Vijaya Sundaram

Poet, Musician, Teacher, and Amateur Visual Artist

Keep Walking

Keep Walking
©February 28th, 2017

By Vijaya Sundaram

Legs keep moving, in and out,
On and on, feet touching pavement,
Feet in air, feet touching down.
Resist cessation.

Birds sing in confused pleasure
Trees wear catkins like gloves,
Soft-fingered and fuzzy,
And bulbs poke out
Look around in anticipation,
Unsure of life, compelled to grow.

The sun rides hard,
His horses neigh loudly,
And buck and trample clouds
As they propel themselves
Chaotically, confusedly, hotly
Towards yawning darkness,
Resist!  I call out to them.

Keep walking, keep walking.
Sing as you walk, loudly, loudly
Let the darkness know you approach.
Let it cower when you arrive.
Sing into its yawn,
Pour loud joy into its chasm,
Until it dissolves, stupefied,
Chastened, ephemeral.

Resist!
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Why I Haven’t Written In A While

Why I Haven’t Written In A While
©November 22nd 2016
By Vijaya
Sundaram

When the sky rains down fire
When children die in faraway Aleppo
Breathing chlorine fumes
In bursting lungs and bursting lives,

When girls are sold into bondage

And have no voice, no tongue
No self to reclaim, no past to turn to,
While grown men break their bodies,

When water protectors are beaten back

For asserting their right to the land
As hoses spray ice-water at them
And the temperature drops below freezing,

When leaders rise to power
On a rising wave of hate and violence
And all words of love and peace
Drown in their wake,

When the earth is raped
And gaping wounds bring forth
Fossil marrow from her heaving bones,
And corporations rejoice, while the poles melt,

How can I speak?
Of what can I sing?
Where shall I turn?
What bell can I ring?

Yet sing I must
And speak I shall
And work I will
Resist I should.

And I’ll seek what beauty
Remains on this jewel-bright
Shadowed, sacred planet
And bring it forth into the light.
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