the evening rose

1.

Without any guidance, map or chart
In a vast ocean, I have sailed
Bless me if I win your heart
And pardon me if I have failed

2.

To every wind, butterfly and bird
My fragrance freely I give
I have come to make this world
A better place to live

3.

The seed he sows and tends each hour
Takes his whole life to grow
People praise the beauty of the flower
Who knows the gardener’s woe!

4.

A tide comes and swiftly goes
Flash of lightening doesn’t stay
Why wail for the evening’s fading rose
That fully lived its day!

5.

When roars of partisanship subside
And thirst for poetry grows
I will from these pages arise
As fresh as a morning rose

6.

O my Master, my kind Life-guard!
It’s you who guides my faltering steps
Solves my life’s all problems hard
And, good or bad, my destiny shapes

7.

How can I repay my Father’s regard
Who all my childish wishes fulfilled
Brought me through thousand deaths unharmed
And gave whatever in life I willed

8.

Light is always devoured by darkness
Life by death’s unremitting jaws
But poetry’s timeless charm never grows less
Ever defying nature’s unfailing laws

9.

I have failed in life, I accept
But some one in my ears does say
Why should people from a cuckoo expect
The roaring of a tornado, the drummer’s display

10.

Read not my poems through eyes, dear Reader!
Read them through your heart
You will find in them your feeling’s mirror
Though lack of poetic art

11.

O Father! I have no other wish
For this only I pray
Let not my poetry’s lamp extinguish
When I am gone away

12.

“No one reads poetry, these days
Even great, like yours, is a waste of time”
My well-wishers, though, found much to praise
Forgot the longevity of my rhyme