A poem written in admiration and celebration of the spirit of Mother Nature, especially the beauty of rain forests of Western Ghats mountain ranges of southern India, which occupies a great place in Sangam Tamil literature and is popularly called as the "Kurinji landscape".
Monsoon magic
Where'd it be, where'd it descend first?
On the milky white of coffee flower?
On my nose, scanning, sniffing seventh heaven?
Maybe on a rufous fruit of swarming sandalwood?
Or, on the angry blooms of flame of the forest?
Oh! Await too, the young leaves of sweet almond.
Would it be on *Nishâkânthi expecting its midnight?
Where’d it be, the first drop of this monsoon?
Would it be on the amorous rose-ringed parakeets?
Where’d it be, the elixir churned out of high heavens?
A menacing cloudscape hangs overhead
Dheem, dheem, dheena, dheem, plays the *Tabla.
Against hooting gale, holds proudly its erected pride.
The lemon grass struggles to hold its ground.
A warty croaky bullfrog’s melody booms through reeds.
A wading pond heron awaits its catch.
A juvenile barbel chinned catfish hits surface.
Within a whisker of pick, between ‘em falls the debut drop.
Two, three, few, more, millions, zillions.
Pricks the pristine waterface, the raindrops bullion.
Bamboo groves sway, the rainstorm rattles.
Threaten to snap off, mountain-bee hives, rain slaps.
Their waxy wax tongues drool over.
Heaven earth lock lips, the love showers down.
Rhythmic drum of raindrops on red plantain leaves.
Clamor of paradisal music bears nude sense of Nirvana.
A *Nilgiri Langur drenches with kinsfolks, baby in lap.
Fills my nostrils, a gingerly aroma of ginger coffee.
*Unni sings *Nâdhalôludai, a *Kalyâna Vasantham.
The scent of mossy carpets on my beloved mangosteen,
An urge kindled in, browse I through memory racks,
Evoking every hidden cherished childhood odors.
As lover’s tender hearts, downpour mates with noble soil.
Ploughing rainsperms chant mystic mythical sacred syllable.
Invoking an ancient charm, opening out the beauty trail.
Melts my soul, the soaked *sholascape’s essence in air.
Rapids of torrential floods, puberty to little singing brooks.
Nearby cascade roars anew, screams of height.
Falls heavy sculpting rocky pachyderms down.
Faraway cries of elephant herds. Rain bard tries tribal fusion.
On high wild *jumbos, nonsensical webs of wild great-vines.
On wild great-vines, parasitical orchids, honey-spurs on lips.
A twosome of two-tongued green vine-snakes hide under.
An amber tree frog crawls up, slips through rain fingers.
Male atop, hunting tree-hollow-pool for frogspawn kids.
Page after page, precipitation plume pens monsoon magic.
Spirited lightning remnant punctures cloud rucksacks.
Emptying heavenly treasure of watery diamonds.
Touch-me-not, touch-me-not, explode jewelweed balsams.
Touch-me, touch-me, persuade under-leaf shield-jewel bugs.
Cloudbanks trickle drop after another, bankruptcy filed.
Skies stand still. Clouds fade away. Trees rain still.
Water beads cow into tree fern’s spiral strangler fronds.
Drip, drip, drip! Sleepy coiled snails uncoil. Drip, drip, drip!
For every drop, playful trees free a mango squashing down.
Mynahs ruffle feathers, shake off rain game mischief.
Pleasing fragrance stray into mindscape.
A wayward squirrel nibbles at *Manoranjana.
The last drop of the day falls on its snout.
A crackajack jackfruit cracks wide open.
An ambrosial perfume seeps through cardamom plants.
Finer maidens’ bosoms alike, mountain summits.
*Kurinji littered emerald landscapes, grassland wonderland!
Waiting to bask in after-shower sunshine primer.
Where’d it be, where’d it descend first?
The first stream of honey colored gentle rays.
- M. Manoranjan, ©2009
- Nishâkânthi: Epiphyllum (Epiphyllum oxypetalum), a cactus variety of South American origin, which bears strong fragrant white flower, that blossoms at midnight and lives only for a night.
- Miân Ki Malhâr: A monsoon Râga in Hindustâni music (Indian classical music of North) tradition.
- Sârangi, Dilrubha: Stringed musical instruments of northern India, played with a bow. Both instruments look a bit similar, but Dilrubha is subtler and more expressive than Sârangi.
- Tabla: A pair of small Indian hand drums, a percussion instrument of North India.
- Malabar: A region of southern India, lying between the Western Ghats mountain ranges and the Arabian Sea.
- Lankan: Of the island nation Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, Sri Lankan.
- Nilgiri: Blue mountain, gets its name thanks to the blue *Neelakurinji flowers, which dominate other flowering plants in the entire region at the time of blossom.
- Langur: A long-tailed arboreal Asiatic monkey, distinguishable by its loud call.
- Unni: Unni Krishnan, a singer in Carnatic music (Indian classical music of South) tradition.
- Nâdhalôludai: A masterpiece composition in Carnatic music by Saint Thyagaraja (ca. 1750), which speaks about the beauty of Nâdha, the resonating sacred sound which is the core character of this cosmos encompassing from small infinity to large infinity.
- Kalyâna Vasantham: A blissful Râga in Carnatic music.
- Shola: A type of high-altitude stunted evergreen forest found only in the southern part of the Western Ghats mountain ranges of southern India. Patches of shola forest are usually separated from one another by undulating grasslands. Together the shola and grassland form the shola-grassland complex or shola-grassland mosaic.
- Jumbo: Jambul, jamun or jambolan (Syzygium cumini), an evergreen tropical tree, native to Indian subcontinent, which bears a berry like thin dark black-purple skinned fleshy edible fruit. Wild jambolan (Syzygium fruiticosum), a wild variety, which grows tall and spotting huge monstrous trunk.
- Manoranjana: Ylang-ylang (Cananga odorata), a tropical tree, which bears sweet-scented pale yellow-green flowers.
- Kurinji: Neelakurinji shrub, Strobilanthes Kunthiana, which flowers once in twelve years and is the most popular one; Strobilanthes Sessilis, which flowers once in seven years. Both blossomed together in 2006, which occurs once in 84 years!
