Sometimes,
the outward signals
of inward struggles takes colossal forms
And the revolution happens because our dreams explode.

~ Aggression, by Meena Kandasamy

Read by Nikita.

#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem #IndianPoetry #DalitPoetry #DalitHistoryMonth

I’m dreaming seditious dreams,
I’m singing a seditious song!
I’m reading Ambedkar,
he makes perfect sense—
let’s annihilate things that
divide us…
as we sing a seditious song!

~ A Seditious Song! by Hamraaz

#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem #IndianPoetry #DalitHistoryMonth

Knowledge is wealth,
Greater than all riches,
Wise is considered he,
Who acquires it.

~ The Greatest Wealth, by Savitribai Phule

Read by Alka Dhupkar.

#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem #IndianPoetry #DalitPoetry #DalitHistoryMonth

His eyes dimmed by age
fade homeward through the humid monsoon night.
Now I can see him getting off the train
Like a word dropped from a long sentence.

~ Father Returning Home, by Dilip Chitre

Read by @mumbaipaused.bsky.social

#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem #IndianPoetry

How else do we return to ourselves but to fold

The page so it points to the good part

What we’ll always have is something we lost

~ Snow Theory, by Ocean Vuong

Read by Vish.

#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.

~ Lost, by David Wagoner

Read by Atika Chohan.

#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem

The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

~ One Art, by Elizabeth Bishop

Read by Garima Singh.

#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem

What Does Poetry Save You From?
Linda Pastan

From the pale silence of morning
and the din
of afternoon.

From the flight into darkness
of those
I continue to love.

Read by Amrita Gupta.

#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem

In the wide-open field
the stars rest on my shoulder,
the immense vista of silence
between the lines,
waits at the edge of the sleep,

~ Dyad, by Gopal Lahiri

Read by Menka Shivdasani.

#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem #IndianPoetry #NaturePoetry

When I Was Straight, by Julie Marie Wade

I did not love women as I do now.
I loved them with my eyes closed, my back turned.
I loved them silent, & startled, & shy.

Read by Jogitha.

#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem #QueerPoetry

I Don’t Know What Will Kill Us First: The Race War or What We’ve Done to the Earth, by Fatimah Asghar

so I count my hopes: the bumblebees
are making a comeback, one snug tight
in a purple flower I passed to get to you;

Read by @zigzackly.bsky.social

#PoetryInParks #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem

A child is not a poem,
a poem is not a child.
There is no either / or.
However.

~ Spelling, by Margaret Atwood

Read by Sampurna Chattarji.

#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem

I lie in the dark, listening to a pulse of sound,
letters in an unknown alphabet spelling out words
that come and go through a sorrowful labyrinth.

~ Sleeve, by Minnie Bruce Pratt

Read by @nandanky.bsky.social

#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem #QueerPoetry

Home, for now, smell of pine trees
the sky visits in mist.
I am always at the borders of whimsical sun-rain.
Seasons seep through leaky roofs and skylight.
After you left I thought I will lose language,

~Nighttime, by Soibam Haripriya

Read by Sukrity

#PoetryInParks #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem

the clothes you wear on your mouth.
the warm smoke in your legs.
a quiet quilt.

~ [Things you bring to the ocean at night]
Nayyirah Waheed

Read by @yellowchiffon.bsky.social

#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem

evidence of homes buried
in different names
here
the years we never defined
here
the echoes we collected
in each other
here

~ Here, by Nathalie Handal

Read by @zigzackly.bsky.social

#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem

It sneaks in on a Tuesday,
You're in your teens, in class.
Nobody cares what you say.
You feel in shards of glass.

~ How Poetry Works, by @j-tkelly.bsky.social

#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem

And that orange, it made me so happy,
As ordinary things often do
Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park.
This is peace and contentment. It’s new.

~ The Orange, by Wendy Cope

Read by Mevish Memon.

#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem

if I had to take my leave

at midnight, I should rather
cleave it from the joint or seam

than make a scene
or bring you round.

There,
how does that sound?

~ Let Me Put It This Way, by Simon Armitage

Read by @zigzackly.bsky.social

#PoetryInParks #Poetry #SpokenPoetry #MayIReadYouAPoem

(Not your typical new year poem.)

#MayIReadYouAPoem?