Feb 16, 2014 Uncategorized

Air and River – A Love Poem
©Vijaya Sundaram
February, 14th, 2014

I love you.
And without you,
The earth is breathless,
Atmosphere absent.

With you in it,
There’s air, and air currents,
And spaces to breathe,
And spaces to feel,
And wind blowing gently
Through my hair.

With you in it,
There’s a song in my life,
Like a river flowing
Through dark and sunlit woods,
A river bearing gifts in secret,
Building a shore, building life.

Sometimes, the air currents disturb,
Sometimes, I feel the wind blow me
Off my feet, bearing me aloft.
Sometimes, the river sings shrill,
Making me long to press my ears
To still that river-song.

Sometimes, I long to rip through
That atmosphere, plunge headlong
Into another space.
Sometimes, I yearn to plunge
Myself into that river, and
Float, unresisting.

But that way lies death.
Perhaps another life, too.
But I don’t wish it, no.

For I know, I shall
Always, always, want both these,
This air to breathe, this river of song,
This love,
My love.

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Tags: #Original Poetry, Air and River, For my husband, Love poem, Valentine's Day Poem

Feb 16, 2014 Parenting/ Home-schooling / Family Music and other Notes, Reading, Writing, Thinking

Post-Sled Languor
©2014, Vijaya Sundaram
February 16th, 2014

On my back, near my child,
Who is intent on packing snow,
I feel the rush of the earth
On her axis,
A spinning ballerina
En pointe.

Snow quiets someone’s heartbeat
(Mine? My daughter’s? The earth’s?)
Traffic rushes by, while I
Lie, staring at a pale sky,
With its light flurry of clouds.

And across my field of vision
Blank as I am, quiet as I am,
(But not quiet like death, not quite).
Slices an arrow, shot from an
Unseen bow, bent on its
Unknown goal, and the sky divides.

Silver, the airplane shoots across,
And I watch, blank as snow,
As the earth spins.

A flurry of thoughts
Moves across my mind,
I think (how could I not?)
Of the bow from which I
Was shot, and the end to which
I am headed, unknowing,
(for how can the arrow know, completely?).

But even that thought dies away,
As I lie on my back,
In the snow, gazing blankly
At a pale, pale, darkening sky,
While near me, my daughter
Makes a snow-fort.

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Tags: #Mother and Daughter, #Original Poetry, arrows, destinations, earth's axis, looking up at the sky, post-sledding, snow-fort