Apr 1, 2016 NaPoWriMo

Lilac-Love
©April 1st, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

Purple mist atop green leaves –
Bridal lilacs emerge.
The still morning air blushes.

Hard to believe such beauty
Lives here, now.
Meanwhile, millions breathe only dust.

Translucent motes of morning sound
Gong-like and golden
I stand, lost in reverie.

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(Poem #1 – NaPoWriMo)

Note:  According to Maureen Thorson, owner and operator at NaPoWriPo:  a lune “… is a sort of English-language haiku. While the haiku is a three-line poem with a 5-7-5 syllable count, the lune is a three-line poem with a 5-3-5 syllable count. There’s also a variant based on word-count, instead of syllable count, where the poem still has three lines, but the first line has five words, the second line has three words, and the third line has five words again.”

I went with the latter variant.

Tags: #Lune, #Original Poetry

Apr 1, 2016 Climate Change is Real!, Ramblings and Musings

Climate Change is Real:  Day 11 of my (15-minute) Shared Vigil
© April 1st, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

I acknowledge temporary defeat today.  I am utterly spent this week (probably from everything I did for the past fifteen or so days), and did not do more than fifteen minutes of vigil, this time in Warren’s company.

Left my coffee at home, and dropped my glasses on the road to the Intersection.  I know this, because a driver leaned out and said, “You dropped your glasses!”  I went to look for them, but they seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth, probably swept into another, parallel universe where I stood tall and proud and defiant, holding the cup of coffee, singing into a hostile wind, and acknowledging the various nods or shakes of people driving by.

As it was, I couldn’t find the glasses.  I reached Warren, who waved cheerily to me, and told him in tired, broken tones (not really, just being dramatic) about my left-behind cup of coffee, the lost glasses, my aching bones, and my sleep-puffed self.

Warren commiserated (and if he hadn’t, I would have been grumpier), and we stood for ten or fifteen minutes together. 

A man drove by almost immediately after I’d reached Warren, and yelled something like, “Bernie bots!” Hah! 

Warren and I laughed a bit, and then sang a wonderful palta in Raga Bhupali Todi that he’d made up and shared with me, and turned it into a bol taan which spanned 26 beats – two cycles of notes which added up to 13 beats.  I enjoyed that a lot, and it made up a little bit for my two losses, but then …

… Another man drove by and yelled something that didn’t sound friendly.  Fortunately, we couldn’t make out what he said.

And that was enough for me.  I decided to return home with Warren, and not linger in that spot any more for the day.  I shall resume next week, and be more consistent.  After all, this was a disrupted week for me.  I shall pardon myself.

So, I didn’t feel in the least bit detached today.  I have a sneaking suspicion that any detachment I feel is after a good sleep, and a cup of coffee. 

And thus, my dependence on one of the most wonderful aspects of modern civilization is highlighted.

And where will I go, when Climate Change takes over coffee, as well?

P.S. Yes, yes, I know the news is from last year, but it’s still relevant!

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Tags: #ClimateChangeAndCoffee, #ClimateChangeisReal, #ClimateVigil, #FuzzyBrain