The Women You Knew

Hello readers,

Some of us met during the first blog hop of this decade and shared stories about the past decade. This time, I decided to take the safe route by writing a poem for the theme 'The Woman That I Am'.

I

Was life always colorless?

Where did the soft glow of the yellow go?

The rusty lamp in her wrinkled hands

Failed to bring back the shades of her youth

The ruby on her old finger

Resembled a lifeless onyx in the moonless night.

Where did the years go?

How did she let the world

Take away her love for life?

Questions swirled around,

Colder than the winter chill

Demanding an answer

She was now determined to find.

One day soon, she told the darkness

The lamp would sparkle

And so would her smile.

Let the world watch-

Eyes wide in wonder,

Heads hung in shame,

At the bygone life of a woman

At the unseen layers of women

Who gave and gave and gave.

II

The waves crashed at her feet

A flurry of white and azure

Rolling over the golden sand

Mesmerized by the life she led,

The adventures she had

The smiles she shared.

The years of her childhood

A distant yet vivid memory;

A shepherd girl with dreams in her eyes

Flashed through her veins

To flow into the sea.

She wanted to know-

To learn, to live, and to love

So she fought, ran, and won

To prove that she could.

The waves crashed faster,

Eager to unravel

The secret of her strength

That settled forever

In the stubborn set of her shoulders.

III

Cheers & claps, bouquets & best wishes-

Gifted, blessed, and lucky, they gushed

The dance was her talent, they said

The dance, they did not know was her soul

Passion, madness, and devotion, she sighed

The words stuck in her throat.

Assured by the breeze surrounding her

She let the ready applause of the world

Sink into the rising tide

As the graceful movements on the stage

Gave way to a gay abandon on the cliffs.

She would dance to no one's tune,

Said the fire that burned in her heart.

IV

How long, she wondered

Eyes intent on the trodden path

Did she carry the weight of her family;

Sometimes pots, sometimes baskets,

And debts every time of the day.

Walking through the fields, banks, and sands

Braving the sun, rain, and wind

Until the day she heard from a sister-

'The day you stop is the day they learn.' 

Now she sat there on the wall

Ready at last to teach her child

Before the burden shrunk her into oblivion,

The same lesson she chose to ignore.

V

The magic of the wise woman worked

The lamp began to glow again;

Flickering a faint amber glow

To drive away the black & white

Bringing the divine rays of hope.

Reflecting in the depth of her eyes

The realization sparkled anew

What would the world have been

If she wasn't the woman she was?

**********

Paintings Credit: Ratna Pochiraju 
(Ratna aunty, your paintings have always been inspiring me. This post belongs to you as much as it belongs to me.)


 “This post is a part of ‘The Woman That I Am’ Blog Hop #TheWomanThatIAm organized by Rashi Roy and Manas Mukul #RRxMM” 

Verity by Colleen Hoover- Book Review

Verity by Colleen Hoover
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So I read Verity. It's a good thing to not have a fixed TBR. Anyway, coming to the story, not sure if I should say it was good or okay. The opening was gruesome yet detached, and that set the tone for the rest of the book. I was involved in the story, even thought about it during the sleep. But somewhere towards the end, I began to lose the involvement. Maybe I was looking for a twist, so the ending wasn't a surprise. Or rather I'd say the last chapter. The ending isn't an end. It stops at a place where the author can start a sequel if she wishes to.
It is dark and comes with a lot of trigger warnings. I admire the writing style of Verity's personal story. Lowen, not a much. She sounded like a teenager or someone in the early 20s. I could see traces of the heroine from It Ends With Us in her.
As a writer, I tried to relate to Lowen, but that didn't happen either. She talks about it only in the beginning. Her world seemed to revolve around Jeremy. The characters are all gray, and despite that none of them feel real.
This is a brave attempt. The last chapter is a favorite for the reason that it does talks about the writer's mind and how others don't seem to be able to understand that a writer is different from their writings.
I've read quite graphic stuff before, but it did get boring after a while in this book. It felt as if Hoover was trying to cover the lack of depth in characters by using sex as a diversion tactic.
Another thing that irked me was the abundance of adverbs. (I'm kinda obsessed). But when you read 4 adverbs in a 5-line paragraph at the beginning of the book, it leaves a bad taste. At least as the story progressed, I could focus less on them. Overall, Verity is the only interesting character in the book (and Crew, of course). 3.5- 3.7 stars.


View all my reviews