Apr 29, 2017 NaPoWriMo, Original Poetry
Chasm
©April 29th, 2017
By Vijaya Sundaram
Chasm fracturing
Amidst unity on earth
Time to build a bridge.
But if the bridge falls
And we plummet to the earth,
Let us learn to fly.
If we fly upwards
Let us splint the fractured earth
Mend broken places.
If we fly downwards
Let us greet the earth with joy,
And begin again.
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Today is Day 29 of NaPoWriMo 2017. The prompt suggested choosing one word from a favorite poem – in my case, “Kubla Khan” by S. T. Coleridge. The rest of the prompt is below:
Today, I’d like to challenge you to take one of your favorite poems and find a very specific, concrete noun in it. For example, if your favorite poem is this verse of Emily Dickinson’s, you might choose the word “stones” or “spectre.” After you’ve chosen your word, put the original poem away and spend five minutes free-writing associations – other nouns, adjectives, etc. Then use your original word and the results of your free-writing as the building blocks for a new poem.
Tags: #Chasm, #Coleridge, #Day 29 NaPoWriMo, #Kubla Khan, #NaPoWriMo2017, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram
Apr 27, 2013 Character Vignettes for Possible Novels, Original Poetry
Birthed / Breathed / Bridged
©By Vijaya Sundaram
April 27th, 2013
The question always remains:
Am I truly their child?
They brought me into their home
Poured love into my being
Gave me roots to dig deep into
Gave me sunlight to grow in
Breathed life into my struggling lungs
Held me and loved me
Stood vigil by my bed
While I, asthma-racked and
In the grip of death,
Nearly toppled headlong
Into oblivion.
They pulled me back
From the brink,
And kissed me awake.
They are my parents.
I shall always love them.
And yet, and yet,
There’s a faint echo
Of that other mother
Of that other father
The ones who stand forever
In the shadows of my past
Who remain forever and always
Enigmatic and tongue-tied.
Whose profiles, half-turned from me
Reveal … indifference?
Disgust? Rage? Sorrow? Regret?
Was there love there, somewhere?
Or was I begotten in haste,
And mourned since?
I look yearningly into the shadows
See an emptiness in there
Bridged with a bridge of steel
And silk, which brought me
Safely into my parents’ arms.
Terror opens a chasm within me.
My breath fails me.
My pulse stumbles.
I cannot help it — I yearn
To topple into that gulf and
Seek the bottom of a grief
With no name.
I force myself to look up,
Ahead, not down, and see,
In wonder and understanding.
Across that gulf, beyond those dim profiles
I glimpse the outline of another one —
A Someone who beamed
Me into being, who breathed me out.
She held me across the span of Time
And tided me through the fjords
That might have stopped me
She wanted me to be.
She wanted me to be me.
And I am.
That bridge of steel and silk
Brought me safely to shore.
And my parents will stand guard
Right there, at that bridge
And they will deny that chasm
Its greedy need.
And they will spread a net
under the bridge
And they will fight the ogres
That dwell beneath.
And I want them to.
And though I shall always wonder
About the bottom of that chasm
And yearn for the shadow-parents
I will not yield to temptation.
For nothing is more tempting than
Grief and yearning,
And nothing more dangerous.
So, I shall step forth
With light step and light heart,
Knowing my bridge of silk and steel
Will remain for all time.
And I shall go forth to build
My own bridge, and stand guard there.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The End ~~~~~~~~~~
Tags: #Chasm, #Love, #NaPoWriMo, #Original Poem, Adopted child, bridges and birth, character vignette, fiction, Fictional character, silk and steel, vigil, Yearning