Mid term Assignment - Nobby

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. 

The lowest shelf of the cupboard

The lowest shelf of my cupboard
is a child.
Playfully hiding my clothes
when I am in a hurry
it demands that I bow down
and look into its eyes
face to face.
There are depths to it which
are not reached by
high hung tubelights.
It’s not darkness
but a chaos which unravels only
to the patient eye.
Past apparel scattered like outgrown weeds
at the very back
is a sticker
placed there when I was 13
when the clothes were less and smaller
it was visible.
The lowest shelf of my cupboard
is a child
and in the jumble inside it
there might a fragment of another.

Flame of the gas stove

Like faith, unseen, unheard.
Exploding into existence
at your insistence.

There's not much light here.
this relationship is all heat.
It demands to be stroked
From mid to high
flame. As needed.
Its blue can dissolve yours
with the right ingredients.
A cigarette, a reckless nose.
And the panache to carry off
a singed hair look.

Its circular flame usually leaves
behind the evidence of its sizzling
kisses, on pure bread slices.
Bear this in mind
when the strong wind blows
the confident ring will flutter
vulnerable as a candle
and you'd feel like giving it
a mouth to mouth.

Don't. Its a creature doomed
to burn and take rebirth
And cursed to never taste
the fruits of its labor
Its delicate tongue is meant
only to lick at the flat end of metal
like a sinner pounding on the gates of hell.

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.

Hagar

…it has been many summers since

I have bothered to strain my ears

At night, desperate for the tinkling sound

Of a brook in a desert

Or the breathing of a living child

I, Hajar

daughter of a king

wife of Abraham

mother of the first born, Ishmael

plaything of the Gods

and their authors

maid to Sarah

and a concubine to her husband

am tired.

Like  a grain of sand

which has made the journey through

the hourglass, way too many times

and would like to become one

with the land once more.

My son would be the father of a great nation

curious words to say to a mother dying

along with her child.

Sounds grand, now.

Tragedy often does 

in hindsight

especially to those who didn't live it. 

A wife separated from her husband.

A father snatched away from his son.

A family, thirsting.

Grand indeed.

It is ending, I won’t lie now.

Each night since then

I lie awake

straining to hear

the sound of a tinkling spring

and the breathing of a living child.

Gospel according to Amon Goeth

"I am your god

and I can take any life I want to."

Should I have added the second line?

They must think I'm too soft.

...

Shouldn't have fired the gun 

that close to the balcony wall. 

The echo was deafening.

But the ones left alive 

really picked up the pace.

...

I still feel nothing. 

Just like snuffing out a candle

I just snuffed out a star.

...

The gleam in some of their eyes

Its almost as if they're human

What will happen if

I blind all of them?

...

I'm tired of arranging for

barbed wire to keep them all in.

Maybe decreasing their numbers

would relieve the pressure

on the resources. 

...

These people don't understand.

I'm not a murderer. 

I didn't kill anyone

human. 

It must be those eyes.

These poor people are under their spell

No, don't kill me, kill them!

Kill them!

Write two poems where each poem has at least two deliberate line-breaks using any of the "Wagner’s six S’s: speed, sound, syntax, surprise, sense, and space." In a small note after each poem, explain your usages of these line-breaks.

Waking up

in the morning eye

-s firmly focused on the imp

-ortantest person in my life

I shout quietly for my wife

she just took her first steps!

The first line could have ended at morning, but by including the word eye, there is a suspense which has been created, as well as it acts as a pun, being pronounced as 'I'. The second word ends with part of the word 'important', again, giving a dual meaning to the line. Implying that the child is naughty but at the same time very precious.

Wrong turn

Like the horse

my uncle

asked me as I stood in awe at the sight of 

the magnificent animal.

Pumping furiously, my heart

and soul were poured into 

inflating another balloon

as the clown finished up the rabbit.

clowns, that evening

ceased to be scary anymore.

The first line unexpectedly ends with horse, and the second line builds on the tension of the first line, by equating the uncle with the horse, making use of the two meanings of the word 'like'. In the second stanza, the image of a heart pumping gets mixed up with the image of air being pumped in a balloon, due to the line break.