#89: Poetry Month - Week 2

Apr 13, 2020

Ponder by Madeleine Dore

I didn't do the thing today.
I didn't rise before seven. I didn't change.
I didn't pen lines of stream of consciousness.
I didn't take my time with a purposeful ritual.
I didn't diligently complete my tasks.
I didn't move stridently around the park.
I didn't write. I didn't start, I didn't finish.
I didn't achieve, I didn't progress.
And it didn't matter. For doing the thing today, isn't the measure of a day.

Madeleine is the founder of Extraordinary Routines, which aims to better understand how creativity and imperfection intersects.

Photo via Museums Victoria

Poems from The Alipore Post Poetry Month Submissions:

1. "once I caught a man
stealing food
from my bag so
I gave him
all the food
I was carrying

baba told me once
that hunger can
blur the line between
right and wrong quite easily."
-Sagar Singh
Read more poems on Lines here 2. "I think Beethoven heard thunderclaps when he saw
the standing ovation." -haiku by Vasvi Kejriwal

Read more poems on Silence here

3. "In my mother tongue
that is Urdu,
yesterday is kal,
today is aaj,
tomorrow is kal, again.
I often used to wonder,
why are two words,
meaning different
called the same?
today i've figured it all.
yesterday and tomorrow
will always remain the same,
unless I do something
to change it, today.
and that is how,
it is kal, aaj and kal again. "
-Urdu by Ambreen Saniya

More poems on Yesterday here
4. "The language of comfort
Does not sit well on my tongue,
I am inept at speaking it,
And even the words that I know,
I mispronounce.
The tone isn’t right as well
It is shrill at times,
And at others, it comes out as a plea,
Both unlike the melody
In which some sing its song.
But I don’t give up,
That’s one thing I admire about me,
I let my body trust me enough
To show me where it hurts,
Pain doesn’t end, but suffering does,
And my body is just waiting
For me to learn the difference."
-Riya Roy
Read more poems on Comfort here

5. "i went to the market
to pick up a kilo of poetry,
because inspiration
has been in short supply recently.
moby doesn't torment me as much,
and i'm all out of bluebirds and
thought-foxes,
i've fallen out of love with lolita
and bovary is too busy reading, to notice.
i spend most of my days
in the kitchen,
begging my garlic to peel easy,
and my onions not to burn,
my tea to stay strong
and my curd, not to sour.
so i'm going to the market,
because even if i don't find poetry,
i'll maybe find some peas and cauliflower
for dinner." -Sandhya Kannan

More poems on Poetry here