Calliope is a weekly (mostly) session in Journalism where we gather to write and share pieces based on the selected topic! Have a look at this week’s poetry collection!
I renounce my throne! “Renouncing” can be used in many scenarios, meaning to abandon, give up or turn away from something.
Cheng Jie
The student laden
With pressure
Once a shining star
Beginning to dim
The burden sits heavy
Studies, projects, leadership
He has worked long and hard
But he is getting tired
Ahead of everyone
He ran and ran
So far in front
The track was but an oval
He soon fell behind
He hopes to escape
Find himself
But like others before him
He shall fail to renounce
The negativity and stress
Renee
(in her ecolit phase. Take literature as a major to learn it in Y5!!)
Inspired by Le Guin’s The Word For World is Forest
I renounce my
Life as I know it at least
School, pop culture
And city smoke
Towards the forest
We step with
Trepidation?
And Hope
I renounce my
Worldly possessions
My phone, my fridge
My air conditioning
The forest burns
With leaves of gold
The air feels thick
With dreams of life
I renounce my
Society, with its Guns
And Chainsaws,
Extinguishing no fire
But Life
Janani
voices rising high
the fool fell from his glass throne
renouncing his crown
oh revolution!
falls the witch, disgraced from rule
ding dong. there she goes.
Debraath
he has cast aside
the gems: rubies, emeralds, pearls.
it is a soliloquy –
he’s the audience to his own thoughts:
what suffering entails
and what lavishness he lives in.
there one day under the sal tree,
he had seen that man.
weary, tottering, weak, hunched
writhing as a toddler
(or a worm when it rains).
yet he was ancient and far older
than his parents, and maybe their parents too.
and that very day he had seen
a woman,
in a tango with Death.
a woman,
whose emaciation troubled him
and whose hacking cough could not
and did not supplant his fears.
what use is this wealth of mine
when my people are grieving?
over mortality, over loss.
over even mere grains of rice.
i am not what i was supposed to be
my kingdom is no longer
prosperous, thriving.
the jackals and vultures prey
upon cadavers and pitiable beings
and i sit here upon my throne
gilded gold, enamelled, sapphire-studded.
what does this crown mean?
to me?
to them?
nushpress 