Nithinz Poetry Anthology

Gloomy Day

noreply@blogger.com (Nithin RS) — Thu, 31 Aug 2023 11:37:00 +0000

There is a slowness to the day

Murky clouds have taken over the sky

Rain drizzled a bit like a teaser

Two woodpeckers climbed a papaya tree

Sounded back to me in their voice

When I made a squeaky bird noise

They left emptyhanded as papaya was unripe

My wait for the new project was extended

Frustrating the peace of mind

I would rather be working than sitting idle

Images from Pixabay

Goodbye To Wales (Cymru)

noreply@blogger.com (Nithin RS) — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 07:19:00 +0000

As the countdown for a dreaded, return looms

It seems like time is flying away like a storm

Swirling towards the gigantic ocean of reality

Draining out the sand beneath the feet

Slowly drowning me in its ever-growing depth

The more I look for an anchor of hope to hold on

The land of fathers looks sure to abandon me

Back to the world I belong to, for an unforeseeable time

I will miss the hills and valleys filled with green carpets

Of grasslands, separated by hedges all along

The array of sheep and lambs munching on virgin grass

The tidal river Usk and its uncertain flow directions

The drizzles that accompanied by heavy winds

The freezing temperatures and the naked trees in winter

The picturesque landscapes I saw on my journeys to work

The seamless motorways made distances look like nothing

The endless daylight of summer and eternal darkness of winter

The hams, kebabs, chips and fish, countless experiments with food

The dragons, castles, forts and all those heritage that remains

I wrote this poem when I left Newport for Birmingham in 2012.

Images Courtesy: Adobe Stock Images and Nation.Cymru

Meeting

noreply@blogger.com (Nithin RS) — Tue, 24 Jan 2023 16:49:00 +0000

We will meet one day

I wish it to be at a beach

To see the sunset together

And get the inkling for

Seeing sunrises together

While we play with the waves

Make sand castles of dreams

Walk with hands together

Talking all the silent thoughts

Feeling the affection in breeze

Building a bond that could last

A lifetime

Images Courtesy: Nathan Dumlao and Tom Parsons

Forgot the prompt 😐

You Stir My Soul

noreply@blogger.com (Nithin RS) — Mon, 23 Jan 2023 01:49:00 +0000

You stir my soul

With your presence

With your smile

You stir my heart

It flashes in my eyes

Like a movie of you

You stir my mind few

Like a melody tune

That keeps buzzing

Wherever I go

You stir my life

Gave a reason

To live to be with you

You're my love

Based on word prompt #TemptingOurFate

Destiny

noreply@blogger.com (Nithin RS) — Sun, 22 Jan 2023 06:41:00 +0000

Destiny

A comforting word

To hide the pain

Of the dreams

Snatched from

My palms

I stood

Helplessly

But it gave wings

To my heart

To dream again

It drives my mind

Like a machine

I've left behind my past

As it held me back

I'm chasing a new dream

To build a new life

Pressures And Deadlines

noreply@blogger.com (Nithin RS) — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 16:33:00 +0000

This is an old handwritten poem salvaged by my mother today. I am hoping to find countless old poems written on paper.

My Sassy Girl

noreply@blogger.com (Nithin RS) — Tue, 21 Jun 2022 08:59:00 +0000

I am healed

After years of misery

Gifted by those girls

Who left me for new pastures

They had their fair reasons

They believed that I will be alright

But I ended up with depression

Now I am alone

I need a sassy girl

Different from those who left me

Someone who could bring new

Experiences of my dull life

Someone, with whom I could explore

The places I have never visited before

Someone, with whom I could write

Poetries of love and romance

Someone, who will be a companion

For the rest of my life

After listening to the song 'I Believe' from my favourite Korean movie 'My Sassy Girl, I wished to write a poem. The image is taken from SoundCloud.

Mysterious Well

noreply@blogger.com (Nithin RS) — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 10:20:00 +0000

An abandoned well

Inside a forest

Attached to an old temple

There was no water for centuries

As it was filled with earth over the time

Astrologers predicted that there is a hidden treasure

Beneath the layers of the earth in the well

Some treasure hunters left behind the tools

Besides the heaps of earth, they removed

From the well, might be in dismay

The natives were amused to see water

During their lifetime in this well

Native temple devotees see no reason

To dig the well again for water

It might have taken so many days

To remove that much earth from the well

Police are now looking for the culprits

It seems that the treasure hunters failed

In finding the treasure in the well

The well is attracting curious visitors now

This poem is based on a piece of news I saw. The image is taken from mathrubhumi

My Percussion Dreams

noreply@blogger.com (Nithin RS) — Sun, 19 Jun 2022 08:23:00 +0000

I focus on the layers of drum beats

When I listen to the songs

I started my tryst with percussion

By making beats on a wooden bench

As a kid, emulating tabla in mind

Given my interest, my father let me learn tabla

I loved those fast notes and tried to grasp

But I was bad at byhearting the notes

So my learning was slow

I was so insecure about my tabla skills

That I skipped meeting the legendary singer Yesudas

When he came to meet the music students

It remains a regret that I didn't play for him

When the high school became more important

I had to take a break from the lessons

I did perform before audiences

With contrasting fortunes

I used to jam along with some nice beaty songs

Then I fell in love with drums

Bought drum sticks and joined a class

After learning the basics for a few months I quit

I have two pairs of drum sticks waiting for me to play

Maybe I will learn drums again

And fix the tabla to play it again

As beats in songs still slip my heart to beat the desk

And I dream to play beats in front of an audience again

Most people follow their musical aspirations. I have left my percussion learning midway. The beats of songs still lure me to try beating the desk. I want to make up for an embarrassing tabla performance in front of a packed audience someday. The images are taken by Carlos Castilla and By Heaven.

Internet Explorer

noreply@blogger.com (Nithin RS) — Fri, 17 Jun 2022 07:12:00 +0000

Goodbye to Internet Explorer

I still remember the first time I went

To an internet cafe with a friend

To create an email id

The slow buffering browser became

A part of my life

As it was installed as the primary browser

In most the places

You had the monopoly as you came with MS Windows

When I had a monthly internet browsing card

I used to sift through countless web pages

Checking for sports and other news

While chatting on some messenger

I remember browsing at home through

Dial-up internet at home

You buffered eternally slow

While I searched for engineering topics

For my presentation at college

Then I moved on to other internet browsers

With the availability of broadband internet

But still browsed with you for nostalgia at times

Your monopoly ended when Opera, Mozilla, and Chrome

Made inroads into the browsers' landscape

Now that you're gone

I must say, you were very underappreciated

For the job you did during the internet revolution

Though internet explorer was hated by the people due to its slowness and bad features, it played a huge role in the internet revolution. Its monopoly was down to the fact that it came with the Microsoft operating systems and most of the computers had Microsoft OS. People craved better browsers with better features. Microsoft was eternally slow to update IE and others made better browsers and IE ended up in the bin. Microsoft opted to create Bing and IE was bound for ignominy.

Air Quality

noreply@blogger.com (Nithin RS) — Thu, 16 Jun 2022 15:19:00 +0000

The weather app informs me

That the air quality is good

It made me wonder

When did the air become toxic here?

With a canopy of coconut trees around

With plenty of creepers and plants on the ground

Wind lashing out from the ocean frequently

Endless rains for weeks every year

The air was always relatively safe

But with the growth in the number of vehicles

Maybe, there is some change in air quality

But I hope that the ocean and rain will keep

The air refreshed

At least in this small city

I have seen the accumulation of black soil

On the floors in some other cities

I have felt the breathing of black soot and soil

Where construction materials create dust

As the cities grow vertically with high-rise buildings

Also the millions of vehicles spitting greenhouse gases

They are still safer than some megacities

That requires air filters at home

Electric vehicles alone won't improve air quality

The industries need to reduce pollution drastically

Else we will end up living in toxic gas chambers

Susceptible to lung diseases and other illnesses

This poem is inspired by the air-quality information I started receiving from an app on my laptop. I was surprised to receive the air quality information. As the air here is relatively cleaner compared to bigger cities. The images are taken by cleanairpartners and breathepa.

Runaway Wedding

noreply@blogger.com (Nithin RS) — Mon, 13 Jun 2022 12:02:00 +0000

I romanticized the runaway wedding

Breaking away from the societal conventions

I didn't want an arranged marriage

And life with a total stranger

With a decision on a partner taken

With mere minutes of meeting and conversation

Nor I want to be bought by dowry

But the girl I loved, chose to run away from me

And not risk being ostracised by the family

By marrying me, after six years of friendship

I still see families avoiding their beloved kids

For marrying someone they loved

Not talking, not meeting, and not giving properties

Some families relent after seeing the smiles of

Their grandkids, they welcome back their kids

With the runaway weddings involving

Different caste, class, and religion

Many get killed for the honour of the family

More than love for their kids

They take pride in their societal status

People might cite the failure of many love marriages

But, I have seen arranged marriages that are hell

People remain stuck in abusive and unloved relation

For the sake of kids or for the sake of family pride

I wonder when will the society of my country

Rise above the societal norms and accept love marriages

I have come across couples who ran away and got married and led nice life. But my society and relatives are still not very evolved to accept love marriages. The ostracisation of the girl or guy for marrying someone out of caste, class or religion is still a reality. The honor killing of young guys and girls is also prevalent in my country. The image was snapped by Lorna.

Bridge of Words

noreply@blogger.com (Nithin RS) — Fri, 10 Jun 2022 16:56:00 +0000

bridge

of words

Built between hearts

Living continents apart

A friendship of the digital age

There is no voice or visual treats

Like a good old pen-friendship

Without the paper and pen

The inboxes of social media

With meaningful emojis'

Conveying the emotions

Without words at times

Reading the creativity

With a like or comment

Without sharing the stories of life

Without opening the hurts of past

Yet good conversations evolve

Over the beliefs and thoughts

Poems and real-world issues

Fifteen years of online friendships

Have evolved my mind into detachment

And enjoy the moments with words

Without expectations that plagued

The growth of long-term friendships

I feel that I have evolved in terms of online friendships from 2007. From Orkut, Facebook, Twitter, and many other social media platforms, I found different friends over the years. I am still in touch with some friends from Orkut. Others just faded away with time. Then I came across liberals on Facebook. I am coming across nice writers and poets on Twitter and Instagram. The image is taken from gapatton.

A Reflection

noreply@blogger.com (Nithin RS) — Thu, 09 Jun 2022 15:29:00 +0000

Alongside a birthday greeting

Someone left me some questions to reflect

Reduction in dosage of depression medicines

Stood out as the best thing that happened in a year

I learned a part of the work that I struggled with for years

I wish to be less dependent on medicines and join an office

I hope to handle the market research reports on my own

I do not have lofty ambitions to achieve in a year

My depression dictates the success of my efforts

Writing poems again gives me a glimmer of hope

To follow my dreams with strength

This poem is based on some questions given by a friend to reflect on the occasion of my birthday. It did make me realize that I have come a long way in the last year. My aims for the next year are simple. But it will depend on how I am able to tame my depression. The images are snapped by Kevin Noble and Nikhita Singhal.

Murky Ending

noreply@blogger.com (Nithin RS) — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 20:39:00 +0000

You were pith and beautiful

I was not a beast or a killer

You turned me into a villain

In front of your loved ones

I wish I had a lot of sugar to

Coat my words to appease

The fragile ego of your mind

You insidiously sailed away

Without delving Into the issues

You crafted and didn't address

That halted all the wings of our

Openness and mutual emotions

You were in a hurry to close the

The door of reconciliation forever

To find pastures anew so early

Leaving muddy tragedies for me

These prompts #2WordPrompt #Crowstales #Moonmystic #Bravewrite #FlexVSS #WIPwordsearch #Converstory #TrickyTues #BookishTues #vsspoem #vssdaily #vssmagic and #vssink on Twitter helped me in sculpting this poem. The picture is snapped by Brooke Cagle.

FIFA Gaming

noreply@blogger.com (Nithin RS) — Tue, 07 Jun 2022 09:21:00 +0000

As a college student

I found myself on football ground often

Playing the game with my college mates

When I got my first Computer

My craze for gaming started with FIFA

Playing with my favourite team Manchester United

My friends used to come over for multiplayer games

That was competitive and fun during the evenings

Then I got fascinated about starting from the lower league

Building the club through the leagues to the top league

Then playing the continental club competitions

It was thrilling to play with unknown players

And make them worthy over the time

Then the art of buying and selling players

To ultimately build a team full of stars

Simulating some games along the way

And playing the glamour games with excitement

My keyboard keys were worn-out with excessive use

I have lived in ecstasy playing FIFA many a night

Without any girl in my life and the troubles

I had an addiction to playing FIFA for years

Now it has been a decade since I've played it!

This poem is purely based on my nostalgia for playing EA Sports FIFA games. Since I came out of my addiction, I don't feel like playing again. Images are taken from Google.

Earthship

noreply@blogger.com (Nithin RS) — Mon, 06 Jun 2022 09:50:00 +0000

A self-sustainable home

Amidst the arid and desert areas

Walls are erected

By ramming soil on old tyres

Filling old glass bottles and cans

Binding it with soil, mud, and other binders

A long sloped roof to the back

Wooden support and structure

A linear building from the front

With huge glass panes to

Welcome all the sunshine

The backyard is filled with soil to make slopes

It and the wall act as thermal storage

Releases heat on cooler nights

The Greenhouse in the building

Grows vegetables and fruits

It helps in bringing fresh oxygen

The rainwater from the roofs fills

The water storage tanks to meet the water needs

Grey water from kitchen, bathroom, and sinks

Goes through natural filtration beneath

The bed of plants and provide water to them

Then it is recirculated to flush the toilet

Even the septic tank sludge is used for

Making manure for the plants and trees outside

The solar panels and wind turbines make

Off-grid life as a reality in a society

Away from the hustles of cities

The piping systems from the rooms to the

Lower slope areas help in the recirculation of fresh air

With temperatures varying with the climate

A sustainable house that could reduce carbon emissions

With the usage of wasted materials and renewable energy

It is now sustainable in tropics and rainy areas too

With the use of different materials to cope with local climate

This poem is based on countless documentaries and videos about earth ships I saw over the years. It is remarkable that wasted materials like old tyres, glass bottles, and beer or soft drinks cans among others can make a sustainable home. Earthships, with advanced designs, provide comfortable living with off-grid energy and sustainable water usage. This is ideal for those who wish to live amidst nature and lead a sustainable lifestyle. The images were taken by Earthship Biotecture Australia and Claire Carrion.

Love And Reality

noreply@blogger.com (Nithin RS) — Sun, 05 Jun 2022 07:31:00 +0000

I am no younger

I am closer to my forties

The ladies of my age are married

I do miss a good company of a lady

I wonder if I will fall in love ever again

The heartbreaks that shaped my present

The loss of opportunities due to depression

I wonder If I could trust another woman

To bring hope and seal my healed heart

Maybe, I am averse to taking a risk

Without sorting out my finances

To not to be in a situation again

Where I cannot afford the lady

Nor win over her family

I wonder why I come across

Nice ladies from far away places

I write poems about my crushes

My heart is hardened to stop there

I would leave my native someday

Like I attempted five times in the last decade

I don't wish to raise a kid given my mental health

I don't know If I will come across a woman

Who will make me wish to build a home!

The poem is inspired by the prompt #Satsplat . The image was taken by Travis Grossen

Waking Up To The Sound Of Rain

noreply@blogger.com (Nithin RS) — Sat, 04 Jun 2022 05:46:00 +0000

Waking up to the sound of rain

On a rare dawn

Brought disappointment of

Missing out on the sunrise

Which I crave to see a lot

The breeze brought

The fragrance of guava flowers

The teak leaves on neighbour's plot

Flaunted happily with the breeze

This is not monsoon yet

Pre-monsoon showers

Teasing about endless rains

That could lash in the coming weeks

And the heavy winds from the sea

I am lost in the thought of waterproofing

As long summer showers have dampened

Some of the walls in my home

The sound of a small bird intrigued me

It is trying to engage with its partner

Sitting in a faraway tree

It seems rain evaporated into the thin air

As sunshine is making its way back to the greens

Rain woke me earlier than usual. The prompt #FromOneLine generated a poetic seed. I wrote the thoughts evoked by it in this poem. Images from JD Nightbot and Relaxing Sounds Of Nature

3-D Printed Homes

noreply@blogger.com (Nithin RS) — Fri, 03 Jun 2022 08:38:00 +0000

As the demand for social housing

Shoots up in many countries

The waiting list of council homes

Increasing with each year

The number of homeless people in

The streets increasing significantly

Even in the developed countries

There is a need for faster construction

Of homes that need to withstand

The climate change effects

Large 3-D printing machines can

Build a floor of houses within days

All sorts of complex structures are

Built with 3-D printing technology

3-D printed homes made with concrete,

Hempcrete, and other materials show

Good thermal and insulation properties Make homes cooler inside in hot areas

Cost savings are possible with no plastering, With lesser manual work

Multiple homes can be constructed faster

It can solve social housing issues

If governments adopt this technology

It is ideal for constructing small houses

3-D printed homes could be a cheaper solution for social housing demands. Hempcrete based 3-D printing can be sustainable solution for none availability of sand. Basic structures printing only need human supervision and providing the material. It eliminates labour costs significantly. Avoiding plastering can also provide cost savings. ASME and The Guardian

Being Speechless

noreply@blogger.com (Nithin RS) — Wed, 01 Jun 2022 17:01:00 +0000

I went through

Two weeks of horror

Of being speechless

As my psychiatrist

Misdiagnosed my

sleep deprivation for

a week as psychotic

The drugs he prescribed

Made me speech impaired

It affected other organs too

I struggled to talk to anyone

I feared if I could ever speak again

Even as the psychiatrist gave

Assurance of regaining voice

As my friend enquired about

The nature of the medicines

And that it didn't improve

The psychiatrist told me to stop using

The medication in three days

Slowly, I could talk again

I was stuttering and

Words were not clear

I had to tell repeatedly

Loudly for others

To understand what I meant

An auto driver mistook me

For a drunkard, and refused

To give me a ride to the market

I had to convince him that

It's the side effect of psychiatric drug

I had to tell the same to everyone

I interacted with in shops and in public

Though it improved significantly

It wasn't the same and I needed recovery

Thankfully my cousin took me to meet

A new psychiatrist, who changed

My medications to less potent ones

And I was able to talk fluently again

This poem is based on my real-life experience. I realized the importance of being able to speak to convey things to the people around me. Psychiatric/psychotic drugs can affect the functioning of different abilities and even organs of humans. The wrong diagnosis by the psychiatrist led to me being unable to speak properly for a couple of weeks. But those two weeks was the most challenging period of my life. Those drugs affected my sexual organ too. The psychiatrist told me about the side-effects of the drugs after my friend asked about them. There are side effects for even medicines given in mild dosages. My aim is to come out of the medication. The number of medicines and dosages has been reduced over the last three years. But still, a long way to go. I am under treatment for depression. The image was taken by Noah Buscher .

Black Beauty

noreply@blogger.com (Nithin RS) — Fri, 27 May 2022 16:51:00 +0000

Black Beauty written

With the image of a horse

Reminded me of the book

I learned in my school

While I was in the salon

I have been there before

The new hairdresser

Looked familiar

I initiated a conversation

And I remembered

A salon bearing the same name

Near where I used to live earlier

My father used to take me there

For haircuts as a school kid

Where I had my last haircut

In my twenties

He told me that it's the same brand

I asked about the other man

He was soft-spoken and friendly

But he lost his voice somehow

I remember him showing me the

Facilities in the salon after upgrading

And inquiring about life

Whenever I visited the salon

That man was the uncle

Images from the past came to my mind

There's always a special bond

With the hairdressers

The stories they tell while cutting hair

They remember individual hairstyle

They're the local vocal classifieds

I used to look for Black Beauty

But their board was gone

A few years ago

I found it again

A piece from my past

It was nostalgic to find an old salon relocated. For years I thought that they shut the salon. It is more intriguing that I have been to their new salon multiple times. At that time the hairdresser was a migrant from another state and spoke Hindi. I didn't notice their brand name. This time I saw the name and the picture of black beauty. It brought back everything from memory. The hairdresser was also glad to know that I was an old customer at the old place. The images were taken by Erik-Jan Leusink and Agustin Fernandez . Thanks to Unsplash.

Bio-Logs: An alternative to Firewood

noreply@blogger.com (Nithin RS) — Thu, 26 May 2022 12:36:00 +0000

Charcoal and firewood fire up

The barbeques in the backyards

More trees are cut for making a fire

In Argentina, pomace, the leftover

extracts from apple, pear, and other fruits

Spread on the grounds with sunshine

For days to let the moisture dry

Then it's laid in a brick-like thickness

Again to dry to lose all moisture

The dried thick slabs are cut into logs

They provide similar thermal properties

As charcoal and firewood does

It infuses fruity flavor into the meat

The pomace from olives is turned

Into long bio-pellets as well in Greece

Coconut husks and shells are pulverized

And converted into short briquettes

In Sierra Leone as an initiative to

Replace firewood as it offers more heat

These bio-logs can save thousands of trees,

It can change the way people cook, grill,

and barbecue in many countries

Bio-logs could light up the fireplace

In the winter in the old buildings

And allow trees to capture more Co2

To fight the climate change in a small way

I came across multiple alternatives for firewood and charcoal. I saw some videos from Business Insider telling stories of individuals making products that can transform the way people cook, grill, barbeque, or even heat. A lot of people might be already using these pellets, briquettes, and bio-logs made from fruit and farm waste from factories and in general. I am experimenting with poetry based on solutions available for solving issues affecting nature and climate. Images are taken from Business Insider.

Reclaimed Earth Colors

noreply@blogger.com (Nithin RS) — Wed, 25 May 2022 08:11:00 +0000

Abandoned mines discharge

Acidic mine drainage

Full of oxides

To the creeks and streams

Making them toxic and polluted

For years after the closure of the mine

The sludge from the polluted streams

Processed to remove impurities

And dried at different temperatures

To make powder of different colors

When mixed with oil and additives

And cold-pressed

Magical paints of reclaimed earth colors emerge

The tail ends from mines have lumps of minerals

Crushing those minerals creates natural colors

That can gloss pottery like in historical times

Painters can give colors to their imaginations

With paints made from the mine waste

And get closer to the nature

To spread the message

Of healing the nature

This poem is inspired by a documentary of researchers from Ohio Department of Natural Resources, True Pigments LLC and gamblincolors converting AMD into the paint. Reclaimed Earth Colors is the brand of the paints produced in this manner. This is not a paid promotion of the brand. I feel this is worthy of a shout-out due to the significance of their efforts. I also came across some other videos of converting minerals from tail end of the abandoned mines into paints. They're natural colors.

Untold Love

noreply@blogger.com (Nithin RS) — Tue, 24 May 2022 16:49:00 +0000

I came to your doorstep

I didn’t knock

I heard your voice

It thrilled me

I had a letter for you

I didn’t give

I saw your smile

It graced me

I had a lot to tell

I didn’t try

I just walked away

In silence

You were raining joy on me

You were blooming love in me

You were showering hope on me

But I didn’t know how to tell you

I wrote this poem in 2011. The images are taken by Jean Carlo Emer and Serhil Prysiazhnyi .