Bitter Gourd #glopowrimo #promptday17

Today’s challenge asks you to write a poem that contains the name of a specific variety of edible plant….  “This karela* is the sweetest,” you used to say Plunging your knife and fork and cutting into the flesh I never could figure how you enjoyed the bitterness  That made us all gag and make funny faces. That…

Ma (09.10.1935 – 15.04.2023) #glopowrimo

you had the softest hands, your palms smoothed by years, the lines erased by time. How I held how I held those hands in mine, whispered in your ear that it was okay to let go. Not the suffering, not the pain, nor the hurt we caused each other, none of it matters anymore. I…

Role Model. #promptday15 #glopowrimo

Today’s prompt: Think of a person, real or imagined, who has been held out as an example of how to live, But…. As you lie drawing your last breathsThis is not easy to say.Yet it’s better I expressWhat I need to say some day. Mothers are to be looked up toIn Hindi movies, paragons of…

How do I hate You? #promptday14 #glopowrimo

So today is a prompt to parody a famous poem. Of course, I chose the one by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “How do I love thee, let me count the ways?” So here goes: How do I hate you, let me count the ways, Actually hate comes with a breadth and height You cannot. So I…

The elephant’s tail #promptday13 #glopowrimo

I love that story Baba used to say A long winded  One  About the cruel mahout  And  His elephant on the run. He chased  The pachyderm Over hills and vales Cities and by-lanes In sun and rain And caught up Finally When  The tusker  tried to escape  down the drain.   Wide-eyed   I’d listen  As…

The poem #promptday12 #glopowrimo

The poem I was writing died a nasty death it got sucked into listening to what the judge said . The Courtroom was packed, the crowd surged and in the stampede the poem was murdered. It reached out bloodied hands and in it I found A scribbled note telling me I had to go on….

Morning chatter #promptday11#glopowrimo

(today’s prompt is to play around with overheard language. My daughter was a chatter-box with her mouth running a mile a minute and I remembered those mornings when she would play with her food and talk ninety to the dozen about everything under the sun!) Why do we have sunflower seeds? Do I HAVE to…

The Hugli river. #promptday10 #glopowrimo

The Hugli today is not the same as yesterday and the water snaking will change soon. The Hugli today water changes by the second yet remains the same, much like a woman. The Hugli today wears a robe of consistency yet her very soul is one of change. The Hugli today is a toddler and…

Love #promptday9 #glopowrimo

(The prompt is a sonnet, so here is my take on it, a “Sonnet Sunday” of course!) Love was a thought I loved when I was young Over love many a sad song was sung The sad songs are the sweetest, don’t you think? More so when mixed with friends, regret and drink  The first…

Hector #glopowrimo #promptday8

(The prompt is elaborate so I will not set it here. Make of the poem what you will…) The pool blazes in the sunlight Lit by fires that have no kindling The smell of smoke that is not there Abrading my skin, have I touched a nerve? Hector follows me in the pool at Pailan…

The things I have. #promptday7 #glopowrimo

(Today’s prompt is to write a poem that plays with the idea of a list. So here it is, list of things I have with my father who I lost almost 31 years ago… miss him everyday.)  I have sea beaches where we looked for sea-shells, And we spent hours making sand castles I have…

Ashanti #promptday6 #glopowrimo

Today’s prompt is to find a poem in a language you don’t know. Now, read the poem to yourself, thinking about the sound and shape of the words, and the degree to which they remind you of words in your own language. Use those correspondences as the basis for a new poem. The poem I…