The Rains of Childhood

*We change but the rain is always the same as. Sometimes the rains bring back memories. Sometimes they bring out the children in men.Sometimes it takes us back to the cocoon we shed.*

Dripping, dropping in a steady beat,

Piterring patering upon roofs of tin.

Raining in a steady beat,

Such is nature’s greatest feat.

I have played as a child in the rain,

But now the summer has brought its pain.

Droplets pour from the sky and soak into my soul,

And I spin in madness pitter patter,pitter patter.

After the rain, summer has to come again,

And I may not be the same child spinning in the rain.

The rain from my eyes , my heart ,my brain,

Will only be drowned by the falling rain .

But the rain is my only muse,

The rain and I have no ulterior use.

Whether the same child or not,

After every summer, the rain falls just the same.

Tears fall from the sky, silent words cross my mind,

I try to speak, but there is not one note.

If you speak and no one listens, have you spoken?

Can the spinning child’s words be understood by men?

The Artist

There are no haunted places,

Just people haunted by pasts and presents.

There is nothing not worth expressing,

For no one has lived without falling.

Not everyone can dream so celestial,

For most people’s understanding is but elliptical.

Not everyone can make with pain such a tryst,

For not everyone can be called artist.

The artist writes till his fingers bleed out his soul,

The artist paints till his art paints out his ghosts.

The artist strums through the emptiness in his heart,

The artist lets his sculpture be his art.

The breadth of the artist’s inner wings,

Cannot be measured by man-made things.

For everyone is but too sane,

To make beauty from so much pain.

Innocence is Bliss

“For I had expected always

Some brightness to hold in trust,

Some final innocence

To save me from dust.”

Remember that time something got your eye? When you really felt something? When you truly loved something in all its purity? Was it the colourful kite you saw at the fair as a child? Or were they the stories you father would tell you at bedtime? Was it that song you heard on the radio that makes you smile a wry smile every time you hear it? Was it that time you were out playing with your friends in the first monsoon of the year? If you have experienced something like this you probably know what innocence means.

I don’t think I am capable enough to describe that wondrous state. After all it is a feeling, not an equation or a medical condition to be defined and then laid to rest in the yellow forlorn pages of a dictionary in a quiet library. It is a living, breathing state of mind, or rather a state of heart. It is that time you let go of all judgements of all preconceived notions and you think from that softened part of your mind and heart untouched by the crafty and hard world. When you see beauty in anything without any filters or distortions or suspicions, exactly like a child would.

But as I said the world is by and large judgemental, exacting, cunning and many more of the adjectives that your favourite poets and artists love using. And this is the world we have to live in. So we adapt, we change, we stop being children and grow up to being men and women of the world. And in this metamorphosis innocence becomes the discarded cocoon.

People lose their innocence trying to deal with the world. Some end their innocence themselves thinking it is too childish, thinking they need to grow up, to prove a point. From personal experience I can say that not a day passes that this category does not wish to go back to that place of childish purity.

You see, sensitivity is very much associated with innocence. And sensitive people find it very hard to survive in this insensitive world. And so we learn to hide our sensitivity as we grow up , lest we get hurt. We are too afraid of being hurt. So we view the world through the filters of our defence mechanisms. It may be vices for some, art for some, some in their charm. It is exactly as Edith Wharton says in the age of innocence ‘He simply felt that if he could carry away the vision of the spot of earth he walked on , and the sky that enclosed it, the rest of the world might seem less empty.’ So we hurt beings walk on to safer places , when we cannot find a safe place for our innocence , we choose to shroud it.

There is a very sensitive version of ourselves that we conceal within ourselves because we think that the whole world is insensitive. But what we do not realize is that everyone who has grown up also has some concealed sensitivity within themselves. You see innocence requires a place of safety, a safe home if you will. Somewhere free from judgement free from malice, free from greed and manipulation. This is where I think art is just the most wonderful safe home. Why can we still relate to poems and songs and paintings and novels so very well? Be it Mansfield or Mozart or Munch or Metallica<insert the unforgiven trilogy here > it is because these artists let their sensitive side onto the strings or canvas or paper and it resonated with that sensitivity that you have. That is why teenagers literally worship their rock gods( I know I did and do) why artists defend their masters so much

It’s actually comedic. We hide our innocent and sensitive side in fear of being judged and secretly wish other people would show us that side to themselves. A lot of the times, it comes down to who opens up first. You always (and surprisingly may I add) find people who you can show this side too. That’s when the other person finds out that he or she isn’t the only one with that shrouded innocence. To understand someone means to be able to understand their sensitivities and not judge i.e to look at it with innocence. Now I’ve not been on the side that speaks first a lot , but I know how good it feels when you connect at the level of shrouded innocence. It may be taking a huge risk. You may be putting yourself at great risk. And that is why you have to be sure on whether or not you have found a safe home. Otherwise, the world can always use more artists. And yes it does hurt when someone hits you where your sensitivities lie. It hurts incredibly badly.

I guess you have to lose innocence to know its value. Every kid wants to grow up too fast and every grown up wants to be a child again. Maybe that is the best test to know who is a child and who is an adult. All I can say is let that innocence remain somewhere in your heart. Not so deep that it suffocates and can’t ever come out and not so much on the surface for every passerby to twist at their whim and fancy..There is a difference between innocence and naivete . You might be loved for your innocence and you will be punished for your naivete. Knowing to differentiate between the two is what growing up is all about and not hiding away your sensitivities.Ultimately all I can say is never put the keys to your innocence in someone else's pocket. It’s the key to that special place where you let yourself in and where you let your guitars and pianos in, where you let your notebook and diary in and where you let your palate and paintbrush in. 

And most importantly it is where you have to learn to let people in. 

After all innocence is bliss .And happiness and bliss love company. 

Yesterday Was Once a New Day

I live for eccentric summer nights,

amongst cold winter shivers.

I live for those showers of rain,

that respite from the the day’s fever.

But yesterday was a new day once,

as tomorrow will soon be another yesterday.

There will be summer, there will be rain,

but nothing can stop the inevitable winter spell.

How many summers have gone ,

and how many times has the sky cried?

How many times has the summer’s sweat ,

been frozen by the winter’s cold embrace?

But in all these ciricles, I have remained ,

to watch this wondrous spell.

For though yesterday was once a new day,

I am just the same ,as every tomorrow becomes a yesterday.

Strat Fan Boy

Golden machine heads,

Along an ostentatious headstock.

Twenty two frets, Maple neck.

A contraption to gauge the soul.

Strings of nickel steel,

Blues, jazz and rock flow out with ease.

Sunburst body, with colours three.

And a soul of its own.

A piece of purity set in wood.

With more beauty than all of the world.

With more soul than any man to fathom.

With more love than this heart can bear.

A Midwinter night's dream

Sometimes, life seems like not what you bargained for,

Sometimes life is just a long horrid road,

Sometimes the road cannot be seen in the winter fog,

Because the mind is sleeping like a log.

The summer came and the summer left,
And now the winter is here again.
Cold winds blowing my mind hither,
Descending snow throwing me thither.

But there is a midnight train on an icy track.

The midnight train waits to take me anywhere I want to,

But sometimes I just don’t know where to go.

Because sometimes the mind is just a snare of delusion.

Sometimes life wants me to forgive and forget,

Sometimes it takes away a friend.

Many faces have boarded the midnight train,

But not one parting face was a friend.

Sometimes our mind tricks us with grand delusion,

So we wonder when the foggy road will end.

And when the day’s work is over,

We fade like a softly setting sun.

Sometimes life is just the loner.

Waiting alone in the freezing mid-winter wind,

Waiting to find a friend,        

With a ticket for the midnight train.

Chili Pepper Wisdom

So here's a first of my lists. This is a list of my top 10 Red Hot Chili Peppers lyrics. They've met  much to me and their meaning has been changing. Its funny what how their meaning has metamorphosed from the days of drawing the RHCP logo behind notebooks , school desks and walls to now. And yes this was written listening to an RHCP playlist. So here it is-
1) Snow.

This song is so beautiful I you could   quote all the lyrics.

'When will I know I really can't go to the well once more time to decide on? When its killing me when will I really see all I need is to look inside?'

'Running through the fields and all my tracks will be concealed and there's no where to go.Privately divided by a world so undecided and there's no where to go.'

What a perfect song. Though written about a cocaine addiction, everyone who's gone through a rough patch can relate to this. Not to mention the gorgeous guitar riff that plays through the first and second verses.

2)Under the Bridge

'It's hard to believe that there's nobody out there , It's hard to believe that I'm all alone, At least I have her love, the city she loves me, lonely as I am together we cry'

'Under the bridge downtown, I gave my life away.'

Whether or not you have been under the bridge you can probably understand that feeling of loneliness. Not to mention one of the sweetest chord progressions ever.

3)Scar Tissue

'Scar tissue that I wish you saw, Sarcasm Mr. Know It all.'

'With the birds I'll share this lonely view.'

Damn all the Mr.Know-it-alls. Why can't you see my scar tissues? Well at least I have the birds to share this view with .

4) Give it away now.

Right from the heart wrenching pepers onto the pure wacko rockers that we all love. Straight from 'Blood Sugar Sex Magik'-

Bob Marley poet and a prophet

                                      Bob Marley taught me how to off it
                                    Bob Marley walkin' like he talk it
                                  Goodness me can't you see I'm gonna cough it

5) Californication

This song has cult status . Not to mention the TV show that has the same name. This is RHCP on Hollywood. Its also got one of the coolest music videos ever that TV stations can't stop playing. And fellow guitar players , remember trying out the solo on your old acoustics back in the beginner days?

'Pay your surgeon very well to break the spell of aging. Celebrity skin is this you chin? Or is this the war you're waging?'

'Space may be in a final frontier but it is made in a hollywood basement. And Cobain can you hear the Spheres from station to station? It's understood that hollywood sells californication.'

6)Police Station

Another wonderful wordplay off the pepper's latest 'I'm with you album.' This just goes to show that RHCP do not age.

'I saw you in the church and there was no time to exchange.
You were getting married and it felt so very strange.
I guess I didn't see it coming,
Now I guess it's me who's bumming.
Dreaming of the golden years,
You and I were mixing tears.
Not today, not for me but someone.
I never could get used to, so now I will refuse to.'

'An empty shell of loveliness now dusted with decay.

What happened to the funny paper?

Smiling was your money maker.' .

7)Tell Me Baby

Ah...... the innocence that was left behind.

'Tell me baby, what's you story?

Where you come from and where you wanna go this time?

Tell me lover are you lonely?

The thing we need is never all that hard to find.

Tell me baby, what's you story?

Where you come from and where you wanna go this time?

You're so loving, I am lonely,

Giving up on the innocence you left behind.'

So who are you telling your story to?

8) The zephyr song

Know that feeling when the world seems to much to take ? Anthony Keidis does.And he wants to fly away on his zephyr.

'Fly away on my zephyr

I feel it more than ever.

And in this perfect weather,

We'll find a place together.

In the water with the scent of my emotion.

All the world can pass me by.'

9)Can't stop

Who says love songs have to be cheesy?

'The world I love
The tears I drop
To be part of
The wave can't stop
Ever wonder if it's all for you?'

'This life is more than ordinary
Can I get 2 maybe even 3 of these
Comin' from space
To teach you of the Pleiades
Can't stop the spirits when they need you
This life is more than just a read-through'

10)Otherside

'Pour my life into a paper cup
The ashtray's full and I'm spillin' my guts
I don't believe its bad
I've got to take it on the otherside.'

'Centuries are what it meant to me
A cemetery where I marry the sea
Stranger things could never change my mind
I've got to take it on the otherside
Take it on the otherside
Take it on
Take it on.'

That's the best chili pepper wisdom out there. Just take it all to the otherside.

So that's my list. Yet there are so many wonderful sings with even better lyrics in the peppers discography.

What are you hiding?

What are you hiding
Beneath those gorgeous locks of hair?
What are you withholding,
In a hundred erudite words?
What are you concealing,
In the fear of inevitable death?
Is it the tell tale signs of life?

What are you not revealing,
In that rational conviction?
What has been unsaid,
When the speech has been made?
What are you hiding,
In the insomnia of a hundred nights?
Is it the calm of a dreamy paradise?

Where are the cries of pain hidden,

Under the lies of a thousand laughs?

What has been puffed away,

In rings of decadent smoke?

What are you hiding,

In your bouts of pain?

Is it the fear of hoping again?

What is unseen,
Behind all that mascara?
What have you so well shrouded?
In a logic so well founded?
What are you hiding?
Or is it you that are hiding?
Or is it from yourself that you are hiding?