour of the deities and the war heroes. The music is peppy and very catchy.
Bandini: Tie and Dye or the bandini is a traditional method of printing textiles.
Ghagras: The heavy mirror-work ghagras is an ankle length gathered skirt made of more than 5 and half meters of cloth worn with Khanijri, a backless longish blouse with half sleeves tied at the back with strings.
Odhni: A long scarf of vivid colours
Multi-coloured Ghagras, Khanijris and Odhni have for centuries added life to the barren landscape of Rajasthan. The men dress in white clothes with vibrant bandini turbans.

Haiku 46 safety pins

a dozen safety pins
looped together-
tears of joy




November 21, 2009
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved.
http://poetrypoem.com/openmind

Haiku 45 landfill

the shining car
and the latest mobile-
landfill’s birthright




November 16, 2009
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved.
http://poetrypoem.com/openmind

Death has no Future

The haggling goes on unabated.
Their posturing, a pain in the neck.
They fooling us with their chinwag
As they discuss our common future.

Are we being pointlessly towed
From Kyoto to Copenhagen
To witness the power struggle
Between the rich and the poor?

“Warmth in winter,
Wintry in summer,
Who questions this birthright?”

“Meat for the masses
Grain for the cattle,
Hungry? Curse history!”

“Don’t develop so fast-
You have no right to do that!
We’ll give you what’s left,
Have you no patience?”

“Pay for your sins!”
“Will 400 do?
Cut the emissions!
And then, we will pay you 10!”

“Sacrifice! Be Austere!
What goes up has to come down,
That is Mother Nature’s secret
Well exploited for progress.”

“Out of the way, old nations
Your creaking knees no match
To the surging youth of the young.
Make way, feign thence abnegator.”

2012 is true; I feel it in my bones,
The sizzling and the heaving,
The melting and the drowning,
Our future orchestrated by us.

Frightening, unnerving, rebarbative
I am ready, I have changed to CFL
I eat less, burn less, gone organic.
Anyway! Death doesn’t scare me
Since it has no future.

December 18, 2009
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved.
http://poetrypoem.com/openmind

Haiku 44 bonsai

whiplash of words
knuckles and knocks-
bonsai kid





November 2, 2009
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved.
http://poetrypoem.com/openmind

Dark Clouds Gather

Feeling of helplessness and gloominess
A fatigue very intense of mind and body
Shoulders now stoop with a burden heavy
A feeling I wish happens to not even an enemy
A tight knot in the stomach that is often churning
Heart in a tizzy that spreads a chilling feeling
A giant lump in the throat getting bigger still
The agitated mind that’s only going downhill
There is nowhere to go, no one to turn to.

Helpless over a matter that’s beyond control
Into my mind radical options keep popping
Limp and gauzy bubbles burst as they take form
I am dejected these thought-bubbles at all form
Feel hopelessly tired to even think of trying
The mind in a flurry, do I demand or try begging
Nothing seems to work as pressure keeps mounting
Payments and compulsion come on crashing
Nowhere to run off to, no help in sight.

Will it get shoddier as life goes on?
Could this be a case that is unresolved?
Time they say heals just about everything
But I see dark clouds only getting darker alarming
No silver to line them even on distant ones
No silver platter or even golden breaks
White as that paper are my fading hopes
And black as my day are my racing thoughts
No escape from this strife, no solution at all.

(13th June, 2006, Nellore)
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved