Mar 21, 2016 Original Poetry, The Daily Post
For The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt: Friend
For My Dear Friend – You Know Who You Are
(A Simple Ditty)
©March 21st, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
My love for my friend.
Is so simple, so right.
My love doesn’t end,
Or fade in daylight.
When I’m blue or gray
And my thoughts go astray,
When I’m down and out
And filled with much doubt,
She’s there by my side
And her love abides.
And when she needs me
I’ll be there, you see.
I’ll be there in sun
In laughter and fun.
I’ll be there in rain,
Again and again.
We’ll let down our guard,
And not try too hard.
We’ll listen and soothe.
Rough edges we’ll smooth.
We’ll sing and we’ll share,
Try not to compare.
We’ll defend each other,
Like sisters or brothers.
When I prop her up
And she does the same,
We’ll drink from one cup,
And share our true names.
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Tags: #Abiding friendship, #Daily Prompt, #Friend
Mar 20, 2016 The Daily Post
In response to The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt: Window
Window – A Junction
©March 20th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Your eyes, her mind
Your picture, her frame
Her universe, your telescope
Your song, her bar lines.
No, you cannot own her.
Nor can she own you.
What you see is just
An aperture, a capture.
The window makes
All reducible, accessible
Conceals the mystery.
And you will forever
Create the back-story.
So, it must be.
For this is where your worlds touch.
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Tags: #Daily Prompt, #Metaphorical poem, #Original Poetry, #Window
Mar 19, 2016 Daily Life, The Daily Post
In response to The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt: Dirty
Never Be Free (Of Dirt, That is!)
©March 19th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Don’t touch that! It’s dirty!
Don’t go there! It’s … dirty!
Sit here, not there, it’s … dirty!
Oh no, the dog’s gotten all … dirty!
.
What has happened to me?
I, who raced through the main street in Tirunelveli, chasing after pigs which wallowed in disgusting filth at street corners; I, who played in the mud with great pleasure, making forts and houses and tunnels and parks with my neighborhood friend, when I lived in Pune as a young child; I, who washed my hair rarely when I was a pre-teen, because I had better things to do, so I thought; I, who rode my bike all over the city, fell down, cut my knees badly, and rode home with city dirt in my wound – I have turned into a fuss-budget!
Alas, now, I’m too careful (although, thank goodness, when I do gardening, I really LOVE the dirt, still)! And I worry a tiny bit too much, but not so much that I don’t know when I’m fussing. I let my daughter know that I sometimes fuss overmuch, and that she is free to call me out on it. And she does. And we laugh. Which is good. (Sorry for the sentence fragments but hey, this is my blog!)
My only real requirements with her are:
Wash your hands before you eat.
Take your bath every day, and be clean
Wash your hair a few times every week.
The nice thing is that she is very obliging, so when she does push back about some silly thing I might worry about (dirt), I know I’ve gone overboard, and I back off.
Holly, our dog, is now used to my wiping her paws when she comes in from the backyard, and washing all four paws if it’s a wet, or muddy day. I don’t believe in these mat-things. Dirt goes away only when it’s washed off. Holly is pretty obliging too – she stands there patiently when I lave her paws in warm water (I think she likes it now), then wipe them off carefully. Not bad for a dog, actually.
Having Holly, though, has taught me to be much easier about dirt. I don’t freak out or anything if she’s gross – I simply wash her off, and wipe down the place in a matter-of-fact way. This is much, much better than my first reaction when she squatted in my study and did her puppy-business within the first few days of our bringing her home. I squawked in horror, I’m ashamed to say.
A puppy is not the same as one’s own baby, I’m afraid (although I adore our dog, and thought of her as another child within a few weeks of bringing her to our place). A young baby does her or his business several times a day, and any squeamishness a parent might have (and strangely, neither my husband nor I had any) will dissipate simply from so much repetition. Plus, the upside of having a baby is that she or he is not a free-ranging being, not until toddler-hood, which is a whole other thing to worry about. A puppy, on the other hand, wanders around, and goes here and there, so all this mobility makes one nervous.
Enough with that aspect of this topic!
The interesting thing is that I tolerate clutter (and live in it, even if I’d like to not do so), but I dislike filth. Earth dirt is not dirty, filth is dirty. I don’t mind dust, because that’s just … dust, and I can take care of it easily.
All these are just gradations with all of us. I suppose true freedom will come when we simply don’t care about such things.
Alas, then, I don’t think I shall ever be free!
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Tags: #Daily Prompt, #Dirty
Mar 19, 2016 Original Poetry, Senryu, The Daily Post
In response to The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt: Fight
Fight the Tide Twice
©March 19th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
When the tide comes in
Flooding where you stand and stare –
Fight it, rise and swim!
When the tide goes out,
Dragging, tugging at your feet –
Fight it, dig feet in!
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Tags: #Daily Prompt, #Fight, #Holding steady, #Stubbornness, Fight the tide
Mar 17, 2016 Senryu, The Daily Post
In response to The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt: Shelf
Shelved – Four Senryu
©March 17th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Dark, swirling eddies:
Sorrow, rage, hate, all of these
I set on a shelf.
Open the windows,
Let the cold, waiting heart of
Outer Space have them.
When dark thoughts are fed
To the Hungry Thing that lurks:
See how it explodes!
And all will be cleansed
All will turn to sun and air
Taste them, live anew!
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Tags: #Darkness, #Emotions, #Freedom, #Original Poetry, #Shelved, #Space
Mar 17, 2016 Daily Life, The Daily Post
In response to The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt: Shelf
On one of the bookshelves in my study / work-space (made of mahogany by my amazing husband) are the following:
- A metal bird hanging on the side of it
- Some dust on the very top, along with:
A tone drum, very beautifully carved
A pair of clay and goatskin bongos from Turkey (I think)
A handmade (by my husband) Kora
A fish scraper (percussion, that is)
An Asante (or Ashanti) kete bell for kids - Books by women
- Books by men
- Books on language
- Books on education
- Some Gabriel Garcia-Marquez and Isabel Allende
- P.G. Wodehouse (the best humor writer in the world, for those who haven’t heard of him – the best, that is, along with James Thurber and Donald E. Westlake! )
- The Joy of Lex
- Six Plays of the Modern Theater
- Prego – Italian textbook which I got back in 1996, when I took six months of Italian, simply because I love the language.
- Accent – French textbook (used, simply because it made me happy to have it; I’d already studied French for four years – two in school, and two in college).
- Children’s books
- A book on Rock n’ Roll
- A book on Ancient Egypt
- A photograph album
- A book titled Stuntology
- The Italian translation of Gibran’s The Prophet
- Some Margaret Atwood
- Some Anne Tyler
- Some Jonathan Kozol
- A book about Gauguin
- A couple of Marion Zimmer-Bradley books, which I don’t much like (I loved The Mists of Avalon, but that’s on another shelf)
- A couple of Cynthia Voigt books
- A book about Twyla Tharp
- A book about Shakespeare’s Flowers
- The Book of Psalms
- Some Ray Bradbury
- Some D.H. Lawrence
- Some Toni Morrison
- Some Barbara Kingsolver
- Some Gil-Scott Heron
- A book about Astronomy
- Spider Robinson Stardance
- Tracy Kidder Mountains Beyond Mountains
- Herbert Kohl 36 Children
- Nikos Kazantzakis – The Last Temptation of Christ, and Zorba the Greek
- A Short Treasury of American Humor
- The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (all of my other Gaiman books are on another shelf)
- Virgil’s Aeneid
- Tim’O’Brien – The Things They Carried
- Spider Robinson – Stardance
- A book about Oscar Wilde (all my other Oscar Wilde books – and I have MANY – are on another shelf)
- Some Graphic novels, including Beowulf illustrated and reworked by Gareth Hinds, who has done some amazing work, especially his graphic novel versions of King Lear, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet and The Odyssey)
- The inimitable, but misanthropic, James Thurber
- The recently-deceased Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum
Ulysses (which I call somewhat grumpily The Great Unread) by James Joyce
A book on jazz - A book by Neil Young
A couple of books by Noam Chomsky - Several books by Jonathan Stroud and Philip Pullman
- A beautiful book that my Parsee friend Perin Pudumjee (now Coyajee) made of her calligraphic art
- An amazing and moving book called Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides
- Journals which are mostly empty, save for a few pages here and there (I’m not great about writing in journals nowadays, unlike how I used to be when I was young)
- Books on language – Italian, French and Russian, which I don’t need anymore, but I loved them when I bought them. I had visions of learning Russian. Perhaps, I still might – you never know!
- An English-Portuguese dictionary given as a gift by my husband when I was in love with Samba Bossa Nova songs.
- Oxford English Dictionaries
There are MANY more bookshelves in the house. We quip that our house is held together and held up by its bookshelves. We also quip that we’ll never ever move again, because the books were so heavy to carry up our 42 steps leading to the house on a sharp incline, that I sprained both my arms back in 2001, when we moved. We joke that the only way we’ll ever leave our home is feet first. (Sorry to sound so morbid here!)
I love our books! I love being at home!
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Tags: #Books, #Humor, #Languages, #Magic Realism, #Shelf
Mar 16, 2016 Ramblings and Musings, The Daily Post
In response to The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt:Envy
What I Envy
©March 16th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
I envy plants and flowers for being the most beautiful things in the world.
I envy rocks and stones and pebbles for not caring about being buffeted by the winds and the tides and Climate Change.
I envy birds because they fly (although bugs and worms would put me off).
I envy my dog for falling asleep effortlessly whenever or wherever she needs to, and waking up cheerful, refreshed and uncomplaining.
I envy those who can fly through the air on a trapeze, something I’d like to do.
I envy those who have given up worldly things, and have truly dedicated themselves to humanity — people like Paul Farmer of PiH in Haiti. He’s a hero of mine. I would like to do something like that, but am afraid that I have too many attachments and duties to individuals who are already in my life (so, instead, I give frequently to various good causes).
I envy uncomplicated people, and love them for being so.
I envy those creatures which are not human for being non-polluters.
I envy humans who live completely off the grid, and wish to be like them.
I envy those who want nothing, and want that! (Ah, irony!)
I envy those who practise their instruments diligently every day (like I used to, and am trying to get started on practising again).
I envy those who have finished Moby Dick by Herman Melville (I never did, although I read much of it).
I envy those who can multitask, and still be able to concentrate fully on ALL their tasks.
I envy those who are effortlessly neat (I like neatness, but it’s an effort!).
I envy those who are young enough that the possibilities in their futures seem limitless.
I envy those who manage to stay in shape and are disciplined about it.
I envy those who don’t doubt themselves, and at the same time, I would NEVER want to be like them.
I envy my former self.
I envy those who have died, because they are free from angst and pain.
And at the same time, I envy no one. It’s only when I think about it, I would say, Hmmm … yup, I think I envy them for these things, BUT I am SO happy to be who I am.
So, I guess envy is a fleeting thing with me — doesn’t stay long (except for the birds and flowers part – I do wish I could fly, or just bloom for a season and then die gracefully!)
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Tags: #Daily Prompt, #Envy
Mar 15, 2016 The Daily Post
In response to The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt: Drop
Las hilanderas o La fábula de Aracne, óleo sobre lienzo, 220 x 289 cm, Madrid, Museo del Prado
Drop-Spindle, Spindle-Drop
©March 15th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
How heavy the weight of
All your pride,
How heavy the weight of
Things to come!
How heavy the weight of
Things you’ve done,
(Both good and bad
Some mad, some sad)!
How heavy the weight
Of silken ties,
That hold you down,
And hold you back!
You spin your days
On a spindle large –
And threads of gold
You’ll weave into cloth.
And you hope it holds
But your work cannot stop.
So you dream, while you keep
Spinning on and on.
And the lines you spin,
Lead back to the centre
And keep things going
Through days so long.
But things fall apart
Spin out of course,
And the threads get caught
In a web of dross.
So, drop it for now,
You can pick it back up.
Yes, drop it for now,
Sit back for a while.
So, drop it for now –
And another will spin
She’ll spin for a bit,
She’ll keep it rolling.
So, drop it for now,
Look up to the sky,
Let the world spin on
By herself on her own.
And the spindle you drop,
Gets caught in a gale
And a spin-drift catches
At all your dreams.
And you’ll gaze in awe, and
Catch your breath.
For, the silk keeps spinning
But the spindle’s gone.
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Tags: #Burden, #Drop, #Drop-Spindle, #Life, #Original Poetry, #Responsibilities, #Spinning, #Weaving
Mar 15, 2016 The Daily Post
In response to the Daily Post’s Daily Prompt: Drop
Drop a Drop
©March 15th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
How far can you go
With a cup of water
That is filled to the brim
And hold it aloft,
Never spilling a drop?
Though it’s small, it will grow
In weight as you go
And your arms will ache
When time hangs heavy
And you long to drop it.
And so it is with all of us,
As we carry the weight
Of our past and our dreams
And our fears – and it seems
We can never drop them.
And to you I can say
These words: Let them drop!
Let them fall around you
And scatter in your wake –
And they’ll soon be gone!
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Tags: #Daily Prompt, #Drop, #Letting go of things, #Metaphorical poem, #Original Poetry
Mar 15, 2016 Senryu, The Daily Post
In response to The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt: Drop
Photo-Credit ©2015, Vijaya Sundaram
Drop-Ocean
©March 15th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
I am but a drop
And I yearn with aching heart
For the deep ocean
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Tags: #Daily Prompt, #Drop, #Metaphysical, #Original Poetry