Feb 10, 2016 Uncategorized
To a Spider
©February 10th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
With eight eyes, what do you see?
The universe is an octagonal thing.
And all the sounds of it must be
Octaves of sensation!
Do you see eight worlds?
(Allow me my fancies.)
With delicate, eight-legged gait,
You, a creature from another world,
Inhabit the same physical one as I do.
Do you compute in base eight?
And those perfect eight-pointed webs —
How do you calculate them?
(I do wonder at you.)
So many perceptions,
So many perspectives!
So many pensive hours, patiently
Spinning a web, perfectly woven.
(I wish I could love you).
And some shriek in terror
When you swing down, delicately
Putting out your bridges
From one world to the next.
(I do admire you.)
And yet, we don’t hesitate to sweep
Away you and your children,
All that work, aeons for you
In the making of your home,
Gone, gone in a whoosh of vacuum
Or a swish of broom.
(With only two eyes, we don’t see.)
Do you consider us?
Do you fear us?
Do you note us
As living beings?
Or, are we magnified
Monsters from a nightmare
Advancing towards you,
As you scurry to hide?
(Forgive us our trespasses.)
I am
Sorry.
Sorry.
Sorry.
Sorry.
Sorry.
Sorry.
Sorry.
Sorry.
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Tags: #Original Poetry, Octagonal world, Ode, Perspectives, Spider
Oct 8, 2015 Original Poetry, Writing 201
An Ode To My Fate (Map of Fate)
(My attempt at a Horatian Ode)
©October 8th, 2015
By Vijaya Sundaram
*Could I hold you aloft in the twilight of love
And trace out your routes with attention, to look
For where softly would land all my dreams, like the dove
From the Ark that found trees like it did in the Book,
I would do so, my Fate, my brooding playmate.
I would look for the paths that you’d lay out for me.
I would take a new route, one that does not exist.
I would fight your pale smile, all your lures, and your bait.
I would build my own boat and I’d put out to sea,
And when I arrive, it’s by you I’ll be kissed.
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This was the assignment (which I’ve condensed into the following three sentences):
Write an Ode.
Use metaphors.
Make it about a map of some sort.
Again, this is the FIRST time I’ve written an Ode, and not just that, but a Horatian Ode (about which I’d known nothing, really). I looked it up, and found that the rhyme scheme went thus: ab, ab, cde, cde. I know nothing of the syllable count of Horatian Odes. I chose my own weird 11-12 syllable count, taking care to make sure the meter sort of stayed the same.
Note: In the first stanza, I’m using “could” as in, “If I could do …. then I would.” (I’m using the subjunctive mood.)
I hope you enjoyed this attempt.
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Tags: #Fate, #Irony, #Writing 201, Horatian Ode Rhyme Scheme, Map of Fate, Ode