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
Jun 24, 2016 Haiku, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
Voyage
©June4th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
The boat bobs slowly
With no oars and no pilot
Behind lies the shore.
The boat floats darkly
Sun-rays spread across water
Beyond lies a dream.
Water-creatures leap
Bright shoals of fish alongside
Your gaze plummets down.
Down the mazèd deeps,
Into the heart of the Earth
And you hear “Farewell!”
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Tags: #DailyPrompt, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Postaday, #TheDailyPost, #Voyage
Jun 23, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
Awe and Gratitude
©June 23rd, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
The two-month old babe who smiles,
Bright and open like a new universe,
At the huge billboard at the airport,
With its smiling female face, all teeth;
The toddler who at 9-and-3/4-months
Teeters along on unsteady legs,
Desperate to be moving, not crawling.
Teaching herself what needs to be learned;
The little girl who tumbles into books,
As naturally as a frog tumbles into water
Finding solace therein; the two-and-a-half year-old
Who sings like an angel, in tune and in time.
The four-and-a-half year old who swims like an eel
The five-and-a-half year old who masters the swing-set,
The six-and-a-half year old bicycling in the breeze,
The seven-and-a-half year old stilting with ease;
The eight-year old dancing Kathak with grace,
The nine-year old who unicycles happily,
The ten year old, braided and solemn,
Who plays The Beatles on her guitar, and sings;
The eleven-year old with bobbed hair, off
To sleep-away camp for the first time,
Away from home for seven weeks,
Wearing confidence like a hoodie;
All of these years of her life
Entwined with mine, like honeysuckle,
Like climbing vines, reaching for sunlight;
All of these fill my heart with awe.
I kneel at the feet of Life and thank it
For giving me this Gift, this fey child
Who dreams, who loves us freely,
Who sings and reads, and plays and thinks,
And I am truly grateful.
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Also, cross-posting to dVerse Open Link Night
Tags: #Awe, #DailyPrompt, #dVerse, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #TheDailyPost
Jun 22, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
Empty and Full
©June 22nd, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Empty is good
It can be filled to the brim.
Empty is beautiful
There’s something waiting outside.
Empty is hopeful
Things can take root and grow.
Empty is true
It cannot pretend to be anything else.
Empty is impossible
Even if all is removed, something lurks.
Today, I emptied my thoughts
Into self-watering planters,
And transplanted seedlings,
Humming a happy song.
So beautiful my seedlings looked,
Standing tall in good, brown earth
With cool water to suck thirstily,
And golden light to pull into veins!
Humming, I poured my thoughts in
With peat moss and rich, dark,
Organic potting soil, and sang
Softly to my little seedlings.
How they grow from nothing, almost
Into these strong, sun-veined plants!
How tall they stand, how rooted,
Calmly facing the rain and winds!
I see my daughter now, the same,
Born of my once-empty womb,
Growing tall, nurtured in song,
Brought up in the light of love.
I see her, kindness in her every
Gesture, goodness in every thought,
Translating confusion into sense,
As she grows sunwards, beautiful as light,
And my heart is full.
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Tags: #DailyPrompt, #Empty, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #TheDailyPost
Jun 21, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
Companion of Her Days
©June 21st, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Alone she comes into life
And alone she goes out of it.
And yet, yet, here you are,
Beside her, holding her aloft
When she falls, gasping, ready to die,
You hold her, and she holds you, too.
Smiling, loving, encouraging,
Healing with song and laughter,
Yes, and also annoying, carping,
Cavilling, gently nudging,
Reminding her of what’s needed.
Sometimes, just sometimes,
She would rather be alone
And walk the edges of everything
And look down the other side.
The valley is purple and shadowed,
The sun sets quickly there,
But the lilies and poppies are so
Very languorous, so inviting,
And she would like to rest there
Forever, inhaling oblivion.
But she knows you, her companion
Will await her, and she gets up,
And returns, whispering to the valley,
That rolls beneath her feet, and
Tries to pull her down:
“Don’t wait for me. I’ll be back.”
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Tags: #Companion, #DailyPrompt, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #TheDailyPost
Jun 21, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
Summertime
©June20th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Girls in cool tank tops
And short shorts, flashing leg,
Sipping iced mochas
And strolling through
Echo-y shopping malls,
Spending money and time
And tossing their hair
In pert insouciance,
Aware of their power.
Boys in packs, talking loudly
Swearing, chewing, drinking beer
Playing ball, throwing frisbees,
Going to movies, eyeing girls,
Spitting, shouting, laughing
Immoderately, punctuating
Everything with obscenities.
Air-conditioned cars and homes,
Smoothies, lemonade, beer
Ice-cream, lobster, tacos, pizza,
Burritos, salsa, chicken tikka masala,
Coffeehouses, bars, boats,
Martha’s Vineyard, Cape Cod,
New Hampshire, Vermont,
Ah, yes, Summertime is delicious!
Burning forests in Canada
Forty-nine killed in crazed nightclub massacre,
Syrian families drowned in raging seas,
Heat waves wash over suffering cities
Farmers die in despair
While crops fail again and again
And the Inferno marches in and
Burns everything in its wake.
Women cry over dying children,
Children cry over dying mothers,
Food dries up before it reaches mouths
And when the water burns all they touch,
They know it’s Summertime –
And the living ain’t easy.
Summertime
When the forests are burning
Fish are dying, and the methane is high
And the trees breathe fumes
And the lakes are all drying up
But, hush, my loving people,
Don’t you fear!
Don’t you fear that things will burn
Because you know they will
While you sit still.
So, surrender to despair:
Give in, hold your head in your hands,
And weep.
It’s okay.
Tags: #DailyPrompt, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Summertime, #TheDailyPost
Jun 19, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
Drift
©June 19th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Drifting, always drifting,
You point your catamaran
Inexorably
To Polaris.
How do you know where
You’re headed, with no
Compass, no instruments,
No notes, no rudder?
Do you have a secret plan?
An esoteric set of sticks that
Follow waves and swells,
Indicating winds and atolls?
Do you follow the secret voice
Of the sea who whispers
To you alone, as she throws
Fish and seaweed onto your boat
So you won’t starve?
Do you lie back, and gaze at
Wheeling skies and stars
Rising and setting suns and moons
And smile in secret,
Because you own the biggest
Treasure in the world?
How do you drift,
And keep drifting
Until you get to where
You always wanted to be?
And how did you get there?
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Tags: #Aimless, #DailyPrompt, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #TheDailyPost
Jun 18, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
Cracked Glass
©June 18th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Crackled flat disc of blue glass
With a crack cutting through,
Sits on window ledge, sunlight
In its midnight heart,
And calms my sleep-weary eyes,
And makes an ocean in my mind.
Every morning, I gaze at it
And every night, it draws me.
I drink that blue, suck it thirstily,
Feel it flowing, slicing through
My vision, slipping sideways into dreams.
I love its beauty
And equally so, that crack
Cutting through, ruthless, deranged –
So very flawed, it is,
And so very perfect!
Don’t touch it!
You might cut yourself!
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Tags: #DailyPrompt, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Perfection, #TheDailyPost