Prerna Mid-Term Assignment

1. 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. Note: Sita in the Ramayana has always been portrayed as a submissive, acquiescent, almost voiceless sort of a woman who always goes along with her husband's plans, irrespective of the inconveniences she often faces. Here, I've made an attempt to portray her view of things, which has sadly been almost erased from the epic. Our literature, scriptures and histories have often been recorded by men, with little attention paid to women's points of view. Perhaps if we did get a chance to hear their voices, we might find them completely different (and also more human) from the many ways in which they have been portrayed. 

        Sita

           He looked at me with distaste

His wife, curled up on the

dirty lounge sofa, reeking of

his Future

         A stained glass in one hand

A burnt butt in the other

that I held on to long after

It had died.

That’s how he held on to

our past, anyway.

Too much Past.

It ran up our streets

Glaring at me

          while they glorified

          my Piety

And the wars, too

hurtling from

inside posters;

A young, sniffled out Honesty

“You always disappoint me.”

I couldn’t help smiling.

You see, he never let them know

about the Leaving

The dreary, tired act of swishing up

suitcases;

The child custody.

“The house is a mess. The floor is…

The window grills..

The laundry…”

The laundry.

He hadn’t thought of that

while he made me wait

for 14 years

barely draping myself in cotton

Using leaves

In lieu of napkins.

I guess he changed that

version too, I said as

He slumped on to

the sofa.

A fat, ruined man

sloshed in mustard

and washed up dreams.

A has been.

Did they never think?

That History;

broken like the broken mosque

that they helped break,

was seething.

I sighed.

Men, I thought to myself,

Men and their distorted histories.

2.   Note: In the Ramayana, the character of Shurpanakha has been described by Valmiki as Ghora Mukhi or 'generally ugly.' In fact, this character, despite being vital to the storyline, has constantly been denigrated and ridiculed on account of her appearance and behavior by not only the protagonists of the epic but also the audiences who continue to read/consume it. Her only 'fault' has been to not fit into the mould of the ideal woman; Shurpanakha not only did not conform to the standards of beauty, she was condescended to because of her unapologetic desire for Rama.
Here I've tried to see her as the powerful, unapologetic woman she was who has often been misrepresented by audiences and authors alike.

 Ghora Mukhi

I still see her
While she combs her hair,
wild and still, like a forest flower.
She bathes her skin
refocuses her Glare
Glancing and wounded
like a deer.


Rama turned her away.

He hated her bellowing self.

She brought him fruit

she offered him a drink

She never waited for a signal

She was too woman for him.

Pot bellied,

with breasts as ripe

as her desire for things

Why did she have to be

so present?

Did she not know that as a woman

she ought to have been

a tad unobtrusive?

She went for it.

Unapologetic

and disregarding.

And when all had been said

and done,

and she was left

wounded and bleeding,

She bandaged her skin

And tied up her spirit.

Rama was gone.

She didn’t mind the refusal,

she had seen it far too many times,

after all.

Her pitch black

almost starless skin

Her laughter that resembled

the fullness of a morning

(they couldn’t understand it,

no.

Why did she have to be

so present?)

She just wishes.

She just wishes that

in the dreary aftermath

of his rejection

he had treated her

a little bit more Human.

---------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2. Read 'Learning the Poetic Line: How line breaks shape meaning' by Rebecca Hazelton - https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/70144/learning-the-poetic-line. 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.

1.  Deranged

It’s dangerous.

Pugnacious, violent but

self-effacing.

Raw, green,

                                       hiding in the dingy corners of

my mind.

                   Whispering at the crack of

Rising dawn.

Lying beside me all night.

                                   As I stare out the old

crumbling wooden crevice.

But I want to elude the daylight Want to

            crush my heels Stand on

the balls of my feet and

follow the night.

Follow this furious, vicious child

For once.

Want to leave the stale, accurate, precise

pulpit I want

to go

Rumble down the staircase Stare

at my veins that

keep me alive.

I want to rush down

that indiscernible

inaccessible lane

of my life.

Smoke words that injure my mind.

I want to hijack

her dirty inner excruciation fill it in my blood and

go fly.

Over unknown,

taboo,

shrinking shrines.

I want to capture

my breath

And bottle it, seal it

in a crude, fanatical sea far

from my mind. I want to feel

reverberated at

the cost of my life.

Note: This poem captures Speed with its short, crisp lines, especially in the first stanza. Writing shorter lines that almost jump along heightens the mood that the poem tries to create (that of a restless, almost inebriated state of mind.)

In the second and third stanza, it also uses Space to heighten the tension (some lines are left-aligned, some are not).

2.  Aurora

Words. Words. Words.

A bright morning.

Windows with light sheets

trailing them.

The coffee spilled on the tray.

The smell of mud.

The tree coiling

from beneath the staircase.

How exquisite can they all be

if the words that die

that anguishing, tedious death

veiled beneath them

never died-

but remained as they do

every morning

full of piping melodies

and the deep plush mirage.

How things never quieten.

How,

as the onlookers never acknowledge

Silence talks

that slow, calamitous, pristine talk.

Every morning.

Note: In this poem, I have maintained regular Syntax to highlight the calming mood the poem tries to create.

     The last line, left by itself, also makes use of Space to emphasize the topic.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

3. 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. Untitled

The heart is a wiry athlete,

A bubbling broth

A pebble in a pipe

an unwashable,

creasing

cloth

Stuck, stuck

like pieces of metal in a sock

Feet puke rust

nside glistening shoe blocks

My heart, my heart

tearing through

My body; tender like sock

Note: Here there is repetition of words in two stanzas, the second and the third. In both these stanzas, the repetition creates weight and emphasizes the meaning of the said words and also the mood of the poem.

2. Stuck

Tethered by words

Bound by skin

Fettered self-

inside released skin

I see corals,

you see limbs

Body, Body-

You lock me in

My breasts are a crosspiece

my heart a cage

My head, a series of rails

Housing a breathing

History

Housing a breathing history of

the Other Race.

Note: In the second and last stanza of this poem, the last two lines are repetitive. However, when the line is repeated the second time there are added words that create multiple meanings.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------