Maybe sometimes we love people vehemently not because we expect that only they out of the 8 billion flesh and bloods can cleanse the bruises of our own flesh, fly us to the greatest height, or bring with them the most benign of days, but because we fear that only they amidst the herd of strangers can rip apart the same flesh, push us down from the same height, and bring the selfsame hours to an end. Perhaps we love not because we dream enough of having but because we're too scared of losing.
Shayan Das
Writing love poems without being loved is perhaps one of the toughest things I do as a poet.
Would you rather loose your ability to write or your ability to see?
And here comes one, an ineluctably lethal 'would you rather' question. Tbh, at one moment I thought of leaving this question to corrode in one corner of the mailbox but anyways here we go. Well, frankly speaking, it depends. But for time being, if there are no other options available I'd go for losing the ability to write (well, I guess it doesn't mean losing the ability to read as well) 'cause losing the ability to see 'fore turning even 20 would seemingly arrest the continuity and occurrence of some major things. For one moment I can stop appreciating beauty through my art but never in life through my senses.
Appears like asking someone if they would rather die or be dead. I dunno. Thanks for asking though!
Valentine's Month Poetry Recommendations 💌
1. Classical (rhymed & metered poetry)
Bright Star by John Keats
To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell
A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns
Love's Philosophy by Percy Bysshe Shelley
How Do I Love Thee? by Elizabeth Browning
Amoretti LXXV by Edmund Spenser
When You Are Old by W.B. Yeats
I Loved You First by Christina Rossetti
I Am Not Yours by Sara Teasdale
To My Dear Husband by Anne Bradstreet
I Love You by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Air and Angels by John Donne
Love and Death by Lord Byron
Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal by Tennyson
2. Modernist/Contemporary (free & blank verses)
Love Sonnet XI by Pablo Naruda
Unending Love by Rabindranath Tagore
[i carry your heart with me] by e.e. cummings
Bird-Understander by Craig Arnold
Mad Girl's Love Song by Sylvia Plath
For Keeps by Joy Harjo
Always For the First Time by Andre Breton
Love After Love by Derek Walcott
Any Lit by Harryette Mullen
To Be In Love by Gwendolyn Brooks
Valentine by Carol Ann Duffy
Desire by Alice Walker
Romantics by Lisel Mueller
Come, And Be My Baby by Maya Angelou
3. Written by Me (personal selection)
Amore Immortale by Shayan Das
Flawed Perfection by Shayan Das
I Love Thee Not by Shayan Das
A Song of Love by Shayan Das
If Only by Shayan Das
End of Eternity by Shayan Das
For My Valentine by Shayan Das
Maybe I love her eyes more than anything else in the world 'cause they add testimony to my existence every time I look into them.
Shayan Das
You Won't See Me Cry (poem) by Shayan Das
hi!! i'm assuming here but are you bengali? because I am and i was just curious
i also really like some of your writings! they're really impactful. i saw in one of your posts how much the entire romantic movement affected you and I wanted to say that really shines through your poems and pieces! the entire writing since you were eleven is really relatable because so was i! hope you always keep writing!
Thank you so much for the compliments! Yes, I'm a Bengali, an ardent lover of Tagore and Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay besides English Romanticism.
My Bengali poems are posted here.
Don't fall for someone who won't pull you up.
Shayan Das
Are you really writing poetry since you were 11 ? The themes that you write with just have a wholly different and mature kind of vibe. To be frank, I just fell in love with your writing style at the very first glance. Now, if you're wondering, I'm not an adult like you, I'm just a 15 year old boy who is stuck in an environment where most people (most) don't have any appreciation for the beaty of the simple things in life and are too much focused on moving forward rather than taking some time to their selves. They have all forgotten that sometimes it's ok to sit idle and do nothing. Just gaze at the starry sky or the spring blossoms. So, I took to poetry to relieve myself and for the first time in 2 years I have known a marvellous person like you who wants to appreciate the little joys of life observe the personalities of other people from a different point of view. When I first read your posts I was dumbfounded, to be honest, and so I just want to congratulate you on your success in literature and romanticism and also for reminding me that there are other people like me. And lastly, love your work, keep going <3.
Gosh, this is everything! I can't thank you enough for writing this. Yes, I've been writing since I was 11 obsessed with Shelley/Keats and the entire Romantic movement, maybe not as fervently as now but yes those were some of the most promising times of my life, promising in the sense that there were little to no restrictions on my writing process be it academics or something else. I'm sorry that you're unable to find like-minded people around you entirely but then aren't we all on the same bus? But the best thing is that we needn't change people's perceptions. Everyone has their own ideologies and even existing in a time like ours with a realistic attitude (leave the romantic) is a matter of sheer audacity and courage. I remember the day after writing the last exam of my grade 10th finals. I was convincing my father about my ardent interest to take creative writing instead of medicine for further studies and heard him saying, "The seas might look the best things to romanticize so as long you're hydrated but in the fullness of time, you'll find 'tis the clouds invariably not seas which can quench your thirst". And I was convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt how people are born romantic and made realists.
** And lastly I'm not an adult as well making sagacious remarks on life & love. I'm 19 y/o and more or less in a similar situation as yours or maybe more tangled, striving every moment against worldly notions and seeking escapism through art. Thanks for asking and wish you a great day/evening/night ahead. <3
"And what makes a poet so different?" the girl enquired and the boy replied with a smile on his face, "You can end an eternity gazing at the ceiling and doing nothing".
Shayan Das
I know she's my type of girl every time she tells me, "Don't love me for the beauty I have but for the beauty I create".
Shayan Das
Your self-esteem is a double-edged sword. It all depends on the 'self' of self-esteem whether it'll pull you up from the nadir or push you down from the pinnacle.
Shayan Das
What’s the worst color that was ever invented?
And why do we need to deem something as inferior to make another one look superior? Well, you may argue that's how this world works, right? We reap contentment costing someone else their own joys, see someone garnering milk and honey making someone else poor, and so on and so forth. Back to the track, I consider no colour to be the worst, assuming each one possesses its own intrinsic value and radiates its own distinctive nuance to the palettes of nature. I remember my mother once said to me that there are two kinds of people based on how they perceive beauty. A profusely large number who search for everything in beauty in hopes of finding a home and a far smaller number who search for beauty in everything and find the home naturally. And little did I know, the latter will bring out the poet in me.
Thank you so much for asking. Wish you a great day/evening/night ahead <3
Your vibe is just awesome. I can see your love for art and poetry and your live in your writings. Just wanna say...keep it going, all the best!!! (Also.....just mentioning that you are the type of guy I look for and I love ❤)
Too many compliments to assimilate at once. Thank you so much and wish you a great day/evening/night ahead!! <3
"Like a young sapling, my child", beamed the mother and went on further with a sigh, "As if you are a freshly sprung plantlet of rose, I'd water you, assume every minute necessity of you as my own, and defend you from every ruthless squall until you bloom to your fullest albeit the only flower I receive in my lifetime is at my funeral".
Shayan Das
My mother always says, "If ever you feel like life's way too unfair to you know that even one as this is a far-flung dream for millions".
Shayan Das
And how easily we claim our love to be unconditional while knowing at the same instant that the greatest basis for loving someone more than our lives is to make ourselves exist.
Shayan Das
We're all but traders trading days for the stars and nights for the sun.
Shayan Das
The best way to see Van Gogh's "Starry Night" is to stare at the center of the spiral for 20 seconds and then look at the painting.
Saying she had to be loved was an understatement; she deserved to be worshipped.
Shayan Das
"Whose death are you more afraid of, my or yours?" the girl enquired and the boy replied, "Yours" whilst whispering somewhere deep within himself, "For darling, I'm the last person to die on Earth. After me none shall die".
Shayan Das
Little did she know in the process of exploring me she would end up discovering more of herself.
Shayan Das
And as you dive deeper into love you get to know how standing by someone is far more consequential than falling for them.
Shayan Das
Neither she nor I could ever figure out whether poetry was an excuse to think more of her or she was an excuse to think more of poetry.
Shayan Das
What made me fall for fall is that it revealed the only ways to romanticize letting go. 🍁
Shayan Das
People think they fail in vain, but I say 'in vain' is a phrase for the defeatists. You might never know how unexpectedly your failure brings a rain of gratification in the sunburnt deserts of your adversaries, how miraculously it acts as a source of hope for all those who doubt their aptitudes all day long only 'cause they can't beat you and how enigmatically it opens infinite pages to be a bit more resilient, a bit more powerful, a bit stronger perhaps no book or teacher can ever make you comprehend the same.
Shayan Das
The poetic urge to draw an analogy between every one thing with every other thing in the universe.
Shayan Das