Rudraprayag

after Jim Corbett, The Man-Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag

There is a road in the mountains
between Badrinath and Kerdanath.
Shrines that sheltered pilgrims
for thousands of years.
The road now shelters no one.

Flu-ravaged corpses lined the banks
of two rivers nourished by glaciers.
Coals sat in their mouths
to absorb the stench of death.

The corpses' flesh filled
the stomach of leopard.
The road fell under its shadow.
For eight years it prowled
through the mountains

and found prey in every village.
It leapt through windows,
snatching infants from their cribs
with barely a noise,
just silence remaining.

One of those villages
became its favourite haunt.
A small place on the road,
huddled in between the river
and a forested mountain.

The houses of Rudraprayag are
still. Goats bleat uneasily, while
cows stare dumfounded into the gloom.
A lantern on the headman's porch
cools from the heat of its flame.

A shadow crosses the threshold.
It rips and slashes the locked door,
breaking it down with force of hunger.
Gnarled teeth plunge into the soft throat
so only a whisper escapes.
It tears the man from his bed
into the cover of the night.

(Hi guys, the Tiger Poet here. Hope you enjoyed this poem, there are plenty more on their way. It's been very quiet these last few months, but hope you all had a good summer. See you soon.)

New Journeys

After so long without a new post, here's a poem I composed about turtles hatching on a beach in India.

New Journeys

The sand begins to move
under a glowing full moon.
Thousands of eggshells
litter underground nests.

The heads appear first,
followed by thrashing flippers,
then the small grey shells
of the new born turtles.

They scuttle for the waves
in one enormous rush,
and blend into the surf
as the moon disappears.

At dawn the beach is empty,
save for one hatchling,
leaving the sand for the sea
and beginning the real journey.

First World War Project Begins

So, as you can see the blog has had some redecoraters in. With so many new things on the horizon, the time has come to make the announcement I promised to make at the start of the week.

I've been talking about doing something to commemorate the centenary of the First World War for the last few months. More specifically, I wanted to commemorate something very specific about the First World War. This means that the project I'm announcing today won't cover the whole of the war, or won't be about the general themes and context which historians have been analysing for the last century. Instead it will be covering something that I've been interested in for a while, and which I'm finally tackling in writing form.

The battle at Mametz Wood as long been a focus of Welsh poets writing about the First World War. It's been written about by poets such as Owen Sheers and of course in the famous 'In Parenthesis' by David Jones who fought in the battle itself. It was a defining moment of the Battle of the Somme, and the assault by the Welsh Regiment upon German trenches in the wood was marked by the extraordinary courage displayed by the soldiers. It will be my task for the next year and a half to compose my own tribute to this little-known part of history. Whether I will succeed is yet to be seen, but I will do my best.

Hope you found this post informative and I'll see you with more poems and other good stuff soon.

NaPoWriMo Defeat

As this is my first post in quite a while, I should start by addressing the obvious. Despite my best efforts, I failed to make it to the end of NaPoWriMo this year. I returned to university after the eighteenth poem and failed to find them time to write any new stuff. As a result I've been taking a short break from poetry but I will be returning to posting new poems very soon.

In other news, my articles about Cowboy Bebop and the First World War are still on the cards. The latter announcement will be made at the end of this week.

Hope you're all having a good week and I'll see you all soon.

NaPoWriMo #18 | Motorised Chaos

This new poem on the eighteenth day of NaPoWriMo may seem peculiar, but it's really the best I could do at such short notice.

Motorised Chaos

A road on a moor,
empty of all but
the falling of rain.

A snail makes his way
across the tarmac, so
slowly it's painful.

Lights, a horn blast,
thundering of tyres.

NaPoWriMo #17 | Kingfisher

As we move into the second half of NaPoWriMo, the days are getting longer and warmer. The rise in temperature has brought with it signs of summer, and I've been seeing a lot of birds in my garden recently. On that note, this poem is about a certain bird I saw in my neighbour's garden a few years ago.

Kingfisher

The fish in the pond
next door are still
and unperturbed.

A loud splash,
a flash of orange,
blue and white.

The kingfisher perches
on a branch, holding
its catch, a small sliver
of shimmering silver.

NaPoWriMo #16 | Basking Frog

Ever since I started this challenge, my NaPoWriMo poetry has mostly consisted of animals. This one is no different, inspired by a frog sculpture I have at home. Also 'Eyes of the Forest' is now up on my YouTube channel in video form: (https://youtu.be/aBHoYd2TVWw)

Basking Frog

A green frog, dotted
with red splotches,
thought the pond-side
was the best place
to sun-lounge alone.

Eyes unblinking,
moth agape,
he spots a large next
approaching. Seems
this is a popular pond.