“through the act of living, the discovery of oneself is made concurrently with the discovery of the world around us. . ."

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

A Broken Yo -Yo Waiting for Godot



(This poem was inspired by KPJ’s ‘Abandoned’)


Inside the waste bin, I look around.

This crumpled piece of paper

Tries to imitate me like a ball.

This ant that scrambles over me

Tickles; he thinks he is

On top of the world!


Licking the wrapper of a toffee,

I muse over the places I've been-

Rather, the places I could've been to

If it were not for the Thread, and the Hand

That had held me, pulled me back.


One day, the bin would be emptied

Into the Great Heap of Waste -

A boy from the slums would find me, I'm sure!


Happy, I am, inside this cosy bin

Waiting for the happiness awaiting me!

********* Balachandran V, Trivandrum, 01.02.2011

13 comments:

  1. @Cherian: There is an underlying stream of existential thought - see the reference to 'waiting for Godot'- happiness could come/could never come, the yo-yo need never reach the Great Waste Heap ( indirect hinting at Heaven), the reference to the thread and the hand which are self-imposed restrictions that deny us freedom of thought and action, and finally the crux of the issue - whether connected to thread or disconnected, let us be happy, because nothing really matters in the final count! :)

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  3. i feel flattered that i could 'inspire'anyone!

    very interesting, sir - the complete volte-face the metaphors have taken in your poem.

    'This ant that scrambles over me
    Tickles; he thinks he is
    On top of the world'- i love this sentence.

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  4. Is it the beginning of poems in the genre of "magical realism " of a kind?
    And Bals dose it not really matter in the end? Then why all the madness?

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  5. Magi- I really don't know; I write what comes to my mind; there are certain subtleties and nuances, metaphors and similes and god knows what else!

    It doesn't matter in the end; it matters only -now and when it happens.

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  6. @KPJ: Glad you liked it; it was yet another spontaneous write- I just tried to imagine what it'd be like in the trash bin - I could've written more, but sometimes it is better to be brief - or silent!

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  7. Wow! So much of life for a crumpled paper in a trash bin!

    Bala, kudos to you.

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  8. Existential thought!
    You got me on that one. It is not a tangible school of thought for me.
    Balachandran! Your thoughts are way above mine. I am a regular guy.
    I am proud of myself being your 'primary classmate'.

    The more I read about you and your heavenly creations(trying to go through your old blogs), slowly getting addicted to.

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  9. @cherian: @Bangalore with my son, for a couple of days. You are a regular guy? Implying I am an 'irregular' guy?:)

    I am just a guy who found freedom in writing!

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  10. In to the great heap of waste,
    we also will follow.

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  11. Beautifully narrated!
    I didn't ever imagine if a crumpled piece of paper had so much of life in it.
    Loved the poem..How could an ordinary mortal create a great poem from a simple thing as crumpled paper? You are indeed extraordinary.
    In two words, simple and powerful. That describes it all.

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