After You E-Book

Shruthi Srivatsan

• Herausgeber: Europa Edizioni
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

After You - A Collection of Words takes the reader on a journey of emotions and thoughts. A compilation with varied hues and shades, these verses tell the story of the powerful hold of love and the daily struggles faced in the aftermath of loss. 
Here, you’ll find poems that capture a sense of chaotic despair interlaced with both a hopeful and hopeless sense of calm. The words have a relatable ebb and flow of feelings, a weaving of conflicting thoughts, and reflect uplifting or heartbreaking moments. 
In this treasure trove, poetry continues to hold the world enthralled by its lyrical intensity and casual intimacy.

Shruthi Srivatsan was born, raised, and educated in Nairobi, Kenya. She studied and then pursued a career in IT for no fault of her own! She has been writing stories and poems for her own joy and comfort for many years. When she is not writing, she is likely to be cooking, dancing, singing, or doing something artsy. Shruthi is the author of My IT Diaries: The joys and woes of a life in IT, On Higher Ground: Memories of a bike ride through Ladakh, and a collection of short stories, Flames of Hope. All her books are available on Kindle.

Leseprobe

Shruthi Srivatsan

After You

A Collection Of Words

© 2024Europe Books | London

www.europebooks.co.uk | [email protected]

ISBN 9791220148856

First edition: April 2024

Edited by Veronica Parise

After You

A Collection Of Words

For,

those whose memories are forever etched in my heart

Acknowledgements

Poetry has played an immense role in my life. Through the years, numerous people have been instrumental in creating a keen interest in me to play and create with words. It is no surprise that it has taken a great deal of behind-the-scenes moments to realise this beautiful dream of publishing my first poetry collection.

Firstly, I’d like to thank Europa Books for showing an interest in my manuscript and then guiding me through the entire publishing process. Ginevra, my heartfelt thank you for your kind feedback and all the guidance you provided. Veronica, your input has been of immense value to me and working with you has been a pleasure. I’d like to also thank the graphic team for the patient and professional help throughout the design period.

Alok Behal and Prateek Shah thank you so much for all the logistical assistance.

And of course, my family and friends for all the timely advice and constant encouragement, I remain eternally humbled and grateful. I’d like to voice my immense gratitude to my sister, Shalini, Appa (dad), and Amma (mum, in your heavenly abode) for being my guiding lights. Shalini and Appa have been the force behind this book seeing the light of day. They were the first to read my manuscript, and my sister has always been my first editor. Without your support and encouragement, I’d be nowhere.

To the readers who decide to take a chance and read this book, thank you. I hope that in here you find something special that speaks to you.

Foreword

Anyone who has experienced a loss in life will recognise in this little treasure chest (that the author herself has titled) a relatable, “Collection of Words.”

There is no constant pattern in outlining the representation of intertwining facts which alternate moments of delicate introspection with strong expressions towards someone undefined, but certainly real, an “After You” that constantly appears between the lines.

Memories of happy moments resurface in the poem Contemplation where we read:

“I imagine you smiling

As the sun rises

And laughing your way through

days without me,

And I don’t know

If that comforts or

Breaks me.”

Sometimes it seems we take on guilt that we don’t have, just to absolve those who have caused torment, like in Sorry:

“How sorry am I!

Oh, how sorry that you felt alone when we were together!

Or in Apology:

“For all the heartache, sorrow, and trouble I have laid at your feet, I am deeply sorry. I hope you find healing, forgiveness, and a lifetime of happiness.”

A modern composition, where communication takes place through the ether and sometimes remains there, trapped in the grid that too often is also our cell, suspended between a thousand messages and reflections that we make for ourselves. But suddenly it breaks out – a clarity and awareness that we are healing from detachment, little by little, like in Anything:

“I feel alive,

I thrive in this magnificence.

I quickly look for you –

To share how radiant the day is –

Take a photo,

Send a poem”

Poetry has spanned the entire history of humanity and Shruthi Srivatsan’s collection of poems testifies to how much it is still alive and continues to inspire great feelings and evocations. The dance of words that has always fascinated us and always will.

                        Veronica Parise

I wanted the world with you.

Now you are gone,

And the world is merely

A land of barren hope

02. Shattered

I am almost afraid to let you go,

Because then

The emptiness,

The helplessness,

And the despair

Will be inevitable,

And a part of me won’t be cracked,

Or maimed –

It will be shattered forever.

03. Quandary

Do I let your silence define

What we had,

And our relationship

From here on?

Or do I trust my love

And continue to

Nurture and care

From behind these walls?

04. Contemplation

I wonder if you are happy.

Do you wake up at peace,

Now that I am gone?

Was my love

Strangling you

In ways I didn’t perceive?

I imagine you smiling

As the sun rises

And laughing your way through

days without me,

And I don’t know

If that comforts or

Breaks me.

05. Hello

Maybe you just aren’t ready

Yet

To hear the things I need to say to

You,

To say the things you ought to say to

Me,

Perhaps you won’t be ready

Ever.

I’m hanging on to a shred of

Hope

That one day you’ll choose to say

Hello

And maybe that hello will mean more.

No?

But, if that hello is all I’ll have,

I’ll wrap it up in cotton, tuck it

And forever guard it

In the safest part of my

Heart.

06. Fail

If only you could have put it simply:

You didn’t love me enough.

That would have hurt, but I would have understood.

Eventually.

Instead, you iterated your love for me.

But said we couldn’t be - we were a sham...

And that, my love, is

Unendurable.

If only you could have told me that you needed

to work on your own things.

I would have made space for you - somehow.

(But you wanted the opposite of space?)

(Weren’t your own things, our own things?)

Instead, you ceased talking to me.

And in that moment,

I lost my voice.

I lost my will.

I lost.

07. Insignificant

I think what gets to me the most

Is that to you

I don’t matter.

Nothing I do matters -

What I try, or don’t try,

Remains inconsequential.

You sit impervious to me in my entirety,

And I am clueless about how to deal with my own insignificance.

08. Rain

It’s grey and raining, and I absolutely love it. The fall of the rain makes me nostalgic... of being cosy and warm - a place as warm as being wrapped in your sheltering arms.