Man-Ki-Preet !

Groves through the pine, Where shades and shine twine... Motion stands and stillness walks Voice settles and silence talks On these groves through the pine ... Clutter meditates, dead leaves rustle Rhythm slows with no rush no hustle Shadow jumps behind, ahead, and side ‘I am’ merges with the time tide On these groves through the pine ... - MK 

Who are you ?  What is your origin ?  O Lines around me .. Do you divide or eternally unite?  Are you true or illusive sight ?  Night to dawn to day to night Child to youth to old to child Ignorance to knowledge to ignorance Awake to sleep to awake to sleep Bliss to despair to bliss Clouds to sky to clouds  Formless to form to formless  Thought to creation to thought Feeling to words to feeling Veil to reveal to veil  Pain to heal to pain to heal  Life to death to life  You to I to You to I.  Do you divide or eternally unite?  Lines, O lines! 

Cornered existence in a psychiatrist’s room  There is a figure in my room   In a corner, standing tall and free.  Adorned with birds and blooms, Illusions of life, on this dead tree.  Days pass by, but it doesn't grow  How can it? It's just a show.  Stories of pain and misery  Abuse, trials and victory  Knock its wood and deaf leaf  It stands silently, untouched, in peace.  Untill a  dawn ...and every day  When hope came in as a single ray!  Sun entered, wrapped in its essence  whispered, listened, caressed it gentle.  Life in lifeless, sprouted and reflected, dancing shadows, union ecstatic!   Then slowly joy faded in flowing day  Sun in motion, tree static, with no say  Hustle, bustle flowed in as blinding beam  Corned existence - again silent, or so it seem . Hope is just a single ray...  Longing...

A tiny pearl rolled down my cheek And vanished  in the eternity of that travel.  Who knows what was the origin?  A distorted thought ,  a deceptive perception Or the salty sea that this soul carries!  Across times and ages...  Was it silence or a word?  Who knows what stirred the sea  No waves ,  No fury.  All that was created was a tear  Salty as the sea.  Completed its jouney  Salvated ! 

5/24/19 Silences Ocean  of silence exists between two souls I wonder if I am the rock on the shore Or drop of that vast ocean? Are you the rock on other shore ? Or drop of that vast ocean ? This empty space is familiar to senses. Silences beyond measures and fences .. Not familiar - is my destiny! In this space between you and me? Only time will reveal .. Wheel of time goes on and on .. Beauty manifests to me from the shore Splendid sunrise, sunset with sanguine brilliance Tidal highs and lows Silver moon lit dancing waves.. Grandeur of this silence! But I yearn for fury of waves. Strong  enough to pull me in . Carry me to other shore,  where you exist. Through contradictions and mysteries you hold Touching, and caressing dark, silent caves. I yearn to be meager drop  in this mighty sea All engulfed , drowned , frothed As part of this silence myself Silence that just is .. -manpreet

4:30ish am Ahhh, the gates that lead from one to another! Sometimes grand, sometimes humble and simple...sometimes just a line in the sand...sometimes all in mind, barely visible, but profoundly there! There's a gate I cross every day, at about  the same time, from subconscious to conscious, sleep to wake. I am here! This side of the border! Its a known territory. Predictable roads and streets, familiar faces... but still so many hidden wonders to be explored in this  tourist destination called - day to day life! At the welcome center, I nourish myself with the first breath, hydrate with a glass of water, let the rays enter my eyes and splash water on my sleepy being....rituals at the welcome center... A wise friend advised -  Tourism tip #1 - Travel light! What all do I need to explore this side of the gate today? I am going to carry just the very basics. Desire to see and explore - Desire to see every moment as it comes. Detac...

March 11 , 2019 Predawn  Somewhere in Gulf of Mexico  The sea under  The sky above  Waves, froth, motion, turmoil  Stars, clouds, silence stretched  Where do I see? What do I write?  My intellect compressed in the vastness  Space, Stretch   Screams, Sounds, Stillness Sail, Slow, Swift  Solitude, Speck, Soul Surrender, Submit, Stay!  Solemn.. Surreal ... Stupendous  What do I see ? What do I write ?  What do I feel ?  What I absorb?  What I reflect ?  What I understand?  Something? Everything? Nothing ?  This moment of being .......

Let the magic begin …. When a significant real force in nature, attempts to end a beautiful magic, what do I do? Let us make the question more realistic, for sake of simplicity. What do I do when my husband tells our daughter, as she is excitedly anticipating visit by tooth fairy next morning - “there is no Santa, no tooth fairy. It was mama all along, if you still don’t know it”! BOOM! Our home, like most normal households, is a blend of a people, with different personalities, aptitudes, preferences, beliefs. He never believed and I never stopped believing, which is why, even our love marriage, is a magic to me, at first place. So as he made his grand untimely disclosure, and put some things to an end, there is a part of me that still believes, and wants my daughter to keep believing. But pause!   What do I believe in, that I want my child to continue believing in? So yes, it’s out and about! No secrets now! There is no tooth fairy, there is no Santa Claus...

1/20/19  Lunar eclipse  (Hattiesburg, Mississippi) Cold, January star speckled night  And I gaze up at the sky.  A cosmic marvel is about to unfold  Once in years, as I am told. A rendezvous ...... A whole moon, a whole earth  In motion, on a preordained path.  Pass each other .. And one shadows the other In a chance union of distances  A sight so spectacular!  That silver, white full moon  Slowly fading behind a mighty shadow Untill they are one!  Coppery, fiery reddish hue  So am I to you ... Take me, shadow me, color me  So we are neither I , nor you  A marvel of union of two souls.... -Manpreet 

Sara is going to be 3 years old, next month. She loves ... and lives .. every minute! Playfully! Absorbed and in love! So we are merrily singing ‘Five little monkeys jumping on the bed’. I am enjoying her expressions. Her light frame enacting jumping monkeys, her eyes and hands giving a stern message from mother ” No more monkeys jumping on the bed”...... and after the 3rd monkey has also fallen from the bed, and we recite what the doctor said, Sara looks at me puzzled and asks - “But mommy, jumping on bed is fun! Why mama monkey does not want baby monkeys to have fun?” When Sara speaks , Manpreet thinks and is amazed by her questions! I thought of how as parents, we restrain, restrict creative outlets, often out of our fears of what all can go wrong and conditioning to social norms. I thought of the little monkeys jumping in us, all the time too! I marveled how this nursery rhyme portrays the ‘ divided self’ ! The core source of conflict, pain , misery, guilt, rebuke , ...

कुछ लम्हे, आज यूँ मुझसे मिले ना आने की कोई दस्तक हुई ना जाने की कोई सौग़ाद छूटी .. बस कुछ यूँ मिले जैसे किसी मक़सद ख़ास से गुज़रते हों .. हौले से मेरा नाम लिया नज़रों से मुझे छू दिया कहते थे यही है ...... बस यही! लफ़्ज़ों से इन्हें मत तोलो सवाल, ना ही जवाब मैं टटोलो कोई दिशा नहीं इनकी ना ही कोई मार्ग दर्शक कोई शुरुआत नहीं इनकी ना ही कोई अंत, ना असीम ख़ुशी ना मन का क़रार, ना सर्दी की धूप ना गरमी में बारिश की फुहार पर यही है......  बस यही ! रूह में मेरी,तेरी रूह का एहसास मुकम्मल! यह लम्हे आज यूँ मुझसे मिले ..... -मनप्रीत Please listen to me recite this poem here 

Woke up this morning, and as I looked at the time,  this question echoed in me... As melodramatic as it sounds, the echo of 4 4 4, sounded like time asking me this question itself - What do you live for ? Some questions may not be correctly framed, but the partial answers and reflections it leaves you with, makes it worth listening to, more so when its the silence that speaks  to you!  So ...... I have been thinking! Important pillars of my life ...... Family Birth family and "by law" family .... those who I originated from, those who originated from me .They are my most important ties in journey of this life time. My each decision, from major to minor, passes that invisible filter of my family .....yet they have given me an autonomy to be me ! I live in this intricate fabric of relationships, caring in best of my capacity to nurture and value its existence. My " humsafar "..... but  I don't live " for " them. Closest to my soul ,  bo...

It is deep, dark in the night .  A dream crossed , knocking on my soul  Paid a visit and vanished ... My eyes still shut ,  and conscience awake  Listening to the sound of life in me ! Lub dub lub dub lub dub  Heart beats in a rhythm divine . Silence is my blanket and pillow beneath  and this sound of life ... But wait .... pause , listen ! What is this melody, my soul just caught ? Your name , your laughter , your presence ! Do I hear it ? Or is it longing in a veil ? Beyond the sound of life   I earnestly seek ... The life of sound ! It is the sound of you in me ! my recitation