Pandorathon 4 TSL's Napowrimo and My take on it

 TSL's Pandorathon Prompt When War and Peace engages in fisticuffs with Gone with the Wind given by

Santosh Bakaya

There was already fisticuffs

Between War and Peace

Napolean brought war

To Russia's peace

The winter made it all

Gone with the Wind

Some American woman

Kissed an American guy

Talking of which

It was not an African American

You can bet

But kisses always look

Hot on the silver screen

(No idea why, though,

either why it is called silver or why it looks hot and not cold)

And the movie was big

It made the second-rate book a success

Second-rate compared to War and Peace

While War and Peace languished on the shelf

Too big to be read and no David Lean to make it fat

Explode on the silver screen

That is how it goes

In this bitch of a world

Said Vladimir or Estragon, out of place

or context. What wits!

The racist movie wins

With its background of genteel slavery

Made from a mediocre book

And the good book loses.

What the masses who are asses want

Is something they can see sealed with a kiss

With some vague nostalgia for some vague land!

To learning about Russia in the time of War and Peace

Theatres and distribution of reels

Are akin to not being against the ropes

In the boxing ring

Who goes into a bookshop anyway

To buy War and Peace?

Everything follows entropy

The fisticuffs are played out in terms of greenbacks

Not in the ring where Tolstoy would be a heavyweight

And Margaret Mitchell only bantam

Who on earth asks you to write on such weird things?

I might as well go and kill 'em

Make war, not peace

And engage in fisticuffs

Till such prompts are gone with the wind!

Just found I got published by Samyukta in 2018 (fourth time)

 https://samyuktajournal.in/poems-a-selection-6/?fbclid=IwAR0sDXF2bJCWhT7voNgzFvQ_2bIs2teDvER-MxDqyT4Imts-gYufBZXIPpg

I wrote a series of poems on Revolution

They got lost on FB

But these few got published in 2018 due to Bini Sajil. I found them only now or rather Reena found them for me. Thanks to her.

The first poem has some missing lines on Vincent Van Gogh

So I rewrote it.

The rest is okay.

STATUES AND PLACES OF WORSHIP

I have lived to see the Bamiyan Buddha blown apart

An Ambedkar wearing a garland of chappals

A Gandhi defaced

An Indira Gandhi’s bust attacked

A Lenin fall

I lived to see the mosque in Ayodhya, the Babri Masjid, get destroyed

Confederate statues get torn down in the US of A

Saw the twin towers there fall down

All this happened during my lifetime

I am not a Buddhist
Or an Ambedkarite, though I am pro Dalit and against jathi and varna discrimination
Or a Gandhian
Am anti-Indira Gandhi
Anti-Lenin
I am not a Muslim
Am anti-slavery, anti-racial discrimination and the Confederates

Anti- American imperialism, expansionism and interventionism
Anti-the political Right movements across the world
& I am no Hindu

I follow the ones free of all icons and idols
Jesus, Buddha, Kabir, Rumi, and all
I follow those in whom God or ideals live(d) in their hearts
I am freed by them of all icons and idols
My body is my only, though not holy, temple
Which statue will you tear down
Or place of worship destroy

To offend me, or of such a one?

I believe in the gospel of Vincent van Gogh

who became a minister and served the poor

and was turned away by his congregation
for being the second coming of Christ, so half-admiringly and half-mockingly named by Zola by hearsay from the miners of Brabante before he turned a painter?
Have you been Adidas and laughed at by the Tam Brahm writer
who could not take your mocking his clan
though he said he was an atheist
but made his son wear the twice-born symbol of the holy thread
even while considering your story sacrilege and crap?

Revolution, you are still in Kerala.
I left you behind, even Adidas
As I have something else to do.
Fate parted us but the fire still burns
In the hearth
Sets ablaze
At unexpected times
Even as the same fascist dogs bark together
All over the world
The same pack of hungry wolves run together
And I, lone wolf, alpha male, await the full moon
To howl and bay at it yes, yes, yes, yes, no, no, yes, yes

My teeth chattering again, this time in the loneliness of heat and cold
And hope it will melt the polar ice-caps.

Pandorathon 1,2,3 TSL Prompts given by Santosh Bakaya and a brief history of TSL and one more poem

 Pandorathon 3 Prompt 3 given by

Santosh Bakaya

on the TSL set of new prompts for this month and this one is for May 3

"I want to have vodka by the Volga

Ah, for this intoxicated fiesta"

Don't forget the gin, Ginny

And the martini

Let us top it off with tequila

The shot glass limed with salt, not honey

Bring rum and coke, if you want to

Your poison is your choice but toast you have to

Now let's jump in the Volga

Or would you prefer a boat, and to salsa?

Row your boat carefully

Oh, the moon is drunk on/with the water!

Sway your hips, don't fall over

End by trailing your fingers or lips in/on the river!

TSL's Pandorathon Prompt 2 May 2 given by

Santosh Bakaya

. Write twelve more lines to these two lines given. Poetry.

"Out of her wits she was shocked

When by all and sundry mocked"

When they should have stood by her side

And seen her as someone not to deride

He said he was in love

She thought he was quite the guv

One day he gave her a rose

Then clicked her as she struck a pose

Next day her pics were on insta

Photoshopped, showing her umm.. ah!

With a caption, uh, these days, these girls, hmmph!

Fucker, she had no idea, was such a chimp!

Though all pretended to believe her story

They, as usual, let him get away 'cleanly'.

TSL's Pandorathon 1 May 1

with

Santosh Bakaya

An obese mongoose called Rikki Tikki Tavi*

Who was not that famed one of old

Let a sleek svelte slimy slim slippery snake escape

And starved to death, I am told!

Now if only obsese (not Obi-wan Kenobe) Rikki Tikki Tavi

Had not opened her presumptuous mouth to yawn

Nag* would not have slipped out

From it, that voluminous, cavernous cavern

Leading to her starvation, and death!

What a repast was thus left behind

Of a slim sleek svelte slimy slippery snake!

Here my 'sad' snake story ends!

*Nag means snake.

*Rikki Tikki Tavi, the name, is taken from a Rudyard Kipling story.

Dear friends,

A little bit of history is in order. We started The Significant League (then Rejected Stuff) in 2013, I think. I was there and then Reena Prasad came along. We gave our first Reuel International Prize for excellence in literature and writing for the long poem Oh Hark! in the next year (2014) to Santosh Bakaya and then she joined us and became our main pillar. Anu/Anna Gabriel and my daughters gave silent support. Then we found wonderful supporters like Satbir Chadha, Sudarshan KCherry who is omnipresent, Lopa Banerjee, Gauri Dixit, Sunita Singh, Donnis Mathai, Vinitha Nair, Vijay Nair, Antara Nanda Mondal, George Korah, and all our members and readers. We brought out many anthologies like The Significant Anthology, The Significant League's Roseate Sonnets Anthology, Silhouette I & II And Other Short Stories featuring Eternal Links, a Hallowe'en Anthology, Igniting Key, Umbilical Chords, Muffled Moans, Darkness there but something more, - with the help of a 'thousand' other writers and many editors - these deserve a special separate thank you note as they include Michele Baron, Anna Gabriel, Firdaus Parvez, Reena Prasad, myself, Santosh Bakaya, Gauri Dixit, Sunita Singh, Vineetha Mekkoth, Himali Narang, Madan Gandhiji, Bhuvaneshwari Shivkumar - and also single collections and duets, and online anthologies, and we gave out Reuel International Prizes and Nissim International Prizes till last year for seven solid years now. We did NAPOWRIMO now for the sixth year from 2016, 17, 18, 19, 20, and now 2021. We have also done Nanowrimo thrice.

It was all because of you all - we thank again especially all the prompt givers this time and every time and participants.

And Congrats to all who completed and are completing! More fun is on the way. Stay tuned. All this was done with just a few people at the core who are mad about poetry, and love literature and writing passionately just for its own sake and for fun! I don't know about what others think but we think we have done a good job Many have wanted to see us go down or fold up but we go on

We have held book launches, award ceremonies with Authorpress's help, and Rubric's and in Atta Galatta and Urban Solace and literary meets online and offline and are always busy bees and so keep ourselves happy and engaged always collecting the pollen and honey of literature and we don't flash it but we did excellent work. We have given out hundreds of certificates and books as prizes as well as cash awards for poetry, prose, fiction, non-fiction, and literary criticism, all done away from the glare of useless media publicity. Basically, we tried to help new writers, improve mature ones in writing, make people take off (as from this place as a springboard) and achieve more and not get worked up about how others receive their works but work at being totally great in their writing to make their writing journey a smooth ride.

We also ran Pandorathon twice and started the third one today headed by Santosh who has also instituted a humour prize in her father's name.

Our groups now have 25000 to 30000 people in them. TSL admins and jury are all artists, writers, and award winners of renown nationally, and internationally, mostly.

From someone who was there throughout so far thanking everyone once again, namely me, Koshy AV

TSL is supported by Nissim Co. and Autism for Help Village Project Trust and Fasihi Magazine International and Coffee Table Romanticisms and vice versa and one of the causes we support is autism.

Religions bind (people together)

more than

the notion of nation or the humanizing of humanity

Religions also thus divide

(as humans want to belong and be irrational

and feel superior)

between their adherents and others of different faith

Demons are the ones that bind

Religions are demonic

Unbind people from these demons

of religion.

nation and humanity

caste race class gender and other kinds of idiocy

dangerous hateful tomfoolery

cast these demons out, and exorcise them

send them back to hell where they belong

and set the people free

to love everyone

who daily crosses their path

and every plant tree animal bird insect living being

as well as nature, the earth, and the universe

free to say no to these demons

10Amita Paul, Anna Maria Tvpm and 8 others

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Ampat Koshy

Religions bind (people together)

more than

the notion of nation or the humanizing of humanity

Religions also thus divide

(as humans want to belong and be irrational

and feel superior)

between their adherents and others of different faith

Demons are the ones that bind

Religions are demonic

Unbind people from these demons

of religion.

nation and humanity

caste race class gender and other kinds of idiocy

dangerous hateful tomfoolery

cast these demons out, and exorcise them

send them back to hell where they belong

and set the people free

to love everyone

who daily crosses their path

and every plant tree animal bird insect living being

as well as nature, the earth, and the universe

free to say no to these demons

Published by Glomag

 

Arpil 30th TSL Napowrimo Prompt by Uiba Mangang Weave your name and acrostics

 April 30th Prompt last one by

Uiba Mangang

where you have to weave your name into the first line and have an acrostic at either sides of the lines made of the first letters of your name. I have made the acrostic go down in the beginning of the lines and in reverse at the end just for fun.

Koshy, how's the mOSH pit, KoshY?

OSHo does not have anY answers. oH!

See how the feet leave marks in the wet leaveS

Have the birds gone south and do you still have your mojO?

Your obsessions overthrow and grow from acorn to oaK

TSL Prompt April 29th based on Sufjan Stevens latest instrumental album in five parts.

 TSL Prompt April 29th based on Sufjan Stevens latest instrumental album in five parts.

Convocations

There have been no convocations in my life so far.

But once I went for one for my daughter

The photographs remain

Of her convocation

In Bangalore, a school

I had barged in to for admission

And they had given my daughters shelter

A miracle

At a time when I had just shifted there for my son

Who had been diagnosed with autism

Angels littered my way and ended in that

convocation. There must be something to

This quaint tradition

Here Stevens calls together "a

Large number of people

For an assembly" that is not formal

Unlike the degree conferring one

To listen to his music.

Sonic scapes accompanied by swirls of psychedelic images

My daughter wore a white sari.

Stevens is calling us to an epic

As is this poem

Mini.

Meditations.

An album of 49 tracks

Of which the first ten are meditations

What does he meditate on?

He mediates on death

Father's, mother's, O Lowell O Carrie, his

by association, mine

and everyone's

maybe even God's

Let us stretch our imagination

It is about meditation

It is meditation

It is meditation on meditation

It is mediation

Lamentations

We lament

death

grieve parting

long for reunion

feel sad at absence

Sorrow over memories

Nothing brings back the dead

Except moments

Unexpected

The dead who live in us

The living who die is us

Sufjan's mother and father

My sister, father, mother, mother in law, sister in law's son

Who else died

I am familiar with death

This music creeps by me upon the waters

And we sit still by the rivers of Babylon

To weep

Waiting for exile from life to end

Waiting for our mouths to be filled with never known laughter

Revelations

I have had revelations galore

It tired me

If only I had been able to make them into

music

and not poems

Sufjan

it might have produced

a better result.

Poetry makes nothing happen

does not drive away

delay or make death depart

Revelations, it seems, are not enough.

The story does not end there.

Celebrations

After sorrow there must be a time of joy

After rain, sunshine

To cliche it

After poetry, prose

When you take stock of loved ones' lives

And come to terms with their departure

I am writing this not only for myself but my friends who are grieving

I am writing this bittersweet

I am writing this with the pain(t)brushes of autumn

I am writing this with hot tears of happiness

I am celebrating oxymorons

Love and death cuddle in my poems in music

No one hears

I am 'lost' in the celebration

I wonder if anyone will ever read these lines

Or listen to the music of the spheres in Sufjan

When nothing matters anymore except to go on

For the sake of loved ones

I celebrate

by lighting up black candles

to give light

for my loved ones

one step at a time

Incantations (One less and unreleased)

Njaan Malayalathil ezhuthaarilla

I never write in Malayalam

But if we come to incantations

I would say

Kaka/Crow

Rathri/Night

Iruttu/Dark

Velicham/Light

Swapnam/Dream

Nishabdatha/Silence

Deivam/God

Maranam/Death

Jeevitham/Life

Raudram/Blood-Red-Anger/Destruction

Madhuram/Sweetness

Kalkandam/Rock sugar?

The poem trails away into chants somnolent

Sound(e)scape

The poem

Ends

With a(n) manthram/incantation.

29th April's Prompt

Convocations- Dr.

Ampat Koshy

Convocations in five parts divided into ‘Meditations’, ‘Lamentations’, ‘Revelations’, ‘Celebrations’ and ‘Incantations’

based on Sufjan Stevens latest album. Write one or 5 poems using the 5 words in it

Be inspired by Sufjan Steven's album

https://youtu.be/Ivpq4VDFC1I

Convocations, the new instrumental album from Sufjan Stevens, moves like a two-and-a-half-hour electronic/ambient mass for our present age of anxiety and dread; its 49 tracks work through the stages of grief and gladness with emotional mood music that is dreamy, dissonant, vertiginous, rhythmic, repetitive, urgent, and calm—that is, all the things we undergo when we inevitably live through isolation, uncertainty, and loss. Its five sonic cycles (Meditations, Lamentations, Revelations, Celebrations, and Incantations) replicate different stages of mourning, healing and catharsis, working both to soothe our unease while savoring a renewed sense of awe and wonder for being alive in these unprecedented times. Stevens initiated Convocations in response to (and as an homage to) the life and death of his father, who died in September last year, two days following the release of The Ascension. It is, then, ultimately an album about death, and an album that reflects a year in which we have all lost so much. That said, this is not a personal record, but a universal one. Convocations is built on a shared experience that seeks to be honest about how complicated grief can be in these difficult times—the pain and separation, the anxiety, the unknown, the absolute joy of memory. This is also an album made in lockdown, when we were all cloistered in whatever space we had. Convocations arrives just as we begin to emerge from a year whose losses we will calculate for a lifetime. It is, then, right on time, as we begin to process our grief and try to carry on with it. ©2021 AKR P.O. BOX 1282 LANDER, WY 82520 USA ALL MUSIC PERFORMED, RECORDED, MIXED AND PRODUCED BY SUFJAN STEVENS © 2021 SUFJAN STEVENS MUSIC/ASCAP

Meditations live now. Lamentations live now. Revelations live now. Celebrations: April 29th Incantations: May 6th