Malayka Shirazi- Mid Term Assignment
Malayka Shirazi
Write two poems, each in the voice of any historical or mythological character of your choice. You may want to choose a particular moment in that character's life and attempt to explore how they would respond to that moment.
Hello!
Hope you are doing well. My deepest apologies, I have been struggling lately
Hello!
Hope you are doing well. My deepest apologies, I came down with a fever
Hello!
Hope you are doing well. My deepest apologies, I know this is last minute. I tried to
Hello!
Hope you are doing well. My deepest apologies, there was a hurricane in Delhi. It’s so strange; in my area
Hello!
Hope you are doing well. My deepest apologies, I got delayed because I am really sick but I am recovering
Hello!
Hope you are doing well. My deepest apologies, I can’t remember the last time I slept well. I was wondering
Hello!
Hope you are doing well. My deepest apologies, I know this is not my best work but if you could
Hello!
Hope you are doing well. My deepest apologies; you know the side effects to anxiety include either extreme insomnia or deep sleep and
Hello!
Hope you are doing well. My deepest apologies, there was a family emergency keeping me occupied. My grandmother is really old you see
Hello!
Hope you are doing well. My deepest apologies, this is really embarrassing but if you could excuse
Hello!
Hope you are doing well. My deepest apologies, I had to go buy groceries so I couldn’t
Hello!
Hope you are doing well. My deepest apologies, how do I live
Hello!
Hope you are doing well. My deepest apologies, please excuse my delay. I was just
Hello!
Hope you are doing well.
Write two poems, each in the voice of any historical or mythological character of your choice. You may want to choose a particular moment in that character's life and attempt to explore how they would respond to that moment.
1. one hundred thousand
It takes one blow
to kill a man.
You must be quick in combat:
place and pierce.
Knock. Aim. Shoot.
There is no time for maiming.
But the human body is resilient
wounds can heal
arrows can be plucked and diseases can be cured
But fire
fire chars skin to its tether
roasts the flesh stuck to bones which refuse to surrender
destroys the very essence of a man from the inside out
twice dead.
Ask me
it doesn’t take one blow to kill a man
It takes a 100,000.
[This is inspired from the moment of Asoka's redemption where he sees almost a 100,000 dead bodies lying open in burnt villages after the Kalinga War and is wrought with guilt over what he has done. I was musing what his initial thoughts would be, although I do think he wouldn't be able to think much in that moment.]
2. An Unhelpful Guide to Shampoos
For youthful hair:
use something with the bite of citrus and the sweetness of honeyed words to
balance it.
For split ends:
use the freshness of kelp and mint leaves to help the hair
breathe.
For damaged hair:
concoct something with milk and honey to soften the blow.
When your hair goes wild:
some basil with tea, they build patience.
And for the broken:
blood of the enemy, and a cup of tears to put everything back together.
[Although canonical Mahabharata (or what we consider canon anyway) does not have a scene where Draupadi vows to not tie her hair until she has washed them in her enemies' blood, this has been a theme across some versions and a common myth. I am not good enough to capture the gravity and emotional upheaval of the moment, if it did happen, but I thought I could attempt a small, almost detached summary.]
Read Mark Doty's 'The Tremendous Fish' about the art of description in poetry - http://poems.com/special_features/prose/essay_doty.php. Choose any two objects in your field of vision. A window, a person, an animal, a tree, a knife, a vehicle etc.. Write two poems that rely primarily on describing these two objects respectively.
1. I saw a dress so beautiful I cried
The sleeves drooped
into a glittering bodice
of a colour that only goes with fire dust
tapering into the bottom half of an hourglass
as all hips should
hiding under it
tight thighs
and round calves.
It shimmered to touch
stars of silver dancing
on a swan
—no, a flamingo
it would look best with a pretty pink flush
minus the sweat
and the gut.
Only a flamingo could twirl in it perfectly
the arch of the neck has to be flattering
collarbones don’t come easy
and this dress
was so beautiful
I cried.
2. mongryong
Another one appeared yesterday.
It’s down my chin
a little to the side
coarse
dark
and curly
almost an inch long
as it sits in a graveyard
bopping as I walk
like a pocket poodle
running to strangers on the metro
who like to stop and stare
barking for attention
biting friends who touch it too much.
I would have liked to call him Monggie.
Forgive me,
I am late
I had to shave him.
Write two poems, each using repetition of a word or a phrase. Think of our classroom discussion where we realized how repetition achieves different effects, whether it be lending weight, creating irony, exploring multiple meanings of the same word or phrase, among others.
1. The indignity of an email
Hello
2.
[Please zoom in on the image if not visible]
Hi Malayka! I think it's pretty cool that you arranged your poem responding to repetition in a circle. What does "rs" and "ss" mean in that one?
ReplyDeleteAlso hey I wrote about being well and e-mails also! While your poem has one voice who is hesitant mine is just a clutter of voices responding to "hope you're well" you could check it out later maybe :)
Correct me Malayka if I am wrong but I took those rs and ss to be syllabic sounds in certain words like Dresses, Ledgers.
DeleteHey Malayka, your poem "The indignity of an email" created a visualistic cacophony of those email conversations in my head going right in and right out. It's fab. Loved the circular poem too. Especially the cursive writing! 😁 Both poems are mind boggling !
ReplyDeletei liked the poem the indignity of an email very much. It somehow created a sense of those feelings of indecisiveness which is quite prevalent in the current times and i could connect to it.
ReplyDeleteReally liked “one hundred thousand” how you took your poem back to where it started. Just the comparison ‘wounds can heal/arrows can be plucked and diseases can be cured/But fire/fire chars skin to its tether” did not really work for me, the image works but does not bring anything significant into perspective as one goes on to read the next line “But fire…” help me out to understand what you tried to do with this image. Loved the ending.
ReplyDeleteThe email poem is great, shows how the medium of conversation and expression really fails us. How you ended it on “hello” made it hard hitting.
All the best