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A collaboration over too much coffee.
coffee and pen

31 January, 2009

The Terror Attacks - have you written about it?

This is for a friend in the Times of India. I quote: "Basically we'd like to do a story on people who have responded to 26/11 by writing poetry. About what they felt, whether writing helped, whether they discussed their poetry with others, what is it about calamities that prompts them to write poetry in particular and so on."

Please leave your answers, and poems (or links to them if you have posted them somewhere public on the web) in the comments.

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9 Comments:

Blogger Such! said...

Well, there is this embarrassingly humongous post i have written in my blog - http://gubraithianfire.blogspot.com/2008/11/where-do-i-turn-to.html

01 February, 2009 20:33  
Blogger riddhiculous said...

I wrote it right after the second attacks in Assam on new year. Not exactly terror, but the state of affairs post attacks and so on.

http://rid-flections.blogspot.com/2009/01/happy-new-year.html

writing helped to vent out what i felt amidst all the brouhaha and chaos.

01 February, 2009 21:08  
Blogger Urvashi said...

Compassion…
It’s almost obsolete.
Iterated again
And again
And again.
We’re desensitized
To the paramount
It really means.
We’re not
Yelling
Any more.
No one’s horrified
At the blood
Glazing our landscape
Or the
Blasts
That light up
Our skies.
It’s just an
Innate inane
Sadness
That creeps
In and
Weaves deep
Inside us
And
Doesn’t let go.
Our doorsteps
Are blood-stained
And
Every time
We wash it away
The next morning
It’s all
Happening
All over again.

Urvashi Bahuguna

01 February, 2009 21:15  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi,

The utter pointlessness of violence is what struck me the most. And my thoughts expressed themselves as follows:


Gateway Blues

Mama, mama, why can't I fly now?
Mama, mama, can't you hear me cry now?
Mama, mama, it's time for my feed now
Mama, mama, there's no more seed now.

They shot you down my baby, I don't know why.
The bullet's got you on the wing and you can't fly
I can't get you nothing to feed you my dear
The tourists have all stopped coming down here.
Around the gate that was built to welcome a king
One can only hear the death knell ring
The people here are running scared
They've got no time to stop and care.
Chasing their dreams and pursuing their greed
How will they ever remember your seed?

Mama, mama, why is the fighting on the rise?
Mama, mama, where's the peace we symbolise?
Mama, mama, why don't these humans get along?
Mama, mama, have they got evolution all wrong?

My baby bird, Mother Nature is just cleaning up the mess
To leave the world free for us who have nothing to confess
Of what use are feelings that lead only to strife?
Of what use is thought if it only destroys life?
You have a much simpler life as a little dove
No anger, no jealousy, no hatred, no love.
Nature has taught us to kill only for food
The humans have learnt to kill for the greater common good

Fly away my dear, far away from all this.
In no man's land will you ever find bliss
No village, no city, no country, no town
The days of this earth are being counted down.
When violence screams, peace will never be heard.
If only man was more like a dove bird.

Mama, mama, I think I am a going now.
There's darkness around me that's a growing now.
I can't see you Mama, or hear you crying now
Good bye, my mama, I am a dying now.

Hey humans, look at what you've done
You've killed my baby, my only little one
Why did she have to die, it wasn't her fight.
No God will ever agree that this is right
When the President hands out all those awards
To the policemen and soldiers who all died hard
My baby will lie on the hot and dusty stone
Till she's swept away, cold and alone.
No twenty one gun salute, no band of brass
The garbage truck will be her hearse.
So step up people and shout out loud
Don't live your whole life under a cloud
Move out now, step into the light
This is the time to display your might
The power is yours, you have a choice to make
The future of the world is what is at stake
Come tell me now, can you shoulder that load?
For, you can't reach the right place by taking the wrong road
Nothing is ever yours by virtue of birth
You have to prove to nature that you deserve this earth
And after the struggle, when peace is attained
My baby will not have died in vain.

02 February, 2009 18:21  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I will write right now.. =)

03 February, 2009 13:13  
Blogger bipasha said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

05 February, 2009 20:48  
Blogger bipasha said...

i haven't written a poem. but did post on my blog.

city that welcomed me with open arms and love when i was born.. city that gave me my first wing.. city that made smile through my pain.. city that taught me to make my spirit undauntable .. city that brought me to back level 0 when i floundered .. city that protected me from the harsh blow of poverty.. and what more city dint just do it for me ... it did so for millions staying here.. indiscriminately.. unquestionably and with the same passion... yes just like a mother.. never asking only giving and protecting..

yes never asking

but today when she needs blood to save her other children.. many of her children turn deaf.. they cocoon in their high rise / low rise houses pretending they would love to help but all of a sudden develop selective deafness and wear the plug of selfishness..

the so called protectors who abuse the word to a new order unthinkable to be read as politician as expected abuse her and ensure she gets more abused at the hands of evil as they are part of the same tree ..

it would sound cliche that it could have happened to you.. but it is no longer it could.. today the situation is like it sure will happen to you .. those out there who have been cowards its only a question of time... and your time will come more sooner than later ..

the spirit of mumbai or bombay we shout about is only the spirit of handful few but then it really needs a handful to bring in a revolution.. so will this really happen .. here I am writing this blog instead of spearheading this revolution .. so hypocrisy is universal phenomenon and waiting for things to happen rather making it happen is apparently the best mantra

05 February, 2009 20:50  
Blogger austere said...

I wrote a sub that's been accepted for Six Sentences anthology, Vol 2.

austereseeker2909@yahoo.com

25 March, 2009 13:05  
Blogger Abhi said...

I felt a sense of insecurity post the Delhi blasts of 2008 and the Mumbai attacks, that I had never felt before. It came out as a poem in reaction to my feelings. Here it is, on my blog:

http://abhibishnu.blogspot.com/2009/07/why-smoke-sounds-chaos-do-you-see.html

10 August, 2009 07:00  

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