Uncut Poetry

Covid was an incredible time for humankind. Rarely have each one of us confronted, in real time, and with examples pouring in daily, death as an occurrence which could hit any one of us, suddenly, irrevocably, and often in lonely quarantine.
 
Reality, and confronting it daily as a tangible occurrence, became a horror story. We were forced to confront our worst fears - and ironically realize our biggest strengths. Because embedded in the tales of heartbreak and horror were also the ordinary unsung stories of resilience and recognition.
 
Confronting the fragility of life helped repair relations by engendering conversations. As we sat in front of our worst fears, we realized the preciousness of what we already had and how we could lose it all in the blink of an eye.
 
Conversations were had, bitterness poured out, regrets laid out gently on the table: love was kindled, babies were made. For those who survived, it was rejuvenation, often resurrection, of what was secretly moribund inside.
 
Sharing of chores became a symbol of how people came together, for days on end. There were conversations had of deaths, of what will be missed, of what had gone right between people, and what they loved about each other.
 
When you are in an enclosed space for months on end, when life itself is uncertain, what we consider as bad suddenly seems inconsequential, and what floods our hearts are the things we would miss about each other.
 
Passion for work transcended to become love for each other which in turn became a worship of life.
 
And in strange ways we were, for that brief, oh too brief, time, better for having confronted, and seen at close quarters, mortality itself.
 

If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems on confronting life - 

Let Me Sit Beside You, Quietly

Memories of Peppermint Mocha

When You Lose the Lover, But Not the Love

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Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.

Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com
 
The details of the music used in this episode are as follows -

Odyssee by Sascha Ende

Link: https://filmmusic.io/en/song/Odyssee
Licence:  https://filmmusic.io/standard-licens

We are just ordinary people, living lives which often don't make sense, seeking our share of meaning, joy and fulfilment in our own ways. Embedded deep within - undefined, unspoken of, often unrecognised as such - are tiny and eternal stories of love. There are no bells and whistles attached to these stories, nothing to define them as special, but in their quiet ways, they light up lives, and make them worthy of it.
 
Rarely does real-life love show up as drama. It evolves as presence, a legacy of commitment, years of dedication, of roughing it out through thick and thin, often finding companionship in spite of incompatibility, of finding genuine affection beneath shy roughness.
 
A world which admires stories of legendary lovers, misses out several which exist in our immediate worlds. Silent, unspoken of, undefined - they exist as mundane routine, lookouts in the evening, sleepless nights in illness, silences one could ease into.
 
In a world full of turmoil and uncertainty, to have steadfastness and commitment, to be able to show vulnerability and find joy in the other's trivialities, is truly the only relationship one could want in one's life - definitions be damned.
 

If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems on the enduring charms of love - 

A Poem as a Gift for a Girl With No Confidence in Herself

Let Me Sit Beside You Quietly

Hale, Fall & Spring (of you & I)

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Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.

Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com
 
The details of the music used in this episode are as follows -

Lockdown by Sascha Ende

Link: https://filmmusic.io/en/song/Lockdown
Licence:  https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Love can be pretty unrelenting. It's turgidity and its persistence can be intimidating to people who see it collapsing under its own weight and can't understand how it is still standing strong. People in love can separate without disengagement but equally they can continue loving with separation.
 
Anything anchored in emotion has moorings which may seem fragile but are often unrelenting. Nobody knows inner stories, of holding on to ties, of despair and of not giving up. Logic falls by the wayside.
 
Trouble starts when reconciliations are compromised without addressing the cause, the core of what eats away at the soul.
 
What draws people to each other is either what resonates or the things they miss in themselves. It's only later that the true differences of nature and thought get revealed. The sunken body of the iceberg can then be seen. And it is not always pleasant, and it often rests against the very grain of what the other stands for.
 
The true challenge of love starts there.
 
Because ignoring what haunts is to let our inner turmoil and resistance and unwilling consent keep eating the foundation like termite, even as the newly-painted facade of coupledom glistens in public glow.
 

If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems on ways of the resilience of love - 

Marriage Made Me a Philosopher

The Long Now of Us

It Takes Time for Love to Find Comfort

Subscribe to my newsletter 'The Uncuts'

Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.

Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com
 
The details of the music used in this episode are as follows -

Imagefilm15 by Sascha Ende

Link: https://filmmusic.io/en/song/Imagefilm15
Licence:  https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

I love this poem because it condenses the thoughts which partners who separate from each other might have of the other.
 
It's subtle, often the first flush of love, often the first separation. When you know the highs of love, but have not known how the valleys are to be navigated: and you think the first bump, the first infraction, a fight, a being-away-from-one's-sight could actually be enough cause for anything-to-happen.
 
We are in a tumult of love and have not reached its calm yet. And every ripple on its surface makes us question its depth.
 
That's why it often takes years of togetherness and a multitude of experiences for people to figure out the truth of their relationships. I will never forget the film where a happy family is holidaying in the Alps, and then there is an avalanche, the man runs away rapidly without thought of his wife or kids. I think even more then the wife it was the husband who surprised himself with his action. Because the truth is - as always - when things happen, it reveals more about us as individuals than of the state of our union.
 
If it always has been a facade, a relationship is bound to collapse under its weight. If it's a mutual revelation, it's time for reflection (of course), but also reexamination, recalibration, redemption or / and repentance.
 
It's ironical that a couple which is together for eternity often finds is bonds brittle enough to not even withstand the most basic onslaught on its foundation.
 
What ensues - whatever form it might take - is not a tragedy but a realization. Depths then are discovered as profundity or merely as depthless crevasses.
 

If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems on the progression of love - 

Love's Night of the Long Knives 

Love (after the stories are told)

I Love You

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Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.

Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com
 
The details of the music used in this episode are as follows -

Cinematic Angelical Upbeat Ambient by Musiclfiles

Link: https://filmmusic.io/en/song/Cinematic-angelical-upbeat-ambient
Licence:  https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Summers in Kolkata slide rather than blister, which is what happens when I visit Jhunjhunu. Both are experiences. There's no hiding place here because the humidity is omnipresent - but a shaded tree is enough to save you from the dry heat in Rajasthan. And then I go to a Delhi - where nothing can save you except an airconditioned room, because what does not melt you burns you down.
 
There's very little that's romantic about an Indian summer, except for a strange immersion. Much more than an attitude of mind-over-matter, it is an alignment which can save you - of deciding not to escape but just to be one with what the universe offers. It's surprising how quickly our bodies can get distracted from discomfort.
 
The important thing is to be alone in this battle inside, so we are not influenced by the opinions and incessant cribbing of others. And since this seeps into other things, I'm very careful about whom I go out for all experiences. Then I have the luxury of my flawed reactions - to let my emotions flow untouched by anything other than my own proclivities and prejudices.
 
I cannot overstate the pleasure of letting a morning sweep over us with all its intimations of fresh possibilities. Possibly nothing has changed in life's continuum, but there is still an incredible sense of renewal which can only sweep over us if we are alone with our feelings, untouched by anybody else's aura.
 

If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems on the magic of mornings - 

A Morning Ramble on How Love is Rediscovered at the Bottom of 

Mother's Ramble 

Sipping Tea in a Rumi Morning

Subscribe to my newsletter 'The Uncuts'

Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.

Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com
 
The details of the music used in this episode are as follows -

This World (Instrumental) by Sascha Ende

Link: https://filmmusic.io/en/song/this-world-instrumental
Licence:  https://filmmusic.io/standard-license