Apr 8, 2016 Original Poetry, The Daily Post
In response to The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt: Superstition
Superstition
©April 8th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
If I gave you a rose with thorns
As a token of my love,
Would you say,
“This relationship will
Stagger and fail?”
Or, would you kiss me,
Accept it with love,
And say, “My love loves me
Thorns and all,
And sees my beauty thus!”?
If I stepped out into
A vast pit as I left my house,
Would I say, with sobs
Over my broken leg,
“This symbolizes my
Eternal Fall, I know it does!”
Then, fulfill my Fate
By obliging it? Or,
Would I say, “Someone,
Please, please help!”?
If I stepped under a ladder
And it fell with a crash
And snapped my neck,
Would I say, with fainting breath,
“I knew it! I knew it!
Never walk under
A goddamned ladder!”?
Or, would I, upon
Recovering
(Miraculously),
Say, “Do away
With all ladders!”?
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P.S. Alas, I had NO inspiration for this one, but I tried, I tried!
Also, the punctuation was problematic. I think I just invented a new type of punctuation. See if you can spot what the problem was.
Tags: #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Superstition, #The Daily Prompt, #TheDailyPost
Apr 8, 2016 NaPoWriMo, Original Poetry
An Efflorescence: Five Flower Poems
©April 8th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Crocuses
Crocuses, purple and orange and white
Braving the snow and the frosty blight
Tender young sweetlings, but tougher than nails
Give us your strength, for, before you, we pale.
Tulips
Lush and richly soft, and tempting
Like a sensual thing in red,
Inviting poor, unwary souls
To her sweet and scented bed.
Sunflowers
Sucking on sunlight, growing tall
Singing in gold so loud,
Bright young sunflower, show us all
How you stand straight and proud
Roses
Mysterious, romantic and curved
The rose smiles in secret
Her whorled petals like an
Entire universe
Folded in upon itself.
And why focus on thorns?
The way is the sweeter,
If you can get past them.
For, what can be more beautiful
Than just living in beauty?
And beauty is her own
Protection, and not for
Greedy, prying eyes.
White Lotus
The seat of goddesses
The throne of wisdom
With moonlight and
Starlight flooding
Its silken petals
The white lotus floats
Dreamlike upon
A dream-lake,
Gathering perfume
Simply because.
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The NaPoWriMo prompt for today:
Apr 7, 2016 Original Poetry, The Daily Post
After reading Edward Hirsch‘s explanation of the Verbless Poem, I decided to try one, and combined it with The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt for today: Tricky
Twisted Vignettes – A Verbless Poem
©April 7th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Twisted, broken, aging oaken branch,
Shining drops of rain on arching trees,
Solitary girl in dripping dress,
Tricky, yes, but also broken-hearted,
Hood-hidden, her thirsting face, so pale.
Man so crafty, and so full of guile,
Undone at a glimpse of homeless child.
Such innocence beneath his grimy skin!
And heretofore empty, his aching heart,
Quite tearful, humbled, hurting, all absolved.
Hair so snarled and curled and hands so gnarled,
And eyes so guarded, full with deep intent,
Young and old, all full of fell purpose,
People all afloat in misty air.
Lips a-twisted – cruel, trickster world!
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Tags: #EdwardHirsch, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #The Daily Prompt, #TheDailyPost, #VerblessPoem, #VignettesofTheReal
Apr 7, 2016 NaPoWriMo, Original Poetry
Life and Death, and Silence and Sound (A Tritina)
©April 7th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
The thrilling rain fills the air with sweet sound
Birds trill their joy aloud, and the soil sings
So, why do I feel so lost and alone?
For you are gone, and it’s the sky alone
Which feels my pain, the emptiness unsound,
Uncertain, and afloat – who’s that who sings?
Not I, but ’tis the grief of loss that sings
As I walk, silent, heart-broken, alone.
For with your death, my silence replaced sound
So all alone, Life sings, without a sound.
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P.S. I am SO happy, because I overcame my block against anything that resembled a sestina today (and it wasn’t too hard)! I guess I’m going to have to do a real sestina now, and next, I’ll tackle a Villanelle!
YES!
Today’s prompt from NaPoWriMo:
Our (optional) prompt for Day Seven comes to us from Gloria Gonsalves, who challenges us all to write a tritina. The tritina is a shorter cousin to the sestina, involving three, three-line stanzas, and a final concluding line. Three “end words” are used to conclude the lines of each stanza, in a set pattern of ABC, CAB, BCA, and all three end words appear together in the final line.
Tags: #LifeAndDeath, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Sestina-related, #Tritina
Apr 7, 2016 Original Poetry, The Daily Post
In response to The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt: Handwriting
Handwriting – A Lament
©April 7th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
My handwriting goes raggle-tag
And off the page, and in a rage
It stomps around, then takes a rest
(‘Tis time to leave the stage).
My handwriting is small and neat,
But then, quite suddenly
It rears and dances on two feet
(Capricious as a bear.)
If we were judged by one and all
For how we write, or wrote
I’d be the one who’s first to fall
(And sink, without a boat).
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Tags: #Handwriting, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #The Daily Prompt, #TheDailyPost
Apr 7, 2016 NaPoWriMo, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
In response to The Daily Post‘s Daily Prompt: Faraway
Faraway: A Mirrored Fib
©April 6th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
It’s
A
Distant
Faraway
Place, where I come from –
And that’s where I am headed to.
It doesn’t matter if I slip, or fall, or if I’m
Crushed, or hurt, or if I disappear into thin air
I’m still going there, yes, I am
For, along the way,
I shall find
My old,
True
Self.
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P.S. So, this is the first time I’m writing a “Fib Poem” – I’ve seen these cropping up everywhere on WP recently, and thought I’d give it a shot. However, just to make things a little more interesting, i thought I’d reverse the order after I reached 13 syllables (7th line), hence the “Mirrored Fib.”
Here’s some more information about Fib Poems, or poems based on the Fibonacci series.
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Submitting to The Daily Post, and to NaPoWriMo
Tags: #Daily Prompt, #Faraway, #Fib Poem, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #TheDailyPost
Apr 7, 2016 NaPoWriMo, Original Poetry, Uncategorized
Fruit – A Poem about Mad Desire
©April 6th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
What draws me isn’t just the actual fruit
You understand.
No, it’s the thought of fruit,
Its connotation, its symbolism
Its scents twining their arms about me,
Its hidden erotic profiles.
What draws me is all that is around it.
Yes, it’s the nature of fruit
To entice, to shame, to delight
To condone, to console, to
Stimulate, to make one swoon
With desire and dreaming-want.
What draws me is the symmetry
The perfection of an apple, where
Enticement and danger embrace,
And a sorry knowledge comes
With every bite – the knowledge
That this too, will end.
It’s the clustering of grapes
The mad, symmetric glistening
Globes of tight flesh encased in
Purple, or green, or red skin
That draws me in, like a humming
Bee which, though sated with juice
And nectar, and sunlight and pleasure,
Still gets pulled in by mere desire.
Its the bright, cheerful sunlit
Blips of orange packed so tightly
Into a globe, surrounded by an
Unwelcoming, reluctant, tangy
Skin, dissuading mere temporaries
From opening up its secrets.
Those are for me, only me.
And figs so purple-achy, and melons so round,
And dates, dense with brown sweetness
And jackfruit poky outside, succulent within,
And Indian jamuns, so tart and violet
And peaches, squishy and laden with juice
And plums the same, but deeper, darker,
And clementines, flirty sun-cousins to oranges,
And green, uncertain pears, both raw and ripe,
And summer berries and fall berries,
Red and blue, and crimson in hue,
Full of nectar, full of welcoming.
And every fruit that ever guarded
Its progeny jealously, possessively,
Yields up its secrets to me,
The lover at the heart of it all.
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From the prompt for NaPoWriMo Day 6:
Today, I challenge you to write a poem about food. This could be a poem about a particular food, or about your relationship to food in general. Or it could simply be a poem relating an incident that involves food …
Tags: #FoodPoem, #FruitPoem, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram
Apr 5, 2016 NaPoWriMo, Original Poetry, Uncategorized
Vegetable Sacrifice
©April 5th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Calypso dances around a campfire
While Bulls Blood is the sacrifice
Spicy Green picks a fight with the Red Russian
And the White Russian does the Tango, alone.
Diamond makes out with Lady Bell Sweet
While the King of the North frowns from his corner
Ida Gold proposes to Cosmonaut Volkov
Psst! There’s some romance out in space.
Cherokee Purple whispers with Black Krim
As they plan the overthrow of
German Johnson in the Jubilee, before
A Fiesta, which will follow the wedding.
Jasper gasps in Kentucky Wonder
Hidden behind a pole.
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P.S. Coincidentally, I planted many of my heirloom tomato seeds (some of which I’ve mentioned above) just two days ago! Some of these other things (Kale, Cucumber, Beets, Beans, Eggplant and Peppers, also mentioned above) are going in soon.
From the NaPoWriMo prompt, which reads:
And now, our (optional, as always) daily prompt! April is a time for planting things (at least where I am, in Washington DC – you may still be waiting for spring, or well into some other season!) At any rate, I’ve recently been paging through seed catalogs, many of which feature “heirloom” seeds with fabulous names. Consider the “Old Ivory Egg” tomato, the “Ozark Razorback” or “Fast Lady” cow-pea, “Neal’s Paymaster” dent corn, or the “Tongues of Fire” bush bean. Today, I challenge you to spend some time looking at the names of heirloom plants, and write a poem that takes its inspiration from, or incorporates the name of, one or more of these garden rarities. To help you out, here are links to the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and the Baker Creek Seed Company. Also, here’s a hint – tomatoes seem to be prime territory for elaborate names. And who knows, maybe you’ll even find something to plant in your garden! Happy writing!
Apr 5, 2016 NaPoWriMo, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
In response to The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt: Street
Street-Dream
©April 5th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Gliding through the streets ‘tween dusk and dawn
Sliding past your eyes; you look; they’re gone.
Shining through your gaze ‘tween noon and night
Finding eyes so glazed, it’s hard to think right.
He walks, she walks, and they walk all in line.
When seen by you, or them, they all decline
Your pity, charity, and silver dime –
What they want is some of your free time.
Do you have time to spare, O Brother mine?
Do you have time to spare O Mother mine?
Do you have time to spare, O Sister mine?
Do you have time, as I stand in this line?
The street is harsh, and full of hearts that beat
A clock that ticks and ticks, but no hands meet.
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Submitting simultaneously to The Daily Post and to NaPoWriMo.
Tags: #Dream, #sonnet, #Street, #The Daily Prompt, #TheDailyPost, #Time
Apr 4, 2016 Original Poetry, The Daily Post
In response to The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt: Contrast
The Container and the Thing Contained – A Study in Contrasts
Yin and Yang
Feminine and Masculine
Night and stars
Water and earth
Chanting and Declaiming
Space and Starlight
Womb and Sperm
Creator and Creation
Love and Love.
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