The Landless Land

foggy stairway


Staring at a clock face that has no hands
I find myself in a landless land
Where shifting sands and watery mists
Rove endlessly seeking the lip-less kiss
Of a lover whose face is never revealed
With eyes turned inward on a truth that conceals

A million-note melody that no one can hear
Humming it’s sweet song to infinite ears
So silent this tune from the visage-less face
So supple the kiss, so full grace
That the dancers, the dance and the eternal song
Merge into one devotional throng

Shadow seeking substance seeking light divine
A stairway to nowhere that endlessly climbs
For a kiss within the eternal embrace
‘Round in circles forever and ever is traced
Until that which isn’t succumbs on its pyre
Every saint and sinner remains a liar

The Great Hall

great hall

Two old men met again, as they did each day, on the steps of the Great Hall.  Neither knew each other.  They never spoke.  Yet every day at the same time they would arrive at this place and barely acknowledge each other.  Their missions were the same, yet entirely different, both knowing the way here the same as they knew their own faces.

Entering the hall, the cool air greeted them and filled them with a familiar sense of purpose.  The glistening polished walls gave wings to the importance of their missions.  Arching windows that framed a breathtaking vista went unnoticed.  They were intent only on the two objects in the immense room:  a large book and a computer, each sitting on a plain table.  So intent were they, and so habitual, even the floor bore a slightly worn path where they tread each day.

One of the men, with soft but fearful eyes, settled himself in front of the large book.  As he reached his calloused fingers to touch it, they trembled slightly.  Then, with a movement graced by deepest respect and tempered in repetition, he opened the book.  Carefully he leafed through its pages until he found the words he was searching for.  He settled into reading.  The only sounds that danced around him were the rustling of the page and the whispering of his lips as he read.  Occasionally, he would shift his gaze towards the ceiling, rich with murals, and then close his eyes.

These actions met with an almost imperceptible glance of distain from the second man.  He was settled stiffly in front of the computer just a short distance away from the man and his book.  With a quick movement, he flicked the machine on and tapped the keyboard impatiently as fans whirred and parts clicked and hummed.  When the screen came to life in its usual greeting, he took a deep breath and sat forward.  With a relieved smile his fingers launched into tapping away at the keys.  The more he tapped, the hungrier his posture became as if a cat about to pounce a mouse.

The man with the book spared him a glance and wondered at his raptness.  He looked like he was about to dive into the monitor and swim in his sea of information.  He chuffed and turned back to his book.  Foolishness.

And each day they spent like this, leaving only to satisfy other needs that couldn’t be ignored.  Never had they spoken.  Never had they taken noticed of much of anything else in this grand place beyond the perches where they sat.  So engrossed were they that neither noticed the child standing quietly in front of a window, smiling at the sunrise and stretching his tiny wings.

A Welcome Home


When the mind stops there is not only nothing.  There is everything.  Both and neither dancing in silence.  A great flower blooms drawing nectar from the heart and spreads its fragrance without restraint.  The Universe opens itself, ready to fall in love all over again.  Welcome home.


(Written spontaneously at 22:22 on 12-12-12.)

On Tiny Soundless Feet


On tiny soundless feet it tip toes, this eternal smiling child

through whispering fogs of thoughts she creeps

and summer memories mild


Peering into beating hearts through smoggy smudgy glass

playing a cosmic game of hide and seek

like running through tall grass


Sometimes I catch a glimpse of her from the corner of my eye

and the lyrical echoes of lilting laughter

as she dances by


Although I long to see her and to join her in her endless game

I know she leaps beyond my reach

for Truth is her silent name.

Why Did you Decide to Get Married?

A very short story…

“Why did you decide to get married?” Kumar asked his lifelong, and dearest friend, Amit.  “You always said you wouldn’t.”

They had been sitting, mostly silent, watching the sunrise and appreciating each other’s company.  It had been years since their last meeting.  Tea cups now empty sat between them waiting to be filled back up with words.

Kumar leaned closer to encourage his reply.

But Amit was gathering his thoughts.  It wasn’t for lack of an appropriate answer or because he was unsure.  His friend deserved his best answer.  He deserved his deepest truth.  Kumar, knowing his friend well, patiently waited.

Amit hadn’t married his wife, Sarah, for the reasons most of his friends and family assumed.  But he respected their hesitancy.  They were so different to those on the outside looking in.  They were products of different cultures, different continents, different worlds so it was easy for people to wonder what common ground they shared.  Some ulterior motive was usually the suspicion and that one hurt him most.

Sarah bloomed in his mind then, as she always did over all these years; even those they spent half a world apart.  The image remained the same and the familiar scene formed and played out as it always did when his heart responded.  She came to him as a little child, running barefooted down the path.  Her smile rivalling the sun blazing down on them, yellow hair floating behind her.  His heart would stutter and fill him with joy.  She was as tall as the sky and as tiny as a blossom and his most precious treasure.

He waited for her eternally in this secret place; a green and wild and watery place.  Their place.  Filled with butterflies and birds and promises and his own unending boyhood.  They would meet without words.  All smiles and giggles.  He would offer her the flower he’d picked and she would tuck it in the collar of her dress.  Together, they would push their little raft into the muddy water of the river and lay back to watch the sky.  Hand in hand they would ride the current, making cloud pictures and sharing riddles.  The direction they traveled was meaningless.  There was only one way.  Together.

This was their relationship.  Even the daily doldrums of marriage couldn’t change it.  This was who she was to him and he knew it was who he was to her.  All of this rolled to the tip of his tongue.

“Because I love her.”

Kumar searched his friend’s eyes a moment and sat back again.

“Yes.  This is the best answer,” he said.

He turned his tea cup over and set it back down with a sigh.


The truth is always in the pauses between words.

Book Release: Whispers to the Sky

I’m so pleased and excited to announce that my first book, Whispers to the Sky was released 8-31-2012 and is now available.  Per Amazon, Whispers to the Sky is:

An entertaining and thought-provoking look through the eyes of a woman inspired by her own spiritual inner journey. Her creative inspirations reflect a perspective gently tempered by her experiences with Eastern culture and memories of her homeland. Each page has been crafted to reveal what may be a hidden facet of our own true nature.

Ironically, and more synchronicity than planned, it was released on the blue moon so it deserves it’s big send-off to my followers on MoonLightened Way!

Whispers to the Sky is currently available in paperback through here.

If Amazon isn’t available to you or you prefer, you can also purchase it through here.

Kindle version will be available in about 14 days.  I’ll be posting that link as soon as it’s available.  I hope you like it!

My First Book!

I can finally let the cat out of the bag.  The reason I took a brief break from blogging was to complete my first book!  I’m happy to report it’s finished and off to the publisher.  Whew.

This is a simple little book and exactly as I had envisioned it.  Most of the content I’ve posted here on my blog, however much more editing has been done and improvements and additions have been made.  What a labor of love and miraculous experience it’s been!  There are short stories, poetry, and haiku as well as mindful shorts and meditational thoughts.  It’ll be available in both paperback and Kindle versions and is due to be released within the next 10 days.

I’m so excited!  And I’m happy to be able to share this experience with you.  This has been a lifelong dream finally materialized, but not the last!  I’ve got a novel in the works and plans are laid for another collection in 6 months.

When the release is official, be sure I’ll share it here with you.  I hope you join me in the celebration!  Thanks to each and every one of.  You, as readers and commentors, were the wind beneath my wings that gave me that final dose of courage to go for it.  We touch each other’s lives, sometimes without even realizing it.


Jean Mishra

Song of the Gravel Road

Photo by Scott Weber

I took a walk down the gravel road

Just a step, then another, to lighten my mind’s load

The pebbles sang as I trod along

My thoughts, whisked away in their dusty song,

Were joined not unexpectedly by a band of marauders

The dogs came along all sisters and brothers

Panting happily and wagging tails

I watched them hunt their invisible trails

Over roadsides and into the ditches

Thick with bramble abuzz with itches

Of poison ivy and stinging nettle

But the afternoon haze wasn’t destined for this meddle

The cicadas droned on of the impending frost

In the September sun their message went lost

As my thoughts did when a meadowlark trilled

Its way into my heart as the final thought stilled

And all that remained was the symphony of sounds

And the euphoric grins of the grateful hounds

 (Memories of rural Nebraska)