Episodes

  • Replay - Those Days of a Lost Summer

    Replay - Those Days of a Lost Summer
    Nov 23 2024
    This is a repeat of one of my more popular poems, replayed here with a hope of getting a new audience, who might have missed it! Youth is so wasted on the ones who carry it as a burden. The changes which wreck havoc to the body and heart are later looked back at as the sweetest damnation possible, irreplaceable but never ever lived through fully. We all know and understand the alchemy of a moment richly lived, but still let it pass us by ruthlessly, unthinkingly. Why do we consider time as a rich man’s wealth, when it can’t be hoarded or spent endlessly? In its strange and beautiful equalities, we realise it is the only thing bequeathed equitably to all. But we are fooled by time’s serene passage, lulled to forget its irrevocability. And in that lassitude we end with half-lives. In our puzzling pursuit of things which finally matter little - lucre instead of light, breath in lieu of breathlessness - we take away the most precious gift we could give ourselves. And when we realize our folly, often it is with nothing left in our banks - not health, not inclination, not circumstances - and what is lost is a glow, and the possibility of finding light - and being it. If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems which talk of the summers of our lives -
    • A Summery Love Story (in the middle of winter)
    • Indian Summers
    • Call Me By Your Name

    Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.

    Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com

    Subscribe to my incandescent and poetic newsletter The Uncuts here - https://theuncuts.substack.com. The details of the music used in this episode are as follows - The Positive Way Of Hope Piano Solo by MusicLFiles Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/7522-the-positive-way-of-hope-piano-solo License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
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    5 mins
  • Dawn in Hampi

    Dawn in Hampi
    Nov 16 2024
    I am so engrossed in the theatrics of my mind that I often forgot that there is a world outside which has been gifted to me to revel in, to find pleasure and meaning in. Getting too intertwined in myself is often the bane of my existence, as I lose purpose in my desperation to resolve the quotidian quibble or the boredom riddle. Time and again, seeing myself immerse in the labyrinthine issues of daily grind, whilst failing to notice that life is desperately trying to grab my attention, is to also lose a potential way to unravel the knots of my very being. The times serenity descends on me as I see the water boil for my morning tea, or I stand at the window and watch a flawless sunset find its night, or listen to the cadence of a loved one's voice as they talk of normal things or when the doorbell rings and my heart leaps as I know who it is. Suddenly, priorities get sorted out, issues get resolved. Later, much later, do I realize that the true path to the universe inside me comes through the vagaries outside, as I cut though the noise, and find that the world is much more then a mere domicile for me for my desires and ambitions, and offers a journey of senses and fulfilments. Everything I could ever want is merely a question of merging what's outside to what is inside. If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems on mornings and cities -
    • Calcutta - A Lover's Epitaph
    • Recalibrating Dawns
    • Musings As I Step Into The Morning (Leaving a Lover Sleeping)

    Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.

    Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com The details of the music used in this episode are as follows - A Bright Star in the Sky by Musiclfiles Mystic Mediation by Frank Schroeter
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    6 mins
  • That Dull Boring Place Called Life

    That Dull Boring Place Called Life
    Nov 9 2024
    As we age, we hark back to the ordinary. After we've seen it all, our sense of wonder might not have dimmed, but it does become selective. And we know that though there is no end to discoveries, we find even a still moment is rich in repast. And without wallowing in nostalgia, we remember simpler times. And we remember the glow of presence. No details are required, because the feeling remains. And we realize in all the iterations of love, the one which abides is of letting the ordinary surround us. And we start the transition from being a participant to becoming an engender, from walking into sunlight to being the sunlight And we ease into the slow gold of easy conversation, the easygoing minute. Home is an excitement and an evening out is a cafe which allows leisurely lingering. And in that transition, we embrace the beauty of boredom. Of recognizing that life's bounty is often nothing but the steady elongation of the pause between the storms we invariably step into every morning. If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems on life and times -
    • I Have Been Thinking of Life Again
    • Bella's Meadow
    • Life For Rent

    Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.

    Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com The details of the music used in this episode are as follows - Follow That Dream by Luca Fraula
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    4 mins
  • An Ordinary Poem On Love

    An Ordinary Poem On Love
    Nov 2 2024
    I write so much on so many things. Relationships is a recurrent topic, as I traverse myriad emotions. Because of them my heart and my mind are my poetry labs, and I'm never bereft of things to write about. And I'm amazed at the discoveries. Day in day out I find new ways in which I can hurt - and get hurt. There are old fault lines which never get repaired, and fresh wounds which find their way into scars. Its facetious to say this is the cost of being in love, the price one pays to be vulnerable and open to both bliss and hurt. Because much more than being, love is a realisation. Because beyond its craggy transversion, it's a discovery of all the good residing in us, things we didn't know about ourselves, the essential purity which actually defines us. Beyond the drudgery, jaggedness,and angularity - which often becomes our character's annotation - lies the still clear water of shadows and sunlight, the beauty of which even we don't realize until the clear sight of love discovers it. Because at the bottom of it, love is action. It is giving beyond our urgencies, our insipidity, our masquerade : love is the only emotion allowed entry into our fears, our secrets, our failures, the essence of us. The dawning of this, with the advent of love, is to find the treasure each one of us really is. If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems on loss and desolation -
    • Grief Strikes Where Loves Struck First
    • Letting Go (because I'm alive)
    • The Things We Become When We Leave

    Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.

    Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com The details of the music used in this episode are as follows - Positano by Otis Galloway
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    6 mins
  • That Ordinary Lie

    That Ordinary Lie
    Oct 26 2024
    What is the ethical and practical length we would go to save a relationship or a situation or ourselves? Is our segue into safety always self-protection and a rapid walk through a portal of lies? Or do we girdle up, step up, chin up - and say the truth (and nothing but the truth), consequences be damned. Or do we tell ourselves - let's be practical. Let every situation determine our choice of what we say. We become chameleons of ethics, as it were. Maybe a person can't handle a particular truth and things would become bad (if not worse than bad). Or maybe you will finally tell the truth - but by and by. But there is also the question of the little lies, the white ones, the ones which slip into togetherness like a whisper in the softness of a mutual feeling. The ones which seem harmless - but which, when they start getting recognised, chip away soundlessly at the very foundation of what the relation stands for. But then there is also the nature of the congenital liar, as also the one for whom self-preservation - name, blame, fame - is primary. Where stories become second nature, and lies are a permanent armour. This then is not second nature - it is nature. But most problematic, if not tragic, is when we don't want to lie, but decide to. Where the only immutable thing we've ever known is the conscience. But we still decide to lie, against the very fibre of our being. The very act then puts us into the dungeons of despair, when we know we've broken the first rule of relationships - trust. And even more than that, we've fallen in our eyes. A self-reductionist act, a diminishing, a shrinking. There's a world of guilt one transverses into. A lifelong affliction. An unfolding of the soul, as we look at ourselves with both disdain and despair, the questioning never ceasing, the wheel of cause-&-effect stopping at the choice, a self-damnation. A lie is then not a compromise, but a self-condemnation, a hanging without death. If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems on lies and truths -
    • Your Body is a Truth
    • Adventures in Two Worlds
    • The Truth of Lies

    Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.

    Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com The details of the music used in this episode are as follows - Crescendo by Alexander Nakarada
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    6 mins
  • Before Bruises Become Wounds

    Before Bruises Become Wounds
    Oct 19 2024
    George Meyer, a co-writer on The Simpsons, referred to marriage as “a stagnant cauldron of fermented resentments, scared and judgmental conformity, exaggerated concern for the children . . . and the secret dredging-up of erotic images from past lovers in a desperate and heartbreaking attempt to make spousal sex even possible.” There's bitterness and cynicism there. That's a relationship at its very nadir, where there seems to be little hope for redemption. But, of course, that's not how things always work. Most relationships work in the twilight zone. Part incandescent, part dark. Not so much hate or love, as simmer and freeze. And as is true with most extremities, there's a sense of humanity lost, of balance skewed, confronting more of what's lost then loss itself. But we are humans: the more we hurt someone, the more we require healing; when falling out is often synonymous with falling down; and more we push people away, more we need them beside us. The tragedy of people who injure others is not that they use their ability to draw blood, it is how much they would like to be the one who would rather bleed. Their natural disdain is for themselves - their lowest opinion is reserved for their own weaknesses. They are fragile waiting to be broken, to be destroyed, to find meaning in their extinction and maybe their exhumation. Those who create tragedy are themselves tragediennes. So much of the grace of good gurus is nothing but to teach not to judge and merely embrace what seems to be imploding in front of one's eyes. Souls are redeemed by the mere act of acknowledgement. The words "I understand" have saved innumerable lives. If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems on the desolation in relationships -
    • Of Love (& other bouts of sadness)
    • Miles Apart
    • Finding Ways to Survive (Each Other)

    Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.

    Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com The details of the music used in this episode are as follows - Rising Sun by Sascha Ende
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    6 mins
  • Whilst Looking at a Newlywed Couple and Thinking of All Our Years

    Whilst Looking at a Newlywed Couple and Thinking of All Our Years
    Oct 12 2024
    Relationships are such journeys! Once you get into one, one prepares for the long haul. Railroad crashes, car rides, boring flights. The odd distraction, the unwilling participation, and the rare view of the Kanchenjunga through impenetrable clouds. One wishes for transcendence and encounters reality checks. In our closest relationships we discover our worst selves. But then a few things start to change. A few things seem to find their niche with a satisfying click. You start seeing things together and find consonance in your reactions. Slivers of light seem to come out of the brokenness. Our sharp edges transcend to become rough surfaces. And we start to redefine the definition of 'smooth': the chiding, the irritations, the battles, all become quiddities - to be paid attention to, but not with emotional equity. And suddenly the uncertain universe starts taking the shape of two. Habits behove relationships. Habits knit into relationships. If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems which reminisce on the passage of love -
    • I Can Sense Her Loneliness
    • What is Loss, She Asked Me
    • Grief Strikes Where Love Struck First

    Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.

    Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com The details of the music used in this episode are as follows - Satisfaction by Sascha Ende
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    5 mins
  • I Have Been Thinking of Life Again

    I Have Been Thinking of Life Again
    Oct 5 2024
    So much of our lives is a choice between the hard rock and a soft landing. Time and again we struggle, forgetting this is one life, and just a few million breaths. Beyond that, it's retribution. Endings are rarely spectacular. Because, we are all slaves to our insecurities, our fears holding us tightly. And it is in very rare occasions of singular clarity and fearless realisations that we let ourselves go. We blindly let the universe take us into places we would never dream of. And we find our nightmares to be illusions. And the coyotes we get to run with are the only honest beasts we know, who will hunt with us, and will find their one peaceful corner when the time comes, just as they leave us to ours. Our lives are richer for the wildness we keep seeking outside - and inside. If you liked this poem, consider listening to these other poems on the mysteries of life -
    • Bella's Meadow
    • A Meaning Without Questions
    • Life For Rent

    Follow me on Instagram at @sunilgivesup.

    Get in touch with me on uncutpoetrynow@gmail.com The details of the music used in this episode are as follows - Andromeda by Sascha Ende
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    4 mins