Yet Untitled 135 - Dialogue with Little Water
I speak with an imaginary friend, in verse, about the space between hiding and emerging.
Dearest Yet Untitler
My show - Ziddi Girls - that I co-wrote and co-directed is releasing on Amazon prime in a few weeks:
Needless to say - it’s a noisy time - that’s become even noisier after I’ve opened up my social media for the sake of promoting the show 🙄. Sigh.
At the same time, I’m stubbornly sticking to my commitment to keeping things slow. My Instagram app still gets ceremoniously deleted off my phone after a disciplined, limited session of posting. But I’m still finding my feet with this game of hide and seek between staying invisible and being seen.
So…
…the poem below is a response to a need: not for escape (!) but for the right balance between the need to engage and the desire to remain at what feels like a safe distance. Sometimes, I feel as if I’m coming down a flight of stairs wearing a tiara and a gown! If that’s what’s happening, so be it! I might as well enjoy descending into the water, testing the temperature and going wif da flo’.
Welcome to all new YUers who have opted in because of this fresh opening-up. May our tribe increase!
Before The River Comes
Droplets gather Trickles converge What all a river must do To emerge! But for this to happen The droplets in turn Must survive the wind And the season’s burn. What can I teach these Little things of water - These parts of a river That are longing to be? I think about them as at At the sea I gaze. I hope they’ll make it One of these days. I can tell those drops A thing or two. About my strategies of refuge. About how I refuse To evaporate. If to become a river We aspire, Then, Little Water, Let’s conspire. Little Water, I wish I could teach you an asana or two: Body long, muscles taut Breath fills in for fear, for thought. I'll tell you of that moment Between a book and sleep: When a jug full of wakefulness Poured into the deep. Little Water, I wish you knew This amazing moment as I do. But perhaps you do, Infinitesimal part of ocean blue... Know more than me, already. As you learn from me, I’ll learn from you. Listen, have you felt The quiet that comes When one has decided? When the tremors of doubt Have completely subsided? Doubtlessness - away from the violence Of two desires at war? Have you tasted this silence? I have, and I tell you. I want more! Little Water, I’ll share what I know Of acceptance. Looking into my lover’s eyes Knowing that she is everything - Gentle rain and even lightning: My journey’s ends, my search’s finding. My little friend, to you I send A prayer that you emerge from hiding. May the path be lovely, gently unwinding. Let’s look together at The moment before The apple falls. At the frozen explosion When a racquet meets A tennis ball. When breathing stops, When a camera arrests The rabbit's hop; Holds in a frame A bee-wing’s drop. Racquet in hand, On the extremities of his toes The player braces For his ballet of force. Balance, intent, strength, perspiration. Drip drip drip and then, The explosion. Droplets gather Tickles converge And then, everything Does the river submerge.
Thanks for listening!
Lots of love,
V
PS: I’ve written on these themes before:
PPS: Tell me about your favourite places of refuge and how you unstick yourself from them, and why?
👽👁️👅👁️💩💩💩💩💩🐳🐶
(Emoji curated by Ananya)