Springtime Desolation

From our fancy cars to our cozy homes, filled to the brim with things of comfort 
and instantaneous joys, what hounds us - what emptiness hoovers our lives.

we boast of our wisdom and marvel at our heavy, expensive volumes
of Homer and Plato and Emily and Gandhi.
Decorated tombs of men and women of yore. 

we meet at poetry readings and laugh and drink and squeeze energy from
the newly supple spring air.
Breathe us the mirth.

this could be the New York School of Poetry of our times or the immigrant
generation of the Beats. Or a nothinger in a sea of other nothingnesses. 

nights are blue and virile, ripe with sparkling charms.
And stars are good at being the deadbeat masses of gas and dirt. 

but the emptiness still hounds us.  

*

Anant Dhavale

(This poem was recently published in the “This Broken Shore” magazine. )

A Ghazal

 A Ghazal

In heart's alleys, a singular halo of sadness remains

In a little nook of mind, a lingering darkness remains

Forgotten shores, lapping and frothing waves, warmer banks of sands
Memory's broken figment, a shadowy lightness remains

I’ve been what I’ve been, a stranger and a wanderer even
Not her though, like steadfast angelic light, her kindness remains

Under the canopy of countless stars and a brighter moon
A doubt lurks, a question hums and hums, a lonesomeness remains

How we have walked along these uncertain and weary roads
And though the perils are forgotten, the awareness remains

__

Anant Dhavale

(I wrote this Ghazal in simple syllabic verse to match the cadence the genre requires..)

Haiku

sub-tropical marsh
an alligator meditates
lilies peek out

.

Anant Dhavale 

[Haikus for the Everglades]

If

If you’ve loved me unconditionally
And I have failed to reciprocate
You should know I am not the one

Love demands steadfast devotion
But I am a mere leaf in the wind
Do not mourn for me if I float away 

I abandon the tree that birthed me
When times change and colors fade

The wind carries my judgment and
When it beckons, I have to go away. 

..

Anant Dhavale

Amber rises the moon

Beneath - thick green woods
A jubilant river makes its way through the gorge

Rims of gray hang around a few stray clouds

Silvery silhouettes float away
in tandem - a swift movement of tectonic plates

Amber moon melts away
in the distance - a smoke, a pallid hue spreads.

..

Anant Dhavale

Recent poems

I've written much these days but have not published here since most publications insist on previously unpublished stuff. Prominent ones include "One Flat Microcosm," "Daughters of Israel," "Springtime Desolation," "Sisterhood of Dukhha," and "Civilization is a Zero Sum Game."

"One Flat Microcosm," and "Springtime Desolation," are published in "This Broken Shore," magazine. 

Affinity

What affinity brought us closer
And kept us together  -

Us, the otherwise molecules
In randomness.

.

Anant Dhavale

( Simpler verses)

Poetry reading this month

 I am featuring at the Riverread poetry series at Redbank NJ later this week. I intend to read some of my longer poems, and may be end with a few haikus. 

Haiku

lush red cranberries 
aren’t just the only thing
you could crave for

..

Anant Dhavale

Float

Things lose shine
stuff gets in the way
letters remain unread

Memory makes way for 
newer delights 
and a thousand reasons emerge
                                to forget

Remains of 

Reflections flicker 

like apparitions of the time

lost.

-

Anant Dhavale

Editing this

Haiku

under the tiny 
shadows of grass-blades
a thief steals nectar

.

Anant Dhavale

Haiku

 the dirt was still wet 

when travelers walked by

 paving another path

.

Anant Dhavale

Haiku

the glacier melts
of its own accord
a quest unfurls

.

Anant Dhavale

Recent poetry acceptances

Recent poetry acceptances - This Broken Shore, The Mid Atlantic Review, Minute Musings, Novabards 24. A big thank you to all the editors!

Haiku

 memory becomes  

a misty windowpane  

a careful blur

.

Anant Dhavale

Haiku

how loquacious are 

these silent hours of the night 

raconteurs of life

.

Anant Dhavale

Haiku

the glacier melts of its own accord a quest unfurls

. Anant Dhavale

Haiku

things observed 

on a long walk 

faces, voices, trees

.

Anant Dhavale

Haiku

through the clutter

of raindrops, I see

time -drenched and slowed

.

Anant Dhavale

Haiku

wind howls
this morning, like it
means business 

-

Anant Dhavale

Haiku

when on humid

nights, I can’t sleep

I think of you 

.

Anant Dhavale

Haiku

you, in my thoughts

linger like a brook

playful yet serene

.

Anant Dhavale

Haiku

a bird perched up high

in a tree - feels the truth

it cannot explain 

-

Anant Dhavale

Poetry reading at NYC

 I will be a featured reader at the Phoenix Poetry series this Monday. I plan to read a few of my experimental poems - a cross-fusion of forms. Do show up if you are in New York City!

Haiku

a primal train scream 

shards strewn astray 

summer in its full glory 

..

Anant Dhavale

Haiku

sitting in the car
trying to decipher 
the raindrop code 
..
Anant Dhavale

Haiku

cloudy morning 
something flaps in the wind
a subdued beginning 

_

Anant Dhavale

Haiku

through the clutter 
of raindrops, I see 
time-drenched and slowed 
-
Anant Dhavale

Haiku

wind howls 
this morning, like it 
means business 
-
Anant Dhavale

Haiku

and when the 

wind picked up, the woods 

hummed on a wave.

-

Anant Dhavale

City, river and lights

NOTE - I have re-written and edited this poem. It is now called " One Flat Microcosm," and is slated to be published in the upcoming issue of the "This Broken Shore" magazine. 

This city was built around a river

along its twists and turns

her lights float of the blue- gray of the river

like stars scattered at random

for a window watcher - the river, the city

and the lights, all seem one. One all in its 

entirity.

-

Anant Dhavale

Haiku

spring falters
on the banks of
returning cold

-

Anant Dhavale

Haiku

a Sonata rises
up up up the skies
śūnyatā un-changed

-

Anant Dhavale

Haiku

all I can think of today
are her crystal clear eyes
looking into mine

-

Anant Dhavale

Haiku

rainy morning wraps
the metropolis in a mist
of being and nothingness

-

Anant Dhavale

Haiku

patter of raindrops

like a stranger's knock

tuck tuckety cluck

-

Anant Dhavale

Haiku

the tree knows

it has to grow

as tall as it can

-

Anant Dhavale

Some more Haikus

 1.

scattered is how 

is what has happened 

to the dewdrops 

2.

cold days of winter 

a thought remains frozen 

waiting for the thaw

3.

cold nights 

frozen amber skies

myths re-told

4.

what does the bird seek

ocean, fish, mates?

some unspoken truth? 

-

Anant Dhavale

Haiku Marathon- 3

 1.

a transition flows 

through out heart

autumn, winter, spring 

2.

but then again

time is a notion

akin to the faceless wind

3.

soon we will forget 

the blizzards, the frost 

such flows time

-

Anant Dhavale

Haiku Marathon 2

 1.

transition is what is 

and was and will be 

things end and resume

2.

imagination is 

a boat, weather- torn 

for- lorn and alone

3.

a tower emerges 

from the mist 

like a myth, a legend 

-

Anant Dhavale

Haiku Marathon 1

 I did a Haiku Marathon of sorts, and this is the outcome. Some of these may need work further but here’s for now -

1.

scattered beneath

the crescent blue moon 

a million stories 

2.

the slow patter 

of raindrops

a sonata of loneliness 

3.

driving in rain

on long blue nights 

quiet hum of time

-

Anant Dhavale

1

Now this calm, now this tumult

how we’ve closed these circles - a lapse,

a gossamer of things gone, things to be 

When old age strikes, and we wince and writhe in pain, what would these loves mean then? Broken statuettes of yore. Faded artifacts from another time.

Guilt hangs from the gilded gates - 

years recounted, faces rehashed 

This, here is how looking back looks like 

-

Anant Dhavale 

Copyright © Anant Dhavale

Customary new year scribble

 Another year has passed us by -

this modicum of life,

a fragment that will linger 

in our memories 

a blur

a dot

in the whirlwind ocean 

that is our lifetime.

-

Anant Dhavale