Tag Archives: prompt

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All Of Us Pagans Cry

I am seeking, again

The restlessness shimmers

under my skin

I walk in the sun, reflective

Look at my hands- they darken

As the heat of realization

effectively

Beats every frivolity out of me

Burnt tongues and

singed fingertips

And the bare, bleached bones

Floating in the meandering Styx

-This is my day

Thus I answer my own question,

Why I seek refuge in the

Nothingnesses, the recesses of night

By dawn, I am unsettled again

The thought wanders stray,

into a vein

These tattooed bands of

radiance in the sunlight

sift

Reality drifts –

The heat hazes

My lips twitch

I shy from coherence

Consummation fades

A lone raindrop falls from the sky

Oh, all of us pagans cry

All of Us Pagans Cry

©️ Yusra

02.03.2018

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Day 25- A Thousand Years Of Potatoes 

Day 25! For the prompt ‘the night you offered me your wing’, and a double prompt- potato time!- A Thousand Years Of Potatoes! 

I don’t know how, but every NaPoWriMo for the past four years, I’ve done at least one Potato poem. It’s a spudtastic coincidence!

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Day 20- Ashes In My Veins 


Bit of a happy coincidence today. It’s 4/20, plus the poem I started in my head, synced up nicely with the prompt for today, ‘ashes in my veins’, and the 4/20 mentions. 
And another post for Messages off a cigarette. It’s been a while. 🙂
Hugs and muffins, 

Yusra ❤️pp
Keep it 

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Day 19- Home Is Where… 

Home Is Where 

I didn’t know much about the world

Or myself, for that matter 

I took gratefully, what I was given 

I didn’t know anything better 

even existed, for people like me

Who are damaged so thoroughly 

That we stand in front of mirrors 

And dissect our entirety

No one taught me strength 

I doubt I could’ve discerned  

I drifted aimlessly, accepting 

Scraps for the blessings they weren’t 

When debasement is a norm, and

indifference the only recompense 

The heart grows silently sicker 

Without respect for its defense 

I hadn’t known that I deserved 

More, that what i was shown

I thought love belonged in parked cars 

But you

-you took me home. 

It’s strange, how big the world is

When you don’t feel small anymore 

Maybe, I can build my shelter, now 

That you’ve already opened the door 

©Yusra 

19.04.2017 

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Day Fifteen- The Man Who Was Poetry 

Day Fifteen- and big news! My first book is finally close to completion. Stay tuned for updates on The Man Who Was Poetry.🙂 
And I need lots of advice from those of you who have published already. Tips and suggestions are most welcome! 

Love, 

Your Yusra Cookie ❤️

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Day Eleven- Terms And Conditions Apply 

Terms and Conditions Apply 

What I carry behind me 

Ghosts and dead beautiful things 

Pieces of lives unlived 

Nothing that could forgotten be 

Is what I carry behind me

Where I must go from here 

Is not a place, but a person

Better to become, lesser to become 

Simultaneously more

That in myself to instill and revere 

Is not a place, but a person

Where I must go from here 

Clumsy 

Inarticulate 

Handcuffed yet

Obstinate 

I drag my past with rabid glee

It is not of anything else 

But myself that 

I must become free 

©Yusra 

11.04.2017 

For the prompt, #yourefreeyourefreeyourefree. Day Eleven of NaPoWriMo! What have you all been up to? 🙂

Spread the cookie love,

Yusra ❤️

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Someone I Met While Walking

 

 

Someone I Met While Walking
(Chalte chalte, yuhin koi mil gaya tha) – Kaifi Azmi
“Walking along aimlessly, I
Met a stranger, while on my journey
Walking along aimlessly
And my night stopped, where I met him
My night stopped in a heart beat, where I
Met a stranger, while on my journey

The things I could not say were
Shouted at us, by all of society
Shouted at us, by who could see
My story had become a fable
My story had become a fantasy
Just walking along aimlessly

But the eve draws to a close
It will end, I know it will
The length of time it spans
Is slowly becoming still
-These lamps are burning, are extinguished
Those lamps are burning, are extinguished
All the lights are going out, do you see?
They are burning in step with me
Walking along aimlessly

I met a stranger, while on my journey
Walking along aimlessly
Walking along aimlessly”

 

 

Day 30! Last day of NaPoWriMo, and I thought to close it this year with a Bollywood themed bang. The prompt today was to translate a poem to English. I picked a poem by the Indian Urdu poet, lyricist, and philosopher Kaifi Azmi. This particular poem is a song in a well known Bollywood movie as well (from 1972, but hey, classics are classics).

So the story is this- A young girl sold into prostitution meets a stranger on a train. The stranger does not know that she is a prostitute, and the encounter changes her life forever.

If you like the song, check out a dubbed or subtitled version of the movie as well. It’s full of subtle and nuanced performances. After all, you never know, you could meet a stranger who changes your life forever too. :p

 

 

NA! PO! WRI! MO! – OUT! 😀