memories – Emotional Shadows

#Grief #BookReview: About the Real stages…

Published on October 20, 2025October 21, 2025 by balroop singh36 Comments

Grief has been my oldest pal or should I say the ghosts of grief could never leave me. It is one emotion that can never be suppressed. I’ve always poured it into my poetry. So, when I saw Kaye’s book that talks about personal grief, my ghosts of grief resurfaced to speak to me. I could deal with them within one day, could write two poems and finish reading this new release of my blogger buddy within a day. I could feel her words.

My Review:

A journey through grief is a torture that can never be explained yet Kaye gathers the strength to talk about it, as it is cathartic; it provides inner strength and gives a reassurance that grief may be personal but not individualistic. Grief changes us, it alters our life and we wonder where are the friends and family who disappear after the funeral. It is a deserted path and we have to traverse it alone. “Grief never leaves, it just finds its way into a comfortable spot within.” I could relate to these words of the author. We have to learn to live with it.

In this book, Kaye calls grief “a disease” and urges grievers to pay attention to their health. They should get out and go for a walk, talk to people, as human connection at such a time is extremely important. We may be sad and unmotivated, but we have to take up some activity to get out of the darkness, and find a new way of living. Another meaningful advice is that It is better to face the grief demons than become susceptible to addiction of any sort.

Real Stages of Grief may be different for each griever; we may seek a comforting hand, but solace eventually comes from within. “It is not words we need in our hours of grief; it’s an ear and hugs,” says Kaye. However, she warns against scammers and lurkers who want to be friends with you. “Beware of sob stories from those seeking financial gain.” Many more significant aspects of grief, and ways of emerging from those dark alleys have been shared in this book. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

HAPPY READING!

A Haibun

Perennial Pain

It’s the third Diwali without you. Darkness still surrounds me. Frozen heart refuses to accept logic; numb eyes return to the door again. I know you are not here but I don’t want to light any diyas or any electric lights. Diwali wishes sound like a slap in the face. Do you remember my enthusiasm for burning crackers and eating sweets the whole day? I don’t want to buy any now. I just soak in the mist of those memories. I have no nepenthe, but darkness gives more solace than the artificial lights.

festive occasions –
a yawning rumbling thunder
perennial pain.
© Balroop Singh

Thank you.

Here is the Amazon link for my grief poetry book: Just One Goodbye

All the posts on my blog are created by me and are protected by copyright. It is strictly prohibited to use them to train AI technologies.

#TankaTuesday #PoetryChallenge

Published on April 15, 2025 by balroop singh39 Comments

Misty Spring

I live
on memories,
the whistling wind, the breeze,
the mist, the blooming trees
whisper your words
of love.

***

Today
the mist tarries
outside my French window
waving at me, gently
my heart misses
a beat.

***

One more
memory looms,
emerging from corners
beckoning me to sing
the song of bees
with glee.
© Balroop Singh

Thanks to Selma and Colleen for the inspiration to write syllabic poetry. The challenge this week is to write poetry that portrays movement. Poetry is a moving target; reality is always moving. Choose any syllabic form and write what’s on your mind. I chose a Badger’s Hexastich.

A Badger’s Hexastich is a poem of 6 lines with 2-4-6-6-4-2 syllables per line. It is unrhymed, with optional rising and falling end-words.

Thank you for reading my poetry.
Here is the Amazon link for my new poetry book.

For more poetry, hang out with Hues Of Hope

All the posts on my blog are created by me and are protected by copyright. It is strictly prohibited to use them to train AI technologies.

#TankaTuesday #Poetry Challenge

Published on October 22, 2024 by balroop singh41 Comments

shore serenity
silent whispers evoke thoughts
waves caress my toes
low tide speaks in syllables
hurtling down memory lane.

***

memories numb me
swallowed by the tide of time
I study each wave
and step into the glum sea
to sail on its silky edges.

***

waves wash away moods
comfort sails with emotions
evanescent tides
melt castles of illusion
pacify plaintive musing.
© Balroop Singh

Thanks to Lisa Fox (aka JadeLi) who is the host for this week’s TankaTuesday Challenge. She has given a list of words and says “choose three (or more) words from the given list and write a syllabic poem using them.” Click on the link to see all the words. I’ve highlighted the ones I chose from the list.

Thank you dear readers.

Here is the Amazon link for my new poetry book.

For more poetry, hang out with Hues Of Hope

Image from Pixaby.

#BookReviews: 5 #Stars for Each one!

Published on October 6, 2023October 5, 2023 by balroop singh33 Comments

Here are the latest books that I’ve read and reviewed. There are three more, which I would share in another post.

Mae takes you along to Harbor Inn, creates a perfect aura to immerse in the mystery that she creates from page one, with her signature style – “The creaking, jostling carriage,” “dusk made darker” by the dense pine and cedars, “heavy mist of the pacific and the clop of hoofbeats reverberating,” the rope burn that gaped on either side of his neck and the pocket watch – such is the symbolic portal that opens the moment you start reading The Price of Atonement. It is not just the style of writing that would keep you hooked, the exquisite prose and the characters evoke many emotions that linger long after you’ve read the last page. Fast-paced and packed with action, the story keeps getting darker as it proceeds. I could empathize with Iona and Willie. Leviticus too becomes worth loving as the mysteries fall apart.

Why is Leviticus searching for a particular spirit? What is his connection with the ghost? Why does he want her to cross over to the other world, willingly? What is the guilt that has brought him to Harbor Pointe? If you are an assiduous reader, you’ll find many hints to guess the answers to these questions. Iona would shock you but the reactions of Leviticus have been brilliantly described.

The Price of Atonement is much more than a mysterious story, it stirs human values that lie dormant within us till somebody ignites them. I finished reading it within a few hours, as I couldn’t put it down. Highly recommended.

Dreamland by Patricia Furstenberg is a fascinating book – one of its kind, as it infuses new life into folklore and legends of the past. If you look at the mesmerizing cover of the book carefully, it conveys where it is going to transport you and how succinct the stories are. I’ve never heard the stories it tells, and therefore its charm doubled for me.

The stories speak about the art (cave paintings) that has survived wars, earthquakes and battles. Stories like ‘Ogling a Hen with Gold Eggs,’ Idyllic Edelweiss, Tough Luck at Lower Viseul have a magical appeal. Many legends from the regions of Romania come alive, and many of them tell how towns and villages got their names. Each story ends with a short piece of history to explain its significance. The prose is lyrical in many stories. There is poignancy, valor and discrimination embedded within the stories. It is a marvel how Furstenberg says so much within a 100 word story!

She seems to be a poet at heart. Her exotic style shines through such sentences:

“Spring’s shamrock changed its coat for a lustre-less pickle that turns to mulch through rainfalls.”

“Peaceful plains like a sleeping maiden naively awaiting the kiss of dawn’s brightest star.”

“Hope was a stern mistress.”

“Words whisper from a slab of red marble.”

“The mountain path like an emerald belt hugged the curves of Bargau Mountains whose tree-church sang of life and death.”

Patricia also shares beautiful pictures of the landscape, Romanian pottery, fortresses, churches and Banffy Castle. I enjoyed each moment of reading these stories.

‘Three-Penny Memories’ is a powerful and poignant reflection on Leonhard’s life, her relationship with her mother and emotional upheavals that made her resilient.

Packed with emotions, most of the poems are about her mother’s Alzheimer’s but that takes her back to her encephalitis and she dwells on the weird connection with her mother’s condition. As a caregiver, she lays bare her struggle with the failing memory of her mother. Her dilemma – “I’m always torn. Mom or career? Mom or marriage? Mom or my own sanity?” A “doting daughter” who hangs onto the false hope that “mother will recover” evokes an uncanny kinship with the reader.

“Never a mother except to my own.” Just one phrase sums up the poet’s woes. The anguish of “my broken womb” continues to haunt her thoughts, resurfacing in many poems. Pain and guilt mingle to produce intense poetry that tugs at your heartstrings.

While an ‘Ode to the Embryo’ wrenched my heart out, ‘An Unsanctioned Outing’ gave me goosebumps. It is brilliantly written with the metaphor of a bus. Leonhard’s love for her mother shines through ‘Mom’s Dreams’ and ‘The Phone of the Wind.’ What a befitting homage!

Some memorable phrases that stayed with me:

“Her memories linger as lint.”

“You shelter in my wound of wanting.”

Thank you! Happy reading!

Many thanks to all the readers who’ve read my latest release and shared their fabulous reviews of my poetry book – Fusion – my latest release

Specific Form #Poetry Challenge: Lanturne

Published on July 14, 2022July 14, 2022 by balroop singh32 Comments

I have never heard of this form yet I’ve tried to follow the guidelines to create a lanturne.
The challenge has been given by Colleen (Word Craft Poetry #TankaTuesday) This week, we have to write a lanturne poem or a series of lanturne poems. (A series gets you extra credit, by the way).

The lanturne is a five-line verse shaped like a Japanese lantern with a syllabic pattern of one, two, three, four, one. (1, 2, 3, 4, 1).
I have tried to write a series of lanturne poems.