Uncut Poetry

We are just ordinary people, living lives which often don't make sense, seeking our share of meaning, joy and fulfilment in our own ways. Embedded deep within - undefined, unspoken of, often unrecognised as such - are tiny and eternal stories of love. There are no bells and whistles attached to these stories, nothing to define them as special, but in their quiet ways, they light up lives, and make them worthy of it.   Rarely does real-life love show up as drama. It evolves as presence, a legacy of commitment, years of dedication, of roughing it out through thick and thin, often finding companionship in spite of incompatibility, of finding genuine affection beneath shy roughness.   A world which admires stories of legendary lovers, misses out several which exist in our immediate worlds. Silent, unspoken of, undefined - they exist as mundane routine, lookouts in the evening, sleepless nights in illness, silences one could ease into.   In a world full of turmoil and uncertainty, to have steadfastness and commitment, to be able to show vulnerability and find joy in the other's trivialities, is truly the only relationship one could want in one's life - definitions be damned.   If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems on the enduring charms of love -  A Poem as a Gift for a Girl With No Confidence in Herself Let Me Sit Beside You Quietly Hale, Fall & Spring (of you & I) Subscribe to my newsletter 'The Uncuts' Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup. Get in touch with me on [email protected]   The details of the music used in this episode are as follows - Lockdown by Sascha Ende Link: https://filmmusic.io/en/song/Lockdown Licence:  https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Love can be pretty unrelenting. It's turgidity and its persistence can be intimidating to people who see it collapsing under its own weight and can't understand how it is still standing strong. People in love can separate without disengagement but equally they can continue loving with separation.   Anything anchored in emotion has moorings which may seem fragile but are often unrelenting. Nobody knows inner stories, of holding on to ties, of despair and of not giving up. Logic falls by the wayside.   Trouble starts when reconciliations are compromised without addressing the cause, the core of what eats away at the soul.   What draws people to each other is either what resonates or the things they miss in themselves. It's only later that the true differences of nature and thought get revealed. The sunken body of the iceberg can then be seen. And it is not always pleasant, and it often rests against the very grain of what the other stands for.   The true challenge of love starts there.   Because ignoring what haunts is to let our inner turmoil and resistance and unwilling consent keep eating the foundation like termite, even as the newly-painted facade of coupledom glistens in public glow.   If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems on ways of the resilience of love -  Marriage Made Me a Philosopher The Long Now of Us It Takes Time for Love to Find Comfort Subscribe to my newsletter 'The Uncuts' Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup. Get in touch with me on [email protected]   The details of the music used in this episode are as follows - Imagefilm15 by Sascha Ende Link: https://filmmusic.io/en/song/Imagefilm15 Licence:  https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

I love this poem because it condenses the thoughts which partners who separate from each other might have of the other.   It's subtle, often the first flush of love, often the first separation. When you know the highs of love, but have not known how the valleys are to be navigated: and you think the first bump, the first infraction, a fight, a being-away-from-one's-sight could actually be enough cause for anything-to-happen.   We are in a tumult of love and have not reached its calm yet. And every ripple on its surface makes us question its depth.   That's why it often takes years of togetherness and a multitude of experiences for people to figure out the truth of their relationships. I will never forget the film where a happy family is holidaying in the Alps, and then there is an avalanche, the man runs away rapidly without thought of his wife or kids. I think even more then the wife it was the husband who surprised himself with his action. Because the truth is - as always - when things happen, it reveals more about us as individuals than of the state of our union.   If it always has been a facade, a relationship is bound to collapse under its weight. If it's a mutual revelation, it's time for reflection (of course), but also reexamination, recalibration, redemption or / and repentance.   It's ironical that a couple which is together for eternity often finds is bonds brittle enough to not even withstand the most basic onslaught on its foundation.   What ensues - whatever form it might take - is not a tragedy but a realization. Depths then are discovered as profundity or merely as depthless crevasses.   If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems on the progression of love -  Love's Night of the Long Knives  Love (after the stories are told) I Love You Subscribe to my newsletter 'The Uncuts' Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup. Get in touch with me on [email protected]   The details of the music used in this episode are as follows - Cinematic Angelical Upbeat Ambient by Musiclfiles Link: https://filmmusic.io/en/song/Cinematic-angelical-upbeat-ambient Licence:  https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Summers in Kolkata slide rather than blister, which is what happens when I visit Jhunjhunu. Both are experiences. There's no hiding place here because the humidity is omnipresent - but a shaded tree is enough to save you from the dry heat in Rajasthan. And then I go to a Delhi - where nothing can save you except an airconditioned room, because what does not melt you burns you down.   There's very little that's romantic about an Indian summer, except for a strange immersion. Much more than an attitude of mind-over-matter, it is an alignment which can save you - of deciding not to escape but just to be one with what the universe offers. It's surprising how quickly our bodies can get distracted from discomfort.   The important thing is to be alone in this battle inside, so we are not influenced by the opinions and incessant cribbing of others. And since this seeps into other things, I'm very careful about whom I go out for all experiences. Then I have the luxury of my flawed reactions - to let my emotions flow untouched by anything other than my own proclivities and prejudices.   I cannot overstate the pleasure of letting a morning sweep over us with all its intimations of fresh possibilities. Possibly nothing has changed in life's continuum, but there is still an incredible sense of renewal which can only sweep over us if we are alone with our feelings, untouched by anybody else's aura.   If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems on the magic of mornings -  A Morning Ramble on How Love is Rediscovered at the Bottom of  Mother's Ramble  Sipping Tea in a Rumi Morning Subscribe to my newsletter 'The Uncuts' Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup. Get in touch with me on [email protected]   The details of the music used in this episode are as follows - This World (Instrumental) by Sascha Ende Link: https://filmmusic.io/en/song/this-world-instrumental Licence:  https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

This is a repeat of one of my more popular poems, replayed here with a hope of getting a new audience, who might have missed it.   A colleague committed suicide today. 7 am. He woke up early, took a bath, did his pujo, and then hung himself from a fan. His wife discovered him when she didn't see him in the pujo ghar.   I'd met him the day before getting into office, and asked him how he was doing. He was cheerful. I asked him to drop by for a cup of coffee. Another colleague did two meetings with him. Another one said good bye to him at 7 in the evening. Just another ordinary day.   Last year his wife had come to me with their son and talked of how there was something which had snapped inside him. He wanted to resign. There was immense pressure, and he had an unsympathetic and cruel boss, who went unrelentingly after him. It was often ugly. And the pressure was getting to him. And he was doing frightened office-talk even in his sleep.   I and my HR colleague got him aligned with a good psychiatrist. And in a few months, he was as near normal as possible.   Till today.   Do we all have breaking points? However strong we might think we are. That point where our heart breaks and our mind splits. And a strange duality emerges, of moving ordinarily in an ordinary life, but carrying a soul in turmoil.   Didn't he have anybody he could talk to - with full vulnerability, unfettered by judgement? What was that last thought, before he took that decisive step? Didn't he think of the wreckage he would leave behind?   Is suicide then, intrinsically, a sad amalgam of despair and selfishness?   But more than anything, I'm angry at bosses who let go without constraint on hapless subordinates, without the sensitivity of the overwhelming effect their position has on those whose livelihood depends on them.   I only wish I had stopped for that coffee when I'd met him. Maybe he would have opened up. Maybe things would have been different.   If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems on ways of dying -  Assisted Suicide Living Tragedy Forward If I Commit Suicide Subscribe to my newsletter 'The Uncuts' Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup. Get in touch with me on [email protected]   The details of the music used in this episode are as follows - Lonesome by Sascha Ende Link: https://filmmusic.io/en/song/Lonesome Licence:  https://filmmusic.io/standard-license