Cotton-Candy Dreams

(lines inspired by my sleeping baby-sis)

She dreams . . .

about the closet of her elder sis –
boxes full of glittering jewels,
charm bracelets, silver chains,
golden, blue, black and clear nailpaint,
stilettos and lip-gloss, hairclips too,
cellphone that she never gives you . . .

She dreams. . .
’bout the toys she’ll show friends today;
how many stars the teacher gave;
what mom kept on the topmost shelf;
if SpiderMan died, who will help?
Barbie sets and stickers, Winnie the Pooh,
Hanna Montana, Kitretsu . . .

She dreams . . .

And she turns into a princess
or becomes a rockstar sensation;
discovers a river of mango-juice
and builds her chocolate mansion;
fights a monster and saves a prince,
slides down rainbows, skips on clouds
rides on shimmering butterfly wings
. . . she dreams .

Years will pass and she will know
that kisses don’t transform all those frogs;
at times you don’t reap what you sow.
That slowly, you outgrow a lot of things
though their memories breathe within.
You win fights and bets and races run
against all boys in class
but gotta lose to a chosen one . . .
All this plus a whole lot more,
but till her childhood takes its leave,
dad says let’s just let her believe

. . . and she dreams . . .

(Poem (c) Sanyukta)

(Pic courtesy mylot.com)

 

A Polynesian Rhapsody

I was experimenting with a style I hadn’t tried in poetry: experience projection. Describing through somebody else’s eyes, not your own. Writing as how they would have felt in a given situation. And I came up with this, inspired by “Pioneers of the Pacific” a recent article in the National Geographic Magazine (Roff Smith and Stephen Alvarez, March 2008) about an ancient race of Native Pacific explorers who discovered and colonized almost all of the hundreds of then uninhabited, scattered Pacific islands east of Australia, including Fiji, Tahiti, Easter Island, Polynesia, starting 3000 years back. Their daring voyages in those ancient times have been equated to lunar landings of 1900s in terms of their relative boldness at the time they were undertaken. 

They used to undertake long voyages on their hand-built and hand-rigged canoes (no fossil fuel power 3000 years ago ), searching for new islands to settle upon. It wasn’t like they were forced to move, or that there was pressure on the land. They numbered only a few thousands and the islands were way too many, nearly 300 in Fiji alone. They did it all just for the sake of exploring new frontiers. Researchers now say that one of the reasons why they were able to undertake such long and daring voyages was that they went against the direction of generally prevailing wind currents, so that even if they did not discover any new land, they could just turn around and the wind would take them back where they started from.
Eventually, in a 1000 next years or so, their descendants perhaps reached South America also, eastward from Australia.

So I kind of got inspired from the concept and the wonderful photography in the article and wrote something. It captures a particular moment in the life of two of these people—a couple. The man is setting out on an indefinite voyage to the sea, not knowing when he will be able to return, and even if he will return or not—because after all it’s going to be him against the ocean. Here is what his beloved says to him before he sets out.

 

Go forth, mariner
The blue stretches to infinity
Discover a new paradise
For the two of us…  

May the gods guide your way,

The heavens steer you right
And when your spot new land
Marked by towering banks of cloud
Beyond the dusky horizon
And billowing fumes from boiling lava
Oozing into the ocean,
May the guardian spirits
Protect your canoe from the heat.. 

But if you do not find it
Ride the trade winds back home soon
I’ll be waiting
In our moss-hung cave beneath the cliff
Obsidian will shimmer
Vivid tropical blossoms will sparkle
In my soul
Getting a whiff of
Your intoxicating scent of the sea
Paradise wherever you will be.

*Obsidian is a kind of beautiful natural volcanic glass used in that culture for making ornaments and stuff.

This collage was complied by me for the poem.

The text of the NGM article can be found here.
Pics courtesy Google Image Search, Corbis and Stephen Alvarez for NGM.
Poem (c) Sanyukta, March 2008.

 

 

Beyond Fences

That flower hanging beyond the fence
So lovely, so perfect
Just what I need
To enhance my dress
For today’s dance.
But I can’t reach it
Somehow it’s too far away
Over the garden fence
For my hand to get it
And there’s dad waiting in the car
For me to come
There’s not enough time
So I’ve got to go without
The flower I so badly want.

 

It often happens so in life
There are so many things
You want to get
You think you deserve them
Think you really need them
Things you strive for
Would even die for…
But the time to go always comes
You aren’t ever able to have
What you thought would
Enhance your life
You are never able to reach out
And grasp what is tempting you
Because there is no time left
And because these things are
Beyond fences.

 

Raindrops

Wrappped in silver haze
One leaf flutters, raindrop-kissed
Echo silent strains

 

 

Will You?

Give me a song that I would love to sing
Whisper to my soul some li’l sweet nothings…
I know you don’t wanna return from halfway
And neither do I.
So will you shelter me from the storm,
Or at least just try?

I offer you
The sparkling wine of me.
But honey,
Will you pour me my dreams
In a glass of reality…?

~Sherry.

 

Beyond Fences

That flower hanging beyond the fence
So lovely, so perfect
Just what I need
To enhance my dress
For today’s prom.
But I can’t reach it
Somehow it’s too far away
Over the garden fence
For my hand to get it
And there’s dad waiting in the car
For me to come
There’s not enough time
So I’ve got to go without
The flower I so badly want.

It often happens so in life
There are so many things
You want to get
You think you deserve them
Think you really need them
Things you strive for
Would even die for…
But the time to go always comes
You aren’t ever able to have
What you thought would
Enhance your life
You are never able to reach out
And grasp what is tempting you
Because there is no time left
And because these things are
Beyond fences.

 

"People"

Arti di wrote this post and it just reminded me of a similar poem I’d written a long time back.

“People”

It was a cold and misty night
Misty was the street and misty the streetlight
I cared not, but the wind had a bite
‘Cause Dad was driving me to a party site.

We were passing through a lonely lane,
What I saw, people look at with disdain.
A young woman, crouched by the roadside,
With a little kid, trying to hide.

Her clothes were torn by usage for years
Her once-comely face blotched with tears.
Only some rags keeping out cold and her fears
The kid very pale for want of care,
She watching passers with a silent stare.

I watched for a moment, but it went to the heart,
As the headlight beamed, I saw her start
A gleam of hope came in her eyes,
Seeing the car pass, which changed to a sigh.

I recalled her face, its pallid hue
Why I couldn’t forget her, I never knew
“What will she do, what will..”
I kept on thinking, till
“Time to step down,” I heard Dad say
I walked to the party, all glitter and no gray.

There were lots of people there
Talking in groups or pair
Sounds of music and of laughter
Were seeming to ring the rafter.

I contrasted the image,
Same was their and that girl’s age
Their clothes were ‘torn’ too, not with use,
But that was the latest rage!
Couldn’t help noticing, the difference was so immense
Between the rich and the poor, so high a fence.

There is this disparity wall
A beggar with a tattered shawl
But people buying furs in a trendy mall…
Doesn’t God hear the poor call?

Why this difference, what do you say?
I’ve wondered since that day.

 

Wrote a Haiku

“Clutched the coffee cup
Until no more warmth was left
In its emptiness. “