Poetically Speaking

Poems are all about expressing your emotions. Poems help you to heal your inner child by addressing the pain and taking it out on paper. When someone writes a poem, unlike a prose, he doesn’t need a context or a story to build it up. A poem is a standalone, it just needs expression, the poet’s pen and it flows on paper.

When I was in school, my friends and I used to wonder why were poems so important. We were made to learn and recite ‘Daffodils’ by William Wordsworth, poems by Robert Frost and many others. We used to practice for hours, our tongues rolling over the words and their correct pronunciation with the teachers constantly trying to correct us. But as years passed, I realized poems were all about expressing one self.

//When you write a poem

When you write a poem or a couplet or a song,
It doesn’t need you to think for long.
It flows like the river,
And it finds a home in your heart.
It is more than a work of art.
It is a dictat from your higher self,
It is the universe conversing and consoling you
Through these words it is telling you what you need to know or what you need to do
A poem is like music that doesn’t require you to think
It is a symphony, a song that you already know how to sing
It is a true reflection of your inner voice
Which you sometimes can’t hear in everyday life
Because of the incessant noise
So, when a poem rains in your heart
Let it drench you with its words
Let it flow
For then it will whisper to you
What you really need to learn
What you really need to know.//

I have often caught my self scrolling endlessly on my phone. One Instagram reel leads to another. The minutes turn into hours and I forget what I had to do. This seems to be a new pandemic where we mindlessly gaze at the random pictures, videos and the words that the phone shows us.

//I am a scroller

I am a scroller by profession,
Trapped in the matrix of this addiction.
My thumbs are forever scrolling on the screen,
Perhaps they have evolved and specialized for this roll,
Through posts, through life they just scroll.
I can’t even remember the last post that I had really ‘seen’.
Time flies when I scroll and my thoughts are always in a disarray,
I scroll through new stores,
I scroll through those video recipes,
I don’t know when this fetish will cease.
I listen yet don’t remember what people say,
An addiction, an obsession, call it what you may,
It may be LinkedIn or fb or twitter,
But my life is all about scrolling into nothingness every day.//

As a single mother, there are times one longs for someone to be there. Someone who could understand, who could be a friend, a partner. However, most of the times, when you meet someone, this hope is dashed against the solid rocks of reality and you realize that you were just chasing a shadow- what you see is not necessarily the truth.

//Chasing a shadow
The sun cast a golden hue,
Heaving a sigh.
Passing over the oceans rim,
As if saying goodbye.

I wandered along the sandy shore,
Seeking some kind of light.
A little firefly flew to me,
And eased some of my plight.

Far ahead, in a distance,
I thought I saw someone call.
A wave of a hand or was it a leaf,
I couldn’t figure it out at all.
Yet I followed the voice.
For it soothed my soul,
Somehow I felt, it will help me,
To reach my goal.

On I walked, mesmerized by the night sky,
I hardly saw those beings that passed me by.
The moon laughed at me,
Yet I did not pay heed,
All that mattered to me was my own need.

I reached the place where I thought I would find,
The solace that often eludes my kind.
All I found was a leaf waving in the wind,
Giving my hopes a cruel blow,
A laugh escaped my lips,
For I was chasing a shadow.//

Our phones are our lives. Some people cannot live without their phones for even a second. What happens when a husband confesses his love for his phone to the love of his life- his wife?

//My phone- my life

Darling, I would like to make a confession,
My phone is my obsession.
I cannot live without my phone,
Everything else, I can easily disown,
Oh, please don’t be mad!
You are still my one true love, I’ve ever had!
And it does not mean I don’t love you, please understand,
It is just that I don’t miss you, when I have my phone in my hand.
You see it is so beautiful with such a sleek design,
Please don’t be jealous, oh wife of mine!
My phone is so intelligent that it keeps me busy with no time to spare,
So, I can play games, chat, tweet without anyone getting in my hair.
But I still care for you,
But my phone offers me a lot of variety, there is so much to do.
I can browse the Facebook all day long,
All those pretty ladies,
Oh darling, you need to be strong!
My phone never answers me back or looks for a new fight,
I can keep browsing it day or night.
Even when you call me to know how I am,
I can talk to you through skype or the phone cam.
Those are age-old ideas of spending every minute in each other’s company.
I’d rather that we live happily and I send you a ring from Tiffany.
My phone gives me the option to constantly upgrade to a model new,
Wifey, I am afraid that is not the case with you.
But I cannot forget you, I won’t dare,
See how many WhatsApp forwards I’ve sent you when you were not there.
I can carry my work home in my phone,
And I can also convince my boss for a promotion with a new ringtone.
My phone reminds me about food, birthday and everything big and small,
If I did not have my phone, I wouldn’t have remembered your birthday or our anniversary at all!
Oh! Where are you going, what did I do?
What? You want a divorce just because I love my phone more than you? //

Most women would like to look younger than their current age. However, men seem to think differently. They love looking older when they are young. How do they do that? They grow beards.

//Of men and their beards

Bushels of hair everywhere,
The head is full of them too.
Boys become men with beards,
Apparently, their ladies love them too.
I learnt in my history class that men have evolved ever since the early man days,
But this beard seems to be an inherent feature on every young face.
The modern trendy electronic shavers have no more takers,
Since men have chosen to become beard cultivators.
The honor of the moustache is a thing of past,
Now, it is the beard which lasts,
The girlfriends and the wife can be forsaken without a thought,
When the war to protect this wild forest is fought.
Every bit of nutrition is important for this facial hair,
The sneezes, the food, all gets trapped there.
They think they look intellectual and very mature,
Ask an ape or a gorilla, he probably wouldn’t be sure.
Not to offend men who keep beard as a passion,
Maybe covering your face with hair is the latest fashion,
The apes, the monkeys and the orangutans don’t really have a choice,
They cannot cut and regrow their beard like the boys.
I hope the permanency of the beard will not lead to a genetic mutation,
We might just find ready-made beards on the faces of the babies in the next generation. //

The world of today is competitive. Jobs are difficult to find and even to hold on to. And then there is this issue of retirement! But politics is a profession where you don’t retire even if you are above 70. I love this profession!

//To be a politician
I have tried and tested all careers in my lifetime,
But never have I known a career so fine.
I want to be a politician for the rest of my life.
The initial struggle is hard, I agree,
But in life nothing is easy or free.
But once you walk into the echelons of power,
Then all your dreams and desires can flower.
The job security is high,
If you get elected, you get pensions till you die.
Subsidies are showered,
In the corridors of power.
The taxpayers pay the price,
For the mobile bills, electricity bills, house rent, petrol, train journeys,
And for the airplane and the helicopter that flies.
If you manage to please the high command,
Whether you are 65 or 70, you will remain in high demand.
In rest of the professions, this is the age when you retire,
But in politics, as you grow older, you fly higher.
These days, there are people to manage your popularity.
You just need to be a bit controversial and witty.
The rest is done by the social media teams.
I really hope I become a politician and live this dream.//