Tuesday 21 February 2012

The Ascetic

Varanasi: Anukriti Sharma Photography
They say I've lived a million years...
They say I'll live a million more.
Orange flames
paint my skin...
Camouflaging
the scars beneath.

Somnolent
I see the world
That lies before
'Her' mangled ghats...

The horizon
is on
the brink of decay...
Choked
with viscous
Urbane-ness.

I immerse myself
in Ganga's depths.
Her holiness
Chars my body...
Scalds it,
till I exist no more.

The river
still burns
upon my scars -
Exhuming
dead bodies
from her womb.

And -
My shadow walks away from me
Eclipsing the million years I've lived
Eclipsing the million years I'll live.

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34 comments/suggestions:

D said...

The river
still burns
upon my scars -
Exhuming
dead bodies
from her womb.

AWESOME :)

anmesh kumar srivastava said...

This poem is as sacred as "Ganga"...keep it up

SHANOJ K said...

Nice poem n beautiful photography :)
- Shanoj

Unknown said...

beautifully written
thumbs up to lines :)

Rachit said...

Beautiful piece of writing Anukriti! So deep and profound, made me read it twice. The picture also is beautifully taken and resonating with the rhyme perfectly! :)

Anonymous said...

:)

Amb said...

A superb poem, i could feel the elements of fire and water at once in the lines. Don't want to offend but blog template is not good

Raj said...

Beautifully written. Lovely use of words to convey a meaning so profound. :)

Saru Singhal said...

Beautiful, even I liked the lines which D liked.

"The river
still burns
upon my scars -
Exhuming
dead bodies
from her womb."

I felt the expression river still burns intensifies the pain.

Rahul Bhatia said...

So nice to see you return with bang like a Phoneix, to bring us on the Dashashvemadha ghat at Benaras! Beautiful words and picture:)

Sahithya Sridhar said...

the holiness of the sacred river is depected.. nice work!!!

umashankar said...

I loved the poetry.

However, your poem doesn't resolve whose scars are deeper, in the end: the one's whose skin is painted with orange flames covering the scars of a million years or Ganga's who's been nourishing the dead of a million years in her womb?

Bhargav Bhatt said...

read and felt every word... agony..

Anonymous said...

you have a way with words! :)

Yash said...

very nicely written.. :)

Abhyudaya said...

You exist beyond your vision,
they don't. (people)
The river flows over the burns,
they heal. (scars)
What heals pains the most,
just like a flickering fame,
burning the brightest,
before going out.

You exist.

Manreet Sodhi Someshwar said...

Lovely! You capture antiquity well. Reminded me of what Mark Twain said: "Benares is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together."

Cheers!

Preetha Srini said...

:The holiness scars my body"Very true.May the holy ganges be protected in such away that the dirt and filth poured into it does not scar your soul.

JJ said...

Nic work. But i doubt any ascetic will like to live that long

ra said...

simply awesome .. the way you described the holiness of the river !

Jen..The Butterfly Effect said...

I loved the last 2 paras most! So intricate and beautiful! :)

Your new follower :)

Rachit said...

with artistic pieces like such Varanasi will live surely live for million more years :)

Weakest LINK

Unknown said...

I wonder...
picturebite.com

Arti said...

Beautiful interplay of words, Anukriti :) The pain through the voice of the Ascetic can be heard through your deep words in poetry.. Keep writing dear, you work wonders with your pen! :-)

PS: Missing you in the Expedia contest.. :-)

Nik said...

Hey anukriti, I dunno whether you remember me!

The verses were poignant in this poem, and beautifully carved for the perfect picture tagged along. I loved the way you have described the sanctity of the Ganges, as well as of human life. Beautiful. :)

Elixir of life (dr_nidhi) said...

Great blog here Anukriti... been reading your blogs for sometime and I got an oppurtunity show my appreciation... congratulations I nominate you for The Versatile Blogger Award :)

http://betweensaneinsane.blogspot.in/2012/02/versatile-blogger-award-from-saikat.html

keep up this great creative work ... all the best :) looking forward to more ...

Anukriti Sharma said...

@D
Thanks a ton! :)

@Anmesh Kumar Srivastava
Your words mean a lot to me! Thanks dear :)

@Shanoj K
Thank you for that beautiful comment:)

Unknown said...

A great composition! I loved this one. To be frank, I read a couple of other posts as well, but the sheer length waned my interest in them. Partly, my lack of attention span is the problem.

Nonetheless, I loved the posts in snippets more than anything. Keen observer you are! Keep it going..

Santosh Namby said...

Such a profound and beautiful poem.... thanks for brightening my day...

alchemist said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
alchemist said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
alchemist said...

Stumbled upon your post, Reinvigorated my desire to be in her womb, once at least in this life time

Awesomely written and Thank you,

Anonymous said...

Very very well writtten

Mitostargazer said...

amazing :)
the lines "till i exist no more" are so haunting, capturing the essence of the ascetic