Flaws and All

By Sasta Kuppan

Flaws and All is a treasury of poems and prose spread across four integral forces that make up the human condition:

The Mind, Heart, Body and Soul.

It journeys with the readers through loves lost and loves rediscovered, quirks and ideas, grief and belief.

Rooted in art and self love, Flaws and All also deals with conflict and mortality.

It does not fear emotion.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sasta Kuppan
• Release date: Nov 22, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463279038

Sasta Kuppan

"Sometimes you love, Sometimes you learn"From an early age, Sasta has written poetry, taking the leap into open mic performances through Writer's Bloc International in February 2018, which led to national performances onvarious stages. She has performed on Gauteng radio stations, broadcasting her poetry to a wide South African audience. She is now the Chief Operations Officer of this Johannesburg based poetry association.In 2018, her poetry - written through various periods in her life - was published in her collection "Flaws and All". The volume of poems is inspired by love and heartache, and has been well-received by readers.In addition to her collection, Sasta's writing addresses social issues around gender, race and equality, the patriarchy and humanity. Easy on the ears, her poems nonetheless run deep and have an uncanny ability to tug at the heartstrings.Sasta is also the "Poetry Curator" for Chasing Dreams Publishing, working alongside the company which shares the vision and ideology of giving everyone an opportunity to have their voices heard.

Book preview

Weapons

I write in order to heal, not to hurt.

Face Yourself

For the things that tear us into two

That force us to face

And then truly see ourselves

These are the things that define who we are

The earth shattering

Gravity yielding

Breath snatching

Complexity

That is

You.

Story of the Mind

We are everything we never imagined we could be

We've been brave

We've been brilliant

But we've also been torn apart

In order to heal

First we must hurt

And break

And see no way out

Perfect porcelain has no place

In the world of the prodded, pried and persecuted

We are almost everything the world has defined us as

As insecure

Insignificant

Invaluable sentiments of circumstance

They don't see the solidity in these scars

They don't feel the progression of the by-product of this pain

They don't understand how good it is to know

That we will never be as broken as we were the first day life pushed us

And pushed

And pushed

Until we eventually caved in

And allowed them to define us as

Hollow

Helpless

Lost…

From the outside it is easy

Easy to see the weakness

To call it forth from within us

And shame us for how bare it makes us seem

Barren to all good things

Sheltered from the light

But we are not bad people

Just people

Who bad things have happened to

Around

In spite of…

In this, we do not lose God's favour

If anything, we are the chosen few

Chosen to endure worldly grievances

For a Godly purpose

We soldier through

We are the passive force

Of a greater agenda

We are the greater good

Our circumstances,

A necessary evil

But we

Will

Soldier

Through.

Sure, we will bruise

And I'm certain the battles are not all won

But the war?

It's a given.

Our voice will resonate in their heads

The way ours never quiet

It will tell a story of the mind that can never be still

They will hear us.

They will know our worth.

Selfless Armour

Remember the good in the things that break you.

To The Parents of the

First Man I Loved

and His Stories

You were kind to me

This I remember

And then one day

You were not.

You listened to the way he twisted every event

To make himself the victim

To make his actions just.

You heard one side of the story

And I heard many stories from my side

Of the love that wasn't returned

Of how time had killed your flame

Again and again

These weren't the kind of problems we faced

There was too much passion

Too strong a flame

It seemed,

However,

I was the only one getting burnt.

I admit,

I wasn't entirely innocent

My greatest offence was caring too much.

I loved so hard I convinced myself

That I was being loved the same way in return.

I never walked away…

Instead, I chose to ignore his gift

Of effortlessly spinning stories

To make his situations favourable.

He loved to have you at the mercy of his thrills

So, I tell you this:

One night he chose to raise his fist

Changed his mind

And wrapped his hands around my