Reena’s Exploration Challenge #115

On December 11, 2019 By Reena SaxenaIn Business4 Comments

The prompt is to write something in a similar spirit – it could tell the story of a year or day or hour or minute – something that brought about a change in the life of a protagonist, family, community, nation or the world.

Life was such fun up to the age of 11.

There were music, dance, studies, games, picnics and all sorts of rides.

Some smooth some bumpy but having parents, siblings, and friends to share it with you is fun nonetheless.

Learning new things every day with friends was such fun which I attended every day till I was 11.

Life was like a nice dream.

Then one fine morning everything changed.

Suddenly I became a grown-up.

In my community girls were not allowed to play outside, laugh loudly or dance and sing after they reached puberty.

An order was passed to take…

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That Time of the Year – Friday Fictioneers, December 2019

On December 11, 2019 By Reena SaxenaIn BusinessLeave a comment

castelsarrasin

He’s gone. And once again we start to pick up the pieces.

There are egos to be restored, confidences to be rebuilt, dreams to be resurrected, wounds to be healed.

Like a hurricane, every year he bowls in, strewing gifts in his wake, invoking a past that we’d mostly forgotten, or at least buried so deep in our consciousness there was only the slimmest chance of revisiting it. But he was always a man for the long odds.

“I’m proud of you all,” he said, leaving. “Everything you are is because of me.”

No disputing the accuracy of that observation.

I so wanted to write something different to this, but you have to take what the muse is willing to offer. And I had said I’d try to make it to Friday Fictioneers every week until the end of the year. Rain, snow or hail, Rochelle always…

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Hollow self

On December 11, 2019 By Reena SaxenaIn BusinessLeave a comment

Björn Rudbergs writings

The hollow in your pillow,
is a void
still warm,
an echo of the dreams
we shared
but split in two.

You only saw yourself,
while
the only voice
I ever heard was
mine —

deluded in reflections
we are tethered
to the echo
of ourselves.

Echo and Narcissus by John William Waterhouse

A short poem on the topic of Echo. Merril hosts at dVerse and I tried to use both the mythology as well as echo in a wider sense.
—
December 10, 2019

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Blowing Off The Dust

On December 9, 2019 By Reena SaxenaIn Business1 Comment

Blowing off the dust … a deeply contemplative piece by Sadje.

One Woman's Quest

Flagrant this disregard,
this blatant indifference

I have come before you
broken and desperate

and been received with
loving compassion, openness.

“It was not I who abandoned you” –
the words still echo in my heart.

In shame, I hang head, vow
to prepare my spiritual bowl

to resurrect a prayerful practice
to know once again the light,

the life that fulfills when
self is offered up as instrument.

(Ragtag community has offered the word “flagrant” as prompt today. I have been carrying around scraps of ideas for Reena’s Exploration challenge – featured image. This poem emerged. I do not consider myself affiliated with a specific religious body, but I do consider myself a woman of deep spiritual faith.)

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Reena’s Exploration Challenge #116- Figure Out/ उलझन

On December 8, 2019 By Reena SaxenaIn BusinessLeave a comment

Uljhan … by Indira English translation here

each of us carries a cross
who’ll walk with you
who will console?

hold tears in your eyes
who will value
drops that roll?

those who cry with me
have suffered too
shed tears on their fate
life has taken its toll

don’t share your sorrow
there are no cross-bearers
carry it alone…

can you tell beggars from thieves
they extorted billions
are hungry for more…

worlds worship a rising Sun,
no fools here
bowing to dusk
for days of yore….