俳


the red plum bonsai
hidden behind the stone frog
reveals its blossoms

The Hibernating Black Bear

Amidst the falling berries and cherry leaves
You curl into a tight black globe
Of winter lethargy
And shuffle a pelt-warm dream
Of open fields, larger family and aplenty.
Along with raccoon dogs, skunks and chipmunks,
You hide in dark inaccessible places
To let nature die of predatory instincts,
And unmindful of the snow and wind
Slumber till early spring into a vision realized.


This poem was first published in the Poetic Portal, February 19,2009. To read this poem in the original published format or browse other poems by Mukesh Williams please visit the website Poetic Portal.net

Wild Grass

The amber softness and
The figural logic
Of the wild autumn grass,
Sway gently in the night wind,
Divesting conviction and emotion,
Leaving a yearning for the imponderable.

Its bewitching long aureate wings
Reify symbols, concepts, philosophies,
Challenging in their audacity
Even the dusty gold of the moon
That spreads its gilded icons
In a bewildered expanse of eidolon.

First published in Best Poem: A Poetry Journal, January 26, 2009

To read more poems by Mukesh Williams please go to The Copperfield Review and Best Poem: A Poetry Journal by accessing the following websites http://www.copperfieldreview.com and http://bestpoem.wordpress.com/

Cogitating the New Year

We calibrate time,
Imagine temporal structures,
And celebrate the New Year,
Welcoming the sweet misery of life,
Measuring months, weeks and days,
Converting them
Into an expectant whole and
In elation or despair,
Enter the etesian time zone
At the stroke of twelve;
Believing that the cog
Has served its purpose.

We miss the seasons,
The fog on the mountains,
The sunshine on the rooftops,
The dark corridors of our fantasy,
The quiet contemplation of the mind,
The snow footprints of the badger,
The fluttering of the cicada,
The bespattered maple leaf,
The budding branch,
Our very heartbeat itself;
Life passes us by and yet
We look for virtue in chronology.

We seek the New Year
In a department store
In cheap bargains,
Steam ejecting gadgets,
Discounted apparel, foundation cosmetics,
Stuffed toys, plastic insects,
Imitation shrubbery,
Tinsel, doodads,
Chocolates and pasties,
To sweeten our choice;
We wish to seize the celestial universe
In pretentious artifice.

Representing India

Conceive her in any way you wish to
In any language you want to,
You may choose Persian, Arabic or
Any of the modern European languages
To locate the hypostasis of Al Hind, Hindustan, or India,
You may dig into its geological, linguistic or technological warrens
And come up with religious conflict, squalor and disease,

You may as an Indian envision her
As an iconographic matryabhumi,
Mythologize her to serve a nationalist cause,
Even transform her into a male entity of King Bharata
And call her Bharatvarsha
Or eulogize her rectitude and aesthetic
Through the lyrics of Tarana-e-Hind,

You may imagine her as Mother India or Mother Teresa,
Privileging social justice over family revenge,
Serving irrefragable bahujan hitye,
You may try to contain her
Through your imagination, literatures,
Myths, celluloid representation, but
India will always have something more to prefigure.

You can also read the poem on Boloji.com, June 15, 2008
at the following address:
http://www.boloji.com/poetry/4001-4500/4288.htm