Friday, July 31, 2015

|| Peter Brawns ||

















Peter, you have words
cordial and trustful
In adverse times
folks sleep in peace
and dream of 
good times to come
While you keep awake
devising ways to
protect the honest
and the simple
from adversity

Your searching eyes
seek the mute
human civilization
and the pain
of wars entombed 
in memorials
and museums

In times when
man is out to
gobble everything
in sight you eat
little and drink
less

Untouched by greed
rich in sensitivity
you stand with
friends often
against yourself

Opening bottles of
wine with enviable
expertise your joy
is in watching others
enjoy 

Familiar with
the crookedness of
the genteel you
hold on to
a moral code
of your very own

Peter Brawns
you are a friend
of the soul in
a world where
friends become strangers
at the drop of a hat

Thursday, July 30, 2015

|| Hanneke ||

















An European woman
with an Indian heart 
and soul-Hanneke

With open eyes
she hears and sees
all in silence
like a still river

In her eyes
all see their reflection
amidst movement
she sits unmoving

Seeing everything her
ears hear-everything
the way her eyes
watch-day and night

Often she thinks
eyes are helpless-
they see whether they want or not
ears have no option
but to hear
what if the lips
too spoke the words
of the soul-incessantly
then the world would 
have been different
and so would have been man

The world would not
have been so frightening
then and men would 
not have been insecure

Power and fear
would not have 
turned into guns

Freedom would not
be known as terror

Locks and patrol
would not have been
synonyms of security

Man and woman
would have procreated
generations of faith

In her silence Hanneke
speaks volumes
engaged in dialogue
her liquid eyes unveil 
answers to questions unasked

Hanneke creates novel
modes of dialogue
gives new meanings
to words

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

|| Cees Maurick ||

















Feet firmly planted on ground
as though they grew
out of the earth
like some forest species of plant

Reflected in his eye
the blue of the sky
turns bluer
From the ocean
the tender-hearted friend
fills his heart
with boundless tenderness
for all

Tired with the world
he seeks haven in the forest
more civilized than the world
of cultured humans

This animal loving hunter
hunts to save the forest
and its denizens

As the talk turns serious
his forefinger describes
an unending whorl
on his temple
as if tightening the invisible
screws of his brain

To indicate money
he rubs the tip
of his forefinger
against his thumb
and says-money!

Money and mind-
that is Cees Maurick
money calls for mind
but mind calls for something
that only Cees Maurick knows

His feet
untired like wheels
ever on the move
he often returns
to the forest
to fill his eye and time

From the walls of his
river-front home
heads of deer look
at the goings on with
wondering, innocent eyes
on the tables sit birds
turning wood into
living branches

The day spent
unraveling the intricacies
of commerce
the evening finds him
amidst his animals-caressing
a forehead
the body
the fur
as though their lifeless
bodies hold the joy of touch

For children the hand
of an angel
for friends the hand
of a friend
for dear ones
the touch of living love
the worst enemy
of the violent 

Countering worry with laughter
he dissolves his laughter
in wine sharing his energy
and friendship with
friends and family
he is the liquid
that lubricates the machinery
of his business

His home a strange aviary
of forest and water bird
models and masks
He loves his forest animals
like friends
and like his home
loves the forest

I often wonder-
is the forest his home
and animals his friends?