DU Official NaPoWriMo Challenge

27/30

A Guide To Sleeping

Take a bath with bath bombs, essential oils, and bath salts
Get into some comfy clothes
Make a hot beverage like tea or hot chocolate
Turn on a fan
Make the lighting a warm glow
Climb under some soft blankets
Read a book
Or watch a movie or tv show
Cuddle with a partner, a pet, or a stuffed animal
Put on a podcast
Or maybe music
Or the sounds of nature
Take a deep breath in
Then out
Now you are ready to sleep

27/30

55 seconds

Fell into sleeplessness
nearly too far
so deep where in a rush
memory pushed me back
now awake,
remembering no napping
forgot to submit
strangled letters
as my Twenty-seventh
of 30.

Well, here it is.
I am very sleepy
and hoping
amidst this menagerie
there is 50 unique
puzzle piece fittings
after I insert into the
counter………………………
………Woo Hoo!!


There’s 53 – 55 counting woo hoo!!

27/30

On!/Shine On!/

I

Rays of light – Streaming beams
House of dreams
Life-like
Surfacing in prisms – Breaking
Free
of

Prisons.  Taking
the initiative
of

Self initiation.  

II

Maze of days
Upon
Breaking waves
of

Rays.  Standing
Stones
in

Suns.  In command
of

The sand

III

Few took a stand – Walking across sands of time embossed
in

Fallen reasons
for

Seasons

&

Rhyme.  Beings-seeing
Beyond – Space

&

Time

IV

Are you one of those thems?
[Taking rolling
stones -
Making gems]

Wandering into
Waves
of

Wondering

V

There you were – Here you are
Fallen
into
call

Of star connected
to

Star.  

VI

Veils of pale reason
drifting
ship-sails

Without fail – Waves
dancing
with

Waves.

VII

Chaos embossed and overlaid
in elements

Displayed.  

The music that played
When first
You

Saw: The stars

IX

There you were – Here you are
Engaged in mazes
and the amazing
ways of ink

Watching/&/Catching: The waves

X

Never-ever
to

Sink

XI

It could be a perfect world: Just think

***
Cipher
Poems
***

27/30

Surviving When I Cannot Shine

A what do I write about kind of day.
Better think of something quick type.
Calling the letters to report for duty.
Determined to finish NaPo strong.
Even if I do not survive in the process.
Fucking drag my dead corpse across the line.
Give me some kind of slack;
have mercy as I struggle.
I am sure I am not the only one.
Just thought today would be like every other day.
Killing it with inspiration and then not.
Love this, love this not, love this, love this not.
Messages are delivered here.
Nothing has been written so far.
Opening line A... another acrostic.
Perhaps this one will be a meaningful one.
Quite the opposite.
Realize that these are words forced together.
So, they might not interact well.
To be honest, this is embarrassing.
Unlimited expression with limited articulation.
Vomiting my thoughts at this point
while keeping this acrostic going.
Xeroxing the format over and over.
You wait and see; this is a poem.
Zooming through, somehow still alive.

[Unique Words 120]

27/30

Sorceress Heart

Beneath my chest resides a crystal ball
Each delicate rib a keeper of a sorceress heart
Intertwined, are veins of pulsating memories
Beating in
Then bleeding out
Isn’t red your color?
Gaze, then, if you dare
If two eyes find the room, surely they care
Or are you dwelling in the places shadows hide?
Dancing with ghosts of old
Chasing a mirage that’ll never chase you
I see it all, I sit beside them too.

There is a difference, dear
With all this magic in the air…
My crystal ball casts her seraphic light
I am not afraid of omens in the night
Where there’s sincerity, fortune follows
Heed my warnings, beware my sorceress heart
I run hot on your disbelieving heels
Call a lie to the stand
With one spin of my hand
I could chain your past to your feet
And hold your future out of hungering reach
Still, tears don’t fall
As if something is missing
Behind your ribcage wall.

I realize now
You don’t spot it
But you feel it
And I know it
One is beating
One is moving on
One is yearning
One has overcome
One is weak
One is made of stone
I am clairvoyant and burning bright
So tell me, now, whose heart can you trust?
For one is wrong, and one is right.

27/30

KEEP

The trees growing
The rivers flowing
The flowers blooming
The hummingbirds zooming
The bees buzzing
The furs fuzzing
The stars twinkling
The faintest inkling
Of this great mystery
Our shared history
The tea brewing
The meal stewing
The child learning
The earth turning
The poor living
The rich giving
The mountains laying
The elders saying
The words to keep
Even when we sleep
The lungs breathing
The fascists seething

27 of 30

The Pre-Web Years: Forward

My kids may say
I grew up in a data ice age
when compared with
seeming instantaneous
acquisition and dispersion
of information today
and yet my generation
and those that came before
wrought miracles of innovation,
magical works of art
using simple, old-school tools;
pencil, pen, brush,
compass and slide rule
but most importantly
our glorious, on-board,
main frame brains

28/30

GURU

He had the gift of tongues and spoke with fire
eluding to contact with heavenly choirs
that tripped the guilt switch in the listener’s ear
with superior mind and freedom from fear

Had the right kind of hair, the cool kind of dress
looking the part with an art to impress
surrounded by followers for every need
and wordage cuflumoxed that hid all the greed

Too holy to clean or wash up the dishes
eating in public just loaves and fishes
drinking in private the best of champagne
and managed to do it again and again.

28 of 30


GPS is useless in life


amazing what you can do
with a single package of Ramen
when the budget has no elasticity
{...always assuming one exists in the first place...}

or how far you can stretch a tank of gas
carefully conserving
painstakingly plotting out routes
because...
...needs must
& no more resources are forthcoming
{at least...not in immediate sight}

crawling out of bed
even though your bones still ache
sore from the day before
after dropping in exhaustion
because there are others to be fed
you simply...do

tapping into the well deep within
getting up
trying again
that's how we arrive
...in our own time

your road map has no deadline
just go...
& you keep going...
until your daylight is done
even then it isn't over
your body rests...
but your spirit will continue on

if you see me wandering along your journey
your path briefly aligning with mine
let's walk together for a spell
just say hello...
& perhaps you'll reach out
...take my hand

28/30

Death

Never complain about getting old
It's something denied to so very many
The graves of the Fallen are occupied
Brave young men who gave their todays
That we may grow to a ripe old age
Gracefully and full of complaining
But free from all blasted tyranny
Because of those who never age
Having given their blood
For us
The ultimate blood transfusion

28/30

Frankenstein

a wicked little reminder of no importance nagged at me
My thoughts grew cold, and I shut out the feeling
As is my way when something becomes uncomfortable

It has a pesky way of emerging elsewhere
For example, I am confronted with those around me
touching on the topic I'm trying to avoid
Nature herself will speak, making cloud formations
The creator whispers in mysterious ways

Even AI will find my pulse in my computer algorithms
She'll give me helpful little tips I didn't want
Let's just say she diagnoses me
Feeling depressed? Here is a song playlist for sadness

When I come here to write,
we as poets are often on the same wavelength,
writing about similar things
When my poems start out sad, I try to change them
Or start over with another stanza
Soon, I have stanza after stanza of sorrow
So I Frankenstein the stanzas together, making a poem

I'm good at hiding from feelings
even great at concealing them
But my inky tears never lie

I am confronted with my truth

28/30



Travel



Today we travelled
To the city by plane
Our flight was at 1 pm
But was delayed
For few minutes
We arrived at 2:00
The weather was good
When we arrived at the airport
The sun was blazing
In all its glory
A contrast to the weather
At the province
Which is rainy
It rained hard early this morning
And stopped an hour
Before we left for the airport
Now we're here at home
Enjoying a hearty conversation
With my family

28/30

Begging Games

If I beg will life relent and let me rest
Would the person next to me even hear

Let alone an entire globe of babble
I won’t hold my breath for that outcome

How will my success really measured
In the end how will I really even know

My game token is always the thimble
It covers my finger in a sense of safety

A metaphor of how I chose to live
Armored up and protected from hurt

56 uw

#28

~from a miscellany day’s eclectic ensemble…


1.

the weekend’s gecko vibe continues..
still in a shivering horror, in the corner
of this a herpetophobic mind..  rings
terrific bells as I cross this bedroom
each time.. wondering, has this gecko
taken a refuge in there.. or better to
say,  has conquered the room in reality..


2.

a delicate dipteran like a transparent
tiny midge, over my mobile touchscreen..
suffering in sticky traps of a droplet water..
& ah, this pure Buddhist~ Jainism hybrid
of a practicing Hindu... tries to rescue this
by thin absorbent napkins around, sucking
in that flooded droplet water.. & yep! It
gotten dried off its long frilly glued legs..
now as a dancing ballerina it wriggles off,
& I get it to a safehouse substratum..my
favourite brown cover of the Pasolini book



3.

finally, this old ex-army man who came to my
lab for a technical visit .. talked even more
of non-technical things;)  through his couple
hours of talks here.. right from the reigning
south Indian heroes & the Kashmir’s Pahalgam
deaths , with the rising Indo-Pak warring
tensions in there.. to until the praise of my
hometown’s sharp progress .. as South’s
Manchester .. what a session as I wonder ...


4.

.. only to wrap up as a typically trapped &
stuck up in the loaded mails  & still more
buzzing meetings for tomorrow.. amidst
the clamours of torturous phone calls..


5.

feels like the same lacy winged dipteran
trapped in a generously choking sterility
of  a digital glasshouse .. in an eventual
a big bang shattering .. at the cramming
up timeline anxieties of an “EOD” for
anything & everything..
smashing traceless this dipteran.. over
dilapidated dreamlessness deaths.. again
& again & …  




*unique words: 184

28 of 30

Too Soon


The finish line is in sight
And yet,
and yet it feels all too soon.
I pause in my efforts
and reflect
and somehow the path
feels too small
despite it all.
As though I have barely begun
and yet
the journey is almost over.
A strange sense
of wanting it to continue on
and to feel the flood of effort
and eagerness to carry on.
Yet, the end beckons
and all that is left
is to cross over
in unrequited bewilderment.

(Unique Words: 50)