Tag: courage

VERSE | FINDING MYSELF

A little disclaimer: This particular piece is not a critique of the ideology 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 before
That sunlit pathway stretched ahead of me

I remember I smiled a little too avidly
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 archaic norms and guiles 
For when I can find the courage to be 
Who I really am, who I have been all this while.

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VERSE | KNIGHT SPIDER

LISTEN TO THE POEM BEING READ AT: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZSde12G2A/?k=1
I saw a little spider today
Weaving itself a pathway;
In silken thread and zestful 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.
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VERSE | THE CARPING JUDICIARY

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 
In their shorts and in their skirts
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.
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VERSE | THE QUEEN

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.
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VERSE | ROOTED

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.
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VERSE | NO THANK YOU

“I love you and only you
You fill my heart in every way
I will be but a shell if you
Call it quits and leave me some day”
Said the man with the twisted lips
As he held her close, hands on her hips
He’d done this a lot and then changed gears
The words felt absurd even to his own ears.

She looked into eyes that were gleaming with fire
Was it hope, was it love, was it lustful desire?
The three entities then followed behind 
As she walked into the space of her heart and her mind
There she sat them down, the judicious sleuth
And looked into their faces now lit up with truth 
Hope sat there wilted, there was hardly a trace
Of sincerity and faith on its mottled face
Love was like a wraith of its radiant self
Like old dust that had drifted off of the shelf 
Smouldering away in the furthest corner
With sly little tentacles sat covetous Desire 
It looked at her trying to hide its true hues
But in the light of the soul that was hard to do.

She lifted the heavy hands from her hips
Bestowed a smile from her beautiful lips 
“I suppose I should say a heartfelt thank you
But I won’t; those words, they just don’t ring true”.
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KIDSBOOKS | BRAVE LITTLE MEG

Little Meg was a field ant
She had a wooden leg 
She couldn’t crawl like the others did  
She hoppity-hopped instead 

She could not carry heavy crumbs 
Of fruit and grains and sweets 
She could only hoppity-hop
So she didn’t go on hunting sprees 

While the rest of the colony 
Went foraging for their food 
Little Meg stayed in the nest
And swept and cleaned their rooms 

One day it rained for five whole hours
Drenching the whole world 
Little Meg’s home too overflowed 
As the mud and leaves all swirled 

The Queen then gathered all the ants
Something had to be done -
A bridge to cross to higher ground 
Away from the treacherous currents

Little Meg with her wooden leg
Hoppity-hopped to the front 
“Your majesty with my birch tree leg
I will get this job done”

While the other ants made mud balls 
Little Meg went on ahead
She dropped each ball in the gushing flow 
And hoppity-hopped to place the next 

Little Meg with her wooden leg 
Got thousands to dry land 
They still sing praises of her grit 
That brave little field ant
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VERSE | LET ME BE ME

For all the girls, and the women young and old, who are made to feel less, inferior or impaired because they have dreams that are different to the ones dreamt up for them by others. May you find the strength and the passion to be you.

Why must I be what I don’t want to be?
Why must I change the state of my dreams? 
Why must I cower in fear of my world? 
Why must the story of my life stay untold? 

Why must I hide myself away?
Why must I look behind me always? 
Why must there always be danger to me?
To my spirit, my soul, my mind, my body?

Why can I not laugh out loud when I want? 
Why must I hide all my joy in my heart? 
Why can’t I turn my face to the sun?
Why must I hide in the shadows you’ve spun?

Why must I bear the ball and chain of my roots?
Why must I remain invisible and mute?
Why was I born if not to revel 
In life’s ever cresting and falling swell?

I’m a child of this world, let me roam free 
Let me think, let me speak, let me be me
I’m a creature of this earth, I belong everywhere 
Let me spread my wings, let me lay my heart bare 

Let me be, let me be, just what I want to be 
Let me dream, let me dream, what I want to dream  
Let me walk in this world unafraid and kind 
Let my life tell the story of my heart and my mind.
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VERSE | RECLAIMING OUR HUMANITY

KINDNESS, it’s such a simple thing
And yet we speak of it like it was the benevolence of kings
DIGNITY, such a basic quality
And yet we are in awe of it like it was the Pope’s homily
COURAGE, that gritty stuff of warriors!
We speak of it like it was an unmasterable barrier
HONESTY, its whiteness, and its shades of grey
Always so elusive, like catching the sun’s rays
Being SELF-AWARE, that dialogue with one’s core
Only Maharishis* can ever open up that door

Depleting self-suggestion tells us
How unconquerable are the odds
Of mastering these exalted traits;
This stuff of Allamahs* and gods.
Look within yourself and tell me 
That you don’t see the shimmer
Of all these “divine” elements 
Some bright, some a little dimmer

It’s time to wrap yourself in your kindness and dignity
To feel the potent warmth of your courage and honesty 
That is you, that’s how you were built to be
Take your inertia and your self doubt
And finally throw them out to sea.
* Maharishi: A great Hindu sage or spiritual leader

* Allamah: An honorary and prestigious title carried by only the very highest scholars of Islamic thought, jurisprudence, and philosophy. It is used as an honorific in Sunni Islam as well as in Shia Islam. Allamah is a leader for the Islamic faith.
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