The Walk

With a head held high,

You walk and walk and walk.

Not even a sigh

While you walk and walk and walk.

You bump into a wall;

On and on, you walk and walk and walk.

You’re not so tall,

Yet, you walk and walk and walk.

Another wall there and one more here;

Still, you walk and walk and walk.

Dismissing it as an aberration, mere;

You continue to walk and walk and walk.

Yet another similar one hits you hard;

But you walk and walk and walk.

The invisible walls seem a hazard,

Unmindful, you walk and walk and walk.

And then the next one hits,

Numbing you from toe to top.

Shattered into a million bits,

You stop.

Lone Coward

There are bad times just around the corner,
There are dark clouds hurtling through the sky
And it’s no good whining
About a silver lining
For we know from experience that they won’t roll by,
With a scowl and a frown
We’ll keep our peckers down
And prepare for depression and doom and dread,
We’re going to unpack our troubles from our old kit bag
And wait until we drop down dead.

- Noel Coward

PS: 'Noel' anagrammates to 'lone' which makes 'Noel Coward' 'Lone Coward'. 

Nurture, nourish, nurse

Shadowed by misguided decisions,
Brightened by a candle in a storm.
Ephemeral rapture; the rule of the day.

Choking on my own words,
Gasping on hearing yours.
Leave me alone to rot and die.

Take me, use me, leave me.
A forthcoming frown found I for a friend.
Pessimism; my way of life.

Tears safely hidden in smiles.
One credible play after the other.
A facade to keep me alive.

They chose to abandon;
They increase in number.
I run back; I bleed, yet again.

You have it all; you make a statement.
You have nothing; you cannot even try.
Nurture, nourish, nurse and ditch.

PS: I think I can finally post this. Each stanza was written at different times during March and April 2008 and then I changed the order for some logical flow. I thought it was too negative to be posted then.

Solitude

Like identical drops of water, we live;
The same space, we inhabit.
Coalesce! You say?
Nay, for a wall have we created,
And like spawn shall we subsist;
With gooey stuff separating.

PS: This poem created itself in a dream I had on the night of 28/05/08. Freaky!

Freely Captive

Neglect me; forget me; you do it perfectly well.
When I free myself you will not even realize.
A bruised child left to die in a rotten, hypocritical world.

To hold tightly a hand that will not let go
While I shut myself off for a permanent sense of freedom,
And shed that last tear, one that will merge well with this frown.

Here I linger till that day;
The day I’ll get to really go away.
And trust me, you will not miss me.

PS: This created itself as I woke up on the day of my C slot exam dated 28/04/08. Need I say more?

In the Light of Fireflies

In the light of fireflies is a collection of poems written by Sudha Rajkumar. I got hold of a copy of the book and here’s a small review I thought I’d write.

The book, comprising of poems written over five years, gives the reader an insight into the thought process of someone who tries to recover from a shocking misfortune. The author has gracefully brought out the feelings and the emotions that defined her during the course of her life after her husband’s accident. The poems, simple though they may be, invoke questions on the mere existence of man. All through the book, one can see a sincere attempt to find answers to these questions and more. The book is, surprisingly, neither cynically pessimistic nor is it incredibly optimistic. Here is an excerpt, that I couldn’t help relating to, from a poem that I have bookmarked.

Rising to the peaks of happiness,
Flying free in air,
The very next moment falling down
Deep into the ocean of sadness.

Here’s the review in The Hindu and here’s the review at Vatsap?

Inspiration

Words carefully chosen,

Braided one after the other,
Perfectly, flawlessly.
Ideas, new and old alike,
Weaving their way through.
The flow remarkable,
The fabric exquisite.
A smile plays on the reader's face.

PS: Inspired from here.

Wasted

My mind; it drifts and speeds,
Farther and farther it flees;
Away from the din
Of sincere drilling machines.

They stare at us;
Those shameless zeroes and ones;
Have you not stared enough?
It is not funny anymore.

These mechanical steps I take,
These callous decisions I make,
These confused looks I don,
Need I say more?

I said I was strong,
Can I not be wrong?
Is it too much to ask?
Pray, tell me.

All of this belongs to me.
A life in them, I fail to see;
Chaste and pure,
Adored and cared for.

They say I am expressive;
I stop short of an expletive.
I have lost myself.
Help me search?

Gone

Gone are the days I used to wake up cheerfully to bright summer
mornings.
Gone are the days I donned a genuine smile on my face, instead of
this fake one that I have oh so beautifully mastered.
Gone are the days I used to wonder what is it that makes this world
so perfect.
Gone are the days I used to get marks above average in class.
Gone are the days I used to listen in each and every class.
Gone are the days I felt good about caring for someone.
Gone are the days I looked at a thing of beauty and admired it.
Gone are the days I wrote down every conversation I had with people I considered special.
Gone are the days I used to feel special.
Gone are the days I used to feel visible.
Gone are the days I thought I was lucky.
Gone are the days I had firm, unshakable principles of living.
Gone are the days I went to sleep with a calming feeling of satisfaction.

The Rainbow

I feel a rainbow within me.
The sun shines because I feel alive.
The rain pours because well, it just decided to.