DU Official NaPoWriMo Challenge

13/30

[NaPoWriMo - 2025 Collection] Flowers from Thoughts
[ . . . ]
I. The Greeks
[ . . . ]

xii

Flower of the Gods
                        Dianthus

Scent of clove, though not
 too strong, multicolored blooms
adorning diadems of the gods
 signifying love, everlasting
gifted to Hera by her husband Zeus

Life is a Garden, so say the gods
  birthed from the bloodied eyes
of a shepherd minding his flock
  playing upon his flute, when
goddess of the hunt arrived

Angry from her lack of catch
 Artemis’ wrath determined
the herdsman was to fully blame
 his music scaring off the game
 she could’ve eaten that night

So, in Greek deity fashion
 she gouged out both his eyes
yet remorse set in, over little time
 and behold, from his blood
the red dianthus grew

  carpeting the garden of life  

. . .
 

13/30

springtime love

my wanders as it often does
to my springtime madness
It comes every year

my thoughts brace for the intrusion
but I am always taken by surprise
It sneaks up on me
until it has taken over

Most anniversaries I forget
not just this special day but what planet I am on
This hurts my husband's feelings

Today, I am lucid
It is a miracle
We will be celebrating the day
instead of lamenting it
with a nice lunch at my favorite restaurant

my heart swells that he has loved me still
even when raving mad
and everyone else lost hope
distancing themselves from me
He didn't do that

I'm not saying he's perfect
only that he's loved me through it

13/30

Fossil

i'm dead inside-
my heart's a corpse-decayed...decomposed;
lovelessness and apathy
bludgeoned my emotions,
withered my psyche.
inundated by sorrow and loneliness,
it seems eternity...
the heat of coldness and indifference
whilst the pressure to be a diamond
in the wilderness;
crushed me, burdened me
as seasons took their course-
alas! i turned into coal.

i'm a fossil...

embers of past buried deep
somewhere in my soul-
slowly smoldering into ashes

...i'm nothing

but just some wisps of smoke...

13/30

Kindling

You forage firewood for tonight.
As I watch you, my heart skips beats.
I could stand here and live this forever.
Euphoric and embracing how I feel.

The fire takes flight,
and I can feel my body preheat.
The cold grasp servers,
I am bound to the warm reveal.

The flames crackle, and my soul ignites.
Here with you, I feel complete.
Take me on more endeavors
beyond the empyreal.

[Unique Words 51]

#13

~அம்மா:: amma



her then young married parents..
were childless for years..  they
had been religiously worshipping
fasting & doing whatever country
medicinal courses they can..  to
have a baby..


& as a sage’s saintly predictions..
a beautiful baby girl.. in all blessings
of the Tamil god, the god of knowledge
& beauty.. Skanda.. the Shanmuga, son of
Shiva.. was born as an answered boon..


her looks were as composed
& gleaming with a deep warrior
featuring.. in them.. she was
named after Shanmuga himself…


her birth was like a festivity.. celebrated
by his father in such grandeur & gaiety..
serving whole village & poors & wanderers


but, difficult deathly testing times
were written in her destiny all over


the then dangerous small pox variola
took her to a near death experience..
& but ultimately saved her.. leaving scarry
hard pitted her flawless golden skins..
to some shades of matte strawy
dullness.. yet her aura & beauty
grew as she sculpted into a unique
divine young beauty .. with a strange
mingling of a ruling bravery yet
a rustic naivety.. in her lotus-y doe eyes  
& sharp archery lips ..  impossibly held  
in humbling dispositions..


now shrunken yet shining more in her
gracious ageing.. still holds strong her
tender heart & a razor sharpened mind
of wisdom.. embracing this her once lil girl..  
& my ill dad n the whole family ..& all
whom she had met & learned & taught.. in
her long ever eventful years .. of

being a simple yet passionate
geography student .. & a glorious teacher
tutoring inspiring moulding minds
of lot.. including me too of course..  


amma .. mom


my warrior queen
a reigning eternal beauty
of curiosity & knowledge..
of kindness & strength..


happy birthday to you today..  


you shine forever an energy-centric  
cosmically divine.. starry super-sun!!





*unique words: 195

13/30

Longing

11 - May, 2022
For her summer was arriving soon
For me, mid-April, it’s almost here
But where I live the heat is brutal
And it’s relentless
Year after year after year

Yes, I too get a sense of longing
For cool Autumn days and abundant Springs
Truth be told they remind me of my youth
When the future seemed like an eternity away

And now we’re here
All the could haves and should haves
Are aboard tiny floating lanterns
Carried off by the tide and waves
Into a sea of memory…and longing


72 Unique Words
93 Total

13/30

Gus the Dachsund

His affection is aggressive,
you are loved fiercely,
whether you like it or not;
his kisses are loud and sloppy,
and he prefers to deliver them
closely and personally to your face;
Brave, he guards the house,
looking out the windows for trouble,
any and all gusts of wind,
fallen leaves, neighbors, thunder
it is all guarded against, proactively
with a sharp bark, right from the chest
sounding like a Rottweiler sentinel,
hackles raised and short arms up

13/30

Racing the Buzzing

The buzzing is a low and constant as I begin the day, busy with purpose

Pushing away all distractions that could possibly impede my agenda I work

I see what needs to be done and from one thing to another I alight to attend it

Oh how successful I am checking off each item in succession as the buzzing grows louder

Working at fever pitch brings on the euphoric feeling of accomplishment I desire to outwork the buzzing

The work, at last is done but not the buzzing
A constant reminder I can’t outrun it
no matter the tasks I complete

73 uw

13 of 30

Not today.

As I shift and load again,
The endless tide of things.
Remnants and pieces,
of lost and forgotten priorities.
Omitted and left exceptions,
Acquired in chasing other peoples dreams.
The perplexities,
Of what we find ourselves in.
The shallow streams and
Dead end streets.
The numbers hung,
Upon the door to regret.
How,
We first met.
Tied within these reminders,
The pain of tortures,
Or the torturor, still torturing.
Is placed within a cardboard coffin.
A cursed hoard,
To summon open and lay to rest,
another day.

#14

~the murmurs of a forest..




her silvery anklets of midnight
tinkles shrilly as an eerie metal
…as she whispers… chants some
incomprehensibly luring hush hush
verses of.. a what.  sacred hymns
or  curses of a black magic?


she in a non-stopping spree
scratches her bio- weaponised
curly overgrown finger nails..
over the pleading silent walls
in an unbearably ear-shying
to its screechy sirening violence
of a tearing~ bleeding  frequencies


she even dare enters your lazy cozy
bedcovers … housing the  snoring
sleepy you.. lifts the cover to mere
shivering chilly cracked feet.. as
you try to cover yourselves again in
a reflex.. pathetic, if only you had
known earlier.. that sooner you gonna
be a bloody parcelled cottony bodybag…
by her predacious dragging & hunger..



let me say you.. none of your
so enacted naivety or so assumed
street-smartness.. or your desperate
screams or sudden so super- duper
maniacal acts .. of asking for help
or a lame self-rescue.. is gonna
save you.. for


she is agelessly in an avatar-ing
a, ‘suyambu’ self-origin.. as
a raging righteous blood-lusting spirit
of the deep dense forest, as its saviour
in her own unapologetic acting nature
…of vengeance.. of justifications
… of mystifications .. of a legend
.. of power .. of whatever
you say you feel


she exists as god or evil..


you decide!


her serially laughing killer anklets  
as if a symbolic precursor to her
red-hot angered arriving.. cross
you now.. in a blindingly lightning
fast across you .. running to & fro
in a misleadingly gleeful playful
childish maddening.. in n-times ..


one after one… she hauntingly
hunts.. she brutally eats you up…
relishing cannibalistically .. in bits
& pieces… & drinks up the bloody hell
of you all politic breed of laid-back
fattening bundles of flirtatious lies..upto
until the last dripping drop… still

hung out.. are her freely fibrillating
..a thirsting lengthy tongue.. in
a dynamic never-ending quench


…a raging Kali
ritualistically slaughtering demons
&  safeguarding the sacred sancity
of the forests..


or, for the evil you, is she a let loose..
an doubly evil roaming spirit of
a twisted black magical witchery


whatever


her signature powering in primal howls
her spelt out  hush hush enigmatic murmers
before each ritualistic kill


is the grand highlight
of a well sketched out


her purposed sacred hunt






*unique words: 239

13/30

Univocalic (E)

Remember the December weekend
when we went There?
We were free!
Bed; sleep; zen!

Yet...
extreme freeze!

We were very peeved.
Trees were bent by the breeze;
the cement, the green—
deep sheet; gentle sheen.

Brr!
Where's my vest?
The vestments? The helmets?
Tremble, freeze, eek!
Remedy: expend restless, excess energy.
Flex feet, flex knees;
exert selves.

Deep freeze.
Breeze between zephyr, vent.
Help!

Hey! New jeep!
Wheels repel elements.
Whee!
Where we were recently?
Freezer?!
Extremely needlessly!
See whether we'd prefer the wet?!

Greet bed sheets:
we melt, swelter.

Next week: Greece!

13/30

This Big

Bouquet of wild roses
Bleeding palms
Sliced by the beauty

Weaved into wreath
Thorn in my eye
Tangled in mediocrity

Lifted wood
Casts a delicate shadow
On this barren hill

Wash the feet
Before trodding in the mud
Footprints for nowhere

The petals fall
One by one
Until the stem starts to wilt

Hammer carried for miles
A sign for the times
For the illiterate

What does it speak?
What could it say?
Does is matter now?

Wildflowers so sharp
Bristles, thistles, spiked
Bring him down

13/30

Games

One of my favorite pastimes is games
Board games, video games, card games
Almost anything you can think of
They are a perfect escape
From super easy to extremely complex
It's hard to find a game I do not enjoy
I love the adventure they take me on
And the endless laughter with friends and family
We get into so much shenanigans
And create many inside jokes
Some games I enjoy all by myself
With a cup of tea, a snack, and my heated blanket
Either way, games make the perfect vibe  

13/30

Unwritten Stories of the Mysteries

The intangible dimensions of friendship

I

Those two, they were joined at the hip.
What was it – About their friendship.
I watched them grow
Watching
them

Watch: The seeds they sowed
Start
to

Grow.  I watched them
weaving
their way through

Knowledge

II

Then there was: Those

Two.

Seemed to just know
how to

Communicate in strange

&

Foreign ways
Conveying without words
psychic verbs
like
a figurative mastery
of

The greys.

III

Maybe there is this sort of soul tower

Built as flowering friendships flower
Each brick made from the magnificent
Or perhaps the structure is spontaneous
Even in realms invisible and not evident

Perhaps true friendship gives second sight
Even or especially
Into

The dark night.  Giving light


&

Deep insight.  Into the mystery of things

***
Cipher
Poems
***

#13/30

Deliverance

For a long while – for decades – it was Home.
Not only in the reverent routine of Sunday mornings.
In the musical camaraderie of Tuesday evening jam sessions,
the Wednesday ladies’ earnest search for wisdom
 over strong coffee and butter tarts,
the youthful commotion of Friday nights.

It became a refuge especially in
 the quiet solitude of a random weekday.
Just me, the piano, and Peace –
 a sanctuary that stood in stark contrast
   to the inner tension of performing the role called
     “good Christian woman”.
It was when I discovered that Home
that I first started
leaving it.

***

Today we voted to close the doors.
At last, I can lay down my fruitless striving
 to show them what I see beyond their box.
Let them cling to their life rafts of tradition –
I’m off to find the Spirit that is singing in the streets,
 the unruly, wild Love that I feel moving in the forsaken,
   the god among the godless.