Bright Side of Things

“Hope is the pillar that holds up the world. Hope is the dream of a waking man”
~ Pliny the Elder

Early Bird

Happy bird sings
Caught a worm and golden sun
Hopes blossomed

©Alka

Here’s some more:

Give It All
Flowers sing and die
Unheard, their beck and call
‘Give it all’

©Alka

     ~~~

“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.”
~~Desmond Tutu

Wishful Thinking

We always see the bright side
We’re keeping our hopes alive
That the day will never come
When birds stop singing
When flowers forget to bloom
As the earth burns down
As we bring on our doom

©Alka

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I wrote the above haiku and the short poem for two challenges.
Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku Challenge 106 hosted by Ronovan Writes. The two words for this week were Flower & Sing.
Also for Writer’s Quote Wednesday Weekly Challenge hosted by Colleen of The Silver Threading. This week’s theme was: Hope

Hope you enjoyed my poems!

Self-Driven

Source: Deviant Art Charpener

 

Driving my life, now
Wheels unstuck from the daily rut
Towards all things fine

© 2016 Alka Girdhar

~~~

For the daily prompt Drive

Orbs of Light – Sun & Moon

Borrowed Glory

Shining in my glory
You charm the lovesick couples?
Thus spoke sun to moon

*

Hopegivers

As big star goes down
Little bro moon shows its face
Keeping our hopes alive

(sunset from my backyard and moon coming up from the front)

© 2016 Alka Girdhar

~~~ ~~~

These are my two haiku written for Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge 93
The two words provided were: Sun & Moon

Today I attempted haiku poems after a long time. I’m not very good at it, I thought.
But then what am I good at? I wondered. I wrote. I let it be…

Finally Home – a flash fiction

Empty Nest

I paused abruptly on reaching the red bench. Something is amiss. Today again the bench is empty.

Every day, on my way to office I happen to pass by this bench. Each day I see him sitting there. Matted hair hanging on his shoulders like unwashed dreadlocks. Clothes that have not been washed for long. But how can he? He has no home. Dazed and lost, humming to himself, at times he would be playing some sad melody on his guitar while people would put coins in front of him.  

The bench looks sad and deserted. I look around. Would anyone know his whereabouts? No use asking these strangers, for they’re all passers-by using this park as a passage to their destination. For him, it was home.  

I see a young guy walk towards the bench, place a bouquet, say some prayer and walk away.

Of course this had to happen! Day after day, beaten by cold weather at night, he could bear it no more. I felt a lump in my throat. The first thing I’ll do on reaching home is donate to some institute for the homeless.  

~~~ ~~~

My above story is for Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers, a weekly story writing challenge held by Priceless Joy. 
Photo prompt for this week was provided by Ady.

I do know “Empty Nest” is not an appropriate title for this story but somehow it’s the first word that came into my mind after writing. Words like ‘vagabond’, ‘vagrant’ and ‘wandering’ are too cliched`.  How about ‘A Vagabond’s Refuge’?

Red, White and Blue

 

Huge Solidarity

Opera House roofed
In blue, white and red hues
Lighted compassion

For two days, the sails of Sydney’s iconic Opera House displayed blue, white and red, the colors of the national flag of France. See more pictures from around the world here.

***

 

picture credit: ireport

Crying Jacaranda

Purple blossoms rain
From canopy of branches
A beautiful mess

Sydney streets are commonly lined with Jacaranda trees and in late spring to early summer that it is now, trees display magnificent purple flowers. There are carpets of blue all around and from a distance, the flowers blooming above and the ones fallen below, kind of look synchronized.
But stale fallen flowers soon become a messy risk for pedestrians who have been known to slip on these.
Jacaranda is very much a dream tree of Sydney-siders who kind of measure time with the arrival of flowers on street side Jacaranda trees.

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These were my two Haiku for Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku Poetry Prompt Challenge 71
The two prompts provided were Cover & Color.

The featured header image is Mumbai’s main railway station, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus lit up in the colors of the French national flag.

Weltshmertz and our Woeful Longing

Words like longing and pining pull our heart strings because longing is related to some unfulfilled desire or an unmet need, something that most of of have experienced in life or continue to do so.

Previously, on seeing the words Pine & Grief provided for Ronovan Writes Haiku Challenge, I couldn’t help thinking of this phrase ‘we pine for what is not‘.

This phrase, that represents the universal truth, is originally from the poem To The Skylark by P.B. Shelly. For the first time I brought another writer’s work into my post.
Shelly says ‘we look before and after…and pine for what is not…’
I gave it a twist by adding ‘we overlook what we have got…’

Pining for grief

We pine for what is not
And overlook what we’ve got
Recipe for our grief

Thus, the trouble with us is not just that we long too much for our past or that scheme too much for our future. It’s also that we don’t focus on our present, forever ungrateful for what we currently have, while not making the most of it. By doing all this we are ‘pining for what is not’ as well as unconsciously creating sadness and misery rather than positively constructing happiness by taking our current life in our own hands.

*** ***

My second haiku is about a different kind of longing…

Weltshmertz

Hi-tech generation
Craving perpetual novelty
Desolation lingers

Weltshmertz is a feeling of sadness caused by ills of the world, as too much craving brings world weariness.

Longing is not all bad though. There’s a unique pleasure in yearning for the ones we love. It shows that we care. And yet, excess is bad – for excessively desperate longing is not just a sign of existing depression but it is addictive and cyclical, thus causing more depression.

Ebb and Flow Of Poetic Challenges

My participation in Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku Challenge is very unpredictable. It all depends upon the ebb and flow of fluids within my grey matter.

The two words provided to us this week:  Tide & Flesh.

*

Flesh and blood humans
Riding on the tides of time
Helpless dummies

*

Go with the flow
Or use might against the tide
Triumph be the goal

*

Burn yourself out
Melt your flesh and bone
Tides will change

*

Nation advances
A rising tide lifts all boats
All lives boom

*

Causing big tides
Mighty Moon flexes its muscles
I rule the Earth!!

*

Receding tides brought
A mermaid’s body on the beach
Sea’s beautiful gift

~~~

Yayyyy!!  (still counting the haiku).

© 2015 Alka Girdhar

Bonded Forever!

A month old baby sleeping on top of his mother

Such bonds are not undone
With the cutting of umbilical chord
Ties that nourish forever.

Maa! That was the best sleep ever!

~~

My son’s picture, clicked many years ago, was for the Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge: Connection

For Cute Buds and Flowers…

After I wrote my post ‘Crushed Crush’ (in response to the Daily Post’s writing prompt ‘First Crush’)…Roopam of Whimsical90 asked “Aren’t crushes cute?” but she also commented that there are “uncertainties and butterflies involved“

That cute conversation inspired a cute poem:

Crushes are cute buds
Best before they finally wilt
Upon blooming into a flower

(There are cute buds that bloom into flowers of love; some then survive but get stale with time, others simply crumble and die.)

*

Copyright © 2015 Alka Girdhar

To drown in Wine and Poetry

Woman and Wine

Ditched by a bad hen
He immersed not in his tears
Soused himself in wine

*

Hooked to Tears

Poetry that pours out
From the core of a weeping heart
Addictive as wine

(addictive to the writer as well as the reader)

~~~

These were my two Haiku poems for:  Ronovan Writes Weekly Haiku Poetry Prompt Challenge 61. Have a look at Ronovan’s site. You too can take part in Haiku Challenge.

Words provided this week:  Wine & Tears

Copyright © 2015 Alka Girdhar