Echummi was married
even before she learnt to
wear a saree
and when she did learn
she learnt to wear white
only white
and often when she passed a mirror
what she saw would chill her spine..
A shaven head, bare hands
and bare forehead
Oh! how she would have loved
to see colors..
A big red bindi, green bangles
a purple saree-
She was taught to drape herself
In a way she could hide her curves
And so Echummi learnt
to conceal her beauty,
to hide her youth
and to drown her verves
''Don't look at men ''she was warned,
And Echummi learnt
to curb her senses
and her impulses;
she learnt to stifle her
dreams and her sobs;
She learnt to sleep on hard floors
not yearn for a caress or a touch;
Echummi learnt to cook every dish
And to abstain from delicious food,
She learnt to be absent
on all auspicious occasions
and not cross the path
of propitious people,
She learnt to go unnoticed
unrecognized
like a shadow on the wall..
Unheard, unseen
sinking into oblivion..
Echummi learnt to die
even when she was alive!
Categories:
verves, feelings, loss, solitude, sorrow,
Form: Free verse
Here with a loaf of bread
A jog of water to ease my frayed nerve
A Holy Book in its verves
And birds beside me singing in the wilderness
For the busy bee has no time for sorrow
And man is never so happy, as we think
It is pretty hard to tell what brings happiness
For power and wealth have both failed
I have wanted only one thing to keep me happy
And wanting that has wanted everything
I ask myself whether I am truly happy
That moment happiness ceases to exist
No man is happy but by comparison
In sorrow all is cheerless, dark and deadly
But one would suffer a great deal to be happy
Believe me; every man has his secret sorrows
Into each life some rain must drop
Some days must be dark and dreary
That instant, happiness produces no effect
Means nothing, becomes a variable relativity
A pursuit of happiness is hell on earth
The world is fun and comedy if you so think
A gravious futility and ostentatious vanity fair
Bliss and sorrow her eternal and regular guest
Categories:
verves, fate, happiness,
Form: Free verse
Edgy We Did Detect
After coffee drinking it can affect,
Each part of body you did select;
Case of nerves;
Vibes and verves;
Were somewhat edgy did detect.
Jim Horn
Categories:
verves, allegory, analogy,
Form: Limerick
Is Beethoven's ensemble fairer than nature's psalms?
Amidst a crowning sun: ears and eyes are drugged,
drenched with tender notes, orchestrated by greens,
inhale deep, the aromatic blossoms from the vine
with their lilting swell, brushed shades of fine wine.
Listen, listen to the sudden leap, the vibrato of bird song
or the raucous winds rubbing against house-corners
and the blithering brook carrying tales of who?
As you walk attuned to the crunch of the brown foliage.
When the cobalt skies turn to ash - gray mode,
hear heaven's vault lament, drizzling sobs to loud weeps
when day's face in angst pout or blush beside the beloved.
Feel your feet push or pull deluged by the liquid fingers
of the sea; in whites, they murmur ripples. They tremble
and stir, savor the flavor, a brief interlude:
Nature's power: tones, sharps, curls, pants. It slants
aiming to reach a rest upon blues of sky at its zenith,
The darting patterns curves, verves are diapered
wanting to delight, to wonder, to shock, to soothe.
Categories:
verves, beautiful, bird, drug, imagery,
Form: Ekphrasis
When I gazed at the sky,
Was devoid of celestial bliss to the eye,
Pitch dark, as dark as a black lie.
Obscured 'above the clouds' were,
Moon of my emulations and stars of materialism,
Rising upto infinite expanse and unlimited realm.
Ambitions coursed like blood through me,
Material desires unending like treadmill,
Unseable above murky dark clouds of philistinism.
Enthusiasm lost to adversities and fortune,
For lack of determination altered my traverse,
Time tricked me down like a running grave,
Rainbow that receeded as I advanced.
As the wind blew and the doors rattled,
Saturated clouds burst with the torrential rain,
Sweeping impatience and increased appetite
Cleared sky,of ambitions as hollow as soul of an echo.
Iniquity flees, and I find
my verves as new as the glistening silk of moon,
Determination as hard as a rock,
Metamorphosed into a millionaire's mistress.
And tireless I fly, conforming to all my aspirations,
Culminating at the crest, desires hurried like clouds,
And diligent I stand in complacency,
Where serenity is the denouement.
Written June 19th, 2013
Awarded 4th place win
Categories:
verves, desire,
Form: Prose Poetry