Postures On Shadows

Joint Poetry by Venkataraman L.N. and Joseph Kurian

---

Light on Progress

Joint Poetry by Venkataraman L.N. and Joseph Kurian

---

Road to Top

Joint Poetry by Venkataraman L.N. and Joseph Kurian

---

Fires

Fires, they blew sirens
Stones, uncreased in prayer
Fences, in unfolded black
Leaves, trace crude airs

Night Out

The night holds weapons, battlements, arms
how fat it grows, full and strong, with the wooly
thickness of a coat, and the deepness of a well;
down, down, down we both go, holding hands
with exhales flaring up, hot flotsam on the sea.

Angels of Dark

in the gentle descent
in formless joy
doors still tight
in knobs of dawn
come angels
without dust

Words

Deeply is the word he professes
in lipless verses, bent eyes and a high collared coat.
The heart is never worn on a sleeve but often
breaks over a lover’s face like moonlight.
We are unconstant, unstable, unmanageable
under the Terms and Conditions of Modern Love.
We check no boxes, gather no bouquets,
make no stringent declarations or mad attempts

Advertisement

She Swims The Night

She swims the night; the street is her sea. The street is her wave,
that clashes and eats at her tired soles. Unmarried women
don’t walk alone, so she dares it – whispers, Come on, breathy anxious
with wheels going round in her inner life. The troglodytes remain
shut up in their homes, rectangular mirrors smiling in their eyes.

Mermaids

Men only love us
when they need us, women dip
their babies in, Nereids seeking
to scale their children in armor;
we, ugly selkies, melusines, mer
maids and lads who swim in
black waters, we cannot breathe
the light, merely claw and scrape
at the tops of waves, legs
greeting us with nets and offerings –

Depression

The walls, they are shrinking,
a box I am in folded up,
heavy and looming
are the forges
making all this dark;

HAIKU: HE WAS THE SUN

By Charles Robert Lindholm 

He was my sunshine

Lines

Pieces of me didn’t break. Socks I didn’t roll, shirts
I didn’t fold. Hardly limbed, I carried
each cup of malice in my clenched teeth, and scoured lands
on ten quadrillion purring wheels, a wave of
stampeding machinery, throwing up trees.

Saturn Peering through His Ring, Dreaming in the Dark

Ten thousand one wings in the lion’s ring,
Holy and houndish in pursuit from mountain;
Trembling are the shadows of the dogdayed age,
Widowed from the Summerland, adieu.

Serpent

A road that winds back in on itself, handless creature
of the wood whose crown is dirt,

slow in pace
and intake.

Killing is a long trial,
that begins with observance and waiting. From cool dim morning
to the heat of high noon, darkness inserts itself
into the squeeze of time.

Today Someone Dies

Ten years ago I saw someone die.
A thin beatless heart tugged from an outlet; there was
Singing, a high aria reverberating throughout the cave.
We all tipped and tipped as darkness
Slipped and slipped,
Waking us from the stupor of a life
Trapped in an hour,
Waving flags we had made
Lives and lives prior.
I never saw that room again. Never laid
A rose in it.

Still

When your eyes
    Shot snakes, of venom
    Bundled in yarns of thorn
   

The Jungle Book

For the deer, I waited as a lion
To the cheetah, I was too late

For the fish, I shot my eye as a stork
To the kingfisher, I was too late

The Chase

A light I chased
to feel the day in my heart

Sparkles traced
a Sun bridging my love, I tore apart

Eclipsed

Stones we are
Of the same edges
And the same corners
Of the same size
And shape
Of the same hardness
And sharpness

Sides and Corners

In every dark side
There is a better corner
To discover light

Emptiness

Look, how empty you are
Your eyes, slipping into my world
measure the notes, I play not
Your ears, holding your love
read colors in the dark

SHADOWMAN

 

If you can’t read the poem, clicking on the image will enlarge it 🙂

Also published on 1000 words

Your Script

in your length, of life
you give lessons, of depth
your soul stuffed, in a hard shell
carols its heart, till the last breath
living for nothing, but to give

Seeds In The Dark

waters, they flowed
in gentle timbre
echoes I heard
echoes I heard

No Escape

Am I a light, a child of Sun
Am I darkness, that owls guard

So Special

you are a bead, so special
strung amongst us, on this earth
half look below, on your footsteps
to follow the rhythm you set upon
the remaining half look up, above
by your inspiration, to see stars

Dark Night

as this day begins to end
a mountain of shadow
this world unwinds
from the eyes
rolling down
slipping off
into a sea
of night
dark

A Complacent Mind

mind dwells deep in a remote cave
caressing a world unknown
deep in solitary darkness
capturing dim images
with a light narrow
shone upon
the dark
as long
as far
held
—-