THREE POEMS BY JERNAIL SINGH ANAND FROM INDIA

 

WHERE THE WINDS ARE FREE 

Where winds wish to have a stay, 

And talk to birds until leaves 

Loudly acknowledge their presence,

Where butterflies riot in their trance lost

And serpents donot have to stay indoors

For fear of the curfew outside 

Where the land still to the earth belong

Ploughed for seeds,

Not punctured with JCBs to implant

images of an Insane civilization

Where men in innocence believe

And don't consider

Ignorance a crime,

Where pens flow in bounteous praise

Of the creator

And men and the vegetation stay in love

Where you don't need scriptures to tell

What is hatred and

What constitutes His prayer

O Muse, land me in that gracious company

When alive, and among 

This happy world, in peace  rest.

Dr Jernail S Anand

WHIRLED UP

Jernail S Aanand 

Time makes some rise 

And some fall.

There won't be day until the night gives way.

No other way except to say

While the sun shines  

We make hay 

And when it doesn't shine

It is the hay

That has a field day.

What restricts me 

From a thousand things

Despite feet, I can't play 

I am frozen mass

Caught in the whirl

Where I am, destined to stay.

Dr Jernail S Anand

INCOUNTER

I took with me a sacred lamp 

To light in the temple,

And an incense stick too

And then I started with a few sacred words

To appease the invisible presence behind a deity.

I knew it was a sacred place, 

And every thing that I brought here,

The candle, the lamp, 

The matchstick, the incense

Had to be sacred too.

I bowed my head, and in my mind

Prayed for worldly joys

And lifted my eyes up

Thinking the deity will respond

And bless me,

I felt an invisible hand on my shoulder

I looked back,

There was none, 

Only a voice rose from  nowhere..

"The most sacred thing in this temple 

Is you, your body, your mind".

Am I too sacred? 

"You too are something come straight 

From the divine manufactury.

Branded by God 

Even if your mind is filled with world,

In your  blood flows the Master."

"As you don't bring anything profane

In this sacred place,

Why you scatter so many insanities

And impurities in your mind?

Why are you so insensitive 

To towards yourself?"

"Realise your sacredness, 

Your beauty, your aura, 

And your descent from the Divine

Cast in love, compassion, 

And empathy 

For men, bird and beast."

"O soul! Thou burneth already!

Realise thy truth."

And voice turned silent 

After it was sure

It has ignited my soul l.

Dr Jernail S Anand