Passion…unbridled

Whether it is a romantic ballad by Keats written

Or the rousing speech in “Julius Caesar” given

By Mark Antony, penned by Shakespeare the great playwright

Or Ogden Nash’s poems, humorous and light

Whether it is Amanda Gorman’s call to the nation

Or Maya Angelou’s fearless proclamation

To rise despite all odds- I am enthralled

By the work of all poets, I tend to fall

For metaphors, meters, rhymes and alliteration

Poetry is of language itself a celebration..

*

If I look at ancient literature from my land

It was written in short verses, easy to remember and understand

When stories were passed down in oral tradition

Poetry was the preferred method of rendition

Sometimes in song and sometimes in recitation

Partially remembered, partially embellished in each iteration…

When I am perturbed, solace and peace of mind

By chanting verses from Hindu scriptures I find..

*

Poetry as a form of expression attracts me such

That writing in prose does not appeal to me much

I absorb the world and in verse distill

Thus the gap between the world and my senses I fill

Self-care seems to be a concept relatively new

Growing up, caring for “self” was not something one was supposed to do

Or publicly admit, the insinuation would have been

Narcissism or self-obsession, it would not have been seen

In a positive light, certainly not something people would proudly proclaim

They were indulging in-obviously things are no longer the same..

*

Our lives social media-heavy and constantly wired

Leave us with less mental space than desired

To be alone with our thoughts, in tune with our needs

We spend more time looking at others’ social media feeds

The concept of self-care is to bring the focus back

On building ourselves up, not ruminating over what we lack

*

The beauty of self-care is that there is no singular way

To practice it, it can be different from day to day

The idea is to do something that nourishes you from deep inside

That you practice self-care techniques is something you can say with pride

Sarcasm, I’ve realized, is my weapon of choice

To my frustrations when I want to give voice

My words end up laced with sarcasm somehow

Sarcastic remarks leave my tongue before I can allow

My brain to process them and stop them right there

I repent later, but am in the moment unaware

Of the hurtful impact of what I’ve said

When it comes to words, carefully I must tread..

*

For constructively directing my sarcastic side

To weave my sarcasm into verses I decide

So when I feel frustrated, this is a safer outlet

I vent out freely and no one gets upset

Sarcasm changes its form when incorporated in verse

It is not directed at one person, but at the universe

*

Thus I hope to tame this undesirable trait of mine

Hope my tendency towards being sarcastic melts away with time

In a rare, inspired moment, I’ve finally entered the state of “flow”

This golden opportunity to accomplish work quickly I must not let go

Undivided attention to work I intend to give

But my hyper-focused state is short-lived

As notifications crowd the corner of my computer screen

I try to silence them but they beg to be heard and seen

They are embedded in the program that I have to use

For my work, therefore I have no excuse

To hide them, I just need to exercise restraint

To not look at or react to them, my mind I must train

But as a flawed human with an attention deficit “issue”

This is something I simply cannot do

My work I complete, like every other day

Inefficiently, with multiple interruptions along the way

*

This context switching is exhausting for my mind

It lowers my productivity, in addition I find

That I am more irritable as the day goes by

I am impatient, and usually unable to understand why

Since the notifications are work-related, if attention to them I pay

It is technically “work” that I am doing in a regular day..

*

These notifications are trying their hardest to take

My attention away from work, my productivity is at stake

To take back control over my time, proactive I should be

And use every technique I can to improve productivity

Here’s a news story that grabbed my attention (but of course)

Women are set to become a greater force

In the financial realm, their personal wealth predicted

To surpass that of men, they would no longer be constricted

By the financial decisions taken by men

A new world order where money is held by women

Would emerge, the equation of power would undergo

A seismic shift, would patriarchy take a blow?

*

In a little over a century from women’s suffrage

Women would be taking over the financial stage

The world of personal finance and investment

Would have to shift gears to a great extent

To cater to the ways in which women save and spend

The customer would be the queen in the end..

*

For centuries women all over the world have been

At an economic disadvantage, it remains to be seen

Whether greater wealth would translate into a more level playing field

Whether the investments made by women greater gains would yield

Hitting rock bottom in life is tough

Just when you feel you’ve had enough

Life throws another curveball and deeper you sink

You feel like you have been brought to desperation’s brink

Then you see the outlines of a dangling rope

Albeit a flimsy one, yet a ray of hope

You grab onto the rope and slowly emerge

From the sinkhole of your life, and purge

All the negativity you had accumulated

The worst of your life’s storm has now abated..

*

If you never went down you would not know

How to come up for air, how to grow

Into a more grateful human being indeed

Sometimes hitting rock bottom is what you need..

How would I my obsession feed

When there are no good books left to read

*

Would books be heavily censored and toned down

Would the content be pushing an agenda all around

Would books be devoid of provocative thought

Would rhetoric be watered down, diluted a lot?

Everything worthy of being said

Is controversial, should not be read

By readers perceptive enough

To develop opinions on issues tough

Opinion that question the narrative dominant

To suppress that possibility would be the intent

*

Where would censorship of books end

Would writers, publishers, librarians have to bend

To fall in line with the given narrative

Would people eventually not be able to give

Their honest opinions in publication

How would there be free speech in the nation?

Characters that they can identify with, some children might not find

How would that be good for their impressionable minds?

*

I hope I’ve just let my imagination run wild and in reality

Censorship of books to this extent we would never see…

I stare into space, waiting for inspiration

To write something, trying to ignore the irritation

Building up within me- the critic inside

Is telling me to give up since I cannot decide

What to write about, precious time I’m wasting away

I should come back to writing another day..

*

That brings me to the question uppermost in my mind

Is writing self-imposed “work” for me or do I find

Writing to be a self-indulgence, a way of practicing self-care

The motive behind writing should guide how much time to spare

In thinking, ideating, creating and recreating

My verses-while other tasks to be completed are waiting..

*

The answer lies somewhere in between

If I don’t treat writing as work, I have seen

That on the back-burner it gets placed

As other areas of “work” take up more space

If I don’t let writing be a form of self-indulgence

I do not write well, I fail to capture the essence

Of life as I perceive it, my writing is uninspired

I cannot put into words my heart’s desires

*

Writing is a form of self-reflection in every way

To spend time in solitary reflection every day

I choose to write and let the process be a revelation

Of events around me and their interpretation

Who do you turn to when broken you feel?

Sometimes you lack the courage to reveal

Your vulnerabilities and your innermost thoughts

To those who know you well, you do not

Want them to know about your suffering and its extent

You need a neutral ear in order to vent..

*

Since therapy is expensive and difficult to find

The first solution that comes to your mind

Is to confide in the internet, Google should know

How to help you, some strategies it can show

For you to help yourself find a solution

It can offer a path forward, if not a resolution

Of your problems, without criticism or judgment

At the very least, the internet seems a safe place to vent..

*

Your struggle remains solitary, but now the internet knows

In a complicated web of algorithms now reside your woes

The content you now see is filtered for your state of mind

What you see reinforces your perception, it becomes harder to find

Real solutions to your problems, because that may require

A completely different perspective that cannot be acquired

By bouncing your thoughts in the echo chamber of the net

Until you move outside a lasting solution you may not get

*

There is probably nothing that can replace

An empathetic ear, a conversation face-to-face

Look for solutions on the net with wide open eyes

It influences your thoughts in a negative way, more than you realize

Manterrupted and mansplained

Women wonder why men are such a pain

In their necks most of the time, they don’t understand

These damsels do not need them to lend a hand..

*

Women may come up with ideas bright

But their vocal cords often don’t seem to be “right”

Articulated confidently or quietly, their suggestions don’t strike a chord

When men say the same things, they see heads in approval nod

*

When a woman speaks up in a meeting she walks

A tightrope most of the time, the way she talks

Is minutely scrutinized and often criticized

That her opinion may be disregarded comes as no surprise

*

All the women who own their voices I admire

These are the fearless women who inspire

Me to not back down when mansplained

To keep talking and patiently explain

What I know better than the men interrupting me

I have countless women standing in solidarity

(Image credit: victoriabarnett.com)

I barely realized when I felt grown-up enough to say

With an eye roll or a sigh, “kids these days”

For two decades or so I had simply thought

That my generation was the most modern, suddenly I found it was not..

*

I stand amongst the oldest millennials, therefore

There is a gap of a generation or more

Between my generation Z child and me

We view the world quite differently

*

When the differences between the generations I try to dissect

I find that the most outstanding aspect

Of the new generation is its flexibility

Much change in their lifespans they’ve had to see

On a spectrum of rigidity to fluidity

You can map out my parents’ generation to gen Z

Nimble on their feet and adaptable to change

Their loyalties are weaker, but wider is their range

*

Hierarchy for its sake they do not endorse

To bow down to authority unquestioningly they cannot be forced

A more just and equitable world they want to see

At the same time they are more confused about their identity ..

*

Sometimes “kids these days” exasperate me

Mostly, though, they are as good as my generation used to be

(I am guilty of this, and the “you” in this verse refers to me..)

On social media platforms everyone has a voice

To talk about one’s achievements and shiny toys

Since bragging about yourself vulgar appears

When you promote yourself you must give it a veneer

Of humility by crediting God, your family and friends

You are craving recognition, therefore you pretend

That you are grateful you’ve been given an opportunity

To serve fellow humans in some capacity

Even if your achievement benefits no one but you

You try to portray it is for the greater good too..

*

Bragging in a way that sounds neither pompous nor hollow

Takes some practice, you want the world to know

That you remain grounded despite your success

That you are not an achiever who is self-obsessed…