Inertia

Image from the movie The Machinist

On the cold tracks of a blank tapestry
A train starts rattling through utter silence
Swarm of swirls begin spinning with vanity
Dancing wild through the haunted stillness
Obscure images play on a vast landscape
Scrambling around to form a clear shape

Lost in imagination to seek ultimate destiny
Diving deep into the sea bed of coral reef
To enjoy the remainder of life in tranquility
Basking on the beach in composed relief
All the hassles and turmoils begin to cease
The sun rises to dawn a new era of peace

Past ignites bitter hatred, future calls fear
Blood boils with an inextinguishable rage
Devious schemes sharpen a vicious spear
To avenge the heart aching sorely in a cage
Utterly dejected in the lonely years bygone
Malignant revenge never relents to move on

Contemplating the depth of synopsis written
Digging out destinies beyond the new states
Fingers drum table tops while nails get bitten,
Wheels spin, nerves throb at increasing rates
To nail down objectives fixed hard on target
As the triumph is worth every bead of sweat

Recollection of precious pebbles of jovial times
That dwell deep in the memory of loved ones
Trickles of happy tears bring along many smiles
Eyes twinkle as they look up to the great heavens
Every moment in the lifetime is dearly cherished
As the glint of the past years is never tarnished

Eyes roll deep within, legs oscillate in agitation
Worrying about things of fast approaching days,
Which are beyond control; no room for realization
Then anxiety plays symphony in tormenting ways
"What next? What to do?" nags the spinning mind
Finally, "Let's see what happens. Try not to mind,"

The grand finale approached fast ringing from afar
With honks killing the silence, lights blurring the view,
Magnifying noises entreated to step out of the car
For the roaring engine hardly moved an inch or two
The train racing ahead of time, came to a sudden halt;
Awakening caused the shutdown of the central vault

March 03, 2014

Notes:

Let me talk about the history of this poem. All my other works have been on a particular thought or a feeling. I try to build a small story around the thought and so the poems have a descriptive flow to them. But not this one. This poem stands alone on the word "Inertia". I don't remember why Issac Newton came to my mind when the line "Law of Inertia" was continuously ringing in my ears. Then the spotlight was on this word "Inertia". It moved me a lot. It seemed to stand alone all by itself. I felt like its an iconic word. Like a title given to a block buster movie. The sound that your voice produces when you whisper that word has haunting power emitting out of it. Next thing, the meaning of the word: The state of doing nothing. It started a train of thought in my mind to establish the scope of the poem. What do you do when you do nothing? I mean, absolutely nothing. Not even reading, writing or watching TV. Nothing! Not even thinking of how to kill time. What happens when you sit all alone? I also challenged myself not to use the word "inertia" anywhere in the body of the poem. The seven stanzas are the different possible thoughts what mind generates when it does nothing. The first stanza talks about how any thought starts materializing within the minds eye on a "blank tapestry". I wanted to use the word "tapestry" because I liked it. It was destined to be used for this work. What follows is the kind of different thoughts what a person gets. Its all involuntary. He thinks about what he wants to experience when he retires from work to enjoy life in tranquility, then/or he thinks about his bitter past and also about his ways to safe guard his future by seeking revenge so that it never happens again (Idle mind is a devil's workshop) (I came across "inextinguishable rage" in the novel Frankenstein and since then I wanted to use it), or/then he thinks about his work/project plan in order to achieve glory by its success, or/then he begins to dwell in nostalgia to savor those cherished moments, or/then he worries about a certain event that is approaching fast in the near future and finally, (last stanza) the contemplating mind is awakened by light or sound. The human mind is the roaring engine which works so hard but there is no physical displacement.

Now then, how/what do feel about poem? As you might have observed, ABABCC is the rhyming scheme I used. And also, I wanted to come up with a poem having six lines in each stanza. Not to mention, each stanza is a small poem. I don't know why and I dislike saying it but I feel very proud of myself about this poem. I felt the amount of time being invested on this is going to be worthwhile even before I started composing it. I experienced minor headaches while working on this. I love that feeling. You know, its called "sweet pain".