Sanity for Raja's picture challenge

I'm tired so tired
Jaded so faded
Thinking about thought
Tears my years have wrought
My life
Has it been
Just a name
An unwelcome game
Living within
My head
Thoughts
Drumming rain strokes
Of exhaustion
Sanity dictates
Life teases us along
Till we're done
And then
We're truly dead.

Cocoon

Shelter

I seek shelter
I hunt havens
Safety in numbers
Cocooned in my
Tiny walnut brain,
I cook up false notions
Of security,
And guard my
Borders with
Feral ferocity.

I won't let that
Intruder in.

Building a Great Wall
Around collective inhibitions.
You can't cross the line
Of my dread superstition.

Steer your motion
Away from
My pretty paved road.

Unless it's the same way
We're going of course.

At the crossroads
Of life and death
Decide on
Truth or dare
Your dream
Is my ugliest nightmare.

At gunpoint
Choose my way
Or the highway
The safety catch is off

Take care
We take no hostages
Your protective amulets and ankhs
Enraged so,
This time,
We didn't load blanks.

Our Gods are inhuman cyborgs
We synthesised
With human amygdala
And kryptonite hearts
They're jealous
They're  watching
US

And how we segregate

THEM.

Dead black hole eyes
Musty  gaping maws

Eternity's corrosive corridors
Of loss and loneliness.

Humanity
Holding hands
We can
Upturn pretentious
Plinths of pomp and
Presumption.

We can shrug metallic tin gods
Off our aching shoulders.

Let's plants flowers,
And breathe bliss
Instead.

The Selfish Giant
Needed children
To blossom
his Garden.

Eden needs happiness.

Not cheap copies
copious imitative notions
Of heaven and hell.

Perfection is not the
Pre requisite.

Courage is.

Let us vow
Not to be afraid
Of each other

Or exchange our foolish
Judas Kiss.

(c) Amrita Valan 2017

Anushka Ramchuran

I came back to your page
To drench my loss
my heart clenched to summon your presence
by some magic again.

The only magic that lives on
Are your words,
And the worlds they give
Us to play and parade
Our fragile hearts,
With heady stores
Of secret love.

Anushka Ramchuran
The garden of your beautiful mind
Haunts me friend.

We will meet
Time and again
In moonlit meteor showers
That were your words
Now
Shooting stars
Off Cupid's bow
Forever.

Love you deeply.

(c) Amrita Valan 2017

Self stopped

"Cogito ergo sum", or "I Think therefore I am", a famous quote, borrowed for the purpose of reinterpretation and self assessment.

It is a fool
Who recognizes
Enlightenment.

But doggedly steadfastly
Refuses it for herself.

A.
Sad.
Little.
Self stopped fool.

Living her
Crumbly half life.

I think.
Therefore  I am?

Too easy.
Mucho glibness methinks.

It's rather...

I think.
Therefore I must act.

And Become.
What I am.

Grrr...
Free will applies.

The merry mind
Maketh belief.

But can't believe
Its lies.

(c) Amrita Valan 2017

Mercy Prayers

Crepe Suzette sunlight
Wallpapered mind
Forever endures
In hurting hearts
To satisfy hunger
Creamy dreamy
Between crisp layers
Of reality
We know the
Players are our
Prayers
We keep them
mothballed
In anaesthetic comas
Safe from failure's
Daily slaughterhouse
The charnel house
Dripping cynicism.

I decided
I couldn't keep them
Anymore
My mind empowering
Such vast slippages
Of energy.

Power outage
Tonight
Outraged by
Notions
That can't stand up
To reality.

Let me sleep
In my dreams tonight.

Not dream in my sleep.

All prayers shall be
Answered.

In merciful Lethe.

(c) Amrita Valan 2017

Poets Without Armour

Writing the good word
Spilling out the spoiled milk
Keeping those curdled tears
Alive
Doing it well
Sweating the dolorous trail
Satisfaction guaranteed
Each time
Without fail.

The quick fix
Poetry
Seductively sombre
Heroin, Cocaine
Down on the ground
Of addiction.

Thank you for the pleasure
Muse beyond my frail measure
Thank you
For this treasure
This vicarious leisure.

It's what it is
Hashish for our souls
Forgive me
For I am trifling.

When I write
For myself
My petty cash
Of losses
And hoard of
Stolen kisses
The art of all my artifice
Empty heart
Of darkness is,
The list of all my
Sordid profit
Only sibilance hisses,
Of rapturous near hits
And easy charlatan  misses.

I love this rush
You afford me
Words are panacea
Placebos that heal me.

But it's a walkabout
Without aim
It's an egg hunt
A merry mad March rant
Easter fun and games.

And I forgetful
Dishonor
The greatest poets
Who lived by the pen
And the words
They wrote
Was not for the
Wasting
Or idle poetasting
But for the saving
Of listless thirsty
Men.

Theirs
Is the Kingdom
There's is the glory
Posterity
Rendered
At Mortality's door.

I dream amazed
Eyes blazing sunlight
Lightning the shadows
Scrawled on their
Page.

I read dazed and dizzy
Realizations trembling
My eyes blurred
My heart enlightened
Heavy head on the floor.

These poets entered death
Like grand Mythical heroes

For generations to come
They're the Guardians
The Guards at the door.

Between worlds
Between universes
Multi varsities of Cosmos
Intergalactic paths
To all
Eternity's stores.

I salute the poets
Who've rhapsodized
Timeless Nightingales of
Human treasure lore.

For they shall be
Inheritors
Bequeathing to us
Elysian fields
And the well springs
Of all new lives
And times
To come.

Their eyes saw
Beyond thresholds
We didn't know
Existed.

Their pain was
Mere crucible.

Their Muse
Mighty Catalyst of
Refinement.

Their words
Spiral double helical
Melodious incense
Infinite ripples
On nameless shores
Their words roar
In despair
Whispering prayers
Inspiring us to pursue
Divinity in ascent.

(c) Amrita Valan 2017

My Muse And Guardian

Lost so much in passing
The regrets never die
The past cannot be accepted
Sleeping dogs won't lie

For all the best of the worlds
I have lost
I have gained a little wit
Abrading the softness
From the heart's core and pith.

I'm now a huntress
A moon goddesss
Chasing imagination
For  dilettante pleasure
Forgive me for I cannot
See starry skies
And wonder at my leisure.

It's like second childhood
Narcissus dominant
Necrosis imminent
Making love
To corpses in coffins
Of decadence.

My laughter bursts like
Fireworks
Across shimmering metallic Black
The sky is a sly Black widow
Wearing lace
Frothy lies upon her
Neck and back.

I'm beautiful
Like my tattooed
Affectations
I'm shallow
As the imagery
Of my thoughts

Queen Guinevere
No I'm not
Nor,
The lady of Shallot

The world loves
A caption
I can build me up
Or tear me down
To a cartoonish caricature
Of a larger-than-life
Cut out.

But it's all tricks and treats
It's forever mirrors and smoke
Inside the shell
Of my nutty show house
Died a child
Who never spoke.

Or she lives perhaps
With saddened eyes
She lives up to her
Rapacious lies
Merry eager
Wizened wise
Her Muse demanding
She pays this price.

(c) Amrita Valan 2017