It is that crease in the crumpled paper of
time folded inside the envelope of listless
improbability, everything before it unreal, thereafter
a breathless race to the end of the year
through festive lamps and fireworks and the
sensuous rustle of woven silk, everyday reminders
that we are still packing rectangular burfis in oval
cardboard boxes. Now damp memories begin to
leech into skies freshly wiped of the grey monsoon,
remembrances tied up like fat goats in impromptu
markets, primed for sacrifice, of Dussheras when
truth was pink and green and yellow and the
clouds were the colour of spilt burgundy and words
were heavy with sighs, of that Diwali when doors
slammed louder than crackers the kids set off
inside old Bournvita tins and neighbours peered
through the window with eyes lit up like burning
flowerpots. Everything is reset on September first,
the sun is hanging out to dry on the line, her mellow-
mellow light with its sound of breaking boundaries and
shattering smiles paints the air with a strange
sanctity as if every molecule of the universe is visible and
quivering and even you and I know that without the
rain, we can no longer pretend to be waiting.
No longer pretending is a good state to be in, don’t you think?
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I do 🙂
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Monday WRites 121 is live. I invite you to link up
much love…
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Ah September, thanks for a nice write
much love…
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Thanks Gillena.
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Your poem evokes memories of the monsoon. Mould on everything, wet, steamy and lots of mosquitoes the monsoon seems to go on forever. Good idea to have all of those festivals to distract you from the weather conditions. Your year is packed with celebrations…a nation of colour and movement:)
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Cool and damp here actually, the humidity is more on the coast, mosquitoes are ubiquitous in the tropics in all seasons, there’s no avoiding them.
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Some of your lines of poetry are beyond incredible – really like nothing I have read before. Your opening couplet on this piece, for example. ~ brilliant ~
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Thanks so much Wendy, appreciate your kind words.
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Wonderful lines!
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Thanks Ayala.
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Your imagery is so alive…
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Thank you 🙂
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I am not sure to which festival you are referring to but it all sounds lovely and happy…everything resets September 1. I like that…a new beginning for everyone. I like the fat goats but not that they are for sacrifice. I can see them now. I love goats.
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Goats are sacrificed for Eid, then we have Dusshera and Diwali leading up to Christmas and New Year and then the harvest festivals in January 🙂 Now we just wait for the rain to stop… though climate change seems to have everything going a little crazy.
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Okay. So now I know about the goats and festival. Is this when they set off those wonderful candle filled paper lanterns? I think that is a lovely custom. I am thinking of doing this for my parents for Christmas this year in their memory. Thank yu for telling me this. I hope the rain stops soon for you. Floods and flooding cause so much harm.
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No Diwali is traditionally all about oil lamps and fireworks. Paper lanterns are more of a far east tradition. 🙂
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The vividness of the imagery is just so lovely. And that last stanza, one wonders at where September second will find the “you and I” of the piece now that there is no excuse for pretenses.
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Yeah, that’s the question!!! Thanks so much Rommy!
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Your poems are some of my favorites, as is this one.
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Thanks so much Rob.
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I love the idea of this gentle reset, the new beginnings and rebirths… We need fresh and lovely, right now… May September make it so.
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I hope so too..thanks Magaly 🙂
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Such wonderfully descriptive phrases you’ve given us to enjoy. Thank you.
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Thanks Beverly.
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Now here is a good poetical insight to a part of the world I would like to travel to. Most enjoyable
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Hope you get to see this part of the world soon Julian!
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I do love so much what you share from your place… sometimes I imagine that I can smell your words… and the monsoon. Lifegiver and killer at the same time.
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True… this year has been a bad one with the flooding. Unfortunately all parts of the world don’t get the same media attention, nor are they able to take either preventive action or provide adequate relief… and so many lives are lost each year unnecessarily.
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‘shattering smiles paints the air with a strange sanctity as if every molecule of the universe is visible and quivering and even you and I know that without the rain, we can no longer pretend to be waiting’.. this is so incredibly poignant. Unforgettable write!❤️
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Thanks Sanaa… delighted you picked that last section.. 🙂
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I was struck by the phrases Mary notes as well. Your imagery is so original and beautiful. Loved this.
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Thanks so much Sherry 🙂
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I love the idea of a ‘crease in the colored paper of time.’ That really expresses a unique thought about September. Also like that the sun is hanging out to dry, which expresses so well being in the midst of a rainy season. This entire poem is the work of a very talented poet…beautifully metaphoric! Smiles.
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Thank you Mary…appreciate your feedback.. glad you liked it.
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This could almost start a fire that would keep us all warm while waiting for the sun to dry. I love the burning flower pot eyes.
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Ha ha..thanks so much Colleen…the little flowerpot firecrackers produce fountains of fiery light…very pretty, very toxic also perhaps…but seen on every street during Diwali…
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Such a vibrant poem full of colour and sensuality. Brilliant.
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Thanks so much…. that really describes the next few months of festivals and food and fireworks… past the new year and through the harvest festival in January. 🙂
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Sounds amazing. One day.
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I love how everything builds in those long, long sentences – as the weather and the year also build to a climax.
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Thanks Rosemary 🙂
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What a sweeping poem you really made me think of September in a new light
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Thanks Jae… 🙂
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So pass the seasons of life. “We can no longer pretend to be waiting.” Thank you, a meaningful line for me.
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Thanks TioStib, for me too.
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You take me to your side of the world, where I’ve never been, where seasons are distringuished by rain/no rain instead of snow/first flowers/heat/leaves falling. The ending is especially wonderful. With our more gradual seasonal changes we don’t get the sudden “kick in the pants” that you do.
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Very different rhythms indeed.. the rain will (hopefully… though the climate has been changing in recent years) taper off now and in October depending on the path of the retreating monsoon we could get more rain…then the dry season. I think there’s room for lots of poetry to be written about how life revolves around the seasons in these parts. But the time I lived in the northern hemisphere, I just loved seeing the changing colours and the snow as well…. 🙂
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Yes, I write about the changes as well. As I grow older, the transition between summer/fall and fall/winter are especially poignant. Lots of poems in that vein.
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