Earthship

A self-sustainable home  

Amidst the arid and desert areas

Walls are erected 

By ramming soil on old tyres 

Filling old glass bottles and cans 

Binding it with  soil, mud, and other binders

A long sloped roof to the back 

Wooden support and structure 

A linear building from the front 

With huge glass panes to 

Welcome all the sunshine 

The backyard is filled with soil to make slopes

It and the wall act as thermal storage 

Releases heat on cooler nights 

The Greenhouse in the building 

Grows vegetables and fruits 

It helps in bringing fresh oxygen 

The rainwater from the roofs fills 

The water storage tanks to meet the water needs

Grey water from kitchen, bathroom, and sinks

Goes through natural filtration beneath 

The bed of plants and provide water to them 

Then it is recirculated to flush the toilet 

Even the septic tank sludge is used for

Making manure for the plants and trees outside 

The solar panels and wind turbines make

Off-grid life as a reality in a society

Away from the hustles of cities 

The piping systems from the rooms to the 

Lower slope areas help in the recirculation of fresh air

With temperatures varying with the climate 

 A sustainable house that could reduce carbon emissions

With the usage of wasted materials and renewable energy

It is now sustainable in tropics and rainy areas too

With the use of different materials to cope with local climate 

This poem is based on countless documentaries and videos about earth ships I saw over the years. It is remarkable that wasted materials like old tyres, glass bottles, and beer or soft drinks cans among others can make a sustainable home. Earthships, with advanced designs, provide comfortable living with off-grid energy and sustainable water usage. This is ideal for those who wish to live amidst nature and lead a sustainable lifestyle. The images were taken by Earthship Biotecture Australia and Claire Carrion. 

Love And Reality

 

I am no younger

I am closer to my forties 

The ladies of my age are married  

I do miss a good company of a lady

I wonder if I will fall in love ever again

The heartbreaks that shaped my present 

The loss of opportunities due to depression 

I wonder If I could trust another woman 

To bring hope and seal my healed heart 

Maybe, I am averse to taking a risk

Without sorting out my finances 

To not to be in a situation again 

Where I cannot afford the lady

Nor win over her family 

I wonder why I come across 

Nice ladies from far away places

I write poems about my crushes 

My heart is hardened to stop there 

I would leave my native someday 

Like I attempted five times in the last decade 

I don't wish to raise a kid given my mental health

I don't know If I will come across a woman 

Who will make me wish to build a home! 

The poem is inspired by the prompt  #Satsplat .  The image was taken by Travis Grossen

Waking Up To The Sound Of Rain

 Waking up to the sound of rain 

On a rare dawn 

Brought disappointment of 

Missing out on the sunrise 

Which I crave to see a lot 

The breeze brought 

The fragrance of guava flowers

The teak leaves on neighbour's plot 

Flaunted happily with the breeze 

This is not monsoon yet 

Pre-monsoon showers 

Teasing about endless rains 

That could lash in the coming weeks

And the heavy winds from the sea 

I am lost in the thought of waterproofing 

As long summer showers have dampened 

Some of the walls in my home 

The sound of a small bird intrigued me 

It is trying to engage with its partner 

Sitting in a faraway tree 

It seems rain evaporated into the thin air

As sunshine is making its way back to the greens

Rain woke me earlier than usual. The prompt #FromOneLine generated a poetic seed. I wrote the thoughts evoked by it in this poem. Images from JD Nightbot and Relaxing Sounds Of Nature

3-D Printed Homes

As the demand for social housing 

Shoots up in many countries

The waiting list of council homes

Increasing with each year 

The number of homeless people in 

The streets increasing significantly 

Even in the developed countries 

There is a need for faster construction 

Of homes that need to withstand 

The climate change effects 

Large 3-D printing machines can 

Build a floor of houses within days 

All sorts of complex structures are 

Built with 3-D printing technology 

3-D printed homes made with concrete,

Hempcrete, and other materials show 

Good thermal and insulation properties Make homes cooler inside in hot areas 

Cost savings are possible with no plastering, With lesser manual work 

Multiple homes can be constructed faster 

It can solve social housing issues 

If governments adopt this technology 

It is ideal for constructing small houses 

3-D printed homes could be a cheaper solution for social housing demands. Hempcrete based 3-D printing can be sustainable solution for none availability of sand. Basic structures printing only need human supervision and providing the material. It eliminates labour costs significantly. Avoiding plastering can also provide cost savings.  ASME and The Guardian

Being Speechless

I went through 

Two weeks of horror 

Of being speechless

As my psychiatrist 

Misdiagnosed my 

sleep deprivation for 

a week as psychotic 

The drugs he prescribed 

Made me speech impaired 

It affected other organs too

I struggled to talk to anyone 

I feared if I could ever speak again

Even as the psychiatrist gave

Assurance of regaining voice 

As my friend enquired about 

The nature of the medicines 

And that it didn't improve 

The psychiatrist told me to stop using 

The medication in three days 

Slowly, I could talk again 

I was stuttering and 

Words were not clear

I had to tell repeatedly 

Loudly for others 

To understand what I meant 

An auto driver mistook me 

For a drunkard, and refused

To give me a ride to the market 

I had to convince him that 

It's the side effect of psychiatric drug 

I had to tell the same to everyone 

I interacted with in shops and in public 

Though it improved significantly

It wasn't the same and I needed recovery 

Thankfully my cousin took me to meet 

A new psychiatrist, who changed 

My medications to less potent ones 

And I was able to talk fluently again 

This poem is based on my real-life experience. I realized the importance of being able to speak to convey things to the people around me. Psychiatric/psychotic drugs can affect the functioning of different abilities and even organs of humans. The wrong diagnosis by the psychiatrist led to me being unable to speak properly for a couple of weeks. But those two weeks was the most challenging period of my life. Those drugs affected my sexual organ too. The psychiatrist told me about the side-effects of the drugs after my friend asked about them. There are side effects for even medicines given in mild dosages. My aim is to come out of the medication. The number of medicines and dosages has been reduced over the last three years. But still, a long way to go. I am under treatment for depression. The image was taken by Noah Buscher .