Saturday 24 September 2016

'It' is flexible and quiet and sometimes not flexible at all



It’s a distant single file of women
trudging through the scorching morning deserts  -
It’s a single winding line of silence.
A flower blooming, ignoring the fence.
A rash of lights on the dark of nightskin -
It’s always more in silence than in words.


It mostly needs no further embellishments,
a trade-off between this silence and that.
It stops too at the rank and the rotten
and tries to see nothing is forgotten.
The blanks of pauses make their quiet difference
the truth and the toothcomb, concise and exact.




Today this blog completes five years, and I was looking through the posts and here is the very first poem I posted called Pixellate.  A lot of water under the bridge since then, and I am rubbish at marking the individual waves, but I do notice how amidst all the changes, some things don't budge at all.  

What are you celebrating this weekend? Have a happy one!





17 comments:

  1. Happy Blogiversary! Then as now, you were looking at the spaces between the things everyone else sees. Please continue doing that for many years to come!

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    1. Thank you, Susan. In those spaces I see many faces of my friends :-)

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  2. Wow, Happy Anniversary, and Congratulations, and all that! :)

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    1. Thank you! :) Never thought it'd last as long as it has..

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  3. Congratulations on five years! I'm sure in looking back you can see the evolution of your writing.

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    1. I think I am more articulate than I was five years ago :-) but the exact path of that evolution is hard to plot with subjective eyes. Thank you!

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  4. Happy blogoversary.
    I read this first last night and went away to think about it (it is v early morning here).
    Silence is a gift. Which allows us to absorb, to interpret, to wonder, to marvel.
    Thank you.

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    1. Silence is indeed a gift, and wonder is soul food...essential for survival imho, otherwise we shrivel and die. Thank you for your wishes and support.

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  5. Happy anniversary Nila! How many poems have you posted since this one? And as you say, what has changed? There's still 'a distant single file of women
    trudging through the scorching morning deserts...' somewhere, anywhere. Sadly.

    I missed your previous post somehow. Have read/commented now. Sorry for making your busyness even busier!

    Today is Sunday. I'm spending alone, special Mumma time with one of my daughters who's about to move to the UK for twelve months. So lunch, pedicures together, that sort of thing. Will be bitter sweet for moi.

    Looking forward to launching your guest post live tomorrow, Monday!

    Denise :-)

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    1. Thanks Denise! The more things change the more they remain the same...y'day was watching a programme on Yemen, babies dying because they don't have access to formula milk, or a specific antibiotic, for no reason at all,just beyond crazy...remember watching similar heart breaking stuff on Iraq 10 years ago. In my immediate surroundings nothing much has changed for women, the non-combatants suffer the most in wars, always. Not just heart breaking but also infuriating!

      Your Sunday sounds very special, always hard to let go of children, whatever stage of life the mum is at. See that with my own mum. Best wishes to your daughter for this journey.

      I am super-thrilled to be writing at WEP, no better way to celebrate the anniversary week!! Thanks once again for having me. See you there tomorrow!

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    2. And my target was 500 posts. I didn't make that, but I'm very close...pleased! :~)

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  6. Happy anniversary. Long may you grow and develop in joy

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    1. Thank you Martin for your wishes! That sounds like a beautiful benediction!

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  7. Hi Nila - congratulations on five years ... and I must get back and read Pixellate. Sadly too many lonely furrows in life now - and we seem to be creating more - Yemen, Syria ... just appalling ... while the indifference of people to help those in need in this country - we are too selfish: we stand alone.

    It's great you're here and we can read and enjoy words from another realm ... enjoy the coming years of writing and poetry ... Hilary

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    1. Thank you Hilary...the furrows seem to be multiplying at a rather alarming rate....but as you say often, there's still some positivity and inspirational stuff to go around and cheer us even amidst the madness...thankfully!

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  8. Congrats on your blogversary. Impressive. I am late to this celebration but your writing blows me away, makes me think, and appreciate the noise your words make. Thank you for sharing your poetry. Do not be silent.

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    1. Thank you Joanne! For being here and your kind words.

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