A paragraph from Vaani

वे कहते,
मैं भाव नही, केवल प्रभाव हूँ।
सूझ नही, केवल सूझाव हूँ।
सच यह!
मैं केवल स्वाभाव हूँ।

---Written by Sumitranand Pant in 'Vaani'.

Unknown Poem-1

A pound of flesh each, they all claimed

A pound of flesh their very aim

Many pounds lighter now

Happy am no heavy weight

Back to school

Waiting for buddies

At the gate

--- Amol Gupte, the scriptwriterof Taare Zameen Par.

Source : Weblink

Ghazal-1

देख पंछी जा रहें अपने बसेरों में
चल, हुई अब शाम, लौटें हम भी डेरों में

सुब्‍ह की इस दौड़ में ये थक के भूले हम
लुत्फ़ क्या होता है अलसाये सबेरों में

अब न चौबारों पे वो गप्पें-ठहाकें हैं
गुम पड़ोसी हो गयें ऊँची मुँडेरों में

बंदिशें हैं अब से बाजों की उड़ानों पर
सल्तनत आकाश ने बाँटी बटेरों में

देख ली तस्वीर जो तेरी यहाँ इक दिन
खलबली-सी मच गयी सारे चितेरों में

जिसको लूटा था उजालों ने यहाँ पर कल
ढ़ूँढ़ता है आज जाने क्या अँधेरों में

कब पिटारी से निकल दिल्ली गये विषधर
ये सियासत की बहस, अब है सँपेरों में

गज़नियों का खौफ़ कोई हो भला क्यूं कर
जब बँटा हो मुल्क ही सारा लुटेरों में

ग़म नहीं, शिकवा नहीं कोई जमाने से
जिंदगी सिमटी है जब से चंद शेरों में

This work of literature is attributed to Gautam Rajrishi and original work can be traced here.

Kabir's Bhajan

18
Talk to my inner lover,
and I say, why such rush?

We sense that there is some sort of spirit
that loves birds and animals and the ants -
perhaps the same one
who gave a radiance to you in your mother's womb.

Is it logical you would be walking around entirely orphaned now?
The truth is you turned away yourself,
And decided to go into the dark alone.

Now you are tangled up in others, and have forgotten
what you once knew,
and that's why
everything you do has some weird failure in it.

28
There is nothing but water in the holy pools.
I know, I have been swimming in them.
All the gods sculpted of wood or ivory can't say a word.
I know, I have been crying out to them.
The Sacred Books of the East are nothing but words.
I looked through their covers one day sideways.
What Kabir talks of is only what has lived through.
If you have not lived through something, it is not true.

Source: The Kabir Book. Forty-four of the Ecstatic Poems of Kabir. Versions by Robert Bly. A Seventies Press Book. Beacon Press-Boston.1977.

First they came...

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

Then they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out for me.

"First they came…" is a poem attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group.

The Earth is a Satellite of the Moon

Apollo 2 cost more than Apollo 1
Apollo 1 cost plenty

Apollo 3 cost more than Apollo 2
Apollo 2 cost more than Apollo 1
Apollo 1 cost plenty

Apollo 4 cost more than Apollo 3
Apollo 3 cost more than Apollo 2
Apollo 2 cost more than Apollo 1
Apollo 1 cost plenty

Apollo 8 cost a fortune, but no one minded
because the astronauts were Protestant
they read the Bible from the moon
astounding and delighting every Christian
and on their return Pope Paul VI gave them his blessing.

Apollo 9 cost more than all these put together
including Apollo 1 which cost plenty.

The great-grandparents of the people of Acahualinca were less
hungry than the grandparents.
The great-grandparents died of hunger.
The grandparents of the people of Acahualinca were less
hungry than the parents.
The grandparents died of hunger.
The parents of the people of Acahualinca were less
hungry than the children of the people there.
The parents died of hunger.
The people of Acahualinca are less hungry then the children
of the people there.
The children of the people of Acahaulinca, because of hunger,
are not born
they hunger to be born, only to die of hunger.
Blessed are the poor for they shall inherit the moon.

---Leonel Rugama
translation: Sara Miles, Richard Schaaf & Nancy Weisberg
from: Poetry Like Bread, Curbstone Press, 1994