May 14, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post

Pearl Beyond Compare
(Underestimate)
©May 14th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

Good at estimating
Hazarding a guess,
He could tell at a glance
The true price of everything,
But the value of nothing,
And he’d beat it down
To get what he wanted.

But when he picked up a
Pearl beyond compare,
Lying innocent and quiet
On the crab-infested beach,
He thought it a pebble
Laughed at its lumpiness,
Its monstrous size, saw nothing
In its shining depths,
Did not imagine riches
In its shimmering glow.

And he threw it away.
Into the hungry sea
And bought some fake ones
That cost him a fortune,
And possibly, his wife.

And the sea?  She was glad
And she let him be.
She had received her due,
She would torment no one.

For what the sea releases
She takes back always, always.
For everything flows back
Home to the sea.

Do not underestimate her.
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P.S.  I was thinking obliquely about John Steinbeck’s book The Pearl, but my character tosses this metaphorical pearl back into the sea without even seeing what it is, whereas Kino hangs on to his literal (and metaphorical) Pearl of the World, and pays a huge price, which is, in its turn, completely different from what Matthew spoke on in the well-known parable (13:46).

 

In response to The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt: Underestimate

Tags: #DailyPrompt, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #PearlofGreatPrice, #TheDailyPost, #Underestimate

May 14, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post Photo Challenge

In response to The Daily Post’s Photo Challenge:  Face

Vis-à-Vis
©May 14th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

Let me see you now
In the light of the glimmering water
Where fish swim swiftly, surely,
Like sparrows in a backyard, but we
Shall out-swim them, shall we not?

Let me see your eyes –
Inscrutable and bottomless
Full of sliced light, shimmering,
As you gaze at me, back-lit by blue –
I could drown in them.

Let me see you now
Face to face, clearly, not darkly
What do you see, my friend,
When you see me?

Do you wonder what I think of you?
Or, could it be that you dream
Merely of swimming free
Far from here, from all these eyes?

We shall face them all together
Standing face-to-face
Faced by the enormity of our fate
To be forever watched, seen, admired.

– Quick, let’s turn our backs on them all!

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Tags: #Face, #Face-to-Face, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #TheDailyPrompt, #TheDailyPromptWeeklyPhotoChallenge

May 14, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post

Vision and Visions
©May 14th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

It is what you do not see
When you walk, eyes fixed
On everything beyond, your
Footsteps leading you
Inexorably towards your
Future, meted out to you
In incremental doses by
A timid mind – yours –
That is what interests me.

Vision is tricky in a fog
Your aging eyes,
Their lenses losing shape
Ache with a longing
For clarity beyond doubt, yet,
When you see clearly,
With a little help, of course,
You trust not what you see.

Is seeing, perhaps, always
A matter of where you stand?
A question of certainty,
Even if the world revolves
Dizzyingly around your heels?
As you turn and turn,
And the shapes flow in and out
Of an insidious mist, do you whisper
Whom do I trust?  What is the truth?

Eyes see eyes in a turning world
Eyes all around, seeing endlessly
Seeing each other reflected
Endlessly in their orbs,
Eyes all the way into the past
Into the future, seeing-blind.
Tell me again, are you there?
Were you ever there?
And am I here, if I cannot see?

It is a dream of visions
We are the dreamers,
We are the dream
We are the seers
We are the seen.

Somewhere in another world
A sea without stars froze,
Where a young girl sang
Floating above the waves,
Playing her sitar,
But the song fades from mind

And a voice cries in the wilderness.
And somewhere, eyes flash.

And the Sleeper sleeps on.
Eyes closed, speaking softly
In her sleep, as the visions
Emerge, merge, submerge.

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In response to The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt:  Vision

Tags: #DailyPrompt, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #TheDailyPost, #Vision