Hanigavana :)

For me poetry has always meant rhyme and minimum 3 paragraphs of 4 lines each :-D. I am saying this for myself and the poems I write. I really admire poems that don't have rhyme, yet convey so many emotions and feelings, because they are probably the "actual" poems. They also "look" more sophistacated somehow. But, again, thats really not for me. Its difficult for me to write a poem without rhymes.

Okay so I wanted to write a poem, but there were so many topics that were swirling in my head, that there wasn't any thing "concrete" to write about. By concrete, I mean the minimum-3-paragraphs-of-4-lines-each-rule (lets call it MTPOFER) :-D. Therefore I was forced to look for other ways.

I had recently read a haiku in one of the blogs I visit. I thought why don't I try that. But well, its not as easy as it looks or sounds :-p. The rules are even worse than my MTPOFER :-D. If you visit the wikipedia link, you see the rules listed. Though a haiku is made up of only 3 lines, it has a rule that it should have totally 17 syllables with 5-7-5 i.e 1st line consisting of 5 syllables, 2nd 7 and 3rd 5 again. First of all, I still cannot make sense of syllables, suprisingly I never learnt it in my English classes. Though I did spend time on learning about them on the internet, I didn't really think I could stick to the rules. Well, maybe some other time.

Then it hit me, in Kannada we have something called a "hanigavana". It means "drop poem" if you translate it exactly. It is a very short poem, but has rhyme and usually is full of sattire. I am sure it must have some rules, but I couldn't find any on the internet atleast.

So I just decided to follow the basic context of a short poem with my own rules - 3 lines, rhyme is welcome but not mandatory and last line must consist of 3 words with an "and" in between. Well, you'll see the pattern :). So here goes:

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Us

Learning life as wife and husband;
Laughter and love; hand in hand;
You and I.

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Human nature

Memories of past, realities of present;
Hopes for future unlimited;
Everybody and nobody.

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Distance

Crossing seven seas is a fairytale;
Not returning back is not;
India and America.

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Sadness

Tears flow with water;
Pitter patter pitter patter;
Rain and pain.

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Contrast/Contradiction

Bright light and dark shadows;
Barren land and lush meadows;
Life and death.

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The Wait

Life is slowly but surely trickling away;
Today was tomorrow, today will be yesterday;
Time and Tide.

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