Artistic Distemperment

a writer pours water
into his story;
he keeps his head above it
but drowns the reader
in his stead

Storytelling

purple crocuses
crowd around oak tree
rapt children

The Literary Fix

escapism in television is derided
and in comics, fretfully chided
but a Book saunters past with a sly wink
as I hide my fingers stained with ink
and cry aloud: “It’s not what you think!”

Reading

the mind on a journey
as the body sits still;
feasting on words
while fasting

[Fiction] The Lists

The problem with online booklists, Lissel thought, was that they made you conscious about not only what other people were reading, but how fast they were doing so, and how many friends had decided to discuss their literary aspirations with them. A place that fostered nerdish fraternity, a niche for the language-inclined, became a comparison chart. And it became increasingly distressing, downright mortifying, to know that a book, well-loved, and well-lauded (in no less than an average of 5 out of 5 stars!) by the mass public made one yawn and want to hang oneself. There was persecution and then there was willing self-immolation, and Lissel was through with both. She couldn’t quite chuck her laptop in the trash though, and so resigned herself to peeping between her fingers if she happened to (accidentally, I assure you!) land on anything remotely related to the Lists.

Advertisement

Peace and Quiet

I hide my photos
in-between volumes
of “Shakespeare.”

From pages of prose
I unearth memories
at a leisurely pace.

Against the leather spine
my nails tap a warning:

Shh!

A library is meant for quiet.

Bad Female Characters

I grow tired of Cho Cho sans
Old women who sleep with disdainful young men
Hungry for the security of mother’s teat
Young vixens whose ultimate weapon
Are their cunts instead of their cunning
Bastardized parodies of strong women
Weak and meager to the bones
Portrayals that make me mistake them
(Me?)
From the real thing

Keeping Up Appearances

One day, a writer-friend told me
People will leave
Their iLibraries open
Swap iPhones on greeting
As if exchange handshakes.
And akin, to the dust-covered dens
Of solipsistic, educated folk,
Nary a book will ever have been read.

Journey

I took
A leisurely stroll
Through the pages of a book

Literary Appetite

My favorite thirst is the thirst for words
A turn of phrase as succulent as a peach
An image, silk threads glistening in a tapestry
A story on feathered wings and flight for the mind
To be hungry and to be fed;
There is no greater joy