The Syrian Painter by Dareen Director
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.
________________________
umashankar
@uspandey
June 3, 2012 at 10:42 pm
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…
June 3, 2012 at 11:05 pm
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!
June 3, 2012 at 10:48 pm
Do you really have a gap toothed smile? JK…:) Learnt the word ‘pallid’. Loved the ‘festering ambitions’.
June 3, 2012 at 11:06 pm
You bet! Hope you won’t stop commenting now! 😀
June 4, 2012 at 12:58 am
Lol…..hahaha.
June 3, 2012 at 11:05 pm
no one can write like you Uma. i don’t call you the best writer in the blogsphere for nothing. a standing applause.
June 3, 2012 at 11:07 pm
A million thanks to you, Deb. And you can sit down now! 😀
June 3, 2012 at 11:55 pm
oh yes, of course, otherwise how will i complete the post which i am writing to torture you all 😀
June 4, 2012 at 7:39 am
I am trembling with fear already!
June 4, 2012 at 9:52 am
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…
June 4, 2012 at 12:33 pm
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.
June 4, 2012 at 4:35 pm
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 !!
June 5, 2012 at 11:21 am
Suranga, I am awed at the speed you weave your poetic replies..were you an English teacher/lecturer by any chance? 🙂
June 5, 2012 at 12:21 pm
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 !
June 5, 2012 at 6:26 pm
That’s a gift then..:)
June 5, 2012 at 8:17 pm
Suranga, that is as breathtaking a compliment as you are a poetess!
June 4, 2012 at 10:25 am
…par excellence! Congrats, Uma, and thank you!
June 4, 2012 at 12:33 pm
Many thanks for the compliment, Amit.
June 4, 2012 at 10:46 am
Speechless…….brilliant once again.
June 4, 2012 at 12:34 pm
Thanks for your kind words, Alka.
June 4, 2012 at 1:00 pm
Wonderfully well written!!!
June 4, 2012 at 4:07 pm
Many thanks, Debak.
June 4, 2012 at 1:21 pm
Awesome words, well arranged 🙂
June 4, 2012 at 9:28 pm
Thanks, Karthik, for appreciating the arrangement.
June 4, 2012 at 1:45 pm
Wow, it should be in textbooks so kids can learn how such few words can convey so much.
June 4, 2012 at 4:09 pm
That is a mighty compliment! How will I carry it home? Thank you, so much, Rachna.
June 4, 2012 at 5:55 pm
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.
June 4, 2012 at 2:14 pm
very well written. I am not a very poetic kind of person but still I enjoyed reading it 🙂
June 4, 2012 at 4:10 pm
I am glad you appreciated this, Jas!
June 4, 2012 at 2:31 pm
” … my tears are black”
This line reminds me of “Tumhari Amrita”. Lovely.
June 4, 2012 at 4:16 pm
I am still to read that poignant tale of unrequited love. I assume it is a huge compliment! Thank you, so much, Sudha ji.
June 4, 2012 at 5:01 pm
Don’t read it. Watch the play. And you know what I meant. 🙂
June 4, 2012 at 2:32 pm
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.
June 4, 2012 at 4:22 pm
Thank you for your kind words, Akshay. The lines of my poem bear rather humble thoughts.
June 4, 2012 at 4:11 pm
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
June 4, 2012 at 4:27 pm
Glad to be of service, Bikram!
June 4, 2012 at 6:51 pm
Well written! But too dark 😥
June 4, 2012 at 8:08 pm
Dark is a relative term.
June 4, 2012 at 8:59 pm
Exquisite piece of poetry. Loved it!! 🙂
June 4, 2012 at 9:29 pm
Many thanks, Neha. Glad you liked it.
June 4, 2012 at 10:45 pm
So grim- your words pierce the heart. Superb wordsmith you certainly are!
June 5, 2012 at 7:54 am
I feel honoured by your compliment. These are but sporadic attempts to pen the pain.
June 5, 2012 at 7:40 am
Contradictions abound and thrive for the living.
Wow the thoughts just hit so often with your powerful words!
June 5, 2012 at 7:57 am
Contradictions, and at times, fusions that hold their sway at life. Thank you, Deepak, for understanding the pain of the living.
June 5, 2012 at 9:08 am
my first time here…and this is a ravishingly beautiful piece…conveys emotions with stunning accuracy, Uma Shankar..! Immaculate…
June 5, 2012 at 11:32 am
Welcome, Panchali. Many thanks for the wonderful compliment.
June 5, 2012 at 5:10 pm
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……..
June 5, 2012 at 9:04 pm
Thank you, so much Shimmeshine for getting to the essence of the poem, and welcome to my blog!
June 6, 2012 at 12:11 am
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. :))
June 6, 2012 at 11:16 am
Thanks. Hemingway is deceptively simple. That quote applies beautifully to that great author himself.
June 6, 2012 at 12:28 am
“The grief runs rife”…took me a lot of time to understand the essence of this poem Sir. Indeed a masterpiece.
June 6, 2012 at 11:14 am
Thanks for your patience, Mak!
June 6, 2012 at 5:08 pm
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.
June 6, 2012 at 7:13 pm
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.
June 6, 2012 at 8:22 pm
Superb! I wish I could write like you someday. 🙂
June 6, 2012 at 9:26 pm
You already write well enough. Many thanks to you!
June 6, 2012 at 9:17 pm
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.
June 6, 2012 at 9:25 pm
Dark it is! Many thanks for the acknowledgement.
June 7, 2012 at 2:37 pm
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. 🙂
June 7, 2012 at 3:42 pm
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.
June 7, 2012 at 6:00 pm
Agree with TF. Very dark tones used here; nevertheless, portrayed beautifully.
June 7, 2012 at 8:14 pm
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.
June 7, 2012 at 11:41 pm
Read the post. Quite scary indeed and a shocking revelation of history.
June 8, 2012 at 1:09 am
what an unforgettable masterpiece!!
June 8, 2012 at 8:18 pm
Many thanks for those words.
June 8, 2012 at 9:24 am
Speechless.
June 8, 2012 at 8:17 pm
Thanks.
June 9, 2012 at 6:49 am
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.
June 9, 2012 at 8:54 am
Thanks, Raj, for the out-of-the-world compliment.
June 11, 2012 at 11:42 am
Strange are the ways you seem to play with words to weave!
June 27, 2012 at 10:59 pm
I suppose that is a compliment! 😀
January 11, 2013 at 10:13 pm
Amazingly brilliant piece of writing….!
January 12, 2013 at 6:18 pm
Thank you, Saurabh.