Happiness is..

There is this happy page on FB, which I follow, where you can define what Happiness is and they post a corresponding cute drawing for you.. Everyone has got different definition/criteria of being happy.. there are so many small small things which make us happy, which might be insignificant/trivial for others. That page always reminds me of this poem, which I came across a year ago, and is stuck on my desk since then..

Happiness is when

you find some rice

in the rice bin you thought was empty

and you know you’re all right for another month

Happiness is when

you’re reading along

aimlessly in a book

and come on someone exactly like yourself

Happiness is when

you’re sick of reading a book

and just then someone with a familiar voice

knocks at your gate

Happiness is when

you’ve got some passage

that is supposed to be so difficult

and all by yourself you figure out the meaning

Happiness is when

sunset finds you in some country temple or mountain village

and they say "Stay the night!"

and you do.

- Tachibana Akemi 

PS: Pardon me for too many poetic posts :P may be its a kind of loss of words :-|

Poetry@ In Her Shoes - 2

This is in continuation with earlier post. When Maggie is at community center, an old blind fellow asks her to read something for him.. and she reads the following poem:

The art of losing isn’t hard to master;

so many things seem filled with the intent

to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster

of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.

The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:

places, and names, and where it was you meant

to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or

next-to-last, of three loved houses went.

The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,

some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.

I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.

Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture

I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident

the art of losing’s not too hard to master

though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

-Elizabeth Bishop

I liked it for the simplicity of its basic theme, for the truth it holds within its heart. Its not too difficult to cope up with any loss. I think all the losses are manageable. Its just a matter of getting used to the loss, accepting the facts, coming to terms with the situation.. At first there will be a pinch (or may be a spoonful) of salt, but eventually you'll be okay.

PS: This pattern of writing poems with stuff in brackets is still amusing me.

Poetry@ In Her Shoes - 1

Last month I watched another chick-flick, In Her Shoes. It was a nice and entertaining one..  Loved Cameron Diaz's acting. Her's was the main character (Maggie) and she did justice to it. Despite of Maggie's nasty deeds, you end up liking her character.. and you will definitely  love it when the plot moves to community center for old people and she starts helping them. 

So what I liked the most in the movie was the poem she reads in her sister's wedding.  The poem is beautiful and the way she read it made it more touching. I had searched the wording on internet, and it was lying on my desktop forever. Today I was reading again, and I again loved them, so thought why not share with you.. 

I carry your heart with me, I carry it in my heart,

I am never without it, anywhere I go you go, my dear; 

and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling.

I fear no fate, for you are my fate, my sweet

I want no world, for beautiful you are my world, my true

and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant,

and whatever a sun will always sing is you.

Here is the deepest secret nobody knows,

here is, the root of the root and 

the bud of the bud and 

the sky of the sky, of a tree called life;

which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide,

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart.

I carry your heart, I carry it in my heart.

-E. E. Cummings

PS-1: I do not know why every version (available on internet) of this poem had lots of stuff in brackets. If anyone of you has some idea, why it is that way, then please share. 

PS-2: I apologize for playing with the punctuation of the original poem.