Uncut Poetry

Vaccine (or Ways to Save Love from Itself)

Seeking normalcy in these incredibly abnormal times has become a task by itself. We hear the news with dread. We fear the very air we breathe in, we fear phone calls which come too early or too late. We fear those who come back home from outside.
 
The yearning for normalcy is a yearning for the small pleasures of life, the ones we took for granted, didn't pay overt attention to, and now miss the most.
 
I miss meeting my friends the most, seeing laughter in their eyes, sensing the indefinable crinkle in their voices, their embrace as we say goodbye. And I miss visiting places. And I miss eating out.
 
Is the vaccine then the doorway for us to reclaim the life we always took for granted?
 
What do you miss most of the ordinary times? Tell me, write into me at uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com. In the next episode, I will share it with the world.
 
I am Sunil Bhandari.
 
I am a poet based out of India. My book of poetry 'Of Love and Other Abandonments' was an Amazon bestseller. My second book is 'Of journeys & Other Ways to Get Lost'. Both are available on Amazon.
Get the podcast, a lovely free book of poems and other resources here .
Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.
Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com
 
If you liked this poem, consider listening to the following poems too -
 
I Carry Love in the Hearse of My Arms
I Think I Am In Love With You
 
The details of the music used in this episode are as follows -
Hades by Sascha Ende®
Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/6903-hades
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

I Carry Love in the Hearse of My Arms

These are trying times. Tishani Doshi writes "You would have expected the clocks to freeze". In this once-in-a-century tragedy, when grief sits outside our doors, and then comes in without knocking, there's only memory, meditation or living in the moment which can sustain meaning.
 
We all make mistakes. Alas, some mistakes are more expensive than others and get counted in human lives. Beyond the mistake, lies redemption and the cure.  But true healing begins when we go beyond the blame, and realize we are also a part of the problem - and have to be a part of the solution.
 
Reaching out is a way to reach the goodness inside us. And kindness, beyond ourselves, is the only poetry which can save others -and save us.
 
Be there for friends who need you. Donate to organizations like Give India on giveindia.org. Be positive. Be active. Be available.
 
I am Sunil Bhandari.
 
I am a poet based out of India. My book of poetry 'Of Love and Other Abandonments' was an Amazon bestseller. My second book is 'Of journeys & Other Ways to Get Lost'. Both are available on Amazon.
Get the podcast, a lovely free book of poems and other resources here .
Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.
Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com
 
The details of the music used in this episode are as follows -
Artemis by Sascha Ende®
Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/6934-artemis
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
 

I Think I Am In Love With You

One of the most revelatory things about any relationship, is how we discover a person, and in the process we reveal to ourselves things we didn't know about ourselves. The limitlessness of our generosity, the craziness of our imagination, the things we are capable of doing.
 
We can be the balming breeze, we can be starlight, we can be the softest evening, we can be the sheltering sky. We marvel at ourselves, we are amazed at the things we can be.
 
And we discover the most significant thing of true love - it's makes us fall in love with ourselves too.
 
I am Sunil Bhandari.
 
I am a poet based out of India. My book of poetry 'Of Love and Other Abandonments' was an Amazon bestseller. My second book is 'Of journeys & Other Ways to Get Lost'. Both are available on Amazon.
Get the podcast, a lovely free book of poems and other resources here .
Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.
Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com
 
The details of the music used in this episode are as follows -
Lockdown by Sascha Ende®Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/7658-lockdownLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Stories Which Survive

"And we sat in front of an /
auburn sky /
and talked of found-homes /
and lost-loves. /
We smiled at our follies & foolishness, / 
& with a tinge of regret (o yes) wondered /
at where life had taken us."/
 
Is there any ending to any story, ever?
 
Even if something ends, there is residue floating in the universe - or in the universe inside us. Because every experience, every relationship, every happenstance leaves either dust or ash, for our lives to deal with. It could clog every artery of our memory or mix in magical ways with our blood to render us changed.
 
Either way we are rendered different, beyond imagination, beyond redemption....
 
I am Sunil Bhandari.
 
I am a poet based out of India. My book of poetry 'Of Love and Other Abandonments' was an Amazon bestseller. My second book is 'Of journeys & Other Ways to Get Lost'. Both are available on Amazon.
Get the podcast, a lovely free book of poems and other resources here .
Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.
Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com

My Mother's Lines

"I touched a pulsing vein on her hand, 
& thought of the blood she shared with me:
her legacy of pain & meaning,
an inevitable gift to me."
 
Our relationship with our parents is invariably fraught with tension and tenderness. We fight, we stop talking, and then, magnetically, without thinking, we gravitate towards each other as if nothing had happened.
 
One of the comforts of this love is that we can take it for granted - until we realize we can't.
 
Things pass - so will they. And we will discover what being left alone truly means. We need to be with them, we need to be the best to them, hopefully be the best  of them.
 
I am Sunil Bhandari.
 
I am a poet based out of India. My book of poetry 'Of Love and Other Abandonments' was an Amazon bestseller. My second book is 'Of journeys & Other Ways to Get Lost'. Both are available on Amazon.
Get the podcast, a lovely free book of poems and other resources here .
Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.
Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com
 

A Morning Ramble on How Love is Rediscovered at the Bottom of Rubble

"It's a lovely morning, she said, /
as she drew out the curtains, /
has the whiskey found a way out /
or are you still in zombie zone? /
 
It's been a while since we saw the sun rise, /
it's been a while since we lingered. /
Get up, my lazy disheveled love, /
let's find something in this new world." /
 
One of the most reassuring aspects of being in love is its ability to bounce back, to always find reasons to let go and to move on. Persistence is as much love's suspension bar - what props it up - as is the ability to forget and move on. 
 
Love could curdle and fall down. But before that, it has to boil, it has to rise, and if caught at the cusp, it will subside and be ready to give of its best.
 
I am Sunil Bhandari.
 
I am a poet based out of India. My book of poetry 'Of Love and Other Abandonments' was an Amazon bestseller. My second book is 'Of journeys & Other Ways to Get Lost'. Both are available on Amazon.
Get the podcast, a lovely free book of poems and other resources here .
Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.
Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com

Kintsugi

"She looked at the broken pieces /
of the precious teapot, /
a legacy from her ancestors, /
from ten generations back. /
 
And she looked at her trembling child, /
standing contrite, with her head down, /
waiting for an inevitability, /
already on the brink of tears." /
 
This poem starts with the idea of kintsugi which is the Japanese art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold.  It is built on the idea that in embracing flaws and imperfections, we can create an even stronger, more beautiful piece of art. And for most of its length, the poem lingers on how perfection does not have monopoly rights towards beauty.
 
But can everything broken be repaired?
 
There lies the conundrum - it all depends on you. A fallen autumn leaf WILL crumble, but a seed which falls down can - and will - bring forth something sparklingly good.
 
Beyond the fact of an imperfection, is the truth of what we do with that imperfection. We could build with it, around it, on it. Or we could simply sink into it - and dissolve.
 
The choice, like so many things in life, is ours.
 
I am Sunil Bhandari.
 
I am a poet based out of India. My book of poetry 'Of Love and Other Abandonments' was an Amazon bestseller. My second book is 'Of journeys & Other Ways to Get Lost'. Both are available on Amazon.
Get the podcast, a lovely free book of poems and other resources here .
Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.
Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com
 

The Sublime in the Ordinary

So much of growing up is already burnt ground.
 
Parents are didactic and seem more of a necessary evil, the body is unruly and doesn't listen, boys don't know what to do with their large hands, and whether they should keep or cut their soft moustaches, girls are embarrassed by the uncontrollable changes in their body, and then there are boyfriend problems and the fact that someone has an active sex life and you have none.
 
Growing up then seems less a hope-filled vision and more of a car pile. Nothing ever seems to go right.
 
In this scenario, to have one's head set steady and to figure out what is right, in all the wrong one keeps blundering into,  is what sets the template for the rest of one's life.
 
I am Sunil Bhandari.
 
I am a poet based out of India. My book of poetry 'Of Love and Other Abandonments' was an Amazon bestseller. My second book is 'Of journeys & Other Ways to Get Lost'. Both are available on Amazon.
Get the podcast, a lovely free book of poems and other resources here .
Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.
Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com

Fallen Flowers

Some of the most enduring love stories are often the shortest. You meet. You part. There are a million reasons why.
But what these relationships leave behind are often impressions  which are burnt into our beings. The awkward habit, the shameless bravado, the ribald sense  of utter corniness - the unflinching freedom she accorded you just by her presence.
As times go by, and we accumulate relationships like trophies or seek people as refuges, these transient lovers are the ones who, in spite of their absence, have already given life its meaning, who make sure that whatever else might happen, or not happen, in life hereinafter, there's worth they've given which will never get lost.
I am Sunil Bhandari.
 
I am a poet based out of India. My book of poetry 'Of Love and Other Abandonments' was an Amazon bestseller. My second book 'Of journeys & Other Ways to Get Lost' is just out. Both are available as Kindle on Amazon.
Get the podcast, a lovely free book of poems and other resources here .
Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.
Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com

Broken Ribs as A Barometer of Love

"Here we are, individuals, / codified with an oath, / learning to be together and to / break free, at the same time, / but, generally, permanently / pissed-off."
Love comes in so many different forms. So many shapes and sizes. Symptoms of love are subtle, varied. They are often, in look and feel, just the opposite of what they actually mean. That's why love demands time, space, observance.
 
It is often couched in hugs and kisses, and often in anger and aloofness. Sometimes it is unrecognizable, because it looks like clinginess, jealousy, even encroachment. You demand - I want space, leave me alone. When all that love is really asking  for is comfort, clarity, coffee together.
 
I am Sunil Bhandari.
 
I am a poet based out of India. My book of poetry 'Of Love and Other Abandonments' was an Amazon bestseller. My second book 'Of journeys & Other Ways to Get Lost' is just out. Both are available as Kindle on Amazon.
Get the podcast, a lovely free book of poems and other resources here .
Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.
Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com