Wednesday 13 February 2008

The Second Hand

Traveling its preordained path, 
It brings closer that which I fear.
Its apathy causes indignation,
Pleas of mercy affect it not.
Traversing its perfect path
Being its only objective;
Misery, its primary incentive.
On reaching its destination,
It unveils the secrets of its land;
Casting loose either
Insidious sorrow or Utopian joy.
I now await to see
Which course the elusive shall take.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not really a literary person. As in I don't know how to appreciate poems but yeah, as a layman I can say that your poem rhymes and sounds good. I really like the last 2 lines. Nevermind if this comment is annoying you rather than making you happy about what you're written. :P

Anonymous said...

*you've* written. Pfss. :|

Nik said...

lol... thanks for the layman's opinion..

Anonymous said...

Love the poem.

Had to read it twice to understand it completely. :| Yes yes, I am daft.

Nik said...

thanks... i kinda though it was pretty straight forward. so yeah, u are daft as a brush. (sorry but always wanted to say that old cliche...lol)

Anonymous said...

At first I thought it was about second hand stuff and when I read the poem it seemed to be about time. So I read it again and then finally realized what the title means. :|

Nik said...

hehe.. well at least u got it in the end. that's more than most.

Vasudha said...

Oh.

I just got back from school, and you know what? I read the poem yesterday night. Went above my head. Like, zoom! And I can't even blame it on excessive Determinants, cause, um, I didn't er...study. But I digress. So here I am, giving my Math Final, calculating the arc length of a 40 minute journey of a minute hand, and zoom again! It clicked! [I know, I'd almost given up on myself as hopeless.] And no, I didn't rush out of the exam hall naked, shouting Eureka. :P

Anyway.
I like this one best out off all of yours. :) Gives me this suck-in-your-breath-and-read-it-fast feeling. :P

Nik said...

vas: lmfao... damn, i thought u'd pull an Archimedes. and thanks.

guess what, i havent started my bloody coarse... screwed? woohoo!
all the best for ur papers. i'll call ya later, wanna do something other than laze around on the 8th o' march.

oh and one other thing... there is this competition (FYP)u can enter it online.. u should, so should bharat. i'll give u the details later. u have, i think, till april to do so.

Anonymous said...

FYP? *is intrigued* *googles*

Isn't it only for American students?

Send the details when you're free. Thanks in advance. :D

Nik said...

i'm talkin' about the Foyle's Young Poets Society (i got something entirely different on googling FYP comp.), based in england. it holds an annual international poetry competition and the top 15 persons got for some program... i haven't got all the details worked out yet. but i know u can sign up from march onwards.
i 2 of u r pretty goo and should give it a shot... read about it, u can even get the poems of last years winners.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the info. I checked out their site yesterday. I'll probably sign up for it. Nik, you should too.

Nik said...

i might... will have to see if i come up with anything better.

Vasudha said...

You don't need anything better.

Crash
Annie Katchinska



OK OK OK listen. You mincepied? You roastpotatoed? You goosefatted?

You burping in public? No worries, no worries, come, come and see

what we have here. We have Lycra, pink, green, leopard-print,

and pumping pumping muzak (top 40 type, you'll recognise),

gym membership, yoga mat, swimming costume, Lucozade coupons

et cetera now: listen: carefully: you start and you do not

stop you do not stop look LOOK at her, she did not stop

now look at her bouncy hair and happy children

and the sunlight. No worries, come, come.

If you got the money buy berries, porridge, bulgur wheat,

this exotic polysyllabic lettuce that actually consumes fat inside you

or if not, percentages, 3%, 1%, 0%, or traffic light colours.

Sooper-dooper. Nothing you couldn't work out with a piece of paper

and a brain and some time but never mind this is prettier.

This is Comic Sans. This is louder. Come, come.

OK OK OK go. We have our cake. See you next year.

That won.

Nik said...

you have got to be kiddin' me...
u remember that poem on pollution u showed me? it reminded me of that.

Nik said...

you got it wrong..
this was the winnig poem:

THE WOULDBEGOODS
ms. connings said that at fourteen years old, the sparks between them

would of been enough to set the whole of middle america blazing--

leaving us non-believers standing in smoldering cornfields



she said the looks shared across ivy covered balustrades sent

gossamer threads of dedication

stronger than the tightropes in Ringling Bros



and the letters they penned to each other by flickering candlelight?

every word a symphony unto itself

the clash of consonants and clarinets, vowels and violins, syllables and saxophones



and then the bell rings, and geometry looms

and romeo and juliet dance away in a cloud of smoke

smiling at our hopeless high school sagas

Vasudha said...

Arrey, one of the 15 ones that won and got published. :P

And I'm thinking of asking the Threats of Pollution kid to let me borrow her poem. :D

Anonymous said...

*gasp* Plagiarism!

*frown* Ghetto-speak poetry

Anonymous said...

Finally got the meaning after I read it for the fifth time. Phew!!!!
And yes...I almost shouted Eureka. :)

Nik said...

Lmao... I honestly thought it was an easy one to grasp!

Vasudha said...

You're tagged! :)

Anonymous said...

hello! stumbled across ur blog and had an interesting read of a few poems. beautiful really, you have a fascinating way with words and i'm extremely impressed...although a few times it sounds a bit pretentious like you've swallowed a whole thesaurus :) Nonetheless, beautiful!
Also reading the comments from u and ur friends (hilarious, i admit but...), about the two poems u posted from last year's FYP winners, the reason you appear stunned that they won is because their style of writing is completely different from yours. They are excellent poems with great creativity and style that can be traced as far back as the modernist age of great poets like T.S. Eliot. The first poem, Crash, in particular, is the work of one of the most talented young poets in Britain(albeit originally Russian)who has won quite a number of awards for her poetry. Again, i say, the reason you may not understand why is because there are different approaches to poetry and her stlye is v. unique and creative- you could barely duplicate it perfectly. The second poem is about Romeo and Juliet is a brilliant expression of the classical love story without once using the word 'love'. I hope you can learn to appreciate more poetry with this.
Nevertheless, your poems are some of the most beautiful I have seen and although fyp is unpredictable, I look forward to seeing you at the awards ceremony in october.
I am commenting from Lagos, Nigeria(and I sincerely hope you are worldly enough to know where that is)

Nik said...

Starstudded wishes: thank you for the input. I'll read the poems again. I guess we didgo a bit too far, didnt we?
Being a pessimist, I dont have high expectations of winning.. but we'll see.

And yes, I do know where Nigeria is. My geography isnt all that bad.

Nik said...

Starstudded wishes: Are you a participant?