Jul 23, 2016 Free Verse, Original Poetry, The Daily Post
I, Prometheus
©July 23RD, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
There is an eagle.
By day, deathly agony
Every night, rebirth.
Come, Heracles, come!
Free me from my binding chains
Golden apples wait.
The gods are jealous,
Incensed, for I helped mortals.
Gods know no mercy.
I brought them fire
Moved by pity for mortals –
So puny, so small!
I regret nothing
Not the gift I stole from Zeus,
Not my transgressions.
We are what we are
The gods themselves cannot change.
I shall be renewed.
I shall wander on,
Seeking to help humankind –
Here lies my reward.
This is what I’ll do:
Find a thing that needs doing,
Bend the arc of life.
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Tags: #DailyPrompt, #GreekMythology, #OriginalPoetrybyVijayaSundaram, #Postaday, #Prometheus, #Punishment, #TheDailyPost
Mar 19, 2013 Teaching and Learning
After Steubenville — A Poem
©By Vijaya Sundaram
March 19th, 2013
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A sickness has stolen into our worlds.
The souls of our young men,
Swollen with self-love
(Or could it be self-hatred?),
Fatten themselves upon the spirits
Of our young women, who,
Powerless, longing for recognition,
No matter whence it arrives,
Find themselves caught unawares
In the buffeting waves
Of the contempt and hate
That pulses in the swollen, unfettered
Power-crazed glands of young men.
After such crimes, what punishment?
And who shall speak for our girls?
Filled with confusion, eager for love,
Looking for direction, they follow
False trails, lose sight of themselves,
And, trapped in a mirror world,
Desperate, surrounded, they cry out,
Lose their way, flounder, flail, fall
Out of consciousness.
And the talking heads on idiot boxes
Blame them subtly, making mouth-noises.
Do they not see the horrors they condone,
Waggle-tongued hypocrites of our time
And of our shame? Worshippers of clay gods,
They babble and preen, loose-jawed
Purveyors of muck, shaking their heads,
While our girls lose consciousness.
After such crimes, what punishment?
And who shall speak for the boys?
Lust for power and narcissism,
Hero-worship and sports-worship
Create a crazy, mirror-world with distorted
Images, reality suspended, decency snuffed out,
Morality crushed underfoot, shame splintered!
Self-knowledge drowned in manic laughter,
They cavort like Pan’s satyrs.
A sickness afflicts our children.
And our girls shall not see freedom
And our young men shall know prison.
Each imprisoned in a hell that we,
The makers of our world, need to break down.
Break down, rebuild, rename, re-teach.
And we need to teach our children well
Or we shall all go to hell.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The End~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Teach Our Children — Crosby, Stills and Nash YouTube Video
Tags: #Original Poetry, #Punishment, Crime, Media, Ohio, sick society, Steubenville, Teach Our Children