Uncut Poetry

The other day I was reading a poem called "At Night, I Let All the Women Inside me Roam Around the House" by the marvellous poet Kelly Grace Thomas. And it made me realize how interweaved our lives are into a hundred other iterations of our own lives, and how so many unconnected things and occurrences in our world instantly become ours, how the tiniest things which might be happening because it is in their nature to do so, still find incredible resonance in our lives, reaffirming something inside us, making our lives better just by being. Thus a ray lightens us up, laughter emanating from across the room tells us how life can be randomly beautiful.
 
There is a point in our lives, when we grow infinitely comfortable with all the contradictions of all the people we are, and settle into the infinite variety of our complex beings. The indulgent father, the generous boss, the irritating spouse, the impatient son, the charming host, the omniscient friend. The hanuman chalisa chanter, non-indulgent to liberal hypocrisy, embraced of a thousand conspiracy theories, a doom scroller, the occasional hypocrite. An incomplete irritating occasionally loveable man, who is as ordinary as anybody in this world. Trying to keep body and soul together. And trying to live with all possible contradictions and possibilities. And surviving. And finding beauty in every wart.
 
And loving oneself and the world precisely because of it.
 

 

If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems on the kind of people we can be - 

What Do You Fear The Most?

Selfish

When We Are Tired of Hiding Our Stories

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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

Love is, finally, comfort. To talk, to tell the uncomfortable truth, to tell the story of the day, to share a silence, to share a film and disagree on it, to find a thing of beauty and to think of him.
 
We all need one such person, for us to find a resting place in our Sisyphean lives. Often I think a poet is merely that one person who is all alone in this world, putting her deepest concerns into words, which she has no one to share with.
 
To find couples so much at ease with each other - in film, fiction or real life - is to find god's finest benediction. Thats why I am convinced a Shiv/Parvati, a Krishna/Radha, a Ram/Sita work, not only because of their  devotion to each other, but the ability to communicate to each other. Ram faced opprobrium, told Sita about what townspeople were saying, and it changed the direction of the mythology. But the important thing which one misses out in this interaction is the ease which they had to talk to each other about uncomfortable topics. Regardless of where it would lead. Because in that deep abyss of consequence, you have to believe that whatever occurs is for the best.
 
But most importantly, devotion in a couple is a manifestation of life's possibilities, in the worst and best of times. It is to know that 'two' is both the natural and the best state of existence.
 
When everything fails, there is always someone who will either not judge, or judge and accept. And be there because that is what both are together for.
 

If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems on the slow and long burn of love - 

I Can Be Your Poem

I Love You

A City Made of Our Sighs

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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 -

Aerobatics by Sascha Ende

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

Relationships are so amorphous - and so complex. You can’t hold them in your palms, yet they can crumble in front of your very eyes.
 
I have no idea about the statistics or the studies, but all around me I see dead ties that persist. And I’m glad they do.
 
In a world where we demand perfect relationships and expect them to become shiny almost overnight, there is something worth remembering: relationships take time to find their richness, become their best - or, at their worst, become bearable.
 
I think most couples will agree that once the honeymoon is over, the toughest years are often the early ones. That’s when they discover that sharing space is vastly different from sharing love.
 
She wants a harder bed; he wants the room chilled to 18 degrees at night. She wants an “I love you” before breakfast and twice after dinner. He thinks a thought, a hug or a phone call is quite enough. She loves elaborate gifts because she loves giving them. He couldn’t care less and is happiest writing her a personal poem - which, naturally, leaves her dissatisfied.
 
The trouble begins when these differences stop being differences and become permanent battle lines.
 
Some things have difficult solutions, of course. But when both people keep digging in their heels, they are simply creating a frontline. And then another dynamic kicks in: one starts feeling that they are always the one giving in. Isn’t that unfair?
 
So the heels go deeper. More arms are added to the frontline.
 
And then the inevitable happens. One person begins to feel that they are always giving more. The uncomfortable truth is that, in most relationships, there will be an imbalance of sorts. One person will take more decisions; another will be more involved in the home; one may handle more of the finances. And there will inevitably be moments when one person has to take the majority of the important family decisions. Like it or lump it, that’s often the nature of relationships - working or personal.
 
The unfairness begins when you start keeping score. When the relationship becomes a place to prove who gives more, who sacrifices more, or who is the boss.
 
It rarely ends well.
 
Counsellors would grow hungry if all of this were revealed early enough in a session.
Because when all a person can see are the bad things in a relationship, they become completely blind to what drew them to each other in the first place.
 
And once that happens, the road to perdition is already well laid.
 

If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems on broken hearts - 

A Primer on How to Deal With (Being) Hurt

When You Lose the Lover but Not the Love

I Walk Alone (wishing you were beside me)

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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 -

Adventure by Alexander Nakarada

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

Oh that delicious feeling of never getting out of bed. The battle within. Knowing that routine was king, and would win, because life is weaved around a framework, which urges disciple, and gives rewards, which are really life's gifts.
 
But once in a while, just sometimes, when the windows lay unopened, the curtains remain drawn, and the body pleads for respite, sometimes as a false alarm for rest, sometimes just for indulgence, sometimes as a mere call of indolence, we decide to give in. Without guilt. As a valid choice, as a happy choice without any value judgement.
 
Because life deserves the pause between moments, the lazy minute between two busy ones.
 
As our mind eases and slips into a peaceful penumbra, in that half-light of giving in, we, strangely, find answers to questions we might not have even asked. And we know, this is life too, that this too is important.
 
That between being busy and madness, this comma is the circlip which keeps us connected, springily, alive.
 
So - the world outside calls us into action, but for one brief morning we recognize that languor is just another way of belonging to the world.
 

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

Mother's Rambling Lessons on Life Imparted in Morning Walks

Lovers in the Morning

A Morning Ramble in How Love is Rediscovered at the Bottom of Rubble

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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 -

Liberty Quest by Sascha Ende

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

I am forever left bemused with how unprepared we are to the inevitable. And I talk not only of deaths, but consequences. For every action, thought, word of ours pushes the engine of our existence and our world forward.
 
A dear friend always chastises me when I say something dire, even when it is in jest. He then rattles off five examples of things which went wrong because someone spoke of them - maybe even merely thought them!!
 
But the lesson is subtle - and a lesson for life. The very basic tenets of Buddhist and Jain philosophy talk of 'good words, good action, good thought'. It is not said as a cliche or lightly, it is a truth, even if it is oft-spoken, sometimes reflexively. Because a lot of sorrow which we gather in our lives is because of what is said to us, and what we say and immediately regret.
 
Alas, nothing valuable in life, once lost, is ever retrievable. There is an inevitability. And it's our bane in life to carry with us in all the days left.
 

If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems on noticing and observing - 

Marriage Made Me a Philosopher

This Light Like Love

On Death (if it happens to stop by)

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 -

Imagefilm033 by Sascha Ende

Link: https://filmmusic.io/en/song/Imagefilm033
Licence:  https://filmmusic.io/standard-license