#90: Poetry Month - Week 3½
Hello,
I don't know about you, but I've started making my peace with the lockdown (finally). My therapist said not to mull over the things I have no control over, so I've been kinder tomyself and spend my days writing poems, doodling and learning new ways of seeing and making tunes when inspiration strikes.
I've also been reading more poetry than I've ever read because of National Poetry Writing Month, and the poetry writing challenge I'm running on the Instagram page. Here are some of my favourite poems from The Alipore Post Poetry Month submissions that have been coming in. You can read more featured poems on each prompt in the the link after each poem.
-Rohini
Featured poems from The Alipore Post Poetry Month:
Artwork: Window Garden, Susan Hunt-Wulkowicz
1. We would have never scarred each other's soul
if we ever felt complete within ourselves.
-Shisha Chhotray
Read more poems on IF here
2. Summers are always mercurial,
and even as the days end unreconciled,
there is music and noise
which keep the world aroused
deep into the night.
There is a balancing which somehow
brings nature and man into
a criminal reconciliation.
We all become creatures of a season.
-from Summer by Sunil Bhandari
Read more poems on Summer here
3. My mother still removes the seeds from oranges before she gives them to me
Separating the sweet from the bitter
Offering me only the nicest pieces
Acting like my own shield of armour
Maybe that's why I've always been an eternal optimist
How can I possibly know the taste of sorrow
When I've only had to taste the sweet?
-Suganya Read more poems on Mother here
4. as we find ourselves
coddled at home,
feeling blue
amidst this chaos,
the green secretly flourishes.
-Sakshee Joshi
Read more poems on Green here
5. if life is a house
we are like broken windows
seeking some light in
-Ambreen Saniya
Read more poems on Window here
6. i asked baba
what was the
most important
lesson of this pandemic?
He switched off
the air-conditioner and said,
"you normal
could be
someone's dream.
Be grateful."
Read more poems on Normal here
7. I wouldn't know how to
weave the unclarity
the state ordered starvation
the nightmare of migration
and the blind eye synonymous
to our normalcy
into a poem
-Samreen Chhabra
Read more poems on Blind here
8. you hear the word fragrant
and you think of floral remains
on temple premises
and bottles of perfume
and the words
fray - frazzle - ruffle / grunt - groan - tone / vagrant - flagrant - in flagrante delicto
and how you have now
been caught red-handed
trying to pluck out a poem
that is simply unwilling
to bloom tonight
-Dhruvi Modi
Read more poems on Fragrant here
9. The world never fails to surprise.
Before bed, everything is upside down,
The price of crude oil plunging below zero,
No sign of a regular sleep cycle,
China tries to feed the world bear bile,
A delivery guy is accused of stealing someone's dog.
Yet somehow, by morning,
The economy shows some hope for recovery,
My energy levels are back on track,
The lost flamingoes return to Bombay's wetlands,
The dog sleeps safely at home.
-Rohini Kejriwal Read more poems on Surprise here
Recommended Listening:
Dheere / Deewarein - Sulk Station
Letting Go While Holding On - Nine Inch Nails Coffee Break Sessions (vinyl playlists!) Locked in: Mental Health, circa Covid-19 (with Dr. Shyam Bhat and Anna Chandy) Brené Brown's new podcast Unlocking Us Mysterious Teacher by Conor Provenzano (The music is eclectic and envisions someone alone in a cave with only reflections, emotions and natural splendor as company.) Disclosure | Boiler Room: Streaming From Isolation Quarantene - Josh LaFayette (to the tune of Dolly Parton's Jolene)
Links of the Week:
What we should do about Covid-19: P.Sainath (a crucial read)
The pandemic is a portal: Arundhati Roy
A flock of zines by Austin Kleon
Billy Barr's movie recommendations (he's the Hermit who shaped Climate-Change Science)
Design Fights COVID (So proud of Art&Found for doing this.)
Booooooom made its Slack free for all
Announcing: The Alipore Post Memory Box
In an attempt to document personal histories as a community, I'm starting The Alipore Post Memory Box.
The idea is to share one photograph/text/piece of music/artwork/object anonymously that you would like to leave behind as your legacy to the future. It could be a personal memory, something you want future generations to experience, or something that represents these times. Submit your memory here.
All the anonymous submissions will be published on the day the world is officially declared free of COVID-19.
If you like this newsletter and want to support all my crazy ideas and projects, please consider becoming a Patron or Buy me a virtual coffee :) I'd be forever grateful.
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