Tag: courage

VERSE | INERTIA

On By Mahvash K. M.In poetry, truth, verse, womenwriters, writingLeave a comment 
I wake up today
There’s a keening in my heart
It sits there familiarly
Waiting for me
To take its hand and walk with it
Feel its ardor, talk to it 
Make it wholly, soully mine

But the lethargy that is life
Has been pulling for a while
At my seams, they’ve come undone
I cannot find it in me now
To acknowledge this someone 
This something that looks at me
With glowing eyes, dark and deep

I stay aware of it
But like a balm 
I keep it topical
Let it rouse me for a while
With dreams of higher things
Dire things, of touching lives
Even a few, maybe just two
Or even just one …

But now I have also learnt 
To preserve myself 
That strain of goodness 
Stands no chance 
In the dulling sludge of circumstance 
And a will that’s willowy 
Bendable, collapsible 
And so when it stares at me
A cosmos of possibilities 
I look away
But I stay aware 
Of its unsettling symmetry 

It’s easier this way
As the days spill
Into each other
Unremarkable 
I tell myself at least I’m not
Doing anything to hurt the lot
Humankind, neighbours, the child
Snotty-nosed running wild
In the streets where a mother sits 
On the pavement resigned
Circled by dead dreams and things 
Spaces that once gleamed with hope
And all the while I tell myself 
At least my intentions are good.

Image: Mia Lane

VERSE | EYES WIDE SHUT

On By Mahvash K. M.In poetry, satire, verse, womenwriters, writingLeave a comment

This is an unlovely ode to bad relationships. It is also for all those still tempted to give toxic relationships chance number 2 and 3 and God forbid even more. May you keep moving ahead, above, beyond.

That gaze was just too intense 
My head felt like a beaten egg
Yolks and white all combined 
To give me wishy-washy legs 

I was usually in control 
My heart never rested on my sleeve 
But that stare, your yen laid bare 
Made my ribs into a sieve 

And so my sage old heart popped out 
Of its latticed bulwarked den 
It leaped gaily down my arm
And upon my sleeve I wore it then 

It leaped and skipped all the while 
That you sat to my left 
I tried to brush it off my arm 
But my heart dodged me, it was deft 

By and by it took up the song 
Of new love, brazen and bold 
My thrumming blood picked up the tune 
As it danced in its venous folds

I felt my eyes light up like stars 
My face catch on wild fire 
As you cast your eerie spell 
Of infatuation and desire 

The rest as they say is history 
It doesn’t behoove my gentle pen
To transcribe and eternalize
Chapters closed with an amen! 

Like loaded missiles, your eyes today
Once again bore into me
That day I was the prey you sought
But today I am armed to my teeth

That gaze is just deception cold
It’s so clear, now I can see
As back it kicks and ricochets 
Into the desert of your being.
Image: A.J. Palmer

NEW BOOK RELEASE!

On By Mahvash K. M.In bookworm, childrensbooks, kidlit, Kidsbooks, poetry, verse, womenwriters, writing2 Comments

“QUIRKY CREATURES, AN EGG, A FRUIT AND A STAR“

Putting my children’s-book-writer hat on for a bit to introduce my third book in the Curious Animals & Quirky Creatures series: QUIRKY CREATURES, AN EGG, A FRUIT AND A STAR.
From the little bee with the huge head, to the mischievous dragonfly trying to steal ladybird’s spots, to the extra bright little firefly, there are ten little stories in this collectible about delightful and funny creatures.
Every poem tells of a little act of courage, humour and kindness as each of the little creatures saves the day in its own little way.

IN SRI LANKA: The book is available at Sarasavi, Pendi, Expographics, Seyln, Barefoot and The Jam Fruit Tree bookstores.

IN PAKISTAN: It should be on the shelves in Liberty Books and Readings at the end of July 2023. It will also be available with my aunt Mrs. Nayyar Liaqat.

IN DUBAI: July onwards, you can get your copy from my sister Zarmina by sending her a WhatsApp message.

A big thank you to my illustrator, Chrish Vindhy for the beautiful artwork of the book.

It’s been a fabulous journey with my children’s literature over the last 2 years with over 700 books sold. So thank you to all who have bought, read and gifted them 💕
Here’s to #raisingreaders

VERSE | SOME DAYS

On By Mahvash K. M.In hope, poetry, verse, womenwriters, writingLeave a comment 
Hope visited me today 
She brought Grace and Calm 
I looked at them comfusedly 
Why had these three come?

I was lying in my bed 
With Dejection and with Dread 
I’d been in their company a while 
They had spun their grisly web

I had lain in its hoary mesh
While its tendrils reached within 
Shutting out the daylight hours
My world was dark and grim

The ache that they had released 
Had also roused Masochist 
He clutched me now in his eerie hold
I just couldn’t break that spell 

The rushing, gushing tides of pain 
Numbed memories that played 
Over and over in a loop 
Relentless, without a break 

My heart bled from the holes that gaped
Wider with every wave 
Of agony that swept through me 
I had no desire to be saved 

But now there was Courage too 
With Love she looked at me 
Grouping together in my chest 
They held hands with the other three

Their other hands lay on my heart
Staunching the essence that fled
Out into the ravening veins 
Of Dejection and of Dread 

A gentle warmth spread through my flesh 
I finally saw some light 
Flitting, peeping, twinkling through 
The blue gauze in my eyes 

Hope and Calm and Love together 
With Courage and Grace today 
Came to sit with me a while 
As in my bed I lay.
Image: Mireille Laroche

VERSE | FIRE QUEEN

On By Mahvash K. M.In hope, poetry, verse, womenwriters, writingLeave a comment 
There’s a girl in the sunset 
Her hair is ablaze 
Her dupatta streams 
In the arid breeze 
I can’t see her face 
I catch my breath 
She stands there still, so still 
I see the horizon seethe and rage
Scorch her in its red-hot rampage  
I close my eyes
I’m afraid to look
Afraid to see the heavens burn
Afraid to see the ashes blown
Of the girl that is standing there alone 

But then 

My stinging eyelids fly open, I see
She’s still there
She looks back at me 
The blaze of the sun 
Now a shimmering red
Halo around her head
Like a crown. She won’t go down 
When her world careens
When her world burns all around 
Grey smoke rising from the sea 
Of charred, asphyxiated dreams 
She stands there serene
She gathers the light around her being 
She smiles, she gleams
She is the fire queen.

VERSE | A BLOOM OF ONE’S OWN

On By Mahvash K. M.In Joy, poetry, serenity, verse, womenwriters, writingLeave a comment 
Sometimes I’m a foxtail orchid 
Needing extra care and warmth
Sometimes I’m a leaf skipping
Where the wind takes me along

Sometimes I feel fresh and light
Like just-cut summer grass
Sometimes things get cold and grey
Then I’m the winter frost

Sometimes earth’s shadowy arms
Are where I want to hide
I’m then the discreet Cereus that flowers
Once in a great big while

Other times my gladdened heart
Beats strong and rhythmically 
My courage drapes me like a cloak 
Then I’m the intrepid weed 

Every day brings a new avatar 
A new sensibility 
I hug the day that comes my way 
Or watch it drift from my safe niche 

Nature’s blooms that make up my being 
Rest in their special spaces 
Each day I become the seed that keeps
Life marking its measured paces.

VERSE | REAWAKENING

On By Mahvash K. M.In hope, Joy, poetry, verse, womenwriters, writing1 Comment 
I remember, I remember 
A little girl who did delight 
My spirit as she flew on wings
Of liquid golden light 

She was filled with compassion
And a courage that fairly roared 
The world was her oyster
She had found her wings and soared 

But then I lost sight of that 
Special one when I left home 
To let marriage settle me 
In its no nonsense folds

Time went on as it does 
And more and more I found myself 
Thinking of the little girl
A tender nostalgia for a friend 

I looked for her on winter trips
That I occasionally made back home 
But she seemed to have melted 
Into the fading mists of dawn 

When life came full circle and 
My youngest daughter was wed
I came back to write and roost
To my childhood homestead 

There one balmy summer day 
As I sat poised to write 
The story that had been hiding away
In the tumultuousness of life 

The little girl peeked out at me
Not from behind the door 
But from the page that I was writing on 
From the ink on it that flowed 

That day I met her again 
Her happy laugh warmed my heart
Even as she flitted in and out 
Of my vision at the start 

But then she gently held my hand 
As I wrote page after page
And I remembered, I remembered 
As I found myself again.

VERSE | THE FAIRYTALE

On By Mahvash K. M.In poetry, socialissues, truth, verse, writing2 Comments

A little disclaimer: This particular piece is not a critique of the institution of marriage itself, but the warped manner in which it is used to keep young women in check. To prevent them from breaking through the heavily-manned barriers created for them by society.

LISTEN TO THE POEM BEING READ AT: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZSddAaCSr/?k=1
Yes, I waited a great big while 
For my knight in shining armour to arrive
To sweep me off my impatient feet
To finally enable me to start living my life

He came to our door, not on a steed 
That’s the whimsical stuff of fairytales
Not really rigged for the 21st century
The rest of the story I was sure prevailed

And so he came to our house in a car
His mother and his sisters too
I dutifully served them tea and samosas
His eyes were fixed on me like glue

I tried to think of what I felt
Did he stir something in my heart
Did I feel a like-mindedness
Was he the catalyst to my big, bright start!

The only thing rolling around in my head 
The only thing that I could really see
Was the freedom to do all that I couldn’t now
That sunlit pathway stretched ahead of me

I remember I smiled a little too much
He grinned like a loon right back
And so it was decided auspiciously 
That we’d be married in three months stat!

The wedding was done, it was T-plus six months
And I sat at my dressing table
I looked at the face of the woman in front 
Was she the euphoric lass of fables?

She looked back at me confusedly
I pretended I didn’t quite read
What her eyes were so desperately telling me
That rabbit hole was just too deep

I looked away, this wasn’t the first time
Of my inability to face the ghosts 
Of broken hearts and shattered dreams 
Of being deluded, of feeling lost

I had grown up believing with all my being 
That my best life lay ahead
When I took on the mantle of someone’s wife
That’s what age-old tradition said 

But that’s not true, I now know
When I can’t look at myself in the mirror
There are shackles anew, I’m so confused 
My dreams couldn’t have been frailer

And so I wait yet again, but now 
Free of mythical notions and guiles 
For when I can find the courage to be 
Who I am, who I really have been all this while.

VERSE | KNIGHT SPIDER

On By Mahvash K. M.In poetry, serenity, verse, writingLeave a comment 
LISTEN TO THE POEM BEING READ AT: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZSde12G2A/?k=1
I saw a little spider today
Weaving itself a delicate pathway
In silken thread and gentle strides
It made its way up the side
Of the glass wall close to me
I kept watching it carefully
Partly because horror flicks
Have made me squirm around these arachnids
But mostly because of the enterprise 
It put into its little life

It climbed halfway up the glass
And then a gust of wind alas!
Tore its thready ladder up
It swayed before going plop!
Right onto the table where
I sat with my coffee to stare
At this busy creature lift
Its body up bit by bit

I moved back in mild alarm
Not because I’d come to harm
That was not the thought I had
My arachnophobia got me to stand
It sat there a little concussed I think
Before it gathered up its wits
And off it went climbing again
Forming anew, repairing 

With so much drama in its life
Buffeting winds, with predators rife
The spider stays focused on its goals
It weaves its web, mends broken holes
We can learn a thing or eight
From this marvellous arachnid 
To go on even when we’ve gone plop!
To persevere, to climb back up
Folks, if little spidey can be
A superhero, so can we.

VERSE | THE CARPING JUDICIARY

On By Mahvash K. M.In writing1 Comment 
LISTEN TO THE POEM BEING READ AT:  https://vm.tiktok.com/ZSeopaVK6/
She’s probably flown in on her witch’s broom 
As her sullen starchiness sweeps the room
She looks around her and she spies 
Young women having a good time 
She glowers at the girls 
No dupattas covering their shirts!
The lines between her brows grow grim
Huddling together like dowager twins 
Then they rise up in stark rebuke 
Clamouring, hammering “I’m judging you!”

He sits in the cafe looking around
A smoking gun dangling from his mouth 
As he peers over the smoke 
It’s gnarled fingers like a cloak 
Hide the vileness in his eyes
He stares at the woman who sits alone 
She ignores his lecherous stare
He taps his gun, his yellow teeth bared 
Smoke-grey lips curl into an ugly “U” 
Leering, sneering “I’m judging you!” 

This judiciary are the insidious dregs 
Of a society that has no legs 
No kind eyes. Their hearts are still  
Yet they sit there determined to fill 
Precious spaces in our lives
With their hats and their beehives. 
They hold on to crass old ways 
As their own insecurities play 
Out an age old tune 
Croaking, choking “I’m judging you!”

Give not a hoot nor a call
To them sitting in their Halls
Of Judgement. They are not fit 
Not a thimble, not a whit!
Stand your ground with those that will 
Force upon you their own bitter pills
Calmly cut them down to size 
Look them in their jaundiced eyes 
When you spy their mottled souls 
Their power fades to judge you at all 

Live your life how you will
Reach for the stars, ride the wind 
May you always find your spark 
Even when all around you is dark 
Move away when you feel dragged
Down, down; making you feel bad. 
Build within you your own compass
Of dignity, courage and kindness
So that the only one ever judging you 
Is YOU dear one, only ever you.

VERSE | THE QUEEN

On By Mahvash K. M.In Humanity, poetry, serenity, verse, writing2 Comments 
LISTEN TO THE POEM BEING READ AT: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZSdJxm38V/?k=1
I see her sitting under the tree
Dignified and serene even as she is encircled
In the cumbersome arms of poverty.
Destitution has cloaked her for many years
From head to toe it has persevered. But still
There are nuances of grace and light;
Of a decorum that has bested the blight.

Sparse hair is pulled back into a little knot
Threadbare clothes are mended and clean
Calloused feet wear leather sandals
Thousands of steps etched into their seams.
She sits there solitary and separate
Her expression is one of learned abjection 
As she labours on in her enterprise 
To live another day, to go on, to survive.

But every so often, when there is a lull
In the cresting and falling human swell
Where she sits, under the leafy canopy
The wretchedness leaves her face
And in its place
Shines a serene and quiet majesty 
A poise, a stateliness
Quietly they still linger in her being.
Even as she sits under the tree
To beseech, to plead, to request
I can still see the queen.

VERSE | ROOTED

On By Mahvash K. M.In hope, poetry, verse, writingLeave a comment 
The lotus flower blooms in hues
Of lovely pinks and whites
It stands tall in the muddy pond
Resplendent and upright

Even when its watery abode 
Goes from murky to bone dry
The lotus flower, it endures
The adversity and stays alive

It blooms in beauty and in grace
While its roots take all the strain
Bravely going from day to day
Through sunshine and through rain

We human beings are quite a lot
Like the stalwart lotus flower
Buffeted by all kinds of winds
We still find our super powers 

Our bodies and our spirits may be
Trampled by pain and strife
But we hold on, roots and all
We persist and we survive

And so it is that even in 
Our darkest, joyless hours
The lotus in our throbbing hearts
Renews, continues to flower.