Nov 15, 2014 Original Poetry
Full Fathom Five
© November 15th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
Tiredness rIses, a wave
That washes bones
Which float,
Then sink,
Bleached yellow by time
And sun, and a life
Run by clocks
Whose ticking, asynchronous
And arrhythmic,
Tocks away the hours;
And a life run
By the whims
Of others, whose
Lives are run
By the whims
Of others.
And mothers, and fathers,
And sisters and brothers
And friends, and enemies,
And people unknown.
Float in and out our porous
Bones, adding, subtracting
Calcifying and ossifying.
And the bones
Swirl and sink
SIng and drop
Down, down, down
Into the heart
Of the sea,
And they sing all the while,
Until we seize up, and stop.
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Tags: #Original Poetry by Vijaya Sundaram, Reference to The Tempest, Shakespearean reference
Oct 24, 2014 Original Poetry
E Pluribus Unum or A Brush with The Ego
©October 24, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
Muted voices, many minds
Jostling, moving in an abyss,
Vie for recognition
Vie for space
Vie for sound.
One of many,
I jostle, and am jostled.
Yesterday,
In blind darkness
Unseeing, flailing,
Bodiless, falling,
I felt the void
Cradling me.
If this is death,
So be it, I thought.
If this is life,
I won’t have it, I muttered.
One of many
You melt and re-shape
The me I knew.
Why? I ask.
You answer:
Out of many, one.
No!
Smelt me, slag me
Cut me, drag me
Back into the me
I used to be.
Take the unused bits,
Make them fit someone
Else, then!
I never want
To see her or him.
He or she is the Many.
You might be the Many, too.
I am always the One.
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Tags: #Death, #Life, e pluribus unum, ego, many, one, solipsism
Oct 14, 2014 Original Poetry
Children playing with leaves
Photo-credit (as stated on the Carpe Diem website): photo !!
Leaf-fall
(A haiku celebrating Autumn)
©October 14th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
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The leaves crushed golden
Underfoot by children sing:
Springtime in autumn!
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Thanks to Chevrefeuille for hosting Carpe Diem Haiku Family!
Tags: #Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, Chevrefeuille's Carpe Diem Haiku Family prompt, original haiku
Oct 6, 2014 Original Poetry
Out of Water and Out of Air
©October 6th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
The fish sails,
Head half in, half out,
Floundering, diving,
Coming up again, diving
Neither in, nor out,
Neither here nor there.
Suffocating in air,
Drowning in water.
Tail lashing back and forth,
It sees the golden disk
Of sun from below,
Comes up eagerly
To drink in the light,
But gasps, as the rare
Air hits unaccustomed gills.
Writhing in terror
And ecstasy, before
It sinks back in,
Singing of the light.
And unformed lungs
Struggle to grow
In a body too light, too
Easily pierced by bait.
Surrounded by fish
Which flow easily, like song,
Through that twilit world,
At ease with body and fins
Unconscious and joyous
Twirling in sport,
Racing away in terror:
Prey chased by predators
Chased in their turn, it
Swims on and on, raises
Face to the light, sinks back in.
Is that all there is to this?
This constant striving
To no avail, for no purpose?
This struggle, this wriggle
Through murk, and to lurk
In dark spaces, with waving
Fronds that invite, but bite.
Is this all there is?
Don’t tell the fish
That struggle ennobles.
There is nothing noble in it,
Except in the minds
Of those who would weave words
To lead the blind.
Where is a world for a
Fish such as this?
Struggling at the confluence
Of air and earth and water,
It makes a bubble-dream.
Where is a world for a
A fish such as this?
It twists and leaps
And looks up skywards,
And dies, it dies, full
Of desire and pain.
And when it dies,
Will a new Creature emerge,
Straddling air and land and water,
Poised and cool,
Master of all it surveys?
Or will the creature
Look around, and yearn
And weep for something
We cannot yet see?
Neither land, nor sky
Nor water nor fire
Will quench its yearning.
And so, it goes.
While the air and sky,
And land and water,
Swirl darkly, promising
Nothing.
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Tags: #Fish, #Original Poetry by Vijaya Sundaram, #Striving, #Struggle, Evolution, not belonging, not in one's element
Sep 30, 2014 Original Poetry
A Sleep-Prayer for My Daughter*
©September 30th,2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
Blue descending, silken-deep
Like midnight promising her sleep
Darkness, spilling sweet moonlight,
Ease her mind with gentle night.
Let her sleep, and let her dream
Let her visions palely gleam
In quiet streams, in forest glades
In hollows where no one has strayed
Hold her sweetly in your arms,
Oh Sleep and Night, and bring no harm.
Let her smile in sleep, and think
No thoughts of death. And let her drink
From wells of fun, of play and song
Show her where she might belong.
Then, float her boat of happiness
On moonlit streams with no distress
That brook of dreams where she
Will sing, and read, and quietly be.
For childhood’s full of dreams and fears
Give her strength and spare her tears.
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Tags: #Daughter, #Love, #Original Poetry by Vijaya Sundaram, Dreams and visions, Happiness and peace, Prayer for My Daughter
Sep 22, 2014 Original Poetry
What Words?
©September 22nd, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
What words can we say
When a young person dies,
When anyone dies?
I’m so sorry doesn’t cut it.
Deep sympathies doesn’t, either.
The world rushes by, myopic
And meaningless,
While a mother and a father,
And a sibling or two
Stand, bewildered, static
Amidst a whirl of meaningless
Heartfelt chatter, while
The patter of feet
Come in and out,
And death stands
Eternally by their side,
Silent, spare, sorrowing.
Death comes with quiet foot
Or a skid of tyres
Death comes with a twist of fate
Or the twist of a knife
Death creeps up and stings
Or bites down hard
On a fatal vein.
Death blooms, red and angry
In one’s blood and slashes
Left and right, clearing a
Path only it knows.
Sometimes, there’s pain,
Sometimes, a flash,
Then, nothingness.
So, I imagine it.
What if it isn’t any of these?
What if it’s the eternal squeeze
Of life, oozing out toothpaste-like,
Pain so piercing
There are no words,
Just living it, crying,
Living the dying:
THAT has to be
The apex of agony.
Would dying be easy?
Would I want to go, unresisting?
No! I’d say, give me one more chance
Just one more!
I promise I’ll do it right this time.
And a remorseless Judge
Would say, Yea or Nay.
Of course, that’s if you believe.
What if you don’t?
What would you say, then?
Better to be scattered
Atoms of one’s self
Entering into the inmost
Secrets of existence.
I’d say.
Better to be photons
Better to become
Lighter than air
And ascend.
And descend,
And ascend again
And again, that ladder
From DNA to Death.
To feel is a curse.
Lift that curse,
I want to say, and yet,
I cling to it, for it
Is all I know, for it
Is all that any of us
Will ever know we know.
And so, we say,
I’m so sorry
Because, somewhere, hidden,
Our blood-cells know
About this remorseless
Yet familiar stranger,
Death.
And we grieve
For the living,
For ourselves,
Once the dead
Have fled.
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Tags: #Life, #Loss, DNA, Dying, Living, photons, Words in the face of Death
Jun 6, 2014 Original Poetry
Being Prepared (Or: Fiddling, While …)
©June 6th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
Plunged in reality,
I discussed mundane,
But important, things
Like, “Educational Testing.”
“Why do grownups
Discuss dark matters?”
Asked my nine-year old.
I paused, hand on receiver
Suspended my tirade
About the Privatization
Of Education, looked at her,
And admired her
For her straightness
And her crystalline mind.
“Because,” I said,
Choosing my words
Like a person stepping
On shards of glass
On a tile floor,
“Because, if we don’t,
They come upon us
Suddenly, when we
Are unprepared,
And we need to be.”
“But why do you need to
Discuss it?” she persisted,
“Because, though I hate it,
I need to talk about it with others.
Think about it, be able to fight it.
It’s important, though awful,”
I said, feeling the weight
Of it dragging my voice,
And my internal voice
Asking, Why, indeed?
And I thought,
Because, I need to
Find arguments against it,
Look at it, discuss it.
Because, I need
To know my enemy,
And size it up,
Before it comes at me.
But I didn’t say it.
I think she already
Understood my world.
She looked thoughtful.
“I know it’s important,
But I prefer books,” she said,
And went back to hers.
So do I, I thought, and
Returned to my
Telephonic exchange,
Then hung up.
Outside, the coolness
Hung in dewy curtains,
Exquisitely damp,
Promising sweet rain.
Oblivious, my pup pawed,
At the kitchen door,
Impatient, eager to drink the
Evening air, dance in dew,
Pounce on a harmless stick.
And, somewhere,
Bubbles of methane
Arose to swampy
Siberian surfaces.
And animals fled,
Or curled up and died.
(But … we’ll have
No more talk of
Dark matters, shall we?)
So, I took my dog out,
Let her taste the
Beautiful evening,
Brought her back in.
Then, with a sigh,
I opened my book.
Reality receded.
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Tags: #Books, #Mother and Daughter, Being Grownups, Climate Change, dark topics, Educational testing, escape into stories, Fiddling While Rome Burns, Privatization of Education
Apr 24, 2014 Original Poetry
April Sun
©April 17th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
Blueness crowds the sky.
Sun-gold from up high,
Shoots down streams of gold
And pierce the bitter cold.
Breaking into splinters,
Falling shards of winter,
Shatter round my feet
As I walk down the street.
Tags: #NaPoWriMo, #Original Poem, #Spring, April, The sun in April\, Warmth
Apr 24, 2014 Original Poetry
Dog-Joy (Or: Completion)
©April 15th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
I find I take delight
In my dog’s proud walk,
As she picks up a stick
And claims it in the
Name of Holly.
Utterly undone, I kneel,
As she twists her whole
Frame in wordless ecstasy
When she sees me —
This smiling curve of dog
And joyful tail,
And gentle teeth
That grab my hand
And nip and hold it in love
Beyond reckoning.
I am complete.
Who greets me like this?
(Oh, I know I am loved,
But like this? This pretzel-
Shaped frenzy of joy,
This luminous, numinous
Delight in my being?
Oh, I know I don’t deserve it,
But who cares?!)
And when she lies near me,
A love unlike no other,
Her soft, puppy fur
On my feet, warming them,
A wild presence at the
Boundaries of my own,
I find my brain
Dissolves in a mist
Of dog-thought.
I think:
Why dream?
Why do anything?
It doesn’t matter,
Not now.
Oh, I know I’ll arise
And go about my duties
And do stuff, but
I don’t really care
For any of it.
I have this dog,
This now-sleeping
Weight of dog
At my feet.
I am complete.
No, there is no despair here,
Just utter, total quiet
A settling, as it were,
Of soul and self:
A house settling deeper
Into earth.
I am complete
With her on my feet.
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Tags: #Contentment, #Dogs, #NaPoWriMo, Canine joy, Puppy
Apr 7, 2014 Original Poetry
Banish The Strawberry!
©April 4th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
My strawberry is bright red*, she said.
Red is my strawberry, bright at night
Strawberry is the color of things that are bright
But redness is about blood.
Blood is about life and death.
Is it not?
So, is my strawberry about life and death?
Here, before me, sits the strawberry.
Red as death oozing away from life.
Twitching, lifeless, it sits,
Pulp to pulp,
Juices to juices.
Crushed to dust.
When bright red occurs,
Beware!
Life is ready to flee.
Strawberries are harbingers
Heralds,
Forerunners,
Bringers of death.
Beware the strawberry!
Be not beguiled by its rich
Juicy, pulpy, prickly,
Spotted, green-topped self.
Its true nature lurks,
A serpent in the Garden
Of Eating.
Repeating silkily and pokily.
I am life, life, life,
And, all the while, plotting
Your death, death, death.
YES!
Banish that strawberry.
It means no good.
* KF!
Tags: #Humor, almost NaPoWriMo, fruit poem, strawberry