Shreyasi - Mid Term Assignment

Prompt -  Write two poems, each using repetition of a word or a phrase. 

                                      1.       A Shifting poem

When you say, You have got to be funny, 

that's when You actually start becoming funny.

I mean the moment you say something is funny, 

it becomes funny.

I mean funny itself is not a funny word.

I mean confidence comes in funny ways.

Like the time when mum thought I was throwing tantrum

But really, I was only throwing food around.

My mother laughs at this now

But at that time, she stopped

the cassette that played ‘mai nikla o gaddi leke’

And listened to Jagjit Singh

For the whole time, I collected my tantrum.

We ran 11 houses to get to the building where we are now

and it will be really funny if you believed that 11

were the only houses we shifted away from.

The funny thing with houses is they do not shift. People do. And yet people say -

we are moving houses.

We were all watching Jagjit Singh on television

when mum said that her sadness level is not Jagjit Singh vala level

and asked me to change the channel.

 She was the one holding the remote.

After the song finished, she changed to the one playing

‘tujhse naraaz nahi zindagi’

And we listened to that too.

Sometimes as a family we watch only one song.

Sometimes as a family we dream only one dream.

In one dream, when the first robbery was about to happen,

we were all sleeping. We were dreaming even in that dream.

Dreams acted funny that night

as all four of us dreamt of dinosaurs getting robbed of their attitude.

With all this, sometimes,

We calculate how 11 is

Not a big number. What is it.

Just 1 added 11 times. 

And bricks are not that big a deal.

It is my theory that a funny way of getting to know people,

is to find out how people shifted there,

How they shift,

How they are

Shifting.

Shifting is a verb that loses action, becomes an adjective, takes on a proper noun, makes up a poem all about itself

every time we add 1 to 1. One day

we even turned living room à bedroom

and bedroom à living room.

Every time, my art teacher asked me

To draw living room in my art file,

I have flipped the page.

I mean confidence comes in funny ways.

2.       The first house

The first house

Was a setting of red bricks soaking the Sun

Was a lamp that made yellow a bit too dark

Was a colour that became a photograph.

The first house was a chapter in learning

That the best way is to keep changing.

Its roof was a boomerang of graduation caps

tipping over and over,

It did not stand the test of thunderstorms.

It was a teacher that failed a lot of seasons.

Its flooring was not a cemented conversation

Or a tiled approach on how to build relationships.

The first house was making way for dictations

Which never practiced to spell what is not a house.

Not a house is a dialogue open

At the cost of inviting tremors

On which shifting is as major an event

as an earthquake is.

The first house will always precede

All the other houses

Which is to say it is also a memory

That we had to move out

And moving out can be a Go To Place

If you have a place to get to.

Prompt -  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.       Regulus Black speaks 

When I open a coffee shop

I will sell telescope that will look at sky

But will not search for stars

I will tell people to look out for constellations

And locate their childhood

Which will not look like a comparative study.

There is no at par in comparative study

There is only captive in comparative study

In my universe

my coffee shop,

my menu

I will tell them about Sirius constellation

Which does not remain a character in a book

Did my parents see a problem in me?

Did they want their sons to highlight an issue?

Did they want to draw attention to an injustice?

Because there has to be some reason for naming their son Sirius black

Or Were they just being punny?

Or were they trying to point out how we don’t see stars in children?

So, they literally named their children Sirius and Regulus.

And see how irregular things Regulus did.

You cannot keep opening coffee shops 

without paying bills for caffeine

You cannot keep offering telescopes

without seeing

that there is no scope for star gazing.

[  Poet's note: Character in Harry Potter Universe. Here in this poem Regulus responding to the pressure of comparison that he faces (because of being born in the rich Black family and being the brother of Sirius Black) and how he might have his own dreams. ]

2.       What Kreacher says

To have a creature, named Kreacher

And show, slavery sometimes,

May not even be aware of being a captive.

That slavery will cause master’s death.

I am not sorry Padfoot.

Here Padfoot will not become Sirius black

Here the lakhon mei ek will mean counting from ek to laakh

Padfoot does not bark now when elephants walk by.

Barking is no longer an act of attraction

when others are ignoring simple issues

Just because issues are simple

does not mean they do not bite.

Someone once said

You cannot keep taking away from a positive integer

Without turning it into negative

No, you can’t. You definitely can’t.

[  Poet's note: Character in Harry Potter Universe. Here in this poem, I am talking about a  particular moment when Kreacher realises that he was an accomplice in murdering Sirius Black. Kreacher has now grown old and knows that Sirius Bkack could turn into a dog, Padfoot, and therefore it kind of pinches him more that he killed two beings. Kreacher is trying to also say that how their community of elves is still being ignored and why is that also the reason of him being so negative.  ]

---

Prompt - 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.       We got furniture talking

We got furniture talking

Taking in heat from the furniture as well

In the midst of summer season.

The dining table sulked in a corner

The chairs didn’t let us sit

The boxes dismissed us in one flap

And my mother continued reciting:

“The sofa needs to be new”

“The bed needs to go”

“The fridge needs to fly”

…

…

… but

But [ss1] 

‘but it is 20 years old’ is my only excuse

For saving all of them

She says they are old

And look look look

We keep celebrating ironies on birthdays!

We got furniture talking

When the rumour has it

That the taps started leaking.

I really thought how nice of them to cry for us.

When we left, the power went off

Maybe the house really didn’t want to see us leaving.

We got furniture.

Talked[ss2] 

To forget doorbells with caller tunes

To forget phone numbers scribbled on sofa hands

And thanked chair for not breaking down

When the tallest person came to repair fan,

Thanked the fan that spared their neck and

Hair.

We got furniture talking

Almost every day of this place.

Almost every day

of this place[ss3]

Placed value to seasons

That collected in furniture most days.

Making birthdays

Seem like all the days

Furniture stuck around.

[Poet's note: [ss1]Here to produce a sense of hesitation

 [ss2]To produce a sense of time elapsing  and syntax

[ss3] To produce speed.]

2. It has come to this

It has come to this

Soon this summer will end

That friends

                                        will lose friends [ss1] 

That Thank-you Notes can be sad.

It has come to this

Somewhere in the past we knew

It will come to this

Somewhere in the future we will be

Checking on each other.

Soon this summer will end

I will go to India Gate and

Discover weather

Say it is hot for winter

Soon that winter will win me over

I will eat ice cream.

They will eat ice cream.

There are thank you notes tucked away

somewhere in memory, as we laugh anyway

It has come

to this – That calling up friends will be seen

As an act of love.

The ice cream melts[ss2] 

Next summer will come with a new record.

Soon

this        

                summer

will                        

end. [ss3] 

 [Poet's note : The font colour is unintentional. All font must be read in black. In some places, the font is coloured as brown. Please read it in black only.]

[Poet's note for Poem- It comes to this 

[ss1]The effect of distance

 [ss2]I wanted to produce surprise here. And sense of hope as well as sadness.

 [ss3]I wanted to show the circle of life. That sadness is transitory, but not that the circle exits in a circular way. That this sadness can be piercing too. Through the line break I wanted to achieve that effect of soft sadness and hope.  

]