The devil, the fool and the prince: A poem

There is a forest at the end of this world where huge tall trees did grew
When naviety still had its roots deep in my mind I made a decision to walk there all alone
A lamp in one hand and a watch in the other, I set out on a stroll
Only to find the devil crying by the river shore
This devil didn’t wear black, nor did he seem wicked
He stood there with tears streaming down his eyes
He told, “I have no home to go and no friend to call mine”

I took his hand and told him about my home
A tiny little haven down by the lake side
Then days did pass and a friend ship did grew
But the devil’s evil side he tried to hide
Few weeks later one fine day when the sun was yet to set
The devil sat down and he told me this
“Your home is too small, why not make a palace instead”
“I have neither money nor gold to build a palace”, I said
He pointed to my hand and I knew what he meant

I roamed the forest to find bones to build my palace up
I worked day and night, while just for food the devil showed up
He told me how nice it will be for me to own a palace like this
Everyone will envy the beauty once it was fully built
After months of hardwork my palace was fully made
Everyone who passed by told me they wished they had one just the same

Weeks passed like this and I let the devil stay in my palace
He sometimes told me how proud he was to stay in a place like this
Then one Friday when the darkness had swallowed the trees
Out from the forest I heard a wail that kept growing like the sea
I ran to help but the devil stopped me
He said, “Please make sure in the palace it is you and me”
I didn’t hear his words and opened the gates for the fool
His hands had blood, and in the summer he was wearing wool
He ran to me and asked if there was any water to drink
When I gave the water he sat and took a breath, then he begin

“I have noone to love and noone see the good in me”, He said
“My mom and my sister, they have all left me here to death”
I took his hand and brought him inside my palace alone
The devil ate silence as he was not the one to rule anymore
In days to come, I tended to the fool’s wounds
I told him he have me and now he is no more alone

A love so innocent grew between the fool and me
The devil lurked in the shadows, hating how the palace now had three
When I woke up one day a week later, there were men in black at my door                                                                                          
The devil was with them, they held knives and swords
They broke down my gates and took me by my hand
Stabbed me with the knives as my blood tainted the land
I cried for the fool as they broke my soul
But the fool stood silent, unharmed somewhere near the other shore

They took me and drowned me in the lake
Bloodied was the waters as down down my body went away
It was two days later when I woke up on the shore
The fool was near me, he said “You will now never fight alone”
He tend to my wounds and sat by my side each day
As I healed from everything, many smiles he tried to fake

But back the in days I thought all his smiles were real
Each word he said made me get happiness too good to bear
One day I found a cave and inside it I found gold
I called out to the fool and his greed grabbed him by the throat
I didn’t mind, I didn’t wanted the gold
All I wanted was his love to stay with me till I was old
So I told “You can keep the five gold bars, let me keep only two”
That night I slept with the two gold bars by my side
Woke up empty in morning to find no fool, I knew it was a bye

I cried for hours as I now had noone with me
My palace and my love stolen, now I had nothing else to seek
I stoop up after crying and walked towards the east
I ate wild berries and didn’t worry my health will be weak
Death was my friend on those wild days
I feared nothing and sadness etched shadows in it’s break

That was when I stumbled on a stone and fell down by a house
A hand was stretched it asked, “Are you alright, love?”
I looked up to see the prince and his head bowed towards me
I grew shy and talked very little, but he fell in love with me
I told him about the palace, the one I lost
He said, “Why cry for a palace of bones, when you can make one of gold?”
I stopped my whining then and told him I loved him too

Now the devil and the fool sits by the table in my stolen palace and talk about me
But my palace of bones will crumple one day, and gold can’t keep you happy

-Jan @jahnavigouri

The broken promise: A poem

Branches of sadness grow stronger around my heart
As the letter of your leaving comes my way
The river of dreams we bore from the start
Comes like a tsunami, drowning me, whispering to stay

You were the poem in my heart that longed to be written
The one that saved me from my darkest days
I think the ones above wanted our story to remain unwritten
All our memories remain to just rot and decay

I promised to keep you safe from everything blue
But even the strong ones break under the weight
I told you till the end, my love for you was true
But the ray of realization reached too late

The bars of your past kept you a prisoner
My hands bled daily trying to make you escape
My cries for help reached no listener
Was it destiny for my heart to just break?

Everyone in the past painted the same colors
But in your hands the colors were all new
Your heart got ripped apart, piece by piece
By my own hands that promised not to bruise

I poured all my sadness into the prison you stay
Longing for a moment when you could just be free
It was by your side I wanted to belong one day
But our flowers of fallen hope lie by the tree

At the end all we whispered were late apologies
For all the mistakes we didn’t mean to make
Now you may keep our bed of dreams untouched
For another girl with a promise to keep you safe

-Jan @jahnavigouri

The house: A poem

I made a home out of sadness
There, my heart stayed safe
Each time someone used my kindness
The more rust grew on its gate

The ones that came for a visit
Took all my flowers when they left
My flowers that I watered everyday
Was never theirs to get

Seeing my garden all empty
I wept alone by the side
I made new locks out of iron
To keep the gates locked and my love inside

Years and months passed this way
But noone dared to peek
My home and garden stood alone
With silence, I did speak

Then came a day, I was woken up by a sound
My mind kept asking  “What is it now?”
I stood on my tiptoe, peeking out to see
A knight trying to unlock my gate with a key

I watched him trying each key he had
His hands soon bled, but he kept trying hard
Blood pooled up near my gate, in dark red
Seeing him cry, I stood there in dread

When evening came, the sound was gone
Outside, I found him lying down
A pool of blood all around from the wait
Tears burned my eyes, but it was too late

Then he opened his eyes and he spoke
Of how his home and garden were all now gone
How everything he had was taken by the ones he loved
How they left him out in the cold

He told me how only my flowers were stolen
I still had a garden to grow
If I got new seeds and watered daily
My home can still glow

I painted the rust in my gate with him
I took his help with the garden too
Now the gate to my home stay open
But if anyone steal, I won’t care anymore

-Jan @jahnavigouri

Started an Instagram poetry account and 4 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF LOVE13READING

Hey guys,

A few days back I woke up with an alert from Jetpack reminding me it’s been over 4 years since I started this blog.  I remember being a 13 year old girl who used to write as a way to spend her free time and always thought her writing was not good enough for people to read. The thing was I was happy when I wrote and it was an escape from the choas of my mind so I kept doing it..that was when my mom suggested me to make a blog to store my writing in one place. When I started this page I had no clue one day it will grow to become a community of 1k people who followed me and read my writings. The kind words of my readers keeps motivating me and encouraging me to keep writing and post my writings here for people to read it. I am so thankful for everyone who supported me in this journey. I am grateful everyday to my lovely readers and my family for supporting me in my writing journey. Every follow, every comment, every like matters a lot to me ❤️🥹

And I am glad to announce that I have started an Instagram poetry page to share my writings on. From now on you can find my writings here as well as on my Instagram page. I just started it today. Even a tiny support will help me a lot on my writing journey

Here is a link to my Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/jahnavi_writes13?igsh=OHB0djg4dThiYW5x

The username is: jahnavi_writes13

Thanks to everyone who kept on reading until here…

See you all another day with another post…until then bye ❤️

-Jan @jahnavigouri

If rocks could fly, will they sing?: A poem

I was a rock my whole damn life
Waiting for a moment when I could fly
I wonder who will hear if you sing up in the sky?
If only I could grow wings and see it- oh my

Future and past were my best friends
I used them to forget where I am
Every day was lived waiting for it’s end
I was searching for a place that was warm

People always had something I didn’t
I always asked, “Why can’t it be me?”
I was always at places I shouldn’t
People took everything they could see

Piece by piece, I was bled dry
Until they could take no more
Until the last drop, I didn’t cry
As I thought this is how you belong

At the end, I was in a room all alone
Wondering what is wrong with me?
Why am I always the unknown?
When all I wanted my entire life was to be seen

I searched for love in abandoned places
Because love was never mine to keep
I tried to fix all my broken pieces
To become something someone will seek

All my poems end in lessons
But the lessons died just as poetry
They were all just confessions
That were never spoken aloud but stayed as a memory

-Jan @jahnavigouri

©2025, written by @jahnavigouri

The last goodbye: A poem

All alone in the dark, I headed out to the east 
One hand on the shovel and one hand swaying free
I kneeled down right there, beside our old tree
To bury what was left of him and me

I dug out a hole, filled it with our memories
His bones made the door that will stay closed for centuries
He lay there lifeless, the one who changed my theories
The only one it took to make the whole world my enemy

I sat there crying as his goodbye turned me numb
His promise of forever made a rain of regrets come
I screamed to the sky, “Why be kind just to some? 
Why take my home away when I had no place to run?” 

For a moment, I felt like an ocean was drowning me
The sadness brimmed, and my heart broke in three
I took out the pieces and buried them next to his grave
The girl who once loved him stayed with him there

The sky, as if listening, sent down the rain
When I stood there alone, it washed away the pain
I realized from this love story, a lesson I gained
For better or for worse, a future remained

I bid bye to our graveyard and started the hike home
In my mind, it seemed like all the misery was gone
With my old self and him buried by the tree
A bittersweet story was hidden in the deep

-Jan @jahnavigouri

All the things alone: A poem

Alone is the wind, alone is the tree
All the things alone, are all the things free
Alone is the tower, but not alone is the bee
When you stand alone, a few you see

Alone is the sun, alone is the sea
All the things alone, are meant to be
Alone is the dreamer, alone is me
Sometimes being alone, teaches you to feel

Alone is the king, alone is the theif
Alone is the flower without the leaf
Alone you die, alone you weep
What you sow you will reap

Alone is your heart, alone it leaps
Alone it stays with noone to keep
Alone is the sand, alone they sleep
Alone is everything that runs deep

-Jan @jahnavigouri

Caged: A poem

Every piece of her ached with sorrow
Her time, she had given away
Her smile looked like something borrowed
From the walls she built up from the pain

She stood strong when it all fell down
The castle where she was once caged
She watched as the waves took no more
Her heart carried slowly the rage

As the old pieces rusted and died
She saw new ones take their place
The cage stood new and even stronger
To keep the new prisoner from escape

She knew what happened to the prisoners
They would feel safe, and then they would fear
For the prisoners never searched the cage
The cage would always want them near

She wished she’d known back in the days
That love wouldn’t equal the same as pain
She cried, when her past had spurned
But a lesson for a lifetime was learned

~ Jan @jahnavigouri

Her: A poem

I can’t draw you with words in this page
Your soul, my beautiful refugee for the day
I could say hundred times your name
My world after you is now no more gray

If this isn’t love, I don’t know what will be
Him in the tower can rot down in the deep
I see you in the very own reflection of me
The darkness is gone when I stand by your tree

The hurricane made me forget my way
I drowned in the sea but death didn’t came
I saw you like an angel coming from there
You healed my bruises and I knew you are rare

When life goes on and things are changed
I wanna really knock on your doors one day
I will tell you how you have changed this girl
You were my only best friend in this world

-Jahnavi Gouri Panicker

A place to bury the sadness : A poem

Find me a place to bury the sadness I carry
This sadness wears me down
The darkness surrounds and it gets scary
I shall not escape this now

Find me a place to bury the sadness I carry
I am dying little by little, day by day
I long for the past that didn’t want me
As I wait for my sadness to go away

Find me a place to bury the sadness I carry
As my heart is not a grave
My body is not the graveyard
To bury upon it my sadness today

Find me a place to bury the sadness I carry
No human will carry this with me
My back aches from carrying the sadness
But the ending of it I can’t see

Find me a place to bury this sadness I carry
As my heart is too soft to keep it hidden for long
I may break under the weight of it
And fall down among the rocks

-Jan @jahnavigouri