A Beautiful Life Comments
In a salt desert
under the scorching sun's rays
I want to take a bath
in a white ivory tub
...
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I read it once again today and feel obliged to say I liked it twice as much as the first time I did.It reminded me of how Henry Miller became a writer.When he was 18 he visited a phsychiater and talking about the peculier dreams he had he got the advice to write them down for the doctor to use them as a means to understand his mendal problems.Himself Miller have recognized it as the beginning of his career as a writer.//Your poem here, dear Souren, shows that you can trust your own imagination even if not under the influence of any medicament, You can go far ahead than the medicaments may lead you.Sometimes under our sufferings we can see the reality of the world better than unde a normal usual uninteresting life.Go on and paint life's scenes through the abyss of our complex conscience.Take the point of view different personalities could take and write in the third person or even the first declaring your new identity so that the reader does not identify you[Souren Mondal, the poet] with the person relating in the verses....
Melting their umbilical chords in boiling acid. These are deeply disturbing images. Horrific and akin to the most violent of nightmares. The reader almost covers his eyes as he approaches each next phrase.... But that is only almost. Like the cliche says no one can stop from watching a train derail. This poem is beautifully disgusting and offensive (if that combination of words can even make sense) . You display an imagination capable of envisioning even the very things we try hardest to shield our imaginations from. Yes the images are undeniably awful, but that is quite clearly the point. Your intent, you've said, was to express the ugliness of the world beautifully. You have succeeded entirely. Magnificent
Thank you Mike.. The poem has an interesting story behind it.. It was written at a time when I was diagnosed with Major Depression and anxiety.. I was on antidepressants, different ones were tried, you know, to find which one will work.. There were three different ones - at the beginning I was on Escitilopram, something mild, and then damn-it-all Prozac! ! Both of them didn't work, and I was then put on Venlafaxine.. What happens, or maybe better to say what happened to me personally, when these meds were rotated is that I started to have more lucid dreams.. They felt like absolute reality., And one of those dreams/nightmares was the things said in the poem.. It began to hurt me ever so badly.. I would be almost awake and yet would not be able to get up until I would see the whole thing (maybe sleep paralysis? I don't know) ... I had no clue what to do.. So, one November night.. I am sure that would be the night of the 17th when the poem is written.. I saw this 'dream' six times.. I threw up in the bed.. It was pathetic.. I had no strength to even get myself away from my own puke.. I just remained in the bed, fell asleep again (sleeping pills are crazy, they throw you to sleep even if you wake up) ... The cycle continued throughout the night, and in the morning, I was like a zombie.. My mum told me that I was looking horrible.. The bed was stinking.. It was so pathetic.. And after I cleaned up, I sat at my bed, and scribbled this.. I did not think about the words, or how to write at all.. I just wrote, that too, at the back of a small pamphelt... A lot of people often ask me what does this poem mean? ? I never really have an answer for it.. But what I can say, Mike, is that this is just a 'view' inside the 'beautiful life' I had when I was depressed... The ghost or Neena, never really left me, until I was haunted, and hanunted to almost extinction.. This poem, however, was one that led to a path of recovery.. I never had the nightmare after I wrote this.. And for the first 42 odd poems published here.. It was all because I needed ro either write or lose it... I became a poet because my psychiatrist said so! ! !
Poetry needs the courage you show here Souren. The courage to bring to light the bitter truth.Even in imagery to abhor.
This poem might be taken as a satire on life. Its title is intentionally ironical. Life presented in gross images. We have often read the glorification of life, the ideal picture. But there is another side to life that is depicted here. A dark picture...it takes guts to write like this. Well done Mondal.10
Thank you Nosheen.. I never mind writing about the dark side.. It is something we don't talk about, but we MUST...
And world is moving towards it...........It seems everybody wants to taste the blood, humanity evaporated from earth. A thought provoking poem, Souren.. Please check my innocent Victim poem.
'everyone wants to taste blood' - yes Asim., unfortunately, that is true.. Humanity is losing everyday.. Thanks.
Maybe, I just hope this does not become the life one leads too often.. Thanks for reading S. D.
The eagles will be flying in the dun sky....a good poem. :)
''To take a bath' with the muse of life. Nice work. Thanks for sharing.
Simultaneously ugly and attractive- -horrific, nightmarish images blend with an intelligent writing style. Your poem is peppered with some truly poetic phrases. I like the line about the resting-place of lost hopes, and think it shows tremendous imagination.
Thank you very much Brian. The image you talked about was inspired from Hamlet and my chainsmoking habits.. I must quit soon, before it quits me!
this poem is a little scary, sorry to say, but the caption and the contents seemed contradictory - though u have successfully envisioned the depression and maintained horror throughout - kudos to your different style of writing - enjoyed reading!
Thank you for reading Kavya. As I have said below, the intention is to find beauty in the terrible! There's always a scope to do such a thing.. Thanks for reading my poem. I will surely return the favour soon :)
You described this poem as surrealist which it is - and it embodies Andre Breton's directive to surrealist poets: BEAUTY WILL BE CONVULSIVE OR NOTHING. Breton's statement makes Yeats's - A TERRIBLE BEAUTY IS BORN - seem too stately. Your poem is convulsive! It shocks the complacency out of the reader. You have to become passionate as these horrifying images pass by, and either join the procession of blood or cry HALT! no more! There is no middle ground. I felt like I was at a festival of KALI.
Thank you very much Daniel. Just as you mention Breton - one of my favourite surrealist poets - I loved his MANIFESTO. I believe at times, a poet should experiment to shock her or his readers. It serves the purpose of making them THINK. I have heard a lot of people claim that surrealism is either about NOTHING or about TOO MANY THINGS - They are none! It's always in between and that is fun of it.. Your reference to Kali is also interesting because she has a decapitated head in her hand! It's always complex to indulge in these images, someone like Tagore always said keep them away from poetry, but some people like Baudelaire and Mohitlal Majumdar indulged themselves in it.. Who can forget the personified ENNUI sitting, old and feeble, looking at people jumping into boredom in 'To the Reader'? Or one of favourite and haunting image in Mohitlala's poetry where he says he wants to drink wine in a skull? ? Or even Hamlet with the skulls with Horatio? ? These make a mark! Shocking? Yes. Surreal? Yes, indeed. But still they are important, like the eyeless Oedipus.. Beauty is in the terrible!
Love the balance between our primal instinct of life and death. Great poem thanks for sharing!
Verily, a lovely presentation of the human appetite that makes him a mere animal
What a beautiful life and a beautiful write, thanks for sharing
This is wonderful poem man, it brings out the true nature of humans.
Thank you very much for reading and commenting... Yes, I wanted to put up a 'true' nature of humans.. But the poem is surreal, in my opinion, and is more like a description of a nightmare.. As I said below, just a 'heap of broken images', and nothing more... Thank you for reading...
I am scared at the representation of a beautiful life of people around us. In Sanskrit it's called 'Bivatsa Rasa', the abominable representation.10
Yes Sumit... Bharata's 'Natyasatra' has a wonderful way of describing emotions in art.. I am, not sure if that's the right word, glad to invoke a rasa within you.. Thank you for your comment...
You quite succeeded in giving a shock by your beautiful poem.
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7/26/2025 1:12:40 PM # 1.0.0
You showed your gallantry to use some awesome imageries to depict the hard core truth of life perhaps of yours in this case, but this leads us to a naked truth of human's humanity of how it is being violated by human minds. One should praise you for the aesthetic and poetic beauty you portrayed so exquisitely and perfectly out of heartfelt horror and pointed pians.