immortals

never asked any god to measure the darkness

no maps nor trails to count these paths 

and when i make that final leap

it will be whence i came just ashes and rocks

shaky impermanence one day will vanish

a temporary memory for those that follow

so will you and each who's here today

even myths we embrace, all baubles hollow

behold skies, brooks and beauty profound

tall pines, warm beaches or nodding flowers

trees that lean out, embrace the sun

maddening beauty journeys on forever

few were promised gods and avatars

or only one who would be the end all

and they asked for allegiance and all your faith

for an outcome of peace before the final fall

so i will be gone and so what?
the answers unshaken, always been the same
perhaps my echoes, my thoughts live on
just a fading memory or not even a name

but i gave my love when i lived as one
grew a garden, tended life, and shed a tear
lived with dignity, found in gratitude
every moment's essence i held dear

if i made one life happy, one flower bloom
if i held a hand that was shaking in mine
if i soothed a soul filled with darkness, despair
such small victories made my journey divine

for i found the only god that i know
the best of our trials and travails of our days
the longest journeys, the harshest climbs
such unlikely heroes, for demons we slayed

it's alone a wonder this time, this life
my consciousness alive to a deep awe
for all that's in an accidental universe
that we came to be here and just now!

so the end will come and render life precious
immortality would abandon it without price
a life of hope, fire, learned grace
it's yours! in you! here now! in this life!

-Reena

Jan 27th 2015

rude one

when she comes, she arrives unannounced
uninvited and shameless
forces me to leave everything
pay no attention to anyone who needs me
forget my purpose, my goals, my schedule
but selfishly like an infant
demand every bit of my psyche,
scream for my attention
grab me and hold me tight
till she comes pouring out
like a lava that must
like an outpouring of rain
from a desperate, distended cloud
like the pressure only an earthquake can relieve
that's how she arrives on any day
no warning, no whisper, no preamble
she's here and i must get her down
this self-centered, ego maniacal one
my poem....

**********************************
-reena
may 29th 2012

Jungle

Jungle

The jungle, the jungle finds me everywhere. 

The jungle finds a way, its own road. 

Seeping through, melting out, tearing past 

whatever stands in its way. 

No passion, no compassion, no vengeance, no love could explain 

It moves because it must

Like gravity it pulls away

Like water it finds its way

No rocks, no walls, no pressure

Could stand strong in its wake

Like pain it must find air

I do hide it in this heart

Never giving it words or a face

But it comes screaming, tearing out 

Taking by storm one unsuspecting day

For the heart forgets and the mind may erase

But this body remembers every scar

Every cut, slight and bruise

And I run but the jungle finds me

Growing afoot to drown me 

Until I let the pain take me whole, some place far away...

Dec 25, 2014

Caring

Standing on the edge of my tenuous cares
Should I pause or throw them in the air
I want to leap throw caution away
I envy the precipice and yet I stay
Hesitating for this hundredth time
The lives we build, such fires sublime
Can I leave searching far and away
My dreams colored wild yet here I stay


-------------------
reena

jan 7th 2015

light

all at once the mirror showed me all
the pain and scars from a life
i had buried and bandaged
telling myself they were just fears

but then i washed up on shore
with a broken heart and no more tears
and there i sat day dreaming of a place
so far i could have imagined it

nothing near my life or fears
you broke my parts but the whole held together
i've put it all together somehow
yet the cracks show and sometimes ache

will it all come and haunt me again
or will i move ever so slowly towards light
a belief i lost in my own fate
no future or dream could have saved me then

but today is different, shiny too
a road i saw become firm and hard
the fog parted and the lights came on
i will walk away and meet my life...


-----------------
reena
Jan 5th 2015