Saturday 9 August 2014

Absence




In the throngs of the world
In the space of a sigh
In the whirling frenzy
Have I passed you by?



© Sujatha Warrier 2014

[Except from Absence (The Attic & Other Poems)]

Monday 4 August 2014

So, why so?




A time there was when
My awkward silence
Had an eager audience

So why’s it now even
My soulful refrain
Flows on but in vain?



© Sujatha Warrier 2014

Tuesday 22 July 2014

Ping at Night




Where are you,
I linger here waiting
All ears and eyes,
Spirit meandering
Through a virtual realm
Like a hopeless junkie beyond recall
Eager to relapse into the inebriety
Of small talk
Or a long heart to heart
Into the wee hours
Till sleep do us part,
So where are you?



© Sujatha Warrier 2014

Thursday 17 July 2014

Together to separate




From common joys
to separate sorrows
From a common cause
to separate goals
From a common peace
to separate furies
We go a long way together
…………to separate.



© Sujatha Warrier 2014

Sunday 6 July 2014

The Night After




It was a devastating rain
Like rage let loose,
A downpour of chaos and ruination,
Roads are now rivers
And minds, dams ready to breach.
In the wake of the torrent
Is a trail of desolation,
A strange apathy
Of waiting, as time
Floats down flooded gutters.
Now the night is still
The sky quiet,
Its entire passions unleashed
On an unwary earth
And drenching, drowning, draining,
Drizzling to a weary lull
Raindrops, like tears,
Cling to the eaves
To trickle, fall and cause ripples
On the dark still pools of silence,
And beat a steady rhythm
To my vagrant thoughts,
As I toss and turn,
Sleepless.

© Sujatha Warrier 2013


(Included in Suvarnarekha, an Anthology of Indian Women Poets Writing in English, edited by Dr. Nandini Sahu)

Friday 27 June 2014

In The Wee Hours




Light’s about to break
Into yet another day
Along
The sky’s infinite seam,

Time’s here for sailing
The fathomless night
Across
On the bow of a dream.

In sly, bashful pursuit
Her rambling heart
Emptied
Into the silver stream,

The moon hurries along
Her quiet, stealthy way
Toward
The dark distant horizon.

Bidding a fond farewell
Under the night’s cover
Before
The sun’s ’round the turn,

She’s caught though in flight
Abashed, aroused,
Ablush
By the wee hours of dawn.


© Sujatha Warrier 2013

(Included in Suvarnarekha, an Anthology of Indian Women Poets Writing in English, edited by Dr. Nandini Sahu)

Thursday 19 June 2014

At the foothills of Munnar



Mist falling away
From her torso
Lush and dew laden,
The mountain reclines
Dishevelled,
In careless abandon.

Dense, deep, dark
And tousled
Are her wavy tresses
As the cool wind
And drizzle
Shower soft caresses.

Clouds of fog rise
In soft sighs
In the lazy afternoon hour
As she slips in and out
Of a heady,
Lingering sensual languor.


© Sujatha Warrier 2013

[Published in Anthesis International English Poetry Collection]

Thursday 12 June 2014

The night tonight




The night’s tonight
An overflowing cup
Of sweet sparkling white wine
I drink hard
Into the little hours
And have still not had my fill.

Alone, adrift
In a dark reverie
Drowning a zillion thoughts
I gather anew
Random musings
Drawn from the swirling fathoms.

In vain I seek
To wean off the lure
Of the spilling frothing brim
Still succumb again
To the heady hour
Of the night and the moonlight.


© Sujatha Warrier 2013

[Published in Anthesis International English Poetry Collection]

Thursday 5 June 2014

Footfalls of Silence



A duet poem is a joy to write when the poets are in tune with each other. Footfalls of Silence is a poem written with Nirmala Sasi Varier for Synthesis, an anthology of duet poems, published by Poiesis Online (Gopakumar Radhakrishnan).

Footfalls of Silence

I tread carefully
lest I trample on the
leaves of your memory,
the murmurs of your presence
still whispering in my ears,
the silence of your absence
resounding in my heart,
your voice in my memory
fading away in timbre,
your call still tugging at my soul.

Lingering with the flies
of fleeting reminiscences
I stall my lonely steps
for your long-awaited footfalls
to catch up with mine,
I pause at every turn
of an unspoken thought
hoping you will intercept
to meet me at this bend or the next
on this road to infinity.



© Nirmala Sasi Varier/Sujatha Warrier 2013

(Included in Synthesis, an anthology of duet poems.)

Tuesday 11 February 2014

the attic

Illustration: Bharati Varrier
                                                    


A cluttered storehouse is my attic,
an overflowing archive of rankling thoughts
crammed into dark spaces of isolation.
Accumulations of stubborn grit -
damp, stale, acrid residue from outdated grief -
survive in greasy reticence
the cycles of time and reason.
Rags of unwanted memories,
chunks of broken vases of dreams,
lie abandoned
with old records of truth and fallacies.
Fear, like a creepy multi-legged,
is entrapped in a fuzzy cobweb
of flashbacks and extrapolations.
Will the tarantula crawl out
and traverse the hidden crevices
of the crowded attic of my brain?
I’ll let the darkness, the silence,
and the stillness be,
lest I send the mites –
the qualms –
running all over my raw nerves
in fits of frenzy.
I wish I could vacuum my attic clean.

[Featured as Weekly Poem by Oz Poetic Society for the week February 2-9, 2014]