Write me in, stranger,
into your poem once.
I see you brewing
with your coffee,
as you look at me fondly.
I am much
of what you see,
I am also what
you think me to be.
We could build our story
with that.
You will ask no questions,
I will tell you no lies.
I will be your lines,
your finest muse.
And then we will return
to our realities,
knowing ourselves
to be better than
what the world
thought us to be.
Coffee with you
would take me back
to when I was
what I dreamt
I could be,
when life hadn't
given me labels.
You and I -
even as we escape -
would be
discoverers of
our finest selves.
How the song came about!
This poem is from my first book of poems ‘Of Love & Other Abandonments’ . When it had come out, my friends, the brilliant musicians Soumyojit & Sourendro, chose a poem called ‘'Coffee, You & Me’' for a song they were planning.
What was a surprise was that they got the evergreen star Sharmila Tagore to recite it! And the song they wrote around this poem had a sense of timelessness to it. It was sheer alchemy - and the song and the video soon became hugely viral.
I love the poem, I love the song, and I love the melody which this wondrous duo weaved around the poem.
I really hope you enjoyed hearing it!
Want to hear ME recite the poem now?
The theme of the poem is a paradoxical conundrum.
Don't we sometimes feel that we can talk with strangers more freely than we can with those closest to us? Is it because there's a strange sense of freedom with a stranger, because we know the person in front of us is not prejudging us.
And we burst into our finest selves like spring!! We are funny, charming, gracious.
Without the shackles of being put into a slot, we are so much MORE than what people who know us take us to be. In those few moments of liberation, when we are free, not being appraised, we soar. We are our best selves.
How desperate we are to get this gift of not being assessed and judged all the time..
Can we also give this gift to those who love us?
What do you think? Does this ring true for you too?
Want to know more about me?
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