2019: Poem 2: Letting Go....

I had completely forgotten about the poetry challenge I'd agreed to under the 12 Poems in 12 months banner. I realized that just 12 hours before it was due for submission on 06-03-2019. I'm no poet and so, was really worried and for the first time, even considered giving up. 

But then, inspiration struck, and here's what flowed out....this poem rhymes in some parts and doesn't in others. So, I think it's technically under the genre of Free Verse.

According to the website Literary Devices, "Free verse is a literary device that can be defined as poetry that is free from limitations of regular meter or rhythm, and does not rhyme with fixed forms. Such poems are without rhythm and rhyme schemes, do not follow regular rhyme scheme rules, yet still provide artistic expression. In this way, the poet can give his own shape to a poem however he or she desires."

Prompt: Red                                



Yet another argument

One of so many

I’m seeing red again

Is this alone our destiny?


The temple bells chime

Bringing me out of my reverie

And I look ahead to see

Women going around the banyan tree.


Red threads in their hand

That they wind around the tree trunk

Prayers on their lips

For the long life of the husband. 


‘Is he really worth it?’ I want to ask them.

As I walk into the temple, thinking,

I know what MY wife will say

To that particular question.


The mellow flame of the lamp

The scent of the jasmine flowers

A sip of the holy water,

And I’m feeling like a new man.


I feel the anger leaving me

The red is fading away

There’s a saffron hue surfacing

And peace begins to tiptoe in.


Thinking of what I can change

Instead of whom to blame,

I exit the temple and find her outside

With the other women,

Playing the red thread game.


Does she really want me

To live long and trouble her some more?

She seems to ponder my unasked question,

While I pray her answer is not ‘No’.


A little smile hovers around her lips

A sign of the way things will now be?

I’ve had enough of the red, too, I think, 

Clinging to the saffron building within, hanging on precariously!


So, liked it? How did it make you feel? I'll be waiting for your replies 😊😊






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