The sculptor

A block of stone,
Unseen, unknown.
Kicked around,
Of no use,
To no one.

He takes it up,
He sees potential
He sees things,
You and I cannot,
He sees.

He takes a chisel,
He takes a hammer,
He chips some here,
He chips some there,
He chips what he can see.

He chips off the not needed,
Keeping what is needed,
Needed by whom?
The underlying form
In his head.

Slowly, from a block
An image arises,
An image in his head
Transferred by him,
By his tools.

He saw a goddess
Riding her tiger.
He saw her inside
The stone
You and I did.

How can he see,
Things we cannot?
Things we are blind to,
Are visible to him
To his eyes alone.

Are we blind,
Not to see beauty,
Lying beneath the surface
Are we oblivious
If it is not obvious?

26th December 2007

Against Nature

He drives fast
Faster
Than he wants,
Faster
Than he should.

The car speeds,
Over roads;
Tires squealing,
Protesting violently
At each turn.

The rain,
Pouring around him,
Blurring the sights
That surround,
That does not need blurring.

The world around
Parts from its way,
To let him through.
Lest it be a hurdle
In his path, it moves.

The rain
Climbs up the windshield,
Pushed by the air,
The air cut by the car
Rushing through.

The wipers try hard
To keep the water at bay
To ensure a clean vision,
Forward,
To ensure a vision.

The water spiders up
‘Ere the wiper cleans it up,
For them to climb again,
In tiny rivulets,
From the hood to the roof.

Moving against nature
Its nature.
Moved by a force,
External,
Moved.

It runs from the hood,
From the ocean,
It moves against nature,
To the roof,
To the mountain.

~26th December 2007

Fire, Ice and Stone

Carved in stone,
Sculpted in ice ,
The only sight of life
Is the fire in her eyes.

She stands there
In the pouring rain,
Nothing to lose, she has
Nothing to gain.

Standing in wait,
Her eyes, a frown,
Not noticing the water
Over her eyes, running down.

Who she is,
Whence she came,
For whom she waits,
Reasons, lame.

Fire, in those eyes
Ice, in her stare,
Stone of her heart,
Shielding from the glare.

Desire, to burn,
Desire burning,
Seen in her eyes,
Her heart is churning.

The face she shows,
Hides the fire inside.
The eyes, they betray,
A truth, unable to hide.

Her face, ice,
Tries to please
The burning eyes,
They cannot appease.

Fiery eyes,
To burn, they try,
Melt a heart,
Make it cry.

Heart of stone, immune,
To life, it is gone,
To things, they are past
To people, just flesh and bone.

She stands there,
Icy face, staring
Through eyes of fire, they hide
A Stone heart, no one sharing.

4th December 2007
~Aditya Rajaraman