Wordsmith of the Month: Maria Shumusti

Maria Shumusti, a media student from Mumbai, is our Wordsmith this month with her picturesque poetry. Her featured piece juxtaposes the ebbing of tides and a lost loved one who now exists only as a memory. Of her creative process, Maria says, “‘Respond to every call, that excites your spirit’ – Rumi. And so have I been doing with poetry for as long as I remember. To me poetry is an art so fine, and one that weaves so much visual beauty and meaning to simple words and sentences. It’s my outlet to express my feelings, thoughts and ideas. There is no good or bad poetry to me. It’s just how you feel. And boy, I feel great.”

SAIL

The sinuous waves touch my feet,
Against the grainy tickles of the sand.
At once, I look at castle just built,
The clumsy manor, untouched.
It’s founding had missed a hand.

Like the seafarer of yore,
I’m stuck in time.
Nothing really has changed,
Or has it?
The tides have come and gone,
Transcending the memories,
But for your presence, now obsolete.

I stand up, cold and sentinel.
A gentle glow over the horizon.
I think of the last time I saw you,
And of the sundering waves, that are lost and gone.
And of the nights and the sea,
And the stars and the storm,
Like a professed heretic,
Waiting from Dusk to dawn.

Sleep comes with the ebbing of light,
I start to trace my steps back home.
Sky-driven, sea-blown,
Someday… I will move on.
The moonlight now dances on the rising crests of the waves,
And I look back for the last time,
At the clumsy castle.
Left behind, it has just been washed away.