Apr 7, 2016 Original Poetry, The Daily Post
After reading Edward Hirsch‘s explanation of the Verbless Poem, I decided to try one, and combined it with The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt for today: Tricky
Twisted Vignettes – A Verbless Poem
©April 7th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Twisted, broken, aging oaken branch,
Shining drops of rain on arching trees,
Solitary girl in dripping dress,
Tricky, yes, but also broken-hearted,
Hood-hidden, her thirsting face, so pale.
Man so crafty, and so full of guile,
Undone at a glimpse of homeless child.
Such innocence beneath his grimy skin!
And heretofore empty, his aching heart,
Quite tearful, humbled, hurting, all absolved.
Hair so snarled and curled and hands so gnarled,
And eyes so guarded, full with deep intent,
Young and old, all full of fell purpose,
People all afloat in misty air.
Lips a-twisted – cruel, trickster world!
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Tags: #EdwardHirsch, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #The Daily Prompt, #TheDailyPost, #VerblessPoem, #VignettesofTheReal
Apr 7, 2016 NaPoWriMo, Original Poetry
Life and Death, and Silence and Sound (A Tritina)
©April 7th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
The thrilling rain fills the air with sweet sound
Birds trill their joy aloud, and the soil sings
So, why do I feel so lost and alone?
For you are gone, and it’s the sky alone
Which feels my pain, the emptiness unsound,
Uncertain, and afloat – who’s that who sings?
Not I, but ’tis the grief of loss that sings
As I walk, silent, heart-broken, alone.
For with your death, my silence replaced sound
So all alone, Life sings, without a sound.
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P.S. I am SO happy, because I overcame my block against anything that resembled a sestina today (and it wasn’t too hard)! I guess I’m going to have to do a real sestina now, and next, I’ll tackle a Villanelle!
YES!
Today’s prompt from NaPoWriMo:
Our (optional) prompt for Day Seven comes to us from Gloria Gonsalves, who challenges us all to write a tritina. The tritina is a shorter cousin to the sestina, involving three, three-line stanzas, and a final concluding line. Three “end words” are used to conclude the lines of each stanza, in a set pattern of ABC, CAB, BCA, and all three end words appear together in the final line.
Tags: #LifeAndDeath, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Sestina-related, #Tritina
Apr 7, 2016 Original Poetry, The Daily Post
In response to The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt: Handwriting
Handwriting – A Lament
©April 7th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
My handwriting goes raggle-tag
And off the page, and in a rage
It stomps around, then takes a rest
(‘Tis time to leave the stage).
My handwriting is small and neat,
But then, quite suddenly
It rears and dances on two feet
(Capricious as a bear.)
If we were judged by one and all
For how we write, or wrote
I’d be the one who’s first to fall
(And sink, without a boat).
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Tags: #Handwriting, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #The Daily Prompt, #TheDailyPost
Apr 7, 2016 NaPoWriMo, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
In response to The Daily Post‘s Daily Prompt: Faraway
Faraway: A Mirrored Fib
©April 6th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
It’s
A
Distant
Faraway
Place, where I come from –
And that’s where I am headed to.
It doesn’t matter if I slip, or fall, or if I’m
Crushed, or hurt, or if I disappear into thin air
I’m still going there, yes, I am
For, along the way,
I shall find
My old,
True
Self.
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P.S. So, this is the first time I’m writing a “Fib Poem” – I’ve seen these cropping up everywhere on WP recently, and thought I’d give it a shot. However, just to make things a little more interesting, i thought I’d reverse the order after I reached 13 syllables (7th line), hence the “Mirrored Fib.”
Here’s some more information about Fib Poems, or poems based on the Fibonacci series.
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Submitting to The Daily Post, and to NaPoWriMo
Tags: #Daily Prompt, #Faraway, #Fib Poem, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #TheDailyPost
Apr 7, 2016 NaPoWriMo, Original Poetry, Uncategorized
Fruit – A Poem about Mad Desire
©April 6th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
What draws me isn’t just the actual fruit
You understand.
No, it’s the thought of fruit,
Its connotation, its symbolism
Its scents twining their arms about me,
Its hidden erotic profiles.
What draws me is all that is around it.
Yes, it’s the nature of fruit
To entice, to shame, to delight
To condone, to console, to
Stimulate, to make one swoon
With desire and dreaming-want.
What draws me is the symmetry
The perfection of an apple, where
Enticement and danger embrace,
And a sorry knowledge comes
With every bite – the knowledge
That this too, will end.
It’s the clustering of grapes
The mad, symmetric glistening
Globes of tight flesh encased in
Purple, or green, or red skin
That draws me in, like a humming
Bee which, though sated with juice
And nectar, and sunlight and pleasure,
Still gets pulled in by mere desire.
Its the bright, cheerful sunlit
Blips of orange packed so tightly
Into a globe, surrounded by an
Unwelcoming, reluctant, tangy
Skin, dissuading mere temporaries
From opening up its secrets.
Those are for me, only me.
And figs so purple-achy, and melons so round,
And dates, dense with brown sweetness
And jackfruit poky outside, succulent within,
And Indian jamuns, so tart and violet
And peaches, squishy and laden with juice
And plums the same, but deeper, darker,
And clementines, flirty sun-cousins to oranges,
And green, uncertain pears, both raw and ripe,
And summer berries and fall berries,
Red and blue, and crimson in hue,
Full of nectar, full of welcoming.
And every fruit that ever guarded
Its progeny jealously, possessively,
Yields up its secrets to me,
The lover at the heart of it all.
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From the prompt for NaPoWriMo Day 6:
Today, I challenge you to write a poem about food. This could be a poem about a particular food, or about your relationship to food in general. Or it could simply be a poem relating an incident that involves food …
Tags: #FoodPoem, #FruitPoem, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram
Apr 5, 2016 NaPoWriMo, The Daily Post
In response to The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt for April 1st: Colorful
Colored Me
©April 5th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Color your world blue
Blue ice, blue eyes,
Blue mood, blue skies.
Color my world brown
Brown skin, brown hair
Brown earth, brown stare.
Color their world green
Green trees, green grass
Green youth, green lass.
Color our world red
Red blood, red flowers
Red hearts, red scars
Color our space gold
Gold sun, gold dunes,
A golden noon
Color my world black.
Black eyes, black skin
Back where you’ve been.
Hold my blue,
I’ll follow you.
Hold my brown
I shall not frown
Hold my green
(Of youth, I mean)
Hold my red,
I’ll not be led.
Hold my gold
To make you bold.
Hold my black,
Don’t hold me back.
Hold me thus
In all my modes;
In all my sorrow –
The dread it bodes.
In all my joy,
The boundaries break;
In all my peace,
It’s love I make.
In all my art
Live songs I sing
In all my worlds,
I rise on wings.
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Submitting this simultaneously to The Daily Post, and to NaPoWriMo
Tags: #Colorful, #Colors, #DailyPrompt, #ModesandMoods, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #TheDailyPost
Apr 4, 2016 Original Poetry, The Daily Post
In response to The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt: Contrast
The Container and the Thing Contained – A Study in Contrasts
Yin and Yang
Feminine and Masculine
Night and stars
Water and earth
Chanting and Declaiming
Space and Starlight
Womb and Sperm
Creator and Creation
Love and Love.
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Feb 14, 2016 Original Poetry
Poem for My Valentine
©February 14th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Sometimes, tumbling into sleep,
We turn to each other, smile
And close our eyes, and follow
Our own paths into our own
Inner romance, into sleep.
For, sometimes, love needs no words.
Although we talk and ramble.
Music, love, politics, friends,
Books, child, dog, ideas, all
Flow in and out of our days.
And at the centre of it,
Love stands calm, the start of our
Radius, diameter,
Circumference, our tangent
And our co-tangent, for all
Is embraced by that larger
Circle — our past, our future,
Our calm certainty that we
Will endure through all our days.
And I will always come home
To your song, beloved mine.
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Tags: #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Valentine'sDayPoem, Love Poem for my husband