Tuesday, April 12, 2022

Broadside Contest Entrant #1: MEGHA SOOD

Complexities of Knowing a Poet

I

They say it's not easy to know a poet,
a deluge of words punctuating each emotion
wrapped around the anxieties of those who
you love, those you lost—
life is a succession of intricate menageries of our curious heart
that gets stuck like a bottle near waves pushing against the bulwark
getting bullied by the waterfront
mercilessly.

II

They say it's not easy to love a poet,
who sees the pain neatly carved in the tight-lipped horizon
bleeding into the heaving bosom of crimson skies
as its births the next day, 
love is an elegy for acceptance, they say
another language mispronounced
 by those who want to claim you
hold a lien to your soul, 
when your only desire is to be a wren hand boat
floating above the skies
Untethered;
Unmoored.

III

They say it's not easy to understand a poet,
Words are the language of the wound—
that sits quietly beneath scabbed layers of grief
there is a chasm of deniability
that sits between us tied together by a thin thread of responsibility
when I utter the words 
of hunger, of love , of acceptance 
in a language foreign to you.

IV 

They say it's not easy to know a poet,
a shifty-eyed moon carrying the diabolical mind
ready to strip your verses
till its find meaning of the self
Words have the power to be the language of the stone
sitting still and heavy with grief,
a long desire of a blind stone to make ripples 
on the thin skin of the lake.

V

They say it's not easy to define a poet,
a soul anointed with the desire
of freedom and tenderness
while facing atrocities of life
as the hand reaches out in empathy 
towards the silhouette of your ephemeral existence 
trying to meet another in solitude and deep connection.

It’s not easy to know your lost self,
It’s not easy to know a poet.

12 comments:

  1. Any poet in the world could have known them better. They said you're strange but don't change and they let them'er. NY

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  3. I want to show this to my loved ones and say, "See!" Well done!

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  4. I loved this exquisite poem. Megha has put into words that endless opening within the heart of the poet that seeks to come to terms with the extreme sensitivity of souls seeking to understand, to articulate, and feel with words their world. The words that are endlessly driving them to create are poured forth so that they can live and seek to understand their existence in a world where their fragility is framed in words because of their empathic hearts and minds. Beautiful Megha. Brava!!🌹♥️

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  5. I am a Poet myself and can identify with this deep soulful look into the heart of a poet. Thank you M.

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  6. Megha has a rare way of getting to the point, but doing so poetically. Her poem here is a fine example of that, because this is a complicated subject, written deeply but easy to access. I love how you can climb into her writing and find so much, without being put-off by the other layer of complexity. She's a true people's poet.

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  7. An amazing testament to your talent and skill as a wordsmith! every bit of this made me want to read more and more..

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  8. Wow! The images in this poem are so very beautiful. Crimson skies, stabbed layers of grief... well done, well done.

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