Sanjeev Sethi: Poetry (Voices Within 2021)

Sanjeev Sethi is published in over 30 countries. He has more than 1400 poems printed or posted in literary venues around the world. Wrappings in Bespoke is joint-winner of Full Fat Collection Competition-Deux organized by the Hedgehog Poetry Press UK. It’s his fourth book. It will be launched in early 2021. Recent credits: NOON | journal of the short poem, The Big Windows Review, Life and Legends, Pomona Valley Review, Cajun Mutt Press, Lummox Poetry Anthology # 9, and elsewhere. He lives in Mumbai.

 

Philosopher’s Stone

 

When hormones are fructified

babies are begotten,

when it is not so

art is vested

in gradations of virtuosity.

 

Intemperance helps filling

in the gaps.

Ice-capped locations

require long johns and

other accouterments.

 

Coddling is comforter.

Anoesis is the cure-all.

Some uncover it in coinage

others in crapulence

a few in aestheticism.

 

Thumbs Down

 

My kisses and cries

in your kist

mirror our monogamy

better than any other record.

Anyhow, who looks at registers?

When it is over, it is.

 

One requires energy or incentive

to run with

emotional orchestration.

I posses none.

In my snuggery

I will attempt to arrive at swivet

without your knot.

 

 

The Substitute

 

Looking for twigs

to fuel oneself

is a saddening proposition.

 

I purchase a quilt.

In its recess

I find dispassion.

 

Imagery and imagination

debilitate on the roll-top desk.

The purple patch exerts its influence.

 

 

Iffiness

 

The wind denuded us

of inclinations.

We tapped out of our tenacity

to combat the call

of primal instincts

by giving into whirlpools

of worship--

prostrations before somatic commands.

 

I have begun to dot the days

we don’t observe zero hour.

Is this first trace of intent,

sober feelings? Nay, they are fitful.

Their fleeting score isn’t a sign

of the whole story.

Motility is no barometer

of mental make-up.

 

Slants mapped on minds

without walls

or wayward runs,

too leave their skidmarks.

 

Stripes

 

Genesis

 

When all of me soaks

in your body fluids:

it immerges as fount of

some fine lines.

 

 

Galley Proof

 

Resentment of an heir

to homeliness for his/her

cosmetic surgeon isn’t

easy to seize.

Like yours, dear writer

for your copyeditor.

 

 

Subject

 

Questions ask

and suggest

like poetry.

 

Curtilage

 

Media as mongrel:

those who collar it,

cavort with it.

 

 

Couturier

 

There were thirty or more divas

glowing in sinuous garments

at his father’s obsequy.

 

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Life, Cognition and Creativity 2021 :: Setu, January 2021