I do not know what made me write
An unsigned verse to a charming dame
She replied before the dawning twilight
With adorable rhymes; mine seemed lame
She said, my words had made her day
And gently asked if I would reveal my name
I was trying to keep my thoughts at bay
Maybe she thought I was playing a game
I was nervous because I felt she might
Think I was pursuing pander and fame
My conscience raging; I was trying to fight
But my heart had already accepted the blame
I took off the mask that concealed my face
In truth and honesty I could see no shame
I pledged my amity and honoured her grace
It pleased my scruples, my mind was tame.
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
incomplete
On a mid winters' day in July 2006...
I came home from church in the morning and walked to my office at the university under a cloudless sky. Fresh shoots and buds are peeping out of their hiding in barren branches in the vain hope of an early spring. The day is bright, but the winds carry winter's chill. The sun beams a mild warm grin on the southern hemisphere and my heart remains lost in thoughts and dreams... of you.
I do not know where you are, yet I know that every day and every step I take brings me closer to you. Each battle I fight is fuelled by the promise of you and your warm and comforting embrace. I try to imagine the sound of your voice and to hear you whisper in my ear... and sometimes I almost do! I hope to catch the smell of your hair in my breath, though often I fail. In my dreams I see your lips curved in a half smile... and I smile back. The depth of your eyes stirs me in the depth of my soul. Your gaze makes me shudder. I crave to be in your dreams. Tonight you will probably be in mine. In you I shall find the reasons for my existence. Every time I watch the stars and moon, I wonder whether you are looking at them too. I thank the sun every day for keeping you warm in your own corner of the world. Thoughts of you keep me warm, as I wait for you patiently in my corner of the world. One day, our corners will merge... and become whole. I think of you whenever I hum a beautiful tune to myself, with each verse I write and with every jab of my guitar. I cannot see you or feel your touch, but I live in hope. The strength it gives me knows no failing. I miss you. I miss you most in the height of my happiness and in the depth of my sorrow. I preserve those moments so that I could share them with you one day. I remember you when I am afraid or tempted; then I am redeemed. I do not know why I put all my faith in you; when I do not even know who you are. I am awed by how you inspire me merely by the promise of your existence. The promise of you inspire me to be a better man... for you.
No matter where you are or what you are doing right now, I want you to know that I love you. I love you more than my heart and mind and soul could express. I have loved you from the beginning of time; and I will love you forevermore.
I came home from church in the morning and walked to my office at the university under a cloudless sky. Fresh shoots and buds are peeping out of their hiding in barren branches in the vain hope of an early spring. The day is bright, but the winds carry winter's chill. The sun beams a mild warm grin on the southern hemisphere and my heart remains lost in thoughts and dreams... of you.
I do not know where you are, yet I know that every day and every step I take brings me closer to you. Each battle I fight is fuelled by the promise of you and your warm and comforting embrace. I try to imagine the sound of your voice and to hear you whisper in my ear... and sometimes I almost do! I hope to catch the smell of your hair in my breath, though often I fail. In my dreams I see your lips curved in a half smile... and I smile back. The depth of your eyes stirs me in the depth of my soul. Your gaze makes me shudder. I crave to be in your dreams. Tonight you will probably be in mine. In you I shall find the reasons for my existence. Every time I watch the stars and moon, I wonder whether you are looking at them too. I thank the sun every day for keeping you warm in your own corner of the world. Thoughts of you keep me warm, as I wait for you patiently in my corner of the world. One day, our corners will merge... and become whole. I think of you whenever I hum a beautiful tune to myself, with each verse I write and with every jab of my guitar. I cannot see you or feel your touch, but I live in hope. The strength it gives me knows no failing. I miss you. I miss you most in the height of my happiness and in the depth of my sorrow. I preserve those moments so that I could share them with you one day. I remember you when I am afraid or tempted; then I am redeemed. I do not know why I put all my faith in you; when I do not even know who you are. I am awed by how you inspire me merely by the promise of your existence. The promise of you inspire me to be a better man... for you.
No matter where you are or what you are doing right now, I want you to know that I love you. I love you more than my heart and mind and soul could express. I have loved you from the beginning of time; and I will love you forevermore.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
A sailor's quest
A lone ship drifting far out in the oceanLed by a sailor with unyielding devotion
Sailing away from his golden beach
To an unseen port he is destined to reach
Guided by the stars at night in its course
The wind on his sails are his friends and foes
Braving the storms that others would dread
He sails with his eyes looking firmly ahead
At times he drifts with the ocean currents
Battered by the wind and harmful torrents
Trusting the compass of a perceptive mind
The path of his vessel he has clearly defined
The sea has proved that his spirit is fit
And the harrow of time has calmed his wit
But beacons of light in the distant shore
Tests his patience and burgeoning lore
The ocean in its grand and lonely expanse
His exhausted heart, it often would lance
But the hand of his captain on his shoulders rest
Though invisible they guide him in his daily quest
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Our lantern white...
A lone white lantern dangles in the air
Lit by a candle burning bright and bare
A heart is dreaming about a maiden fair
Her startling smile and glazy eyed stare
Four hands did make the lantern white
As two hearts danced in blissful height
One flirting look and a mocking fight
Mixed in laughter made a frendship tight
The lone white lantern; in the wind it trills
Its light spilling out through naked frills
The lantern and candle in their daily drills
Lights their hearts with smiles and thrills
(Choose your own ending)
A gust blew the candle dim and dark
Hearts had lost their dreams and spark
The hull of a lantern; now merely a bark
Dangles in the corner of a forgotten park
or
Dancing in the wind our lantern white
Inspiring, uplifting and burning so bright
May eyes that behold this glorious sight
Light up and share love’s blissful flight
Lit by a candle burning bright and bare
A heart is dreaming about a maiden fair
Her startling smile and glazy eyed stare
Four hands did make the lantern white
As two hearts danced in blissful height
One flirting look and a mocking fight
Mixed in laughter made a frendship tight
The lone white lantern; in the wind it trills
Its light spilling out through naked frills
The lantern and candle in their daily drills
Lights their hearts with smiles and thrills
(Choose your own ending)
A gust blew the candle dim and dark
Hearts had lost their dreams and spark
The hull of a lantern; now merely a bark
Dangles in the corner of a forgotten park
or
Dancing in the wind our lantern white
Inspiring, uplifting and burning so bright
May eyes that behold this glorious sight
Light up and share love’s blissful flight
Saturday, May 27, 2006
A scientific explanation about how I feel
I was surprised... of course it was a pleasant surprise; when my favourite poem made it to the WriteClique Top 10.
"When the wind blows" was written on a cold, cloudy and lonely day in Kandy. It was a time when I had much to look forward to and much that I had to leave behind. But what makes this special was the fact that it did not start off like any other poem. It actually started off as an equation on a torn piece of paper... an equation that I tried to solve by referring my physics books about "ideal gas law" and later even "quantum theory"!!! As a gust of wind swept past me, I was trying to calculate how many of those air molecules that brushed against me and I breathed in would actually have brushed against and have been breathed in by an 'angelic figure' that lived a few miles away and occupied my thoughts day and night...
We are ourselves made up of a countless number of atoms that make up complex molecules. We are also surrounded by so many molecules and atoms that the actual numbers border the outer limits of human imagination. Each glass of water that we drink – at least mathematically – should contain thousands of water molecules that have passed through the body of Jesus over 2000 years ago and each second, we are bombarded with perhaps millions of the very air molecules that would have bombarded the skin and lung tissues of our first ancestors, the dinosaurs and sabre toothed tigers. Some of those molecules would have also been breathed in by a most wanted terrorist leader only a couple of days ago!
From a scientific perspective, it should be possible to calculate the probability that a Nitrogen molecule that hits your skin at a given moment could have touched the skin of any living person or historical figure, but this involves many variables – the values of which cannot yet be accurately determined. For example; for two people standing close together, the probability of one air molecule hitting both persons within a time frame should be higher than if they were miles apart right? According to classical physics this should be the case but according to quantum theory, the distance between the two people may not even matter. In the same way, for simple calculations, one has to assume that all the air in the atmosphere is evenly mixed – or at least that all the air gets evenly mixed within – say for example – a thousand years. Still there is no way of finding out for sure how long it takes for the air in the atmosphere to mix evenly – and whether all the air molecules that you breathed in today would not be swept away to the north by monsoon winds and remain in the northern hemisphere for the next 200 years; in which case an air molecule that touched you would not touch someone in Australia until two centuries have passed! In that case, a person in the north may have a higher probability than a person in the south; of encountering an air-molecule that you have breathed.
The problem is further compounded by the different elements and their unique properties. Most of the oxygen molecules you breathed in last year may no longer exist as oxygen molecules. Their atoms would have split and joined up with other elements to form different molecules. Some of those atoms could be attached to two more hydrogen atoms and turned into water which could be in the air as water vapour – or flowing in a river or frozen on a mountain ice-cap or a glacier or most likely in the sea. The carbon from the carbon dioxide molecules that you breathed out last year are likely to be deposited in trees as carbohydrates or proteins making up the tree’s leaves, bark or fruits. The nitrogen molecules are the most likely to be around as they were – even though some of them would surely have been transformed into nitrates under the intense heat of a lightening strike and dissolved with the rain. There would have been molecules of other gasses that you would have breathed that are still around, but they would constitute only a small fraction.
Even though scientific investigation has uncovered some of the secrets of nature, we do not yet know the exact numbers and we are not sure of the exact quantities and the rate of these changes to be able to make our calculations with precision. Quantum mechanics shed new light on this problem yet it also compounds the solution by many degrees simply because our understanding of the universe is barely enough to even scratch the face of its most glorious secrets.
Yet the mind continues to probe into these countless mysteries and venture beyond imagination into the limits of time and space as the heart revels in its mystery and tries only to grasp what it deems to be meaningful. Would I bother with these calculations if not for the fact that I found meaning in its solution; beyond its mere numbers? Would I have cared to even think about it if I had not been so hopelessly infatuated?
Science opens up new and wonderful spectrum of thoughts about life itself, but the equations of life are more complex than those in a physics or chemistry book. The scientific method leads us in exploring the world around us and perhaps even the world within, yet exploration does not guarantee answers – but an experience and a better understanding. Each dawning day present more challenges than the bounds of the most intricate science book and science is yet unable to explain or define the beauty of the view from a mountain top. Though the logic and reason of scientific investigation engage our minds, it cannot subdue the heart – which breaks free from its binds and roams in creative imagination. Knowledge empowers us and enlightens the dull mind, but knowledge is made meaningful and beautiful only in its artistic expression through the mysteries of our hearts.
Even though the poem I wrote on that gloomy day has since become my personal favourite, I have still not solved the equation. I believe I am making progress but the solution itself will not matter.
"When the wind blows" was written on a cold, cloudy and lonely day in Kandy. It was a time when I had much to look forward to and much that I had to leave behind. But what makes this special was the fact that it did not start off like any other poem. It actually started off as an equation on a torn piece of paper... an equation that I tried to solve by referring my physics books about "ideal gas law" and later even "quantum theory"!!! As a gust of wind swept past me, I was trying to calculate how many of those air molecules that brushed against me and I breathed in would actually have brushed against and have been breathed in by an 'angelic figure' that lived a few miles away and occupied my thoughts day and night...
We are ourselves made up of a countless number of atoms that make up complex molecules. We are also surrounded by so many molecules and atoms that the actual numbers border the outer limits of human imagination. Each glass of water that we drink – at least mathematically – should contain thousands of water molecules that have passed through the body of Jesus over 2000 years ago and each second, we are bombarded with perhaps millions of the very air molecules that would have bombarded the skin and lung tissues of our first ancestors, the dinosaurs and sabre toothed tigers. Some of those molecules would have also been breathed in by a most wanted terrorist leader only a couple of days ago!
From a scientific perspective, it should be possible to calculate the probability that a Nitrogen molecule that hits your skin at a given moment could have touched the skin of any living person or historical figure, but this involves many variables – the values of which cannot yet be accurately determined. For example; for two people standing close together, the probability of one air molecule hitting both persons within a time frame should be higher than if they were miles apart right? According to classical physics this should be the case but according to quantum theory, the distance between the two people may not even matter. In the same way, for simple calculations, one has to assume that all the air in the atmosphere is evenly mixed – or at least that all the air gets evenly mixed within – say for example – a thousand years. Still there is no way of finding out for sure how long it takes for the air in the atmosphere to mix evenly – and whether all the air molecules that you breathed in today would not be swept away to the north by monsoon winds and remain in the northern hemisphere for the next 200 years; in which case an air molecule that touched you would not touch someone in Australia until two centuries have passed! In that case, a person in the north may have a higher probability than a person in the south; of encountering an air-molecule that you have breathed.
The problem is further compounded by the different elements and their unique properties. Most of the oxygen molecules you breathed in last year may no longer exist as oxygen molecules. Their atoms would have split and joined up with other elements to form different molecules. Some of those atoms could be attached to two more hydrogen atoms and turned into water which could be in the air as water vapour – or flowing in a river or frozen on a mountain ice-cap or a glacier or most likely in the sea. The carbon from the carbon dioxide molecules that you breathed out last year are likely to be deposited in trees as carbohydrates or proteins making up the tree’s leaves, bark or fruits. The nitrogen molecules are the most likely to be around as they were – even though some of them would surely have been transformed into nitrates under the intense heat of a lightening strike and dissolved with the rain. There would have been molecules of other gasses that you would have breathed that are still around, but they would constitute only a small fraction.
Even though scientific investigation has uncovered some of the secrets of nature, we do not yet know the exact numbers and we are not sure of the exact quantities and the rate of these changes to be able to make our calculations with precision. Quantum mechanics shed new light on this problem yet it also compounds the solution by many degrees simply because our understanding of the universe is barely enough to even scratch the face of its most glorious secrets.
Yet the mind continues to probe into these countless mysteries and venture beyond imagination into the limits of time and space as the heart revels in its mystery and tries only to grasp what it deems to be meaningful. Would I bother with these calculations if not for the fact that I found meaning in its solution; beyond its mere numbers? Would I have cared to even think about it if I had not been so hopelessly infatuated?
Science opens up new and wonderful spectrum of thoughts about life itself, but the equations of life are more complex than those in a physics or chemistry book. The scientific method leads us in exploring the world around us and perhaps even the world within, yet exploration does not guarantee answers – but an experience and a better understanding. Each dawning day present more challenges than the bounds of the most intricate science book and science is yet unable to explain or define the beauty of the view from a mountain top. Though the logic and reason of scientific investigation engage our minds, it cannot subdue the heart – which breaks free from its binds and roams in creative imagination. Knowledge empowers us and enlightens the dull mind, but knowledge is made meaningful and beautiful only in its artistic expression through the mysteries of our hearts.
Even though the poem I wrote on that gloomy day has since become my personal favourite, I have still not solved the equation. I believe I am making progress but the solution itself will not matter.
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