Moments

Hey everyone!

It's been a while, hasn't it? NO? You didn't realise it's been a while? Didn't miss me? Not even a little? Am I being too clingy? I am, right? Forget it. Let's move on to relatively ('relatively' being the the operative word there!) less embarrassing things i.e. one of my first poems. 

So I got some good reviews (Thank you guys!) for the 'Poem + Write Up' format that I tried last time around. So following the wonderfully reactive philosophy of, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", I'll continue with the same format. 

The Poem

Moments

I remember the day we were sitting in a bus,

Talking the whole time with no one to fuss.

I remember the wind blowing in your face,

Suddenly you turned, with amazing grace.

Our eyes met, my heart skipped a beat,

With just one look, you'd swept me off my feet.

That instant I knew we were more than friends,

That is the day I wanted to end my patience.

The moment seemed perfect, everything was set,

I was nervous and on my brow was a cold sweat.

Suddenly, a scary feeling inside me, started cropping up,

And to the fear like a coward I gave up.

I delayed too much and gone was the moment,

But little did I know this was far from the end.

The Write Up

I wrote this poem a long time ago and like most of the stuff I write, this is also based on something that actually happened. So we were returning from a picnic that we had gone to. The girl mentioned in the poem and I were friends already and on our way back we were sitting next to each other and chatting the entire time. Nothing serious, just random chitchat that kids do. After a while, there was a brief pause in our conversation where she turned away and started to just look out the window. What was I doing, you ask? Well all I could manage to do for this brief period of time was stare at her. Stare at her mesmerising beauty. Stare at how wonderfully the wind caressed her hair. Stare at how she closed her eyes ever so slightly when the wind blew in a little too hard. And it was in these brief moments that I realized how much I wanted to keep staring at her for the rest of my life. But I have always been good at not giving in to my impulses. And although every sinew in my body told me to tell her how I felt, I didn't. I controlled my impulse and I didn't tell her, partly because of how scared I was if she didn't feel the same way about me and partly because of how scared I was that I had such strong feelings for someone.

What I am trying to say is that our life may be defined by the choices we make in moments like these. So it's really important that we don't give in to our fear and insecurities when we are faced with such choices. Choose to be brave. Always.

Well luckily for me, later on, I did a get a second chance with the girl. And I did do something (sort of) right second time around. But it made me realise that we won't always have a second chance so it's important to not cave in to fear and just go 'all in'. And that's my 'pravachan' for the day! 


Would love to hear from you guys in the comments! And  as usual if any of you 'Closet Poets' out there want your poems to be posted here, mail them to me at pratik.gunner253@gmail.com.

Before Dawn!

Hey Everybody! So this is my first proper 'poem posting'. I have to admit, I am really nervous. And I would have done this sooner but my best friend 'procrastination' kept me busy.

So let me just start by saying that I really like it when people give a write up explaining their poems so that other people (a.k.a. English Professors) don't over-dramatise the basic meaning. So keeping that in mind I've decided to give a write up to all my poems that'll be posted here. So here it goes-

The Poem

Before Dawn!

I was troubled, I had been for a while,

Every step to me seemed like a mile.

And in this journey, I was all alone,

No guides, No directions, trying to figure it out on my own.

The journey was long, the conditions tough,

Oftentimes I questioned, “Do I have enough?”

And soon night fell, and the lights began to dim,

Fear and doubt filled my heart to the brim.

Darkness enveloped me, I wasn’t sure whether I could move ahead,

But then far across the sky the sun rose, painting the sky bright red,

With renewed hope I carried on,

That’s the day I learnt, the night is darkest before dawn!

The Write up

So I wrote this poem when, to put it mildly, I wasn't in the best phase of my life. Firstly, I had gained a lot of weight, which to someone who has always been slightly insecure about his looks, was a big deal. Secondly, I was going through this bad phase personally (romantically, if you must know).  And to add to all this, the one thing that had never let me down, my only saving grace, the silver lining to most of my dark clouds, my academic performance, suddenly felt the need to add to my misery (Thanks to ICAI, I've grown used to it now!). 

So here I was, one afternoon, sitting with a piece of paper, trying to pen down all my misery into words and hoping to find a solution to it too at the same time. And at the end of this 'penning-down-my-misery' session I realised that there was only one thing I needed to do. Endure.(The voice in my head said it like Alfred said to Bruce Wayne in "The Dark Knight"). Because deep inside I knew I would become slim again. Because deep inside I knew I would fall in love again. Because deep inside I knew I would eventually pass my exams. And most importantly I realised that this difficult phase that I was going through could not be permanent. And like every other phase, it would pass. So all I had to do was endure. Endure, till I was strong enough to fight. Endure, till I was brave enough to move on. Endure, till I realised the night is darkest before dawn.

Would love to hear from you guys in the comments! And if any of you 'Closet Poets' out there want your poems to be posted here, mail them to me at pratik.gunner253@gmail.com.

P.S.    Happy Birthday Ahalya! Hope you have an amazing day and an even better year ahead. And many thanks for motivating me to start this blog!

Coming out of the Closet!

So here it is. After months of overthinking, confusion and dilly-dallying, my first official blog post. Feels unreal. 

So let me start off by telling you a little bit about myself. 

My name is Pratik Iyer. I am 23 and a C.A. student (have been for some time now!). I am also a passionate footballer and an Arsenal fan (Wenger Out!). And lastly and most importantly I am a Closet Poet.

And now, coming to why I decided to start this blog.

Honestly I never thought of myself as a poet. I always believed I am just someone who is a little too fond of making words rhyme! And although I have written a few poems over the years I have never really 'gone public' with them because I always deemed them to be 'not good enough' for public viewing. But thanks to some encouraging reviews from some encouraging friends I realized that the poems I wrote weren't as bad as I thought they were. And more importantly it didn't matter if they were bad because, you know, not a lot people are going to read my blog anyway! 

So this blog is the 'coming out of the closet' moment for me. I am hoping that the pressures of blogging will make me write on a regular basis at least. But more importantly I want this blog to be a platform for fellow 'Closet Poets' like me to share their poetry. Maybe if you guys post your poems here and get some positive reviews you will realize that you are much better than you think you are and hopefully that will encourage you to write more and maybe create a blog of your own one day!

So, to conclude, I'll be trying to post my work as regularly as possible. And if any of you want your work to be posted here you can mail it to me at pratik.gunner253@gmail.com and I'll make sure it finds some space here!

Cheers!