Jul 11, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
Cowardice
©July 11th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Arise!
Take up your knitting.
Do it! Do not fear it!
It’s just yarn and needles
You’re not weaving lives,
Spinning destinies
Plotting a Revolution,
Like Therese DeFarge.
You’re knitting a swatch.
Ah, it isn’t cowardice, then?
What is it?
Jump!
There’s a place to learn to swim
And teachers who will help.What’s holding you back?
You’re not on a sea,
Bobbing helplessly among whales.
You’re here, now.
There’ll be many hands to help.
And you won’t drown.
What’s to fear?
So, it isn’t cowardice, then?
What is it?
Inertia?
What’s that?
A first cousin
To cowardice,
Only much slower.
_____________________________________________________
P.S. I’m very tired today. I’m writing because I’ve made it a daily practice.
No colorful metaphors flash into my mind’s eye today, nor searing emotions. Sorry!
Tags: #Cowardice, #DailyPrompt, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Post, #TheDailyPost
Jul 10, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
Desert-Rain
©July 10th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Thirst is all around us
Vast, gaping, parched thirst
Gripping the throat,
Drying the mouth,
Making a desert of our lives
A desert in the hearts of men.
And the land crumbles to dust.
And people fall forward,
Prey to hatred and guns
To violence and pain
To those who kill
With savage impunity.
Alton’s name means Old Town, or
Town at the source of the river.
And a river did flow from him,
Into the desert all around.
Where it dried and vanished
Into the dust, as he was pinned down
And killers pumped bullets into a dead man,
Because he stood there, selling music.
Sworn to protect, they
Murdered, instead, with glee.
Alton Sterling, aged 37.
Say his name!
Philando, a name that sings
Love, love of humans, and
Love was in his days, his acts.
Philando, shot for no reason,
While his girlfriend beside him,
Live-streamed his death
His loss of life into the desert,
His breath left him
While a crazed cop held a gun
Spluttering bullets and lies.
Philando Castile, aged 32.
Say his name!
And we thirst, we who watch,
Standing helpless, as we see the desert
Encroaching on us all.
Mouths agape, parched, we stand
As our feet sink further, deeper
Into sand that churns as we yearn
As their hatred burns us all
And if we do nothing, say nothing
The desert will grow.
Dig a well, plant some trees,
Hold your ground for humankind.
And human-kindness will bloom.
We shall not desert our brothers
Our sisters, our children, our souls.
We shall walk on shifting sands, and find
Our way back to green lands.
We’ll dig a well to quench
Our thirst, and we’ll offer
Libations in the name of peace,
Which, perhaps the gods will accept,
And perhaps, someday, they will rain
Down mercy and help us love again.
____________________________________________________________
Tags: #AltonSterling, #DailyPrompt, #Desert, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #PhilandoCastile, #Postaday, #TheDailyPost
Jul 9, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
A Glass of Water
©July 9th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Liquid sand turned transparent
Catches captured light from a bulb,
Holds it in liquid, transparent,
Shining like the sea.
A glass of water.
And when it falls,
Its light tumbling and cracking
It sometimes breaks
And spills everywhere –
A little like us when we
Stumble and fall.
With luck, we won’t break.
Would that we were
As transparent, as clear.
And when we spill,
Would that we could get
Easily mopped up!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Glass
Tags: #DailyPrompt, #Glass, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Postaday, #TheDailyPost
Jul 8, 2016 Original Poetry, Senryu, The Daily Post
Photograph©Warren Senders, 2008, Kathakali dancer, Kerala, India
Façade
©July 8th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Masks bloom everywhere
Smiling, chilling, leering fronts
Where are you, truly?
See that tranquil scene?
Beneath that lake lies a beast.
Take care where you swim.
Clean and bright and fresh
Building smiles at everyone.
Watch out for that step!
_______________________________________________________
Tags: #DailyPrompt, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Postaday, #TheDailyPost
Jul 5, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
Layering Down, Layering Up
©July 5th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
There was the layer so thin, so fine
Only eyes that had been open in the womb
Could see it, and not drown in ecstasy.
This was the layer of plasma and iron.
Then, there was the layer of tissue
And the layer of muscle and tendon,
Then, the layer of skin, and hair.
Beneath all these was bone.
And there, lay life and death.
And beneath that
Lay a shining mind
Fine, as vast spider-webs strung across
A whole constellation of stars,
Making itself cell by cell,
Layer by layer, into creatures
Filled with life and dreams.
Or, perhaps, the layers
Of blood, of bone, of skin
Of consciousness and thought,
And sentience and memory,
Of endless dreaming
Formed each other, one
Over the other, like hand
Over hand, over hand.
And, like a photograph
Emerging like a person from sleep,
In its silvery emulsion,
I was born.
This consoles me
When I think
About dying.
I shall be unmade
My layers will be stripped
And I will float away
Into the Dream whence I came.
My Self will re-form
Itself into what I long to be,
Always dreamed of being:
A bird, passing through
Layer upon layer of cloud
And air and light, turning
Into each, as I pass through.
_____________________________________________________
Tags: #DailyPrompt, #Layers, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Postaday, #TheDailyPost
Jul 4, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
Autonomy
©July 4th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
When in the Course of my puny life,
It is of compelling urgency
To become one with Nature
And to cut away all that threatens
Life on our beautiful Planet,
Respect for you, my fellow-humans,
Necessitates that I declare
The reasons which bring me to this
Separation from that which is
A poison and a death to this,
Our beloved Earth.
I hold these facts to be obvious
That although all humans are the inheritors
Of our beautiful Earth,
And, although we are created equal,
We are not treated as equal,
And we do not treat our Earth with respect,
I further hold these truths to be equally evident,
That Gaia has certain non-repudiable Rights,
And these are:
The right for life to flourish
Unimpeded, unpoisoned, unsullied,
The right of animals to have
Their freedom away from human greed
And human consumption,
And the pursuit of Climate Justice
For this, the blue-green jewel
That is Planet Earth.
_________________________________________
Tags: #Autonomy, #DailyPrompt, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #ReferencetoTheDeclarationofIndependence, #TheDailyPost
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.
_____________________________________________________________
Tags: #archipelago, #Christo, #Connection, #DailyPrompt, #humanity, #indifference, #Islands, #kindness, #Love, #Metaphorical poem, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Postaday, #TheDailyPost
Jul 2, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
Photograph©By Vijaya Sundaram
Burnt Offering
©July 2nd, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Fire mesmerizes me.
I watch it, as it dances,
To music that I cannot hear.
I fear it and adore it,
And watch it as it soars,
Plasmic cosmic freedom
Destroyer of all that lives,
Preserver of all who wish
To live. Fire, unfettered,
Lawless, breaks all rules,
Releases light back
Into the air, curling into smoke,
As it burns a hole through life,
Leaving nothing behind
But the memory of things
That once were.
______________________________________________________
Tags: #Burn, #DailyPrompt, #Fire, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Postaday, #TheDailyPost
Jul 1, 2016 Light verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
Queen Pleasure On A Hot Day
©July 1st, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Here are some round, bright grapes
And a soft, cushiony couch,
And an Ottoman for aching legs.
Break off a few grapes, go on,
Have them, and pass me the plate.
Oh, and a glass of ginger lemonade
With cubes of ice tinkling enticingly
Melting rapidly on a hot day
To moisten our throats and
Untangle our tongues.
Get me some slices of spicy
Olive bread (the best kind)
And olive oil and gently spiced zatar,
To dip chunks of bread into.
Oh, and a chunk of spicy Pepper Jack cheese,
And thinly sliced Granny Smith apples.
Yes, and a slice of chocolate ganache cake
Just a thin one will do.
Now, play me some Ellington, or
Coltrane and Hartman, or Billie
With lighter-than-air Lester.
Let’s play some Jelly Roll Morton
Or Bach chorales on our guitars,
While we stumble and grumble
Over the same mistakes we make,
Or giggle over new, interesting ones.
Play me some Mansur and Gajanandrao Joshi,
Or some Amir Khan or Kesarbai or Mogubai,
Play me some Lata or M.S., and let me
Leap into song like a happy porpoise.
Come, sit by my side,
And talk to me about songs
And books, of childhood and child,
And politics, and the weather,
And Climate Change, and science,
And animals and movies.
Later, we shall walk hand in hand
Along the margins of the gleaming
Blue-green Reservoir with her yellow lilies
And leaping fish, and the occasional frog.
The tall trees will bend over us
Like a benediction, and calm
Will descend like a silk scarf
Around our necks.
Walk by my side in silence
And breathe in and out, with
The good trees watching us,
I shall welcome that, too.
This is pleasure, all of it.
____________________________________________________________
Tags: #DailyPrompt, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Pleasure, #Postaday, #TheDailyPost
Jun 30, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
Clouds Shaped Like Au Revoir
©June 30th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
There were clouds looming ahead
All pregnant with sunlight and rain-light,
Clouds shaped like au revoir,
Auf Wiedersehen, phir milenge,
Aprama pakalam,
Until we meet again,
When we drove to Vermont,
En famille, to the place
That would be nurturing my daughter
For seven weeks.
To drop her off at camp –
My daughter, my only one,
The starlight of my eye,
The laughter of my days
The love of our life –
Was easier than I thought
Yesterday,
The day I grew up.
Yes, there were some tears
(Mine, just a few,
And just on the way back.)
Yes, there was some joy
(She’ll be fine; she loves it already.)
Yes, there were some fears
(But she is sensible and bright
And filled with joyful openness
A flower before the sun).
See, it’s like this:
You spend nine months
Carrying a whole galaxy
Within you.
You watch over her,
Teach her everything,
How to speak, how to sing,
How to read, how to write,
How to be moral and kind
How to forgive, and how to love,
You feed her, sing to her,
Tell her stories, take her places,
Fill her days with love.
You spend your days
Wondering how all this will
Shape the future.
You learn to let go, just a little,
But you don’t think you’ll
Do so entirely, not for a while.
And then, when the time comes,
And she’s ready, and happy,
You learn to loosen that kite,
(Just for seven weeks, But still …),
Trusting that she’ll be all right,
They’ll be all right,
You’ll be all right.
And there were clouds
Looming ahead as we drove
Upwards, yesterday.
And clouds looming ahead
When we drove back,
Some white and some gray
But all shot through with light,
Bursting with light, barely contained –
But the kite flies on happily
Swooping through those clouds
A happy-shaped kite of Daughter.
And the string still holds
Her to us, to me,
An invisible umbilical cord
While I send her
Mother-prayers for safety
Within her freedom,
And my heart expands
Like a sky with clouds,
Shaped like a home-coming.
___________________________________________________
Tags: #Clouds, #DailyPrompt, #Daughter, #Leave-takings, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Postaday, #TheDailyPost