Jan 7, 2018 Original Poetry

(*Okay, so this is probably my least inspired poem, but still … I’m sticking with my muse.)

Tags: #Love, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram

Aug 2, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post

Keep Looking
©Tuesday, August 2nd, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

Every strand of my DNA
Takes me further back
And farther
And is woven through
All life around me.

Every strand of my DNA
Shivers when people suffer
And when they kill,
I feel killed, cell by cell.
And every nucleotide in me
Hears every nucleotide in you.

I hear you, and I see you.
What you feel is pain and rage,
And it hurts.
And when you hurt someone,
It hurts.
And when you hurt yourself,
It hurts.

There is a suppurating sore
In the body politic
Logic and empathy die by degrees.
Flawed reasoning struts about.

How shall we heal this?

Look deep within my eyes
I’ll look deep within yours.
Let’s look closely, and see
Who sits inside, crouching
Or strutting, who laughs,
Who cries, who rages.

What do you see?
What do I see?

Let it all seep out, all the
Hatred, rejection, anger, spite
Rage, hurt, sorrow, indifference,
All that rushing, tumbling loneliness,
And, hiding deep in there, a lost
Child, hurting, always hurting, alone,
Deaf and blind in a dark cellar,
Where love comes not,
And fear resides, and grief
Twisted into rage.

Keep looking.
Do not look away.
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Profound

Tags: #Connectedness, #DailyPrompt, #humanity, #Love, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Postaday, #Profound, #TheDailyPost

Jul 27, 2016 Friday Fictioneers, Original Flash Fiction, Original Short Story

PHOTO PROMPT © Janet Webb

Word Count:  100 words of text, exactly
Genre:  Realistic Fiction

Drowning
©July 27th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

Leila stood in a corner, sipping water, wondering why she’d attended the party.

It’s not that I’m ugly, she thought.  I’m … boring.  And I hate small talk. 

Well, I won’t stick around, she decided, setting the glass down.  She moved towards the door, waving a vague goodbye. 

A beautiful woman who had glanced over a few times, detached herself from a group of attractive hipsters and came over.

“Hi, I’m Rona.  Want to join us?”

“I’ve got to catch a taxi home.”

“I’ll drive you home.  What’s your name?”

“Leila,” she answered.  She locked eyes with Rona.  Her heart lurched.

_________________________________________________________________

Thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, our much-admired Fairy Blog-Mother, for hosting us tirelessly at her Friday Fictioneers Salon, and to Janet Webb, for the evocative photograph.

Tags: #FridayFictioneers, #Loneliness, #Love, #Original 100-word Flash Fiction based on a photo-prompt

Jul 3, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post

Photograph©by Vijaya Sundaram, 2008

Archipelago
©July 3rd, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

See that child who stands there near traffic
Dressed in rags, his face a mute plea,
While people walk around him, parting
Like water around a small rock,
A rock that’s slowly being eroded,
By water which never stops or slows,
While traffic flows by him, oil-slicks
In a sluggish sea on a stuporous day;

And that woman, brown-skinned, bright
Smiling, but strained, in a sea of white
Indifferent to her impenetrable loneliness
As she learns the facial tones and gestures
While they don’t comprehend hers,
As she aches to explain, but they
Close their faces to hers, not interested,
As their ships sail by her waving flag;

And that man being handcuffed by police
For standing, not disturbing the peace,
Not resisting, not being violent,
Just standing and waiting, headphones on
On the sidewalk, enjoying a second of
Being free in a supposed democracy,
While fear handcuffs the shoals of passersby
Not wishing to cause ripples in that unsafe water;

See them, and stop everything, everything.
Let’s build a bridge out of Christo-cloth,
So that we may walk freely, buoyantly across
On a hot, hot summer’s day, and transform
From islands to travelers, when we so wish;
So that we may choose to visit, and choose
To be, or not be, an island, so that we shall
Not live handcuffed by fear and indifference.

And, just in case, let us build more boats.

_____________________________________________________________

Island

Tags: #archipelago, #Christo, #Connection, #DailyPrompt, #humanity, #indifference, #Islands, #kindness, #Love, #Metaphorical poem, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Postaday, #TheDailyPost

May 26, 2016 Friday Fictioneers, Original Flash Fiction, Uncategorized

Photo Prompt © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

Dream a Dream of Love
May 26th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

As the waves sweep towards these rocks where he stands, he dreams.

He is holding his beloved in his arms, she of the gossamer hair and glimmering eyes, of the breath sweet as wildflowers, she of the voice like the sighing sea-breeze, of the laughter that broke upon his heart, like the waves breaking upon these rocks.

He dreams she loved him and he loved her back, but in time, his heart turned hard.

When he left, she walked into the sea.

Dreaming, he mourns, as the water surges around him.

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With thanks to our beloved Fairy Blog-Mother, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, for hosting Friday Fictioneers, and for today’s beautiful photo-prompt.

Tags: #Dream, #FridayFictioneers, #Love, #Original 100-word Flash Fiction based on a photo-prompt, #Sea

Mar 14, 2016 Uncategorized

Painting:  Amore e Psiche (1707–09) by Giuseppe Crespi

Love and Soul, Soul and Death
©March 14th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

Don’t look at me, he said to her.
And trust in me, he said.
Don’t seek to see my face, he said
And so she was content.

And unseen spirits came to her
And brought her food and drink
They fanned sweet breezes, spoke to her
While she awaited Love.

But jealousy can rear its head;
And always makes a strike
Where there is but the slightest doubt.
Her sisters sowed these seeds:

Perhaps he is a monster fierce
Perhaps, he’ll kill you soon!
So you must strike the blow quite quick,
Or he will get there first.

Her knife and lamp in hand, she gazed
Struck mute at his splendour.
Her heart and hand a-tremble,
She dropped some oil on him.

And he, awakening to Soul
In all her trembling fear
Spoke bitter words that fell like blows
For fly away he must.

She sought him love-struck day and night
And wept for what she’d lost
And Love had fled, for she had tried
Unveiling Mystery.

And painful were her trials dread,
She wandered long and far
And, serving Aphrodite,
At last she came to Death

For Psyche always comes to Death
With two coins in her mouth
And come back safely to her Love
Awaiting at the end.

And Love and Soul can always be
Together, but unseen
And if you do read Love’s true face,
Prepare to cross Death’s door.

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Tags: #Death, #Eros and Psyche, #Giuseppe Crespi painting, #Love, #Original Poetry, #Soul

Mar 12, 2016 The Daily Post

My third response to the March 11th Daily Post Daily Prompt:  Flow 

Flow-erings
©March 12th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

When sunlight and life
Flow into the veins of plants,
They burst into bloom.

See that thick sunlight
Flowing around our ankles
Drawing in the bees.

And that slow, sweet light,
The slow, golden flow that glows,
Makes for sweet honey.

See honey flow down.
See how it draws out sweetness,
Makes us swoon with love.

And we taste goodness,
And flowers and sunlight sweet.
Love, let us share it!

________________________________________________

Tags: #Love, #Original Poetry, Flow and flowers, Sharing, Sweetness

Mar 10, 2016 Flash Fiction for the Aspiring Writer

Photo prompt provided by Louise Bunting at The Storyteller’s Abode.

Word Count:  175 words of text, exactly (next time, I’ll go for 150 words!)
Genre:  Realistic Fiction

Plummet
©March 10th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

Rajashekhar had died six months ago.  At least, they’d been childless.  Both his and her parents were long-dead.  She had no siblings.  All very neat, she thought.

Nothing bound Lakshmi to the world.

Alone, she climbed the stairs of the ruined castle she was visiting.   The wind howled through its stony crevices.  The sky bled gold through the gray of grief.
She was tired of the earth.  Too much gravity.  She wanted to be air, wind, light.  She wanted to be Soul without Body.

Humming abstractedly, she reached the top, and prepared herself, with the slightest  plummeting of stomach, to do the deed.  Somewhere within, she still wept, her grief an open wound.

Reaching the top, and taking a deep breath, she stepped to the edge, where a sign warned visitors to stay away.

“Um … could you help me?” said a polite English voice.  She turned.  It belonged to a man, with beautiful, gray eyes.  “I’ve lost my glasses, and cannot read this brochure.”

She stepped back.

He smiled, and she found herself in free-fall.

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Thanks to Priceless Joy who hosts Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers!
Thanks to Louise Bunting for the evocative photo-prompt!
This is my first story here.

Tags: #Death, #FFfAW, #Life, #Love, #Original Flash Fiction, New Beginnings

Mar 10, 2016 Original Poetry, The Daily Post, Uncategorized

Legacy:  A Simple Love Poem
(for The Daily Post Prompt for March 10th:  Legacy)
©March 10th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

Give me your heart.
I shall always be true.
I shall wind the silk
Of mine with yours
And spin a cloth
That endures.

Give me your trust.
I shall hold it close.
And build for it a room
That opens to the world
And keeps it safe
When it needs a retreat.

Give me your hand
To hold when I’m unsteady,
And, if you have need of mine,
You will have it.
The rocks are hard, and
The hills are steep,
And we have need of
A steadying hand.

Together, we shall advance
Into the sunset.
It’s beautiful sometimes,
And stormy sometimes,
And full of rich color, always.
The horizon beckons,
And night advances.
It does not scare me.

Our laughter, the music of time.
Our struggles, the drama,
Our losses, our joys
The eternal dance
With which we braid
A life together.

Love with you is all I need.
And that will be our
Legacy for our daughter
When we are gone,
And she will hold it
Close to her heart.

______________________________________________

Tags: #Legacy, #Love, #TheDailyPost, A Love Poem

Mar 10, 2016 Original Poetry, The Daily Post

For the March 9th Daily Prompt: Object

Objects I Didn’t Make
©March 10th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram

This stone in my hand?
From the heart of a planet
Swinging through time
And shaped by space.

More sacred than some
Gift shaped by human hand
(Although I like those, too!)

This flower on the plant?
More precious than any
Plucked to celebrate my
Being on this earth.
(Although I like those, too!)

I used to love pretty things
I still love them.
But my heart is full, now.
My life, likewise.

The sands are vast,
The sea heaves gently.
There is much to gaze upon,
Together, many swells,
Many troughs.
So many mysteries
Lit by the sun!

This shell, here, now,
Is the gift of time.
These glittering bits of sand,
The gift of this world.

Take these.
I didn’t make them,
But finding them,
Binds them to us.

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Tags: #Love, #Object, #TheDailyPost, Earth and her gifts, On the day before the day before my birthday