What is yearning, if not an art that bares your soul?
Why has it been written into the pages old?
What is it about yearning that has the poets
Scrambling for metaphors and rhymes since ages old?
What is yearning if not a wish upon the stars?
For who could ever grant us wishes if not stars?
Yearning takes shape in a heart bared open in love,
In its need to intertwine two souls into one–
As though made from the same atom of the Big Bang,
In its need to become whole, to become one;
Yearning is when the universe conspires for you,
It’s alchemy and chemistry combined for you.
Yearning comes to life in colours swirled on canvas,
In shades and hues of reds and violets and cold blues,
Painting the landscape of your desire onto white–
It’s but a respite from realities and blues;
Yearning is when you bring the abstract back to life;
What is yearning if not a way of living life?
Yearning is the desire to feel music in your veins,
It’s lyrics tattooed and engraved into your brains,
It’s looking for yourself within the symphony,
In melodies that take over your soul and brains,
In cleverly hidden meanings within the songs;
Yearning is magic woven into beloved songs.
Yearning is a letter written in scented ink,
To a lover, or a friend, or someone distant,
It’s pages filled with love that has survived distance,
Warmth, comfort, and the remorse of being distant–
Yearning is the postscript, unwilling to say, ‘Bye’,
Yearning is a sweet wish to never say goodbye.
Yearning is a pain in your chest you can’t describe,
It’s more than just a need, it’s burning desire–
It awakens in you, seeing the stars on fire,
The need to experience a cosmic desire,
Yearning is in the very fabric of being,
After all, to yearn is to be a human being.
~© Shubhangi Srinivasan.
Today’s prompt from napowrimo.net is inspired by a poem called ‘There is a gold light in certain old paintings‘ by Donald Justice which incorporates six-line stanzas with twelve syllables each, that don’t necessarily need to rhyme. They also incorporate repeating words at the ends of the second and fourth, as well as the fifth and sixth lines. The challenge is to play with both art and music while incorporating the format used in Justice’s poetry.
I saw quite a few posts on my social media, since last night, about yearning and art. So I knew what I wanted my poem for today to be about, but I didn’t know how I could ever incorporate it into the prompt. Thankfully, the prompt was perfect for the idea I already had, and it was just a manner of following the format.
Why did I choose to talk about yearning today? Well, I don’t know. There are some ideas that haunt you until you find an outlet for them. Maybe this is what I’m doing too. I just believe there are many forms of yearning that we don’t often talk about because they’re not always about romantic love. Yearning is built into the very fibre of what it means to be human, and I think that’s beautiful. I couldn’t stop myself from writing about it.
And as a fellow yearner, I have decided that yearning is an art in itself. It has always been. We wouldn’t have had poems comparing love to a sun, or comparing mortality to a battle with Time itself, if it weren’t for emotions so intense, they surpassed love and entered the realm of what yearning is all about. It’s something you can’t simply put into words because it’s an emotion that’s big enough for people to want to rip their souls open to show their desire for something. It’s intense.
But it’s human.
See you tomorrow with another poem?
Yours truly,
The Shubhster.
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This has been day 13 of 30!
See you tomorrow?
Cheerio! Xx
Featured Image by Mercuryal XX on Unsplash
The Shubhster Diaries 