August 29, 2016 - Vijaya Sundaram

Aug 29, 2016 Ramblings and Musings, The Daily Post

Speak Out
August 29th, 2016
Vijaya Sundaram

Bear witness to injustice.
Hold the mirror up to the haters and the corrupt.
Tell the story.
Speak out.
Support.
Help.

It’s the least we can do in a world riddled with those who possess power, and who hurt others intentionally, because they can.

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Witness

Tags: #DailyPrompt, #Postaday, #TheDailyPost, #Witness

Obvious

Aug 29, 2016 Free Verse, The Daily Post

When the obvious is obscured
When vision is clouded
What do we see?
Whom can we trust?

This, then, is the goal:
Sweep away the clouds.
Toss out old curtains.
Wash the glass.
Open the windows
Open your eyes.

See what is there.
Leave behind desire.
Abandon supposition
Forsake need.
Desert all that you feel.
Go forth through the fog,
Seek what is true.
Find what exists.
Learn to respect it,
Treat it with care.

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Obvious

Tags: #DailyPrompt, #Obvious, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Postaday, #TheDailyPost, #Truth

Small

Aug 29, 2016 Ramblings and Musings, The Daily Post

Small
©August 29th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

I’ve always loved small things.

I loved the little plastic animals that came with Binaca Flouride Toothpaste when I was growing up, a wonder-struck child, in India. I was entranced by little glass animals as a child, and even now as an adult, I cannot resist getting them for my daughter if I go to the local zoo. I gazed at stones and seashells and saw worlds.

I loved the tiny bronze Buddhist monks and other figurines that a friend gave me. They have pride of place at the window display in my room, as they solemnly stare into endless space.

When I get a small object for a present, I am happier than when I get an embarrassment of riches.

I love small marbles, small semi-precious stones, the broken opal from a ring I still have, the cracked ceramic swan the size of my thumb.

I wish I were small.

Small wonder it is, then, that I love this song by Suzanne Vega. It speaks to me like no other song has spoken to me in recent years.

I wish I were a small, blue thing, forever falling, never hitting ground.

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Miniature

Tags: #DailyPrompt, #miniature, #Postaday, #SmallBlueThing, #Suzanne Vega, #TheDailyPost

Back from vacation – A week is a long time!

Aug 29, 2016 Uncategorized

I’ve been away on vacation, and was off-line most of the time.

I’m back, and I’ll try to catch up with my writing, even as I try and catch up with some of your work. You know who you are.

Love,

Dreamer of Dreams

Learning Beyond

Aug 29, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post

Learning Beyond
©August 29th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

Don’t take me away!
She cries to Death
Who comes quietly
And waits in shadow.

And Death asks in a voice
As dry as deserts:
Why do you seek to stay?

And she replies,
With thirst in her throat:
There is much to learn
And I’m not done
This life still calls.

Death’s voice is warm
Caressing her like a lover,
As he replies:
You cannot stay.
Your time is up.
Why prolong misery?
It’s peaceful out there
Where I’ll take you.
Come. Come. Come.

With honeyed voice,
He opens his arms in invitation.
She gasps. His cloak is endless.

Shadowy shapes sweep across
Moving tapestries, skulls
With wine and roses,
Ancient stories full of blood
Destruction and endings,
And creation and infinity, and
Songs like childhood’s end.
Beauty like sunlight folded
Into itself, over and over.
Stars winking out, one by one,
Spiraling into darkness.

And she is impelled
By a strange new thirst
She wants to know.
She has to know
What lies in the folds
Of that cloak.

Death speaks again, his voice hard:
You have no choice.

She smiles.
I do.

She steps forward, lithe and young
Her laughter shakes the air
Like a girl shaking water
From her hair, as she flings
It away from her drowning face.

Death gazes at her now,
Spellbound, in love.
Throws wide his cloak
She slips into its folds,
And they swirl away.

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Learning

Tags: #DailyPrompt, #Learning, #MetaphysicalMusing, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Postaday, #TheDailyPost

Fifty-Plus

Aug 29, 2016 Uncategorized

Fifty-Plus
©August 29th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

Something about the word
Makes one hope
And despair, both.

Half-way there.
Half-way done.
Split down the middle.
Wholeness awaits.

When I turned fifty,
I wished to leave my job,
When I turned fifty-one, I did.
Turning a deaf ear to my Calling.
Turning an open one to the next.
Another door would lead me
Sunwards, perhaps.

I pretend I have fifty more years
They beckon, and I follow.
My feet hurt a bit,
And my soul is scarred.
The world brings grief
Every day brings gladness.

My heart if full of joy
And shadows, both.

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Fifty

Jeu Parti

Aug 29, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post

I want an even chance,
Says Man to the Fates
They cluster close, white and black,
They laugh in his face,
As they rattle his bones.

The dice are loaded against you.
No matter what you choose,
You will face us someday.

But go ahead,
Hedge your bets.
You will lose.

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Jeopardize

Tags: #DailyPrompt, #Fate, #Jeopardy, #Loaded, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Postaday, #TheDailyPost

Finale