Archana Kapoor Nagpal
Selected Tanka
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reading
a bedtime story to my son again he asks me to spell T.S. Eliot falling under its own weight a dandelion flower … my son runs in all directions to fill his basket while playing the piano at the church … the holy water pot captures the first light |
conversing
through our mobiles across the table … my husband asks me is it raining outside? finding a way through its own web a spider… hanging from an end to another to make a new web lying next to the banyan tree in my backyard … I count the stars to find a constellation |
Sitting
back to back at the beach… my daughter asks me to sing her a rhyme in and out of a raincloud this full moon … the therapist asks me to chant ‘om’ I glance at my baby scans … yet thinking whether the unborn is a boy or a girl? |
Selected Haiku and Tanka
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stirring
my thoughts ... ventilator machine faded portrait … outside my window passing rainclouds ripe mangoes on the kitchen table -- scented dawn first light-- pelting holy river with marigolds moonless night -- The Western Wall all white in snow misty twilight -- rainbow arcs over a field of sunflowers amidst the ashes these rose petals … yet on my bed I smell his perfume |
first snow …
bends further and further these red cherries still born ... falls from a leaf to another these dewdrops child blows a dandelion seed – daylight moon summer heat -- kajal residue settles under the eyes chill of darkness -- a candle crackles under the tree a spring-fed marsh-- fireflies brighten up the dark countryside
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downhill ...
far from me the same moon rain ends … in mother’s bedtime story this petrichor starry night – jasmine buds drop from her braid ray of sunshine -- the spectrum in the dew on a leaf wisp of clouds hug the snow-capped peaks dappled sunlight-- waves roll onto the waves -- cloudy evening falling in the puddle a dandelion flower … still I wonder where to go |
More Selected Haiku |
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after the rain …
in chanting of mantras this petrichor sultry twilight … a raincloud shrinks further and further first snowfall … in my pot of water the rising moon |
ancestral home …
from every spider’s hammock the autumn moon mountain walk … catching in my palms these fireflies farewell … away from her epitaph another fallen leaf |
walking downhill …
another time my footsteps follow my shadow loneliness ... on the sand dune a camel on its shadow coastal waves … pondering over my thoughts again and again |