Uncut Poetry

Chemo: As I Battle Myself

It's startling to think how much of our life hangs on the incredibly thin thread of our breath. When illness strikes us, and there are battles to be fought, every bit of our resources - in our body, spirit, soul - fights and loses, fights and loses again. Often, a treatment like chemotherapy is itself a battle. As our skin gets parched, our hair starts to fall, as we bruise and bleed and vomit, it is easy to give up.
 
Till we look into the eyes of someone we love, and we see the despair there, we realize that our lives are never only ours. Every breath is a benediction and our lives are also a gift to those who love us.
 
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.
Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.
Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com

I Don't Think Poetry Will Save Us. And Yet, and Yet...

I don't think poetry will save us. And yet, and yet... *
 
* Quote from Sarah Kay's letter in Airplane Poetry Movement's "A Letter A Poem A Home"
 
Why poetry? Publishers don't like it, people don't buy it, poets earn virtually nothing out if it. I can't day it better than what the amazing redoubtable poet Arundhathi Subramaniam said about "Why poetry?"
 
"Because it is the art of the murmured voice. If it raises its pitch, it distorts its own reality, compromises its own integrity. It is a reminder of the magic of the whisper, the sorcery of the hushed voice.
 
Because it disrupts all those snug oppositions I otherwise live by: day and night, precision and passion, mystery and illumination, work and play, truth and beauty. Poetry is about allowing lunar concerns into my day. About bringing question marks rather than full stops into my life.
 
Because it reminds me that ideas are crunchy and things smoky. That there are passions of the mind and ideologies of the gut.
 
Because of its suddenness, its distillation, its toxic shock clarity, its verbal single maltness.
 
Because words don’t come easy. And when they do, they’re meant to be watched — not censoriously, with faith but also with caution. That’s because we don’t just use language, we’re used by it. "
 
(Read Arundhathi Subramaniam's essay in full here.)
 
I am Sunil Bhandari.
 
I am a poet based in 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.
Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.
Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com
 
 

How to Hold Love as it Breaks

Showing grace under pressure is love's ultimate testing ground and testament.
There is nothing which shows intent, persistence and faith more than looking beyond the skirmish and the heartburn.
You don't have to be deep in love or in a relationship before realizing that the real engine which drives it is generosity.
Once we recognize that, it doesn't take time to realize that generosity is also what gives life its meaning.
There remains very little difference then between love and the love for life.
Today's poem is speaks of this.
 
I am Sunil Bhandari.
 
I am a poet based in 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.
Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.
Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com

An Epitaph Made of Light & Air

An Epitaph Made of Light & Air
 
I want to drift out of this world.
 
Maybe a Cohen playlist in the background,
or even better,
someone reciting my favourite Mary Olivers.
Let there not be pain, I pray,
and let there be a sense of reconciliation,
of everything being the way it was meant to be,
to everything being left the way it was meant to be.
Someone would crack a joke
that I was always fond of the unfamiliar
and this, my final foray into a mystery.
 
And I would wonder what it would be like
to carry my consciousness 
wherever I was meant to be,
if only to embrace old friends
who might be waiting knowingly for me.
 
I would wonder if the words I leave behind
would still ring true after me,
and there would be someone
who would continue loving me,
and think - I know 
that poem was for me.
 
Do put the cloth of my last journey
in an empty room, in the sun's trajectory,
let there be plenty of light and air,
so those who understand would say
what a wondrous poem to leave with.
 
~ Sunil Bhandari
 
I am a poet based in 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.
 
Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.
Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com

Sipping Tea in a Rumi Morning

I have so often sat down to write poetry, and all that I actually wanted to do was to sit quietly and do nothing. Sipping tea, getting into my routine, crossing a street, looking out of a window, untangling a small problem, pointing out something beautiful to a loved one.....as I sat on the edge of an evening, and watched a bird delirious in its abandonment and random flight, I knew -  even an unwritten moment could be a poem. And our life is full of poetry, if only we open ourselves to it.
 
This is Uncut Poetry's 50th episode.
 
I've been with you every week with a new poem. And it's been a journey of discovery as much for me as it has been, I hope, for you.
 
Thank you for trusting me, and returning to Uncut Poetry, week after week.....
 
I want to give you a gift, absolutely free, a beautifully designed chapbook of some my poetry. Just because you have been with me.
 
Do go to the link below for this - 
https://linktr.ee/UncutPoetry
 
There's so much still to discover.
 
I am a poet based in 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.
Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup
Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com

The Ageing of Love

Years go by in relationships, and sometimes we feel that this is the nook where we fit in perfectly, and then suddenly we are left bereft of  an anchor to latch onto or a bank to rest our boat against. Why is there never unalloyed comfort even in a relationship of many years? Maybe that is the way the universe ensures we don't take anything for granted. Maybe that is the way we get to know that love with a little tension attached to it ensures longevity rather than the lugubrious version of love which takes itself for granted, and then finds itself alone.
 
Lovers, the next episode will be my 50th in Uncut Poetry. 
 
I would like to thank you for being such an integral part of this journey. I am here because you are here. And I want to give a part of my heart as a gift.
 
Write to me at uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com. I have a chap book of poems which I would like to send to you.  For being with me, for being such a valuable part of my journey. Thank you.
 
I am Sunil Bhandari.
 
I am a poet based in 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.
Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.
Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com

When We Were One With The Stars

"Heaven is above and I know where I am,
At the corner of the interstate,
I couldn't let you go,
I could not let go yet."
 
I have just collaborated with Alma Roxx in their new single "Interstate (when we were one with the stars)". My poem is embedded into this song.
 
Alma Roxx is the brainchild of Oregon based producer/songwriter Renny Currin. Often times a genre bending sound, Roxx delivers infectious melodies married with sensitive lyrics.
Ryan Minor states in his Bottle Conjuror music blog that Alma Roxx's sound is "as if Simon and Garfunkel, Animal Collective, Beck, Mac Demarco and Stephen Malkmus decided to do a collaboration with Thom Yorke acting as producer and beat maker."
 
Alma Roxx calls their sound as something which is in the intersection of psychedelic pop and sheer chill. It makes for a compelling listen. 
 
This song - and my poetry in it - deals with death, remembrance, waiting and reconciliations. The lyrics, the music and the poetry seamlessly and tenderly explore loss. 
 
As Gabby (@oddgeezerfineart) says - "this tune will hit you like a sack of bricks, pick you up, dust you off and drive you forward."
 
Catch the full song at the following links - 
 
https://almaroxx.bandcamp.com/track/interstate-when-we-were-one-with-the-stars-feat-sunil-bhandari
 
or
 
https://open.spotify.com/track/3rV5c5hlYBNxNqxcpM4cjv?si=viI8v3h9Qz2Z4aIXF8YK7Q
 
I am Sunil Bhandari.
 
I am a poet based in 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.
Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.
Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com
 

A Love Poem to an Office

People who don't know me are surprised that I don't sleep with a blanket of moonlight and a pillow full of stars.
But I have a day-life and it's in an office.
And it's a place which has consumed a large part of my life - and, alas, is rarely acknowledged by me in my poetry. Even though it has given me a livelihood and a distinct place in the world.
So I decided to make amends. 
Today's poem is a love song to my office.
 
I am Sunil Bhandari.
I am a poet based in 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 in Kindle on Amazon.
Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.
Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com

Rediscovering the Flawed Beauty of Love

One of the abiding tragedies of love is the lack of breathing space between lovers. The freedom they experienced, and which brought them together to begin with, suddenly switches into ownership and expectations which can never ever match with what is ordinarily possible. People, more often than not, don't drift apart, they merely suck the oxygen from around the very person they fell in love with, because she was free.
 
Uncut Poetry is brought to you by Sunil Bhandari. 
Sunil Bhandari is a poet based out of India. His book of poetry 'Of Love and Other Abandonments' was an Amazon bestseller. His second book 'Of journeys & Other Ways to Get Lost' is just out. Both are available in Kindle on Amazon.
Follow Sunil on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.
Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com
 

Let Them Bring Any Year

"She knows love, /
because love was an answer /
sheared of every question /
unburdened with doubt, /
unremarkable as fact."
 
As we come to the close of an extraordinary year, and wait for its end, we hope there would finally be a pause to the disruption of lives, families, places, things, routines.
But when has the drama of life ever ended?
 
And as someone I love dearly struggles, I turn again and again to poetry. In reading it, in writing it, to seek forbearance, to resolve reasons, to look back with fondness, to look forward for grace.....
 
Uncut Poetry is brought to you by Sunil Bhandari. 
Sunil Bhandari is a poet based out of India. His book of poetry 'Of Love and Other Abandonments' was an Amazon bestseller. His second book 'Of journeys & Other Ways to Get Lost' is just out. Both are available in Kindle on Amazon.
Follow Sunil on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.
Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com