"Exodus of the Wretched Souls" (On the loss of a friend)

[Roshina]

Exodus of the Wretched Souls

Welcome the exodus of the wretched souls!
When living life becomes an option
And death becomes the first resort
All faith in humanity is lost
What is life when there is no more life?
When the flames of hell appeal to the soul
More than does the calm of a non-existent paradise
When the heart has seen enough serenity
And hell repels it, but it repels heaven
When the darkness of the sun pervades the spirit of humanity
Welcome the exodus of the wretched souls!
Let the heart amble with the aimless
Let it float in the hollows of our memories
Let it stumble on the pieces of callous human flesh
Humanity does not exist
The well of life has dried up
Welcome the exodus of the wretched souls.

~ Qrratugai
June 14th 2010

[Roshina]

Thanks, Timbaktu! Very kind of you to say, wrora!

[Levanaye Zalmaye]

Who so serious? =(

[pekhawar]

Thanks for sharing

[Musafira]

I love the poem but to be honest I am not sure what it is about. Is it about suicide?

[Khan Gul]

I love the poem but to be honest I am not sure what it is about. Is it about suicide?

The same goes for me too.

[Roshina]

Thanks, folks!
Lewani Zalmiya, 'cause being serious is part of life, kana, unfortunately.

Pekhawar, not a problem!

Lewanai Anjalai, lol ... sa owaim, marey. It's not about suicide (my suicide, anyway! yikes!). It's about the death of a friend, the departure of a soul -- exodus from one to another -- the loss of faith in humanity over all . . . and so on. I'm not likely to write a suicide poem and share it in public, btw, lol.

Khan Gula, give it some more thought in your spare time; poha ba pe she, if you really wanna understand it. If I tell you what it's about, then what's the point? :P It's totally open to interpretation. It's now yours (the reader's), not mine any longer.

[Musafira]

Sorry.......I didn't think it was about you but rather whoever you were writing about committing suicide. These lines:

When living life becomes an option
And death becomes the first resort
All faith in humanity is lost
What is life when there is no more life?
When the flames of hell appeal to the soul
More than does the calm of a non-existent paradise

are what put suicide in my mind. Unless someone kills themselves how does living life become an option? Hell being more appealing than life and the lack of hope for a paradise in the afterlife all seem suicidal. To me, in my mind this is so about suicide unless you wanna explain it to me. I have reread it over & over & it's the only conclusion I can come to & since you said it's not about suicide it's driving me crazy to understand what you meant by it.

[Roshina]

Sorry.......I didn't think it was about you but rather whoever you were writing about committing suicide. These lines:

When living life becomes an option
And death becomes the first resort
All faith in humanity is lost
What is life when there is no more life?
When the flames of hell appeal to the soul
More than does the calm of a non-existent paradise

are what put suicide in my mind. Unless someone kills themselves how does living life become an option? Hell being more appealing than life and the lack of hope for a paradise in the afterlife all seem suicidal. To me, in my mind this is so about suicide unless you wanna explain it to me. I have reread it over & over & it's the only conclusion I can come to & since you said it's not about suicide it's driving me crazy to understand what you meant by it.

Wow!! I like this!
And that is correct, guley! Those lines certainly do imply suicide. When I told you it doesn't, I meant it's not about me or my thoughts of doing such a thing.

Other meanings of the lines "when life becomes an option / death becomes the first resort" could be ... that it's a random thought in which the speaker is reminiscing over another individual who has committed suicide, or the possible thought of suicide.

It could also be that the speaker is finally understanding WHY people commit suicide, or why death occurs at all.

As for the lines regarding the flames of hell becoming more appealing (or how hell repels the speaker's heart but the speaker's heart repels heaven) ... ahhh! Yes. It could be the speaker's attempt to say she/he doesn't like either heaven or hell; doesn't belong in either place but perhaps somewhere in between. It could also be that the speaker is realizing that things aren't perhaps as simple as we sometimes like them to be but there's always more to them than our own understanding.

And so on, lol.

Remember that the speaker can be anyone; I could be writing from the perspective of a dead being . . .

And as I sit here thinking about it, lots and lots more meanings are coming to my mind about each line. To think I wrote this and much of what I'm saying right now wasn't even on my mind at that time, lol. This is why I love poetry so much. The writer her/himself doesn't understand as much as a reader might. This happened with my poem "The Apogee of My Being," and it seems to be happening with this one, too.

Thanks for giving it so much thought, by the way!! I appreciate it, girl!

[Roshina]

Oh, and just to add ... don't let it bother you if you *think* you're not getting the actual meaning of it! lolll... Like I said to Khan Gul, it's not mine anymore; it's yours. So it means whatever YOU want it to mean.

If others were to read and reflect on this in my absence, most -- if not all -- would conclude that it's the speaker's thoughts on suicide, and the speaker could be the author. I would have no right to tell them, "NO! NO!!!! It's not like that!" Because if I were to interfere, then what's the point of my letting them read it and understand it themselves?

So as long as you can back up whatever interpretation you get out of it, you WILL be correct.

[muhsina]

It made me sad but very nicely put.

You seem to be a poet by heart. Am I right?

Why have you chosen such a difficult nick [takhalus too??]. I cant even pronounce it.

[Gaia]

Muhsina, take 10 minutes to dedicate to her and you won't find any better word to describe. Of course, there's sweet, intelligent, fast-thinking, beautiful, energetic, and there's QRRATUGAI... that'll be the best way to describe her at first

[muhsina]

Exodus of the Wretched Souls

Welcome the exodus of the wretched souls!
When living life becomes an option
And death becomes the first resort
All faith in humanity is lost
What is life when there is no more life?
When the flames of hell appeal to the soul
More than does the calm of a non-existent paradise
When the heart has seen enough serenity
And hell repels it, but it repels heaven
When the darkness of the sun pervades the spirit of humanity
Welcome the exodus of the wretched souls!
Let the heart amble with the aimless
Let it float in the hollows of our memories
Let it stumble on the pieces of callous human flesh
Humanity does not exist
The well of life has dried up
Welcome the exodus of the wretched souls.

~ Qrratugai
June 14th 2010

I think it is a cry of a hurt soul which seems to be hurt due to the apparent exodus of someone near and dear.

It is the depiction of the feelings one experiences when the one whom you look forward to stops looking at you.

It is the transformation into words of the impressionistic pessismism in a personified form.

It is the noise of a broken and shattered heart's pieces when it sees a cold response from the one who used to live in it.

The poet is a humanist in the depths of her heart and tries to have lost her summum bonum and ideal when the poet unconsciously equates the cold behaviour of her beloved with the existentialist view of humanity.

10 min over. Gaiai happy.???

[Roshina]

LOL! Gaia is just being too kind, that's all! (She IS my other half, though!)

Muhsina! Those are some excellent ways of looking at it :D I like it, I like it!
Thanks!

[Roshina]

You seem to be a poet by heart. Am I right?

Not at all! I only like to write what comes to mind at times, but I would not call myself a poet at all. However! Thanks for considering me one, lol, since that's quite a compliment

And judging from your last comment, your reflections on the poem, I KNOW I'm not wrong to say you're a poet as well. You may not have written any (or have you?), but that doens't mean you're not a poet. So get to writing and sharing!