Ushkovo Wonders: The Northern Forest

There’s a summer estate in Russia that holds special memories for me. It’s beautiful, peaceful, hauntingly quiet, isolated, and has the type of fresh air that I didn’t yet find in America. And the light of the day stretches into the evening, as often seen in northern regions.

It’s special because I spent the best parts of my younger childhood there. Many years later, I came back…and the surge of nostalgia was the peak of my summer. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m coming there again soon. But what I have are memories, and these precious memories I will treasure forever. Cheesy as this sounds, yeah, but I think we all have places we hold dear.

*****

My dear friends!

Ever wonder what place in the world to me is dear?

It existed in my mind, yet so real

My love of it pains and sears.

*

It’s Ushkovo, the Russian northern forest

In summer, it bathes in a white night

It’s my memories that call me to it

To be there — never out of sight.

*

I’ve been there

In that everlasting night

Just a few latitudes left

Into a Laplandish night.

*

Ushokovo was always a scenic mystery

My nostalgic stays there but history

I long for it, drink it in!

My surging blood calls me there as kin!

*

My memories sifted and sore

I try to remember more

Atmospheric perspective

I take to heart the dearest and its core.

*

Tip-toeing through the forest and trees

I visualize birch and bark around me

The fresh air oh so sweet!

What I remember! What I can see!

*

Birds, moss, mushrooms, creek

Signify my secret glen

I could romp in that new world forever

Never worried, never sullen.

*

One summer house in the midst

Same as the one from forever ago

Tucked between the trees

My house is still the one I know.

*

Then as I snuggle in bed,

I feel a rumble, a distant whistle of the train

Sound echoes through the still night, out of sight,

Lingering miles through the trees and rain.

*

Dearest!

Is this place not real?

My love of Ushkovo, the northern wonder

Will never die, will never seal.

*

Ushokovo,

I love you like a homeland

You’ll remain, will you not?

Wait for me!

For you’re the one my dreams have tirelessly sought.

 

Internet Insanity!

Courtesy of: Kumar’s Edit

I think most of us can relate.

*****

 I visited my cousins in Russia

One summer vacation day,

And my conclusions during my stay

Turned out to be more than I could say.

*

What happened?

*

Older cousin surfs on laptop

Younger did that and ipod games too

Sister sticks to ginormous ipad

I skim online webs in hullabaloo!

*

What’s happening?!

*

Day after day, hour after hour

We’re caught in the web of an artificial world

Eyes glued, time rued

Doesn’t it set your mind a-swirl’d?

*

What will happen?

*

Is this insanity or what?

Are we not caught in such a state?

The real world

Vanished and vanquished at such a rate?

*

But…

*

Am I wrong?

Is the Internet what we really need?

Our modern world needs one

To play, work, surf and read.

*

However…

*

I’d recommend the web

But not too much!

Elsa your eyes will fall out

From lethargy and such!

*

So

*

When I’m bored

I’m online

Though reconsidering a day in the outside sun

Is also quite fine.

Solitude

To all the souls who ever experienced aloneness. I say aloneness, not “loneliness”, because there are some who like being alone, as opposed to those who truly feel lonely when alone.

*****

Solitude is mysterious,

Solitude is strange,

It can feel good, but it can render

Every time, it can always range

*

It’s when time smites me wrong

Or I’m feeling depressed

I’d join a lonely room for company

And tell it how I was stressed.

*

But what if you can’t stand it,

What if you’re pining for just anyone?

Keep seeking; in a world founded on those who care,

Never give up! Even if you find but one…

*

Solitude may relieve, it may sadden

There’s no telling what it can do and when

Meanwhile, I suggest you reframe its sharp claws

And find blessings instead in soft paws…

*****

Hardy har harrrr, so this is how I really wrote back in middle school. 

 

 

 

 

 

Running Power

Guys. You have no idea how long I waited for the right opportunity to take this picture on the track field.

*****

Running

I feel

Nothing

But

Heart whipping the veins

Legs pounding

Lungs heaving

Breath chugging

Muscles relieving

And I’m accelerating faster

And faster

And faster

Till I’m one with the wind

My legs a blur.

Sometime

My body will tire

But my spirit flies

Yonder

And free

Like the wind

With a whoosh

And

whoop-tee-dee…

Writer’s Reverie

Famous writers and the thinkers got some of their finest ideas from walks. I’m a writer myself, so I see how this applies.

*****

Borne of summer strolls untold

Into evenings where countless stories unfold

The road ahead was void of cars

And I alone played an orchestra to the stars

*

They shined their blessings from celestial seats

Meanwhile, I looked beyond perennial streets

Pondering clues for my desired path

For answers to a writer’s insatiable wrath

*

A scent, a sight, a cricket in the stillness rang

And suddenly, my own image, out it sprang

It lived, it breathed, it wandered like me

But would a cold-stone world accept it with the same glee?

*

I still haven’t caught the muse hiding in evening black

But it’s time I head home and turn back

The gravel below crunched, but it wasn’t me

For I walk the footsteps of another, you see…

*

Star Wars: An Epic

My friends are Star Wars fans. So it’s no surprise that when I asked them what my next poem should be about, they suggested something Star Wars related. Sadly, while I don’t feel fangirly tendencies towards Star Wars , I wrote a poem retelling of The New Hope, so spoilers (Doh!) if you haven’t seen the actual movie.

*****

In a galactic setting far away,

The forces of Light and Dark clashed day to day

The Rebel princess, a warrior of her own, had a plan

But she was caught before her droid friends ran

Carrying her message plea, to the Binary Planet.

With Luke Skywalker, a dreamer boy they met;

Obi-Wan, a neighboring Knight of lore helped unfathom to the unlikely trio

Our heroine’s desperate audio:

“Obi-Wan Kenobi, you are my only hope.”

Take the plans to her home, and find the ways of the Force; could you cope?

Said Old Kenobi to the dreamer youngling

Luke declined, but on searching the plans, Imperials have killed his guardians dear

And so a trauma’d Luke knew he had to flee from here.

Thus marked the beginning of a journey to an uncertain THERE —

That Luke knew not the ends of where.

*

The quartet became six

When they hired a smuggler and his Wookie

To sneak them to the Princess’s home with their smuggling tricks.

Then — Alack! Too late!

Though Princess fought, the evil-tainted Grand Tarkin

He condemned her Alderaan home to its deathly fate.

“I sense a wound in the force,” Obi-Wan with a tremor said,

“And the darkest of darkness fills the void in its stead:

Darth Vader.”

*

Worse comes to worse:

The Imperial Death Star lures the motley crew into their hold

Little did they know, it was a crew of motleys bold

From the Base did Luke and friends save the Princess of certain death;

Meanwhile Obi-Wan with his great Force breadth

Had a meeting with the great Ruthless one himself:

Darth Vader.

Destiny lost, and great Obi-Wan fell

Luke’s grievance his fellow escapees could never quell.

Said the passionate dreamer: “In the wake of this Imperial thrall

I desire to see the Death Star fall.”

*

He joined the Rebel Squad, though few survived

To fell that Star where evil thrived.

Darth Vader, doer of countless sins

He fought his own with fighter Luke;

The star battle begins!

THEN

A leap of faith

Takes its course

When whispers to Luke the Obi-Wan wraith:

“Use the Force.”

‘T would be seconds till the Imperials fired, won the time race

But the Force-filled Luke heeded and destroyed the Death Star base.

*

The Princess laid honor on the Knight anew

As did she the smugglers, since they helped the cause too.

Darkness stand by!

From where you’ve spawned

We have new souls, ready to right all that you have wronged.

*****

Stars Wars really does sound a type of story that can be turned into epic poetry.