Invisible Battles

In shadows deep where echoes hide,

A heart beats soft, its pain denied.

Unseen, unheard, the tears do fall,

A silent cry, a muted call.

The world demands a smiling face,

A mask of strength, a stoic grace.

Yet, deep within, the storms do rage,

Unwritten lines on an empty page.

Validation sought, a fleeting gleam,

A fleeting balm to a broken dream.

To hear, "I see you," just once more,

Would mend the cracks, would heal the core.

But silent sufferers walk alone,

Their struggles carved in unseen stone.

For words unspoken, wounds unseen,

Are the heaviest loads, where pain has been.

Oh, gentle soul, know you are heard,

Even in silence, your pain's a word.

Validation blooms where empathy flows,

A soft embrace where the heart knows.

So hold on, though the weight is vast,

The storms will calm, the night won't last.

For even in silence, you're not alone,

Your voice, though unheard, will find its tone.

@ Pozicool Raga

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

By Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.   

His house is in the village though;   

He will not see me stopping here   

To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

My little horse must think it queer   

To stop without a farmhouse near   

Between the woods and frozen lake   

The darkest evening of the year.   

He gives his harness bells a shake   

To ask if there is some mistake.   

The only other sound’s the sweep   

Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   

But I have promises to keep,   

And miles to go before I sleep,   

And miles to go before I sleep.

The Road Not Taken

By Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

The Visitor (방문객)

By Korean poet 정현종 (Romanized as Chong Hyon-jong). Chong Hyon-jong (정현종; born 17 December 1939) is a South Korean writer and reporter. The poem appears in his 2009 anthology <섬> (Island).  It was featured in the K Drama ‘Because This Is My First Life’. I spotted this on a blog - https://shiningkorean.com/2017/12/06/that-poem-in-because-this-is-my-first-life/

사람이 온다는 건

실은 어마어마한 일이다.

그는

그의 과거와 현재와

그리고

그의 미래와 함께 오기 때문이다.

한 사람의 일생이 오기 때문이다.

부서지기 쉬운

그래서 부서지기도 했을

마음이 오는 것이다―그 갈피를

아마 바람은 더듬어볼 수 있을

마음,

내 마음이 그런 바람을 흉내낸다면

필경 환대가 될 것이다.

The Visitor

The coming of a person
is, in fact, a tremendous feat.
Because he
comes with his past and present
and with his future.

Because a person’s whole life comes with him.
Since it is so easily broken
the heart that comes along
would have been broken ― a heart
whose layers the wind will likely be able to trace,
if my heart could mimic that wind
it can become a hospitable place.

I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You

By Pablo Neruda

I do not love you except because I love you;

I go from loving to not loving you,
From waiting to not waiting for you
My heart moves from cold to fire.

I love you only because it's you the one I love; 
I hate you deeply, and hating you
Bend to you, and the measure of my changing love for you
                                                                       Is that I do not see you but love you blindly.

Maybe January light will consume
My heart with its cruel
Ray, stealing my key to true calm.

In this part of the story I am the one who 
Dies, the only one, and I will die of love because I love you,
Because I love you, Love, in fire and blood.

Love, What Is Love

                                                         By Robert Louis Stevenson

Love - what is love? A great and aching heart; 
Wrung hands; and silence; and a long despair.
Life - what is life? Upon a moorland bare

To see love coming and see love depart.

 

Here I Love You

By Pablo Neruda 

In the dark pines the wind disentangles itself. 
The moon glows like phosphorous on the vagrant waters.
Days, all one kind, go chasing each other.

The snow unfurls in dancing figures. 
A silver gull slips down from the west.
Sometimes a sail. High, high stars.
Oh the black cross of a ship.
Alone.

Sometimes I get up early and even my soul is wet.

Far away the sea sounds and resounds.
This is a port.

Here I love you.
Here I love you and the horizon hides you in vain.
I love you still among these cold things.
Sometimes my kisses go on those heavy vessels
that cross the sea towards no arrival.
I see myself forgotten like those old anchors.

The piers sadden when the afternoon moors there.
My life grows tired, hungry to no purpose.
I love what I do not have. You are so far.
My loathing wrestles with the slow twilights.
But night comes and starts to sing to me.

The moon turns its clockwork dream.
The biggest stars look at me with your eyes.
And as I love you, the pines in the wind
want to sing your name with their leaves of wire.

Are You Okay?

In the quiet spaces where shadows play, 
A question lingers, "Are you okay?"

A simple phrase, yet laden with care,
A bridge to hearts, a whisper in the air.        
In the echoes of laughter, or the silence profound,
It weaves through conversations, a comforting sound.
A lifeline extended with compassion's embrace,
"Are you okay?" – a refuge in grace.

Behind every smile, a tale untold,

In the warmth of a hug, secrets unfold.

A lifeline extended, like a gentle sway, 

A lifeline carried in the words,

"Are you okay?"

When storms rage within, and skies turn gray,

A lifeline reaches through the disarray.

No need for pretences, let honesty play,

Answering the question, "Are you okay?"

For in vulnerability, strength takes its stand,

A connection deeper, hand in hand.

In the tapestry of empathy, colours at play,

Woven in the question, "Are you okay?"

So, ask with sincerity, with eyes that see,

In the tapestry of life, your thread will be. 

For in the symphony of moments, in the everyday,

Resides the power of, "Are you okay?

Sighs of an inner child

 

In the caverns of the heart, where shadows dance,

Lies the echo of a past, a wounded trance.

Inner childhood wounds, silent and deep,

Whispers of pain that time failed to sweep.

 

Tiny footsteps in a world unkind,

Innocence shattered, left far behind.

A playground of memories stained with tears,

Where the passage of time magnifies fears.

 

The playground echoes with laughter and cries,

Yet, within, a wounded child silently sighs.

Scars unseen, etched on the soul,

Tales of a past that took its toll.

 

A tender spirit, once pure and free,

Now bears the weight of what used to be.

Broken dreams and shattered trust,

In the gallery of memories, they combust.

 

But within the darkness, a flicker remains,

A resilient spirit that still sustains.

For healing begins when we turn within,

Face the wounds, let the mending begin.

 

Embrace the child who longs to be heard,

Speak to the pain with a gentle word.

In the garden of self, sow seeds of grace,

Let love and acceptance find their place.

 

With each sunrise, a chance to renew,

To heal the wounds, to start anew.

For the inner child seeks a gentle hand,

To guide them home, to understand.

 

So, let compassion be the balm we wield,

To heal the wounds that time concealed.

In the tapestry of life, where shadows loom,

Find solace and strength in the inner child's room.

Pic courtesy: Fireflies Unplugged

Hum jaisa pyaar

Koi hum se hum jaisa pyaar kare

Na koi gila, na koi shikwa kare,

Ae dost, koi hum se hum jaisa pyaar kare!