The Poetry Marathon

Poem No. 12 On my laptop crashing

On my laptop crashing!

A Sonnet

My pen and paper are more powerful
Than my computer – machines break
And give me grief
While pen and paper serve my needs!
I will keep a duplicate of all I create
No matter how long it takes!

Machines sabotage, take your life over
Don’t let them ever be your lord and master
Be innovative, be smart
Write with your pen it is an art
Stay forever hopeful
Enjoy each step of your journey
See where it takes you even faster!
As nothing crashes nothing breaks!!

 

Poem No. 11 The Yew Tree

The Yew Tree

Go and plant a tree
It is our wedding anniversary
I certainly will I said,
I went and bought a Golden Yew
It’s leaves for me
And berries for you!

The Yew is fifty years old
Is always covered in green and gold
It’s berries twinkle in the Sun
Much loved and admired by everyone!
A mistle thrush comes to the Yew Tree
And sings its song for you and me
Each evening so sweetly and so long
Renews our ties each year anew
For you and me and the golden Yew.

Poem No. 10 Buddha teaches

Buddha teaches.

Alll is impermanent
Your foolish attachments
Stand in the way of freedom
Why crave for material things
You can take nothing with you
They are hindrances

Instead rejoice in each
Moment of your day
Fill it with love and light
Each morning is a new beginning
Each night for restful dreams
Wake up each morning
With renewed joy in your heart.

Poem No. 9 A Love Poem

A Love Poem

My Love knows no ageing
It is forever bright and Young

My love is nurtured daily
With your tenderness and care

I kiss you and caress you and share
Lovingly my few remaining years

My Krishna, you are all that I hold dear
You are my heart and my soul

For eternity I would sing
And dance with you my forever 💕 love.

 

Poem No. 8. Nature Heals

Nature Heals

We do not know enough
About how nature heals
Trees protect our climate
Give us life and new cures
We are still ignorant of truths
Such as photo-synthesis
It shows us trees talking to trees
Warning them about disease
To stay healthy and safe.

When a tree is hit by lightening
It feels the trauma and it’s body
Shakes and shivers, feels the pain
Let us preserve trees, they are life
Let us nurture them and hold them
And hug them and respect them
They have much to give and teach us.

Poem No. 7 A Miracle Baby

A Miracle Baby

My grand daughter Laksha
Is a Miracle Baby
Her mother had a miscarriage
She was getting cleaned with a curatage
A wise nurse stepped forward
Tested her first and heard a faint
Heartbeat and shouted stop.
When she was born full term
I carried her home with pride..
She is beautiful and bright
Studying International Relations
At a famous university
Wants to go and work in Japan
When I look at her and think
LIFE IS A MYSTERY!!

Poem No. 6 The Bougainvillaea Tree

Poem No. 5. A Qawwali Concert

A Qawwali Concert

Once I went to a Qawwali Concert
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and his Gharana
Sang Sufi music
The singers and music became one
They rocked, they danced, they clapped
Nodded their heads in unison
As they repeated the same refrain again and again.
They were possessed and mesmerised
The music reached such dizzy heights
With drumming and clapping and the tabla drum
We all became one – singers and listeners
In unison – dancing and swaying in unison
I stood up and danced, an eternal dance
The music took my soul to directions
I did not know. No I, was left we were all one
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan opened doors
To a world when all were equal and all were one
It was many years ago but I often wish
And long to go and enter the Sufi dancing world!!

————-

Gharana is a special set of music family who perform music together. *

Heatwave, shattering records in Canada! How’s everyone else doing?

My internet went down before I could post my last poem. I sent in the poem to the email for the marathon as soon as I saw it hadn’t been posted. Fortunately it was only the one poem because my area had a lot of power outages, even though many were brief. I had written to the marathon email the next day and I added it on the blog today (hopefully I’ll be counted as finished by the algorithm. I think I’ve taken part in every marathon except the very first one. I did last year’s but I didn’t find the link in time to register so I did offline. I was thinking of uploading the poems anyway because I found that I missed the community.
Doing the marathon on your own is a different experience too. There aren’t easy to access props and it takes a lot of willpower not to cheat just a little XD But I did it!
Whether or not I post last years poems here, I have enough poems to do another book of poetry and this will be my third book of poems that are just my poems! Marathons have been amazing, I have branched into writing more and more marathons including novels and a year of poems, all sorts of things. I’m grateful to the organizers for bringing this idea about and organizing it year after year; it’s a lot of work.
We are having a lot of power outages still and restaurants and grocery stores are closed because so much food has spoiled and equipment has been damaged by the power surges. I hope everyone is okay, It’s scary here!
I’ve been writing a yearly ‘Journal of a Plague Year’, this year was entitled, ‘Journal of a Year in Chaos’… and it has been more than living up to its name.
It’s supposed to get up to 49 degrees around here which is close to 120, I think. Fruit is cooking on the trees and it’s terrifying. I know it’s hotter in other places. but we’ve never seen weather like this here.
I’m still writing a poem a day since the marathon. How is everyone else doing since the marathon? What’s everyone up to?

Rolling blackout poem ‘addition’

Marathon
VCS

Waking Up
Is hard to do
With images dancing in my mind
Mingling into dreams
I should have a coffee
Or go for a walk
But right after this
I’m all done this run!
It’s called a marathon,
But it’s something else as well,
It’s reaching deep inside
And pulling out our minds ideas
Of heavens, hells and incidentals
Like a department store
Of hopes, dreams and fears
Writing a poetry marathon
Exposes more than just ‘feels’
I’m wide awake now
I want to do it again
But if it’s all just the same
I may sleep for the day
Every time I run
I want to do it again
It bursts all the blocks free
The words are never
Ones that I’ve planned
Now that we’re done
Pat myself on the back
Most of all
Write again after a nap!

The Internet hasn’t been great for the past few days. I was told it was okay to add this. It took me until now to get back online on my computer! All poems were finished on time and from what I can see all the others fortunately did upload (very fortunately because I only kept a duplicate of a few of these. This one has been in my clipboard ever since the marathon! Please note I was commenting right up until a few minutes before it was time to write last poem)