#NaPoWriMo Day 20: Sijo For The Soul.

Today, napowrimo.net has asked us to explore the poetry form ‘sijo‘.

Sijo is a traditional Korean poetic form comprising of 3 lines, which is similar to haiku. But unlike haiku, sijo comprises of much longer lines, where each line has 14-16 syllables. Each line will be made of two sentences or two sentence clauses divided by a comma. Sijo is like an abbreviated sonnet, where the first line sets up an inquiry or discussion, the second line continues that discussion and the third line resolves it with a twist of surprise. You can check some of them out right here.

Personally, I am glad to have explored this form of poetry. I am not big on expressionist poetry, but the fact that we’re getting to explore more poetic forms from other cultures. Art brings the world together and I will die on that hill, watching art take over the world.

I wrote my first ever sijo today, and I am so happy with how it turned out. But I got carried away writing sijo, so here is a whole bunch of sijo I wrote today. Oh, and make sure you check out Kittu’s Modern Mixtape and Amour Infini for more amazing poetry!

Happy reading! Xx

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1.  IGNITED

Oh, to be the sunlight you’re drenched in!
                         All the glory of fine gold,
To caress your gentle face,
                         To wrap you in my warm embrace;
I am just the sun
           that yearns for you—
                          A pining, ignited soul.

 

2. BLANKET

Promises made of never again,
                         Should’ve known we would break them,
History keeps repeating,
                         And we’re back to where it all began;
We spend the night
           gazing at the stars,
                         Wrapped in that same, old blanket.

 

3. SHIPWRECKED

The cold winter moon calls out to you,
                                Can you hear it call your name?
Singing to you in dulcet tones,
                songs of sirens,
                                Are you shipwrecked?
Infatuation is fatal, my friend,
                                But so is drowning pain.

 

4. LASTING PEACE

I wreathe myself in roses,
                Dressed in fine silk,
                                My face, serene,
Glowing, like the sun,
                Cold, like the moon,
                                And an air of lasting peace—
They take their last looks at me,
                                As they finally shut my coffin.

 

5. BURN

All the stars could descend,
                burning through existence,
                                None glow like you,
And if you razed through
                my love for you,
                                I’d still love you just as much—
Every brick rebuilt just the same
                I’d love you like the very first day.

 

6. POISON

We down bitter truth like poison,
                                Drunk on the worst kinds of pain,
Yet we stab in those very places,
                                Hurting , again and again,
Another sip of the darkest coffee,
                                Right before bed.

 

7. NOTHING LEFT

I love, and I love,
                Until there’s nothing left—
                                Nothing left for me,
Immortalizing all my pain,
                                Until my tears hit the ocean;
Writing,
                Singing songs of my melancholy—
No more pain,
                                Just me.

 

~© Shubhangi Srinivasan.

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Every sijo here is a different flow of emotions and painted in a different image because, to me, poetry always springs from the most extraordinary as well as the most mundane of things. It is such a delight that I got to explore this form of poetry today because there is so much beauty in being able to put such a constant ebb and flow of emotions into just a handful of words— a stark contrast from the kind of writing that I am used to. I hope I did justice to this beautiful form of poetry. Thank you for reading!
Yours truly,
The Shubhster. Xx

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Featured Image by S O C I A L . C U T on Unsplash