Words&Poems

Poems & pictures. Beats and blossoms of bhakti.

[tiinatadiya]

A Light May Enter

A Light May Enter

You talk broken bodies, languages that choose to leave some of us, out. ; the sorrow of bruising and bleeding, mending. ; the wound where a light might enter. I sew back my limbs, listening. . . . in awe of her. ; how soft she has become ; allowed ; and taught herself to become. . while my fingers go scratching down my throat. ; the acid of my own hate corrodes me before anyone can. . how hard…

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Body Language, Part II

Body Language, Part II

Body language. These stories. in my bones. every misunderstood word. there, every glance and awkwardness. . wish i had the same language. you have. . but I do not. . I am still learning this. my body. that has boundaries, and stories. a different language . one that has broken. has been broken; sentences of bones, sinew, blood. hunger, thirst, drool. . poems, stories, a haunting of sorrow scars…

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[tiinatadiya]

Body Language, Part I.

Body Language, Part I.

I have spoken body . since I was born. . the first language. . the one only the crippled have to learn. . and we learn it better than ourselves. _ _ the body comes first. . (and are we ever more than our bodies?) . or will it always be . the unsaid hello. the value. the esteem. . the wreckage, the temple. . One I worship and destroy with the same heart beat, breath. _ _ I speak it well. body. .…

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We Have No Home But Each Other

We Have No Home But Each Other

There are days in which I can hardly breathe. Then the waves of compassion interrupt my despair; your arm in my hair the soft fur of an animal on my lap the endless breeze and the soft sway of trees on my way home. . These are the comforts I gather. . They belong to all of us. this human family, hopelessly divided. . Have we forgotten that we belong to each other? . That your broken arm is the…

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Will Always Be Enough

Will Always Be Enough

I cracked my heart watching the leaves today. by noticing the beauty. . its been such a long time I’ve been awake like that. . I have learned: how to hold myself. how to be the comfort, I need. . how the world takes care of us. not by offering bubble baths and manicures . but by offering itself to us, saying: here I am beautiful. . there is no need to come home. to find myself. . I am here. I am…

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[tiinatadiya]

Play, Again

her repeated play of hospitals and IV-drips keep going . in my mind. . I watch her from the above; above the years. The bodies I’ve left behind. . she is in my blood; . drip drip dripping. . The babies and baby-dolls left at hospitals. . in my heart. . . . How someone will always lay on that stretcher. – And the days like that that stretch . infuse me with sadness. . oh let me tell you how my…

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[tiinatadiya]

Into the World

when your mother unbirths you because she smells swans in your skin it feels like she is singing in salt and her eyes carve you away from her body –swans, nayyirah waheed When will I love you, you my other self. the one I turn away from. . you the other twin. . . . the self my mother turns her womb upside down to get rid off. . my limbs still hang in mid air. when will the birth be complete? .…

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[tiinatadiya]

These Tiny Devotions

Life. I don’t know . exactly, how to do it; have it. be (in) it. . I have it. A family unit. Parents. Sisters and brothers. . Yet I carve out my aching heart from my lungs . and breathe fire. . Is it me, or the ground beneath me, that cracks? :: I think velocity. . the speed it takes from an object (me) to fall. . How I seem to fall . . . on continuum. . from the earth. to the earth. _ while…

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Loving you. Myself.

I have learned survival. — I have learned  To hold love. . Close.  . (Closer than skin.  Under my heart beat.) — And so I hold  what I love, . these things, . And you. (Me.) . . . The holy  Ordinary . Close. — To acknowledge. . (Myself.) . And all the dots between . That connect. —  You And Me. — I have learned that  I must . say these things aloud. . . . Say even myself. Aloud. — To you. To…

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[tiinatadiya]

You Are in My Blood

Just before our love got lost you said  “I am as constant as a northern star” And I said “Constantly in the darkness Where’s that at? Oh I am a lonely painter I live in a box of paints I’m frightened by the devil And I’m drawn to those ones that ain’t afraid I remember that time you told me you said  “Love is touching souls” But surely you touched mine Cause part of you pours out of me In these…

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Layer Upon Layer

Heartache upon heartache. is this how you’re gonna layer my soul, Lord? . The years are gone. lessons took and forgotten. This one . needs study. . How negligence becomes betrayal becomes love becomes anger. . must I hate you, to let go? . Are we layer upon layer, sister and brother . like twins in a womb. – It is dark. i know nothing. . must I let go of your hand, my heart? . This morning was…

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Particle by Particle, She Slowly Changes

Particle by Particle, She Slowly Changes

Battle of the minds Cries below, cries above You must pick a side Will you choose fear? Will you choose love? Concertina/Flavor, Tori Amos   EVEN THE RAIN HAS SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT YOU 1. FEAR This tired afternoon is wrapping itself around me. . I think of you. . The summer and me have nothing in common this year and it feels like it’s gonna be a long one, this year a long one. . The clouds are…

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Yes, to Dance Beneath the Diamond Sky

Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me I’m not sleepy and there is no place I’m going to

play a song for me In the jingle jangle morning I’ll come followin’ you

cast your dancing spell my way

I promise to go under it

Then take me disappearin’ through the smoke rings of my mind Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach Far…

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[tiinatadiya]

It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)

Darkness at the break of noon

Eclipses both the sun and moon To understand you know too soon There is no sense in trying

Plays wasted words, proves to warn That he not busy being born is busy dying

You follow, find yourself at war Watch waterfalls of pity roar You feel to moan but unlike before You discover that you’d just be one more Person crying

Meantime life outside goes on All around you

You…

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The Sweet Honey of Belonging

The Sweet Honey of Belonging

BROTHERS

I’ve been on this road before:

where it’s pitch dark

and the roaring of my monkey mind scares me half to death;

where I am so

afraid of the bite

of my own

snake of a mind.

It’s been a long way to here,

too many steps of just putting one foot ahead of another

not knowing where I’m headed.

But I can feel your guiding hand as I hold the torch of om ajnana

timirandhasya

jnananjana-salakaya…

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[tiinatadiya]

The Feeling of You (aka What It Feels Like to Have a Guru part II)

PROJECT POEMS-TO-SONGS CONTINUES with a brand new song!

The Feeling of You is a song based on my original poem and the arrangements and vocals are by my dear friend and creative spirit Katri Krishnavallabha.

FRIENDS OF THE SOUL: THE ROLE OF ATTACHMENT, LOVE AND TRUST IN THE SPIRITUAL PATH

In bhakti yoga, this is emphasized: sanga, meaning the company and community of others on the path, is…

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[tiinatadiya]

I Have Felt Love Bigger than Myself

I Have Felt Love Bigger than Myself

I want your ecstasy,

I have been caught saying

but in a moment of truth

  and

under my held breath, I know – I lie

I do not

really

want it. I say I want

it

and

you

  but

what I want is this:

the same old, same old.

What I really want

is the reigns

safely in my own hands. I want

  the minute

and the detailed

the counted and

the measured

  the safety of my own…

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