
In the recesses of the gap-toothed smile
my tears are black.
Pallid stars in the inky blue
of a dying sky.
A fly on the windshield of bliss
wriggling in vacuum,
Hanging still through swerves and sweeps
of a listless drive.
Burn it on a pile of logs
when my face freezes in a grin,
lest like festering ambitions
the grief runs rife.
Knead the joy with mud
and cinders from the ash,
but watch those fingers, my friend,
my tears are black.
________________________
Almost Rumiesque…USP. I cannot comment for my words will take away the beauty of yours…so let there be silence as I allow yours to engulf my senses…
Bhavana, I am but a flickering candle to the light of the sun that you talk of. Yet, I feel proud to have earned that compliment. May God bless you!
Do you really have a gap toothed smile? JK…:) Learnt the word ‘pallid’. Loved the ‘festering ambitions’.
You bet! Hope you won’t stop commenting now! 😀
Lol…..hahaha.
no one can write like you Uma. i don’t call you the best writer in the blogsphere for nothing. a standing applause.
A million thanks to you, Deb. And you can sit down now! 😀
oh yes, of course, otherwise how will i complete the post which i am writing to torture you all 😀
I am trembling with fear already!
The latest model Bliss,
windshielded
and sunshielded
in twin layers.
He wriggles
ceaselessly
within,
sometimes with purpose
and sometimes
in anger,
but legs sensibly anchored
in the vacuum of thoughts
through
the Screeches
and Brakings.
Quick button squirts of water,
streaking by on the glass,
and he dips a toe
to gauge the flow
and lets himself go,
free,
hopeful,
and grinning away,
joy squirting out
through the
Gap in the Smile.
No pallid stars,
no dying skies,
and
a collapsing pile of
unburnt life logs
convicted of misleading the mud.
He flutters out
free
in mind and body,
the eyes full with giltedged tears…
Black ?
That was
just
about
the latest
lachrymal brand sunglasses
worn in the last harsh summer…
A startling sunshine melody that blows the darkness, grief and every thing black to smithreens! I feel blessed to have written a prequel to this exqusite poem.
It bothers the hell out of me when someone I have met writes a piece with heavy macabre overtones replete with dark nights, logs,cinders ,ashes, and black tears. I read your fantastic poem several times to understand and each time the same feeling was transmitted. My poem is a piece of advice from an old lady who has possibly seen it all …..and yes,….. am delighted about the smithereens !!
Suranga, I am awed at the speed you weave your poetic replies..were you an English teacher/lecturer by any chance? 🙂
Latha, thank you for the kind words. And no, I have never been a teacher of English , ever, in my life. Just a boring IT person. But I have written English and Marathi poetry as a child, and now enjoy blogging, have my own prose, poetry , and medical (!) blogs. Sometimes , one can say things in poetry, better than in prose. USP’s posts are so awesome, that it takes a while for it all to sink in. And even the prose posts are like poetry, hence my replies, again, in poetry !
That’s a gift then..:)
Suranga, that is as breathtaking a compliment as you are a poetess!
…par excellence! Congrats, Uma, and thank you!
Many thanks for the compliment, Amit.
Speechless…….brilliant once again.
Thanks for your kind words, Alka.
Wonderfully well written!!!
Many thanks, Debak.
Awesome words, well arranged 🙂
Thanks, Karthik, for appreciating the arrangement.
Wow, it should be in textbooks so kids can learn how such few words can convey so much.
That is a mighty compliment! How will I carry it home? Thank you, so much, Rachna.
You deserve it! I am generally pretty khadoos with my compliments :). On your shoulders perhaps as a burden of my expectations from your writing that becomes loftier with each passing day.
very well written. I am not a very poetic kind of person but still I enjoyed reading it 🙂
I am glad you appreciated this, Jas!
” … my tears are black”
This line reminds me of “Tumhari Amrita”. Lovely.
I am still to read that poignant tale of unrequited love. I assume it is a huge compliment! Thank you, so much, Sudha ji.
Don’t read it. Watch the play. And you know what I meant. 🙂
Sir, I am not sure whether I understood the essence of the poem in totality but it is always such a pleasure and a privilege to read your poems. They are in a completely different league. How I wish I could write like you.
Thank you for your kind words, Akshay. The lines of my poem bear rather humble thoughts.
Oh my .. wish i was a poet too .. but then at lest coming here I learnt a few new words that I dont think I have even read or heard ..
you learn something new every day 🙂
tears are black.. right
Glad to be of service, Bikram!
Well written! But too dark 😥
Dark is a relative term.
Exquisite piece of poetry. Loved it!! 🙂
Many thanks, Neha. Glad you liked it.
So grim- your words pierce the heart. Superb wordsmith you certainly are!
I feel honoured by your compliment. These are but sporadic attempts to pen the pain.
Contradictions abound and thrive for the living.
Wow the thoughts just hit so often with your powerful words!
Contradictions, and at times, fusions that hold their sway at life. Thank you, Deepak, for understanding the pain of the living.
my first time here…and this is a ravishingly beautiful piece…conveys emotions with stunning accuracy, Uma Shankar..! Immaculate…
Welcome, Panchali. Many thanks for the wonderful compliment.
Not so much into poetry……but the way you conveyed the emotions, left me blank for a while. I was lost in my own world, thinking and rethinking those words, until I got the essence 🙂
Beautiful……..
Thank you, so much Shimmeshine for getting to the essence of the poem, and welcome to my blog!
Very profound. I’m sure these lines are also just the ‘tip of the iceberg’ (that was a good Hemingway quote that you tweeted out. :))
Thanks. Hemingway is deceptively simple. That quote applies beautifully to that great author himself.
“The grief runs rife”…took me a lot of time to understand the essence of this poem Sir. Indeed a masterpiece.
Thanks for your patience, Mak!
Hi USP
Wonderful use of words – some of the phrases are exquisite; but I have not been able to discern the images you wished to convey through those lines. Am not good at interpreting poetry. But I love the medium and you use it well.
JM, through the contradicting emotions of life, I’d rather choose the one that has been overwhelmingly mine. And lest some of the pain rub off on the reader, he should be on guard.
Many thanks for appreciating my words.
Superb! I wish I could write like you someday. 🙂
You already write well enough. Many thanks to you!
Amazingly dark imagery you have managed to create. Don’t exactly understand exactly what the poem is about. But Poetry is more about emotion than understanding. I got the overall dark mood and guess that is all that matters.
Dark it is! Many thanks for the acknowledgement.
Sorry to be here so late, but this one is too beautiful for words, pun intended. Black tears? I am there with Suranga when she says that it pierces the heart when someone close to you talks of them. And her poem indeed added that spark to make the black glisten with joy. 🙂
Blessed are those who have a shoulder to lean on. Yet, often people are alone in agony, certainly so in death. Many thanks for appreciation and your concern.
Agree with TF. Very dark tones used here; nevertheless, portrayed beautifully.
Thank you, SC. Today itself I read about ‘Joseph Stalin’s deadly railway to nowhere’ by Lucy ash at BBC News. Do read it. And that was not the only grim thing to have happened. There are many dark tones in the world indeed, darker beyond imagination at times.
Read the post. Quite scary indeed and a shocking revelation of history.
what an unforgettable masterpiece!!
Many thanks for those words.
Speechless.
Thanks.
Simply brilliant. I have to find new adjectives for your writing genius. Such richness of both vocabulary and thought! Every post of yours is a privilege to read.
Thanks, Raj, for the out-of-the-world compliment.
Strange are the ways you seem to play with words to weave!
I suppose that is a compliment! 😀
Amazingly brilliant piece of writing….!
Thank you, Saurabh.