These poems are a unique incantation of the psychic being, always tangibly in front -Rod Hemsell, poet Dream Threshold is the second volume in a poetic trilogy on love, following Coming Home, which describes poet Ajit Sripad Rao Nalkur's spiritual journey back to India from the West. His time abroad included living, working, and travelling through Australia, Europe, and the United States. This collection characterizes the poet's gaze into the future of his search for the beloved. The poetry in this volume covers such topics as the pureness of rain in paradise and an examination of what love is really all about. In Dream Threshold, Nalkur continues to explore the theme of relationships and the need to be true to oneself. Haven Give me a place where beauty's face Gazes ever on my soul, A sacred haven for the grace Of love's sweet and endless flow, Words and silence filling hearts That sing of things tomorrow knows Is home to where the deeper arts Of living thrive, the golden glow Of spirit shines in all its trees, Its very soil breathes strength and shows A way to live in harmony With all around, life's constant blows . . .
Dream Threshold
Poetry for the SpiritBy Ajit Sripad Rao NalkuriUniverse, Inc.
Copyright © 2012 Ajit Sripad Rao Nalkur
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4759-4002-2Chapter One
Part One - A Utopian Dream
Against the Darkness
I look into the sunny skies of freedom,
I look into the future of my soul,
All around is darkness in God's kingdom,
The road is long and hard to being whole.
I look into the darkness of the earth,
I look into the endlessness of pain,
All around is suffering and the birth
Of falsehood gaining ground against the rain
Of happiness and bliss, yet I see
Candles in this blackness burning bright,
The fires of tomorrow yet may be
As long as there is vision in the night.
One soul alone can change the status quo
Defying death by throwing open doors
To welcome in the rush of heaven's flow
Onto the deserts and the barren floors
Of life and homes that harbour wornout ways,
Sweeping all aside that should not be,
Standing tall against the windy days
Of ill-will, this sentinel will free
Those who hold to truth and light and love
But need the strength of God to stay alive;
A new world presses down from up above,
And warriors guard the gates that He arrive
Onto the chosen soil of golden life,
A place that He had dared to dream would be,
Destiny's moment shall arrive,
What once was not be our reality!
City of Dreams
The seat of power is powerless
In the face of the darkness surrounding it;
Even within its walls, where energy should abound,
The landscapes are vacant, desert-like.
It was a desert once, still is,
Despite the trees and the people rooted within,
And one wonders what has changed in all these years ...
There's no peace in the peace,
Life is much like the living death
One confronts everywhere else,
With its citizens worshipping
What many have left behind
To make of this city of light
A city of joy, hope, love and real peace;
One is left with the emptiness one faces,
One is left with oneself,
One is left with the memory of great beginnings,
One is left with the hopelessness one always rejected.
I ask: This is the City of God?
This the place of bold, new discoveries?
This the Impossible Dream?
As it approaches another birthday
My heart goes out to this tender creation
Of the world's greatest dreamers,
Of the pioneers of the spirit,
Of the lovers that dared the impossible,
Of the faith, belief, absolute conviction
That the world was ready for a big change,
And so the City was born ... as a symbol
Of mankind's sudden yearning to take a leap
Into the future! ... I continue to wait, and watch,
And dream ... after all, this city was built by dreamers,
And dreamers it will be who shall usher in the unseen.
Addressing Death
O Death, although you don't exist
In any form within my soul
I see the shadows that resist
Life's effort in becoming whole,
I see the fences you erect
Constantly around the free,
Carefully you do select
The chosen few to never be,
For if they were to light the fire
Of true love they know so well
It would spell the end, dire
Consequence befall the hell
You have woven like a web
Of deceit around all man,
God's children would ensure its ebb
With divine intention's hand,
A blazing fire burn the threads
Invisible that trap our minds,
Confusion and the cosmic dread
Forever vanish from mankind –
The golden city of the burning
Fires of the sun shall rise,
Casting out The Shadow, turning
Earth into our paradise,
The children of the morning see
The future now, earth's destiny
Within their grasp, the balance shifted,
Manifest eternity!
Haven
Give me a place where beauty's face
Gazes ever on my soul,
A sacred haven for the grace
Of love's sweet and endless flow,
Words and silence filling hearts
That sing of things tomorrow knows
Is home to where the deeper arts
Of living thrive, the golden glow
Of spirit shines in all its trees,
Its very soil breathes strength and shows
A way to live in harmony
With all around, life's constant blows
Are never felt nor seen or known
By the people who live there
Because the dream is central to
Its vision of eternal care
In all it does, attempting things
The world we know just cannot dare
For this place is made to bring
To earth another race, a rare
Species from the human leap
Into the future, children who
Alive, awake as mankind sleeps
Bring with them a newer truth
To change the very face of earth
And the nature of our lives,
Inborn, inbred, their blessings birth
The open doors to paradise
Such as we have never seen,
Not even in our deepest dreams
Or memories of ancient times,
They the answer to our screams
For an end to all this pain
Resulting from our ignorance,
Created of the golden rain
They our hope, our only chance!
Chapter Two
Part Two- Poems to Nature
Earth, the Miracle
There's little that compares with complete and total isolation in the midst of nature ... the peace and quietude stroked periodically by the gentle rustling of leaves, birds in conversation, the cooling effect of an ocean breeze visiting upon you the language of waves, and sunshine playing with its shadows ...
How is it that with all this one forgets the meaning of loneliness, one feels distinctly the companionship of all that is good, sweet and beautiful in life, imbued with the presence, above all, of That which created life, maintains life and promises its existence beyond time ...
There are voices and whispers and murmurs, too, of an ever-present intelligence similar to ours, but in harmony with its surroundings, altogether completing the chorus of a divine, musical piece.
This is peace, this is the joy that sings in our souls, this is the Love that promises the fulfillment of all things, this is the universal voice of One who repairs the damage from our errors, this is Earth waiting upon us, calling to us, nourishing our innocence, this is the eternal presence of the Garden of Eden, untouched, unperturbed by the disharmony we constantly call upon her. She is the Miracle that will change All.
Tomorrow's Surprise
In anticipation of tomorrow
I wonder which way the world will turn,
Will it return to its primal state
After nature has her way?
Will it turn endlessly in circles
Which have no ultimate destination?
Will it spring surprises
Such as we have no conception of?
It seems to me that nature herself
Has no idea what God has in mind for her,
But she does know her urgency for change
And will achieve it with or without violence,
And she knows her love of beauty and peace and joy
And the paradisial thrills she experiences
When God makes love to her,
And she would like to live perpetually in that state.
So who is the enemy? We are,
With our chronic states of chaos and confusion ...
We battle with her who seeks to infuse our lives
With the glory of His sunshine
And surround us with paradise ...
She wants to be allowed to make love
To Him who is the source of her wondrous creation,
So giving us what our true natures call for.
Dreaming
I have my little bit of ocean,
A little bit of peace,
Just a few flowers
And some privacy ...
To sing a softer, gentler tune
In this special breeze
Of newness in the afternoon,
And birds among the trees
Whose whispers in the secrecy
Of my blissful soul
Are promises of better times,
A life becoming whole;
Someone in the distance
Watches over me
And my firm insistence
On a greater reality.
Meanwhile, I'm a gardener
Sincere in my dreams
To make of earth a happy place
Of endless flowing streams
Gushing forth from paradise
For all and everyone
To bathe in and awaken, eyes
Radiating sun!
Yes, dreamers make reality
Come true for souls asleep,
Bringing in the new day
From a source that's vast and deep ...
Home
I stand outside
Looking in
Towards the beauty
Of a sunlit field
Of flowers,
Unseeing of the spirits
That roam within,
Caretakers of the gardens
Of Love,
Yet feeling them,
Knowing they are there
To aid the wandering
Or knowing soul
That stumbles in
Or enters willingly
And without fear,
Like a child that
Is drawn towards
Its natural home ...
The home of the memories
Of the soul, of its birthplace
Whence it ventured
Into this world of ours.
We are ourselves here.
We are at peace here.
We understand Love,
Here.
Listen ...
Listen to the Angels sing,
They sing to us a song that brings
The melody of the soul,
The rhapsody that makes us whole!
Listen to the flowers speak
Who make us strong when we are weak,
The voice within respond
To the call of Love's great song!
Listen to the ocean roar
With the majesty of the evermore,
Inner waves soar
From within our gentle core!
Listen to the winds that rustle
In the trees, our daily bustle
Bringing to a halt,
Our tired spirits to exalt!
Listen deeply to the sounds
Within, without, all around
A silent heart exists
Supporting all we can't resist!
Listen to and with your soul,
You'll hear love's music all unfold
The mystery of life,
The hidden joy of all our strife!
New Horizon
Bright gold light on leaves and trees,
Nature wakes to an autumnal breeze.
Shivering birds in a crisp dawn air,
Morning mist the field now bares.
Further out the engines roar,
Fishermen's boats come in to shore.
The sea is calm, yet voices call
Heard in the waves that crash and fall.
A poet looks out on natural change,
Trembling hands in a tension strange.
Thoughts are held reluctantly
By a watchful mind but the heart is free.
Surrendered, the body is nature's toy,
The soul is thrilled, a dance of joy.
Nearness and distance mean nothing at all,
Horizon a door to a timeless call.
The Flow
Stillness on the water,
Boat on open sea,
Supreme peace abroad,
Silence in the trees.
Faces in the flowers
Watching over me,
I while away the hours,
Happiness is free.
Thoughts like waves now fade
Into ethereal air,
I feel as if today
There's nothing I can't dare.
Nature is my shelter,
Freedom is my space,
Inner sounds the welter
Of a sweet and golden grace.
Life is being me,
Love is seeing you,
Poetry is flowing
Into the ever new ...
Footnote: The call of the timeless is to live eternity on earth.
The Storm
Nature, in a show of strength,
Tested the tall trees of earth
With the potentially destructive force of God;
But it was not these giant sentinels
That her anger was directed towards,
Rather the cowardly and the weak
Who repeatedly and incessantly abuse
The peace and love of her sunlight
Which she casts upon all – To these
She showed no mercy this time,
Yet it was only a warning
That nothing may stand in her way
When she decides to walk upon the earth
In all her majesty and glory ...
And I, worshipper of her beauty
And all she brings with her
From the invisible and the unknown,
Silently, with the smile of acquiescence
To this Goddess of all creation
Of whom I am the servitor eternal
Upon a resistant and ignorant earth,
Pick up the shards of shattered glass
All around me from the homes of abuse,
Sweep away the debris of destruction
As willed by her with the waters of her love
Misunderstood or not understood at all,
And walking with these remains, with care
And precision, empty them into the abyss.
Invisible Beauty
A black and yellow little bird
Is missing its golden flower
Upon the tree that stood the storm.
Bright sunshine on the waters
Of my being warms the heart
From within and without.
A lone voice chanting
In the distance to the
Harmonious beat of a drum
Surrenders to silence.
Murmurings from the unknown
Signal the newness
Of a day arriving
To greet an eternal moment ...
Tree
One single source
Breathing life
Into the body of a tree,
Trunk, branches, twigs and leaves ...
Soon it will flower
In every direction ...
It reminds me of me.
Water, the source of life,
Is what upholds my body
From storm and strife,
Ever thirsting to survive
I drink this earthborn nectar,
It is who and what I am,
Blossoming and blooming
Into the final sunshine.
Thought-Wave
Sometimes I think
Life on the other side
Is no different
From the one we know.
What tells me so?
The ocean, trees, flowers,
Birds in flight
And sunlight.
Even the night
Whispers its secrets
To the smiling soul.
Something in the air
Which we breathe
When we feel whole,
Wanting nothing
But a life of beauty
That never ends
Brings on a music
Heard by the one
Who knows within us
That eternal creative
Beat and rhythm
Upholding the universe,
And we understand
The illusion of death
And the falsehood of fear.
Life, and only life,
Love, and only love,
Bliss, and only bliss,
Is the true nature of things.
Gentle Rain in Paradise
A gentle rain in paradise,
A tree that learnt to stand upright,
Leaves that glistened in the light
Somewhere between day and night,
Flowers smiling as they danced
To the music of romance,
Playful teasing as they glance
At each other in this chance
Happening of graceful ease,
Pain a memory in the breeze
Passing into quiet peace
For tired souls to be released
Into the home-ground of their love
Nourished gently from above
By the teardrops of a bliss
As everlasting as their kiss...
Mother Nature
How can you compare
the silence of nature
to the noise we make?
Her moods and her moments
of beauty, her music
to soothe the heart's ache
To our cries and complaints,
the sorrows and pains
we refuse to let go,
Saying NO to the rain
and the sunshine? Again
in our shame we wallow!
With passion possess
her soul, her caress
and her body of peace
Shall I with my love
forever and ever,
return her my ease ...
How foolish we are,
small-minded by far
before her majestic smile,
Like a mother she plays
with our egos and days,
our secrets she keeps till we die ...
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Dream Thresholdby Ajit Sripad Rao Nalkur Copyright © 2012 by Ajit Sripad Rao Nalkur. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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