My First Poem…
I was tagged by Ganja Turtle. The task is to write a poem that contains the following words—paint, hue, chi-chi, riff-raff, lava, jasmine, dolorous, gorilla, sinuous, complex, whorl, avant-garde, mish-mash and cubicle.
I had warned him that I am not a poet. But not to offend a martial arts exponent, I wrote the following, after considerable effort and thought. If you don’t like it, you know whom to blame…
The Escape
It was a weird day; dark and gloomy with rain threatening to pour down any moment,
The sky was overcast, but not as dark as it used to be; it had a sinister hue
As if the paint came directly from hell and the painting done by some senseless gorilla
With the attitude and pomposity of an avant-garde painter gone berserk
The ambience perfectly mirrored my dolorous mental state,
I could hear the wheels turn in my head trying to make some sense of the mish-mash,
But failing to untangle the complex and sinuous thoughts, memories and images,
My brain erupted with the fierceness and fury of a volcano throwing molten lava.
I fell down from my chair writhing in agony and clutching my whorling head,
I wanted to escape from the cubicle where I was held in captivity,
I wanted to get away from the company of the riff-raffs, who shared the cubicle,
I wanted to go somewhere serene, comfortable and tranquil.
I went to a beautiful resort, that had gardens and lawns,
I rested on the luscious green grass and inhaled the fragrance of the jasmines.
I went to the nearby café and ate a pizza, a thin crust Golden Delight,
I drank a few glasses of Chi-Chi, with a little more Vodka than usual
I zonked out and woke up only after my head cleared and pains receded.
Then I went to a joint I knew and smoked a pot of ganja,
I bought a pair of turtledoves and gave one to Ganja Turtle
As a symbol of our friendship and for making me do this.
Kusum Rohra said,
July 21, 2006 at 2:12 pm
OH I am FIRST?? Wow,great attempt, I wouldn’t have been able to swing this at all 🙂
James Bright said,
July 21, 2006 at 5:28 pm
That was very cool, Alexis..!
That was really wonderful I should say. You have made a poem with absolute beauty..!
I am also very glad that you did not tag me with this difficult task..!
God bless you..!
silverine said,
July 21, 2006 at 7:31 pm
“Then I went to a joint I knew and smoked a pot of ganja,
I bought a pair of turtledoves and gave one to Ganja Turtle
As a symbol of our friendship and for making me do this. ”
ROFL
Good effort
=))
Alexis Leon said,
July 21, 2006 at 7:52 pm
Kusum: Oh… don’t be modest, you will surely able to do a better job than this. I have seen your writing. Also you are ‘intelligent and gift to mankind’ 🙂
Just saw you are learning violin in your profile. How is the progress? I always wanted to play violin, but had to abort the idea after a few failed starts.
James: James, I should have tagged you. You are an accomplished poet and this should be a piece of cake for you. God bless you too…
silverine: Thank you. I am waiting to see your take on the tag or have you switched to prose?
LALITHA said,
July 21, 2006 at 9:14 pm
You did a good job Alex incorporating all those words in your story.
Pradip Somasundaran said,
July 22, 2006 at 7:21 am
Alexis, still not recovered from the heavy tummy tumbling laugh session…….that I had after reading those lines! ha……ha…ha…what else can I say?
Kusum Rohra said,
July 22, 2006 at 10:55 am
Oh work has been a killer lately so the leraning is again turning out to be like you say failed start 🙁
But am determined I will learn it no matter what 🙂 if you have noticed I have recently (3 weeks back to be precise) shifted closer to office. I am hoping I will take up the classes with renewed vigour now 🙂
Yeah yeah I am intelligent and a gift to MANkind 😛
Ganja Turtle said,
July 22, 2006 at 11:19 am
Hey, thanks you – that wuz neat esp the last stanza!!! 😉
“But not to offend a martial arts exponent” – I could have sworn that a slightly round ex-martial arts trainee couldnt inspire so much fear…but hey, lets keep up that scare! 🙂
“As a symbol of our friendship and for making me do this. ”..and for Xmas,I will give u a partridge in a pair tree,ok?
” avant-garde painter gone berserk” – liked this best for the possibilities that it conjures up!!!
Thanks again, Alex!
Alexis Leon said,
July 22, 2006 at 12:35 pm
LALITHA: Coming from a poet whom I admire, it feels great.
Pradip: Thanks Pradip.
Kusum: Yes learn it. It is one of the most beautiful musical instruments and if you have mastered it, then you can play it with flamboyance and flourish to enthrall and entertain others. It is one of the things I wanted to do but couldn’t. I still have the violin with me and sometimes, I just keep it on my shoulder and play the few notes that I have learned. But the pain on the shoulders and strain on the arm makes me abandon the task in less than a minute. So please learn it. You will never regret it.
Ganja Turtle: You are welcome. Partridge in a pair tree is for Xmas is fine as long as I don’t have to give you the other presents—French hens, calling birds, geese, pipers, etc. (I forgot the complete list.) 🙂
anu said,
July 22, 2006 at 7:27 pm
:))
hope nobody tags me with this tag..
mohammedjensin said,
July 23, 2006 at 11:46 am
This poem reminds me like creating crossword puzzles.the method is to right the words in a square and blacken werever there is no letters.Don’t you think that when our all concentration is to to use the words we compromise on the poetry and for that sake in any action, we get the result but in different ways depending on our aim.
Alexis Leon said,
July 23, 2006 at 12:28 pm
anu: You are a poet and I hope somebody (Silverine are you listening) tags you 🙂
mohammedjensin: I am not a poet and this is my first and probably the last. Since I have not written any poems before, I am not qualified to talk about the compromises made when concentrating too much on including the words.
But I think the general idea of the competition is to write a poem than contains all the words without losing the creativity and artistry. I think you should talk about such issues with accomplished poets like Ganga Turtle who gave me this task 🙂
poison said,
July 25, 2006 at 11:44 am
i liked this 🙂
btw i m in chennai…
Alexis Leon said,
July 25, 2006 at 2:39 pm
poison: Thank you buddy. I was in Chennai for almost 10 years and know how hot it is during this time of the year. Hope you are doing fine. Take care…
renuramanath said,
July 25, 2006 at 6:54 pm
hi alexis, visited your blog just now. thanks for visiting my blog, though i’m not a regular blogger. the posts are part of a work i’ve been doing for some time.
your poem is quite good, keep it up.
cheers, renu.
Alexis Leon said,
July 25, 2006 at 7:35 pm
Renu: Welcome to my blog Renu. Thanks for dropping by. Thanks, but I am not a poet by any definition 🙂
Kusum Rohra said,
July 27, 2006 at 4:30 pm
Thanks alex now i will surely learn with more dedication and I will record and send you the first peice I wil play properly 🙂
Alexis Leon said,
July 28, 2006 at 11:02 am
Kusum: Yes, do that and hearing your first recorded music will be my honor.
Anand K said,
July 28, 2006 at 2:30 pm
Post-modern, neo-surrealist, minimalist, expressionist, dadaist art to blow away the existing retrograde norms of a decaying realm, eh? 😉
PS: Forget that classic Xmas song, there’s an MC Vikram and Ludakrishna’s parody called “Kariappla Tree” which goes something like,
On the first day of christmas Santa Claus gave to meee,
A phirsst klass Kariappla Treeeeee….
On the second day of Christmas Santa Claus gave to meee,
Two Bata chappals and a phirssst klass Kariappla Treeeeee….
Not very profound lyrics but with their extreme faus “FOB Mallu” accents and orchestra it’s kinda hilarious! Anyway, I think you can find some suitable presents from this take! 😉
Alexis Leon said,
July 28, 2006 at 7:48 pm
Anand: Long time, no see. But as usual, the first thing I have to do when I see your comment or post is to run for a dictionary 😉
The Kariappla Tree parody is really hilarious. Ek dum phirssst klass… 🙂 I can imagine the atmosphere when the song is sung.
Do you know the full lyrics?
chacko said,
August 2, 2006 at 7:32 pm
poemsssssssss
ooops somthing which i tired and failed 😀
Rose said,
August 5, 2006 at 3:51 pm
It incredible.. although it defies most of the technical rules of poetry it is great :).. U shud write poems more often..
🙂
..Me
Alexis Leon said,
August 5, 2006 at 7:35 pm
Cgacko: Me too… 😉
Rose: Since I am totally ignorant about the techical rules of poetry, I don’t know what all I have broken. Some times, ignorance can be bliss…:-)
Pradip Somasundaran said,
August 6, 2006 at 12:32 am
Alexis
I am feeling very very worried about you. You have been silent for some days here. I pray sincerely to God that everything is well with you friend.
Regards
resh said,
August 9, 2006 at 12:00 am
you are so organised!!!! just popped in through sreejith’s page… which i got through googling .. never mind… i could go on.
hey – happy 40th! (its belated, but what the hey… )
neermathalam said,
August 9, 2006 at 1:18 pm
alexis..chetta..i hv provided a perm link to ur site frm my blog..
hope you don mind…
Alexis Leon said,
August 10, 2006 at 10:08 am
Pradip: I was researching for my next book and didn’t get time to write anything. Thanks
Resh: Thank you Reshma.
Neermathalam: Thanks buddy. I don’t mind at all 🙂