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.
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Tags: #DailyPrompt, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Pleasure, #Postaday, #TheDailyPost
Oct 16, 2015 Original Poetry, Writing 201
Immortality, OR: Art Causes Pain and Pleasure
©October 16th, 2015
By Vijaya Sundaram
It’s You of whom (sometimes) I think when I
See people work at art or song or verse
While making beauty with their minds, traverse
The lands invisible that touch the sky.
Your shadows lurk so menacingly stark
For ’tis a place of light and shade, this land
Where dreamers, poets, artists, singers band;
In vain, we seek our songs in brooding dark
We seek You, Immortality, and roam,
Our paintbrush, flute, guitar or pen in hand
And (vagabonds so far away from home),
We spread across these vast, uncharted lands
And hacking ‘cross the tangled brush, we come*
To You, whom now, at last, we understand.
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*Okay, so I took some liberty with the rhyme there, don’t razz me!
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Our Day 10 (FINAL DAY!)’s prompt was: Write a Sonnet, about pleasure, using Apostrophe as your device.
Our esteemed host and Muse @benhuberman had this parting gem:
If you happen to be one of those who find sonnets easy, have no fear — you can still challenge yourself further. How about going for a crown of sonnets? Or branching out to the sestina, another structurally difficult form?
I’ll have my readers know that this sonnet (my first, my first!), which took me TWO FULL hours exactly, I used a Petrachan sonnet form, with a couple of exceptions. So, instead of abba, abba, cd, cd, cd rhyme scheme, I used an abba, cddc, ed, ed, ed rhyme scheme. I also tried, desperately, to use iambic pentameter, reading it aloud to myself as it went, tweaking a word here, or rearranging some words there.
Note: There is another Petrarchan form is abba, abba, cde, cde, which I did not even want to attempt.
(Now, I shall go and lick my wounds, and sorrow over my terrible poem!)
Hats off to those who can do a “Crown” of Sonnets, and Sestinas, to boot! (I’m thinking of you, Melinda Kucsera!)
Anyway, I’m done.
And no, I’m NOT going to attempt a Sestina today. Too much else going on in my life, and writing a meaningful Sestina will take up more time, no doubt.
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Tags: #Immortality, #Pleasure, #sonnet, #Writing 201, Art, Artists, Final Day, Pain, Seekers, uncharted lands, vagabonds