Jul 5, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
Layering Down, Layering Up
©July 5th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
There was the layer so thin, so fine
Only eyes that had been open in the womb
Could see it, and not drown in ecstasy.
This was the layer of plasma and iron.
Then, there was the layer of tissue
And the layer of muscle and tendon,
Then, the layer of skin, and hair.
Beneath all these was bone.
And there, lay life and death.
And beneath that
Lay a shining mind
Fine, as vast spider-webs strung across
A whole constellation of stars,
Making itself cell by cell,
Layer by layer, into creatures
Filled with life and dreams.
Or, perhaps, the layers
Of blood, of bone, of skin
Of consciousness and thought,
And sentience and memory,
Of endless dreaming
Formed each other, one
Over the other, like hand
Over hand, over hand.
And, like a photograph
Emerging like a person from sleep,
In its silvery emulsion,
I was born.
This consoles me
When I think
About dying.
I shall be unmade
My layers will be stripped
And I will float away
Into the Dream whence I came.
My Self will re-form
Itself into what I long to be,
Always dreamed of being:
A bird, passing through
Layer upon layer of cloud
And air and light, turning
Into each, as I pass through.
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Tags: #DailyPrompt, #Layers, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Postaday, #TheDailyPost
Jul 4, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
Autonomy
©July 4th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
When in the Course of my puny life,
It is of compelling urgency
To become one with Nature
And to cut away all that threatens
Life on our beautiful Planet,
Respect for you, my fellow-humans,
Necessitates that I declare
The reasons which bring me to this
Separation from that which is
A poison and a death to this,
Our beloved Earth.
I hold these facts to be obvious
That although all humans are the inheritors
Of our beautiful Earth,
And, although we are created equal,
We are not treated as equal,
And we do not treat our Earth with respect,
I further hold these truths to be equally evident,
That Gaia has certain non-repudiable Rights,
And these are:
The right for life to flourish
Unimpeded, unpoisoned, unsullied,
The right of animals to have
Their freedom away from human greed
And human consumption,
And the pursuit of Climate Justice
For this, the blue-green jewel
That is Planet Earth.
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Tags: #Autonomy, #DailyPrompt, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #ReferencetoTheDeclarationofIndependence, #TheDailyPost
Jul 3, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
Photograph©by Vijaya Sundaram, 2008
Archipelago
©July 3rd, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
See that child who stands there near traffic
Dressed in rags, his face a mute plea,
While people walk around him, parting
Like water around a small rock,
A rock that’s slowly being eroded,
By water which never stops or slows,
While traffic flows by him, oil-slicks
In a sluggish sea on a stuporous day;
And that woman, brown-skinned, bright
Smiling, but strained, in a sea of white
Indifferent to her impenetrable loneliness
As she learns the facial tones and gestures
While they don’t comprehend hers,
As she aches to explain, but they
Close their faces to hers, not interested,
As their ships sail by her waving flag;
And that man being handcuffed by police
For standing, not disturbing the peace,
Not resisting, not being violent,
Just standing and waiting, headphones on
On the sidewalk, enjoying a second of
Being free in a supposed democracy,
While fear handcuffs the shoals of passersby
Not wishing to cause ripples in that unsafe water;
See them, and stop everything, everything.
Let’s build a bridge out of Christo-cloth,
So that we may walk freely, buoyantly across
On a hot, hot summer’s day, and transform
From islands to travelers, when we so wish;
So that we may choose to visit, and choose
To be, or not be, an island, so that we shall
Not live handcuffed by fear and indifference.
And, just in case, let us build more boats.
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Tags: #archipelago, #Christo, #Connection, #DailyPrompt, #humanity, #indifference, #Islands, #kindness, #Love, #Metaphorical poem, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Postaday, #TheDailyPost
Jul 2, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
Photograph©By Vijaya Sundaram
Burnt Offering
©July 2nd, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Fire mesmerizes me.
I watch it, as it dances,
To music that I cannot hear.
I fear it and adore it,
And watch it as it soars,
Plasmic cosmic freedom
Destroyer of all that lives,
Preserver of all who wish
To live. Fire, unfettered,
Lawless, breaks all rules,
Releases light back
Into the air, curling into smoke,
As it burns a hole through life,
Leaving nothing behind
But the memory of things
That once were.
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Tags: #Burn, #DailyPrompt, #Fire, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Postaday, #TheDailyPost
Jun 30, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
Clouds Shaped Like Au Revoir
©June 30th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
There were clouds looming ahead
All pregnant with sunlight and rain-light,
Clouds shaped like au revoir,
Auf Wiedersehen, phir milenge,
Aprama pakalam,
Until we meet again,
When we drove to Vermont,
En famille, to the place
That would be nurturing my daughter
For seven weeks.
To drop her off at camp –
My daughter, my only one,
The starlight of my eye,
The laughter of my days
The love of our life –
Was easier than I thought
Yesterday,
The day I grew up.
Yes, there were some tears
(Mine, just a few,
And just on the way back.)
Yes, there was some joy
(She’ll be fine; she loves it already.)
Yes, there were some fears
(But she is sensible and bright
And filled with joyful openness
A flower before the sun).
See, it’s like this:
You spend nine months
Carrying a whole galaxy
Within you.
You watch over her,
Teach her everything,
How to speak, how to sing,
How to read, how to write,
How to be moral and kind
How to forgive, and how to love,
You feed her, sing to her,
Tell her stories, take her places,
Fill her days with love.
You spend your days
Wondering how all this will
Shape the future.
You learn to let go, just a little,
But you don’t think you’ll
Do so entirely, not for a while.
And then, when the time comes,
And she’s ready, and happy,
You learn to loosen that kite,
(Just for seven weeks, But still …),
Trusting that she’ll be all right,
They’ll be all right,
You’ll be all right.
And there were clouds
Looming ahead as we drove
Upwards, yesterday.
And clouds looming ahead
When we drove back,
Some white and some gray
But all shot through with light,
Bursting with light, barely contained –
But the kite flies on happily
Swooping through those clouds
A happy-shaped kite of Daughter.
And the string still holds
Her to us, to me,
An invisible umbilical cord
While I send her
Mother-prayers for safety
Within her freedom,
And my heart expands
Like a sky with clouds,
Shaped like a home-coming.
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Tags: #Clouds, #DailyPrompt, #Daughter, #Leave-takings, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Postaday, #TheDailyPost
Jun 29, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
Tourist
©June 29th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
I am a tourist in this land
And the land in which I was born.
I wander, and wonder where I belong.
I am a tourist in this life
And the place whence I came.
I seek my home elsewhere.
A silver river flows calmly where I’m from
And the banks overflow with flowers
Rich green trees bend languidly,
Trailing their branches in the water,
Like children sailing boats.
The sky is blue and gold
In the place where I belong,
And the rain, when it comes,
Is gentle and soft.
The moon floats by, yellow-gold,
Smiling in double-time.
When you look into my eyes,
You will see another galaxy
Another Universe, another home.
When you look into my eyes,
You will see all the questions
Raising themselves like little flags
Waving to a cavalcade,
Except that my flags will blow backwards
And pull me up into the air,
And I will be spirited away,
While the dull cavalcade
Of the Real passes slowly beneath.
For this Universe has become
Too narrow for me, too tenuous.
I long to slip through it sidewise.
Like a stream of particles.
Do you say that Home
Is where one is? Perhaps.
Yes, Home is in me.
But I wish to be disembodied,
And have my body be made
Into another Universe,
Where I will be Home.
Then, I can shed this shell,
And rest on my back,
Welcoming the press of
A new life upon me.
And I shall be a Tourist
No longer, but a string of worlds
Whirling through the dark.
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Tags: #DailyPrompt, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Postaday, #TheDailyPost, #Tourist
Jun 28, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
Photograph©By Vijaya Sundaram 2016
Let the Circle be Broken
©June 28th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
A circle of water
Like an uncertain crown
On an uneasy head
Glimmers at the brim
Of my wide Mason-jar,
Ready to take a spill.
This I will not allow.
Tenderly, I pick up
My jar, and take a sip.
The water level falls,
A flood is averted.
An uncertain glimmer
Surrounds our blue-green globe
Alas, we cannot sip
And avert spills. Terrified,
We watch as glaciers melt
And our sea-levels rise.
We watch as cities drown,
Helpless, fists tightly clenched.
If I could nurse our earth,
Cup her seas in both hands,
Offer sweet libations,
Form channels and gullies,
Not melt all our glaciers,
I would avert the Flood.
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Tags: #DailyPrompt, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Postaday, #TheDailyPost, #Water
Jun 27, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
Deprive
©June 27th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
To become human, you climb out,
Grow legs, totter along, build things.
To become human, you shed the wild,
Grow a mind, shape the world.
To be human, you breathe
And make trees breathe back.
To be human, you make
Something out of nothing.
To be human, you also take
Everything, and forget to give back.
To be human is also to deprive
The earth of her chance to survive.
To become inhuman, you
Tear things down, and go on wheels.
To become inhuman, you shed
Conscience, compassion, clarity.
To become inhuman, you cut down
Trees, lose your breath, suffocate.
To become inhuman, you make
Nothing out of something.
When everything is taken
What is left to work with?
Someone said, “You grow stronger.”
But what if you cannot grow?
Don’t deprive us of this earth
Help us breathe back life into her.
Do not deprive her of the right
To be her beautiful blue-green self.
Be fully human, be fully divine,
Give back to the Mother of us all.
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Tags: #DailyPrompt, #Deprive, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #TheDailyPost
Jun 26, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
Build that Fence!
©June 26th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
A fence is good, you say?
To keep people out?
Or to keep you in?
Go ahead, you can stay.
We’re happy to go, to know
We won’t see you again.
If you build a fence,
Don’t you dare leave.
Stay behind.
You may rot there,
Or you may grieve,
For all we care.
While, we, we shall dance
Freely, and sing, and play
And make music and love
The livelong day.
Go ahead, and fester
In your cesspool of hate
Wallow in it, drown in it,
When you come to your senses
It will be too late
We won’t miss you, not a bit!
We will roam free among
Clouds and mountain-tops,
And we shall live and love
And learn, and laugh, and
Leave the earth a better place,
While you, with your fences
And your defences,
And your offending lying eyes
Will be nothing, nothing!
Go ahead, build that fence!
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Tags: #DailyPrompt, #Fence, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Postaday, #TheDailyPost
Jun 25, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
Oracle
©June25th, 2016
By VIjaya Sundaram
The waters will rise,
We shall rise with them.
And we shall sing
Riding the waves,
Which will pull us down
Down to the place whence
We emerged, gills and all.
And the fires will burn
And millions of years
Will flow by like plasma,
Engulfed in flame.
And everything will
Be a memory of a memory
To be puzzled over on the rocks
And the shores of Time.
And one day, a new being
Will emerge, water streaming
Off its form, steam rising,
A creature of light and air
And fire and water,
A creature barely touching
The earth, as it spirals shore-ward.
And this being will read
In our lost, bleached bones
A story, a history, a tragedy,
A comedy, a romance, a song,
And a prophecy.
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Tags: #DailyPrompt, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Postaday, #Prophecy, #TheDailyPost