Poetry & Prose

Today’s theme from Grace at Kimmie.GG is

Poetry and Prose – Who are some of your favorite artists? Which poems are your favorite?

Poetry:

Well, I am not a big fan of it. But I do love some of them. Which are short and sweet. I particularly love one by Kamal Das. I have already written about this earlier (feeling lazy to find the post link 😉 ) But here it is again. It is a little dark and sad. And I don’t know what I was going through when I first read this poem, but it is stuck in my head and doesn’t seem to go away.

When I die
Do not throw the meat and bones away
But pile them up
And let them tell
By their smell
What life was worth
On this earth
What love was worth
In the end.

 

The other poem that I like and that has stayed with me is ‘The Poison Tree’ by William Blake

I was angry with my friend;
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I watered it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears:
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night.
Till it bore an apple bright.
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine.

And into my garden stole,
When the night had veiled the pole;
In the morning glad I see;
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

Of all the things that I have read, these two remained with me. If you have a clue as to what that means let me know 😉

Prose:

When I read the word prose, the first thing that came to my mind was ‘The Mayor Of Casterbridge’. For some reason I was in love with that story during my school days. I hardly remember the details now. May be it is time to read it again. That and the other one I loved was ‘Around the world in 80 days’. I loved the adventure in 80 days. And the characterization in Casterbridge. I wont be able to repeat the stories now, but I distinctly remember enjoying them very much.

There you go. Two choices from me for poetry and prose. Wanna share yours?

In the end…

I am currently reading the book ‘Career of Evil’ (Coromoran Strike 3 ) and there was this scene where Strike is contemplating about death. It is actually a scene where in some folks celebrate the death of a fellow friend in a way they deem fit for him. They drink, they sing a song which talks about their school days etc. Here in my place, when someone dies, they take a procession with song, dance etc…to the crematorium. I used to wonder why this big fan fare? But now, I think its not about the death, its more about celebrating a life that was well lived.

It did not make me melancholic or anything, but reminded me of a poem I love and have mentioned the same quite a few times in this blog. It’s written by Kamala Das. Here it is again, for all the new readers.

When I die
Do not throw the meat and bones away
But pile them up
And let them tell
By their smell
What life was worth
On this earth
What love was worth

It might seem very dark, but for some reason this has been my favorite poem since college. Something about the way the death wish is conveyed in a very crude , cruel and yet very honest way made me remember these lines for all these years. I got to read another one of hers recently, which is totally on the other side of the previous one. I like this one too. I guess based on my mood, I might select one or the other to recite 🙂

I cannot fold
my wayward limbs to crawl into
coffins of religions.
I shall die, I know,
but only when I tire of love;
tire of life and laughter.
Then fling me into a pit
six feet by two,
do not bother to leave
any epitaph for me.

Right now, my mood is leaning towards the second one.

This got me thinking. In our religion, we cremate the bodies. I wish mine to be done in a electric crematorium and done within a few seconds. I don’t care where my ashes go. Can human ashes be good fertilizers ? Apart from how my body transforms, as a soul, how do I want to be known when I leave this world in search of a better place? Do I want to be known at all? I wouldn’t be honest if I said ‘No’. I do want to be known. I do want to be remembered. But not because I did something good, not because I did something effective…simply put, not because of something I did, but because of who I was. All I wish for is a single smile when my soul flies, acknowledging a soul who loved and was loved and wishing me good luck on my next journey.

Only Love Can Hurt Like This

When I first read about Bee’s Love Is In Da Blog, Kamala Das’s poem is what came to my mind. I read this during my under graduation times and had written these lines in my diary. It was about love, obviously, but the title of the poem was Suicide. I don’t remember the whole poem or the meaning of it. All I remembered were these lines.

 

I tell you, sea,
I have enough courage to die,
But not enough.
Not enough to disobey him
Who said: Do not die
And hurt me that certain way.

 

And there is one more of her’s which I loved, and yes it is again about Love. It was a sweet one. And it’s titled Love too 🙂 Here it is.

Until I found you,
I wrote verse, drew pictures,
And, went out with friends
For walks…
Now that I love you,
Curled like an old mongrel
My life lies, content,
In you….

This is my first entry for the February Series related to Love, initiated by Bee. If you wanna join in, please do visit the link above.

And while we are at it, let me end this post with a quote for today’s One-Liner Wednesday

‘It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things works. All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get.’ – Confucius

When I die

I don’t read poems that much. A few I have read (either during school or later) I remember because it struck me with so much emotion when I read them and I was able to relate to them very well. One such poem is ‘When I die’  titled ‘Request’ by Kamala Das. Don’t ask me why I remember it 🙂 There are lot of such stuff I remember just because. But this one I used to recall whenever I feel a little down with life in general. Especially when things were going tough for me in my personal life and at the heights of frustration I used to recite this one. Today I remembered it suddenly. It is a little negative. Don’t let this spoil your weekend 🙂

When I die

Do not throw the meat and bones away

But pile them up

And

Let them tell

By their smell

What life was worth

On this earth

And

What love was worth

In the end