Wordpress photo challenge

Jingle-Jangle o’ the Green-Bangles

~ Madame Zenista ~ 30 Comments

For the two themes in WordPress’ ‘The Daily Post Photo Challenges‘ 

Security, Green. 

In the (Asian) Indian culture, green bangles are adorned by the bride at the sacred marriage ceremony- a blessing symbolizing prosperity and fertility. And she continues to wear green her entire married life. The gentle striking of glass produces a sound that is delightful, soft and feminine.

My maiden home would be filled with the cheerful sound from my mother’s or grandmother’s bangles. It seems to always be there in the background, the predictability gave us kids a strange sense of security, and you could tell those toiling hands were working somewhere in or around the house.

This jingle-jangle of the green bangles were sounds of love and care and motherly  warmth.

Green glass bangles with pearl - gold side bangles. Photography.
Green glass bangles with a pair of pearl-gold ones, set on traditional green Indian fabric.
OF SANDALWOOD ‘n fresh  mehendi hands
Mixed scents, like feelings; lonesome she stands
Dressed in silk, her gold jewelry dangles
Amidst the jingle-jangle o’ the green-bangles

SHE MAKES the house into a home
Cooking n’ cleaning n’ loving she roams
Making peace after any wrangles
Along the jingle-jangle o’ her green-bangles

HOLDING the little chin, combing hair
On fevered forehead, her hands of care
In a soft mulmul* embrace, their tears she lulls
All in the jingle-jangle o’ her green-bangles!

*Mulmul (pronounced muh-l muh-l as in mulberry) is a fine, soft cotton muslin from India. There are beautiful mulmul sarees for women in India.

For The Daily Post Photo Challenges theme for the week “It IS Easy Being Green!” and (Michelle said if the post is related to Ireland, the better it is. So, while taking this picture, I thought of Ireland. So related it in such an unrelated way 😬 )

Works for another theme for this week “Security” as well!

Dandelion: the messenger of wishes…

~ Madame Zenista ~ 11 Comments

The Daily Post – Weekly Photo Challenge: Wish

Dandelion. madame-zenista.com monochrome black and white
Dandelions. Monochrome # 003

As kids, we’d truly believe the blown seeds of a dandelion would go far to a place where wishes would be granted. And so the summer days would be full of wishes gliding in the air. It used to be a magical time – the lazy summer days to dream and wish and wait for it to come true. Those times, when dandelions were the messengers for wishes…

Dandelion. madame-zenista.com monochrome black and white
Dandelion. Monochrome # 004

WISHES

TO FLY in the air
To pluck at the stars
To have a candy palace
Why, nothing seemed bizarre!
Wishes wishes, oh so many
Blow the dandelion, and ask for any

A HANDFUL of diamonds
Prince charming on a stallion
Be sought after
My charm be my medallion

WISHES wishes, oh so many
Blow the dandelion, and ask for any!
Not smart but be wise
A true friend or a few

BE A kid again, that
Innocence like dew
Wishes wishes, not too many
Blow the dandelion, hoping for an epiphany!

(Also an entry for Cee’s B&W)

All I ask, the Heaven above..

~ Madame Zenista ~ 31 Comments

The Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge:  The Road Taken   and Wanderlust
(Update: Umm… so having felt a …er..wee bit guilty about using a post from a past challenge, here is the dedicated one for Wanderlust: Oh Wanderlust! The places you take me… ) 

Enroute to Macknac Island, Michigan. Skyscspe # 010. #nofilter

All I Ask Is Heaven Above…

LUMINOUS sapphire skies
Woolgathering in glee
Blowing thinking-clouds
Bubbles of fantasy…

IN amber fairy dust
Blooms n’ buzzing bees
Racing to the horizon
The rolling emerald fields

THIS wanderlust I love
Nothing more I seek
All I ask, the heaven above
And the road below me…

********

Road Trip. 2016. To Mackinac Island. Some iPhone pictures of the road, taken on the road. No filter or enhancing was needed for the stunning blues and greens.

Blue sky white clouds green fields Upper Pure Michigan UP madame-zenista.com summer
Rolling fields in somewhere in northern Michigan. Skyscape # 011. #nofitler

On reaching the Mackinaw City, we took a ferry to the Mackinac Island all bikes no motor vehicles.

Mackinac Island Street Biking Upper Pure Michigan UP madame-zenista.com summer
The road in Mackinac Island where only bikes are allowed. Summer 2016.
Mackinac Island Lilac Tree Hotel madame-Zenistacom summer bikes
This ‘Lilac Tree Hotel’ by the roadside sporting lilac flower baskets. Mackinac Island.

Ever since I read it the first time in high school, R.L. Stevenson’s The Vagabond stayed with as a beautiful memory appealing my ‘wanderer self’.  I LOVE this poem. I cant help but reproduce it here and see if you feel it speak to your soul as it did to mine.

The Vagabond by Robert Louis Stevenson

Give to me the life I love,
Let the lave go by me,
Give the jolly heaven above
And the byway night me.
Bed in the bush with stars to see,
Bread I dip in the river —
There’s the life for a man like me,
There’s the life for ever.
Let the blow fall soon or late,
Let what will be o’er me;
Give the face of earth around
And the road before me.
Wealth I seek not, hope nor love,
Nor a friend to know me;
All I seek, the heaven above
And the road below me.
Or let autumn fall on me
Where afield I linger,
Silencing the bird on tree,
Biting the blue finger;
White as meal the frosty field —
Warm the fireside haven —
Not to autumn will I yield,
Not to winter even!
Let the blow fall soon or late,
Let what will be o’er me;
Give the face of earth around,
And the road before me.
Wealth I ask not, hope, nor love,
Nor a friend to know me.
All I ask, the heaven above
And the road below me.

My Solitude, sunset, the sea

~ Madame Zenista ~ 15 Comments

The Daily Post: A Good Match -Photo Challenge. The sunset and the sea is better than a good match for my solitude at the final hours of the day…

image
I watch the sunset at the South Padre Islands in 2015. Skyscape # 008


Eyes wide shut under the flying veil of hair

Rumbling ocean reverberates, flushing the day’s wear

Gulls forlorn cawing, split the brined air

Emotions shudder helpless, on a wing ‘n a prayer

Encompassing solitude deepens, skins my soul bare

By the calming sea, ‘n the darkening glare

Of the crimson sunset, I feel so aware…

 

 

The twilight tree… Skyscape # 005

~ Madame Zenista ~ 10 Comments
Twilight, tree, sky, sunset.
The bare twilight tree. Skyscape # 005

THE TWILIGHT TREE

THE waning sun
The sky blue still
The night to come
The heart athrill

THE tree so bare
Looks up to the sky
The sunset’s glare
The darkness nigh

IT’S arms outspread
It’s soul inviting
A tree beckons
With love abiding

BOUND notwithstanding
Its Spirit free
All over, burning
The Twilight Tree..

Twilights are one of my favorite times of the day. It is a short time when two worlds merge, creating a third, evanescent one. This poem is dedicated to twilight and the witnessing tree.