Outerspace

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We are as the flute, and the music in us is from thee;
we are as the mountain and the echo in us is from thee.

We are as pieces of chess engaged in victory and defeat:
our victory and defeat is from thee, O thou whose qualities are comely!

Who are we, O Thou soul of our souls,
that we should remain in being beside thee?

We and our existences are really non-existence;
thou art the absolute Being which manifests the perishable.

We all are lions, but lions on a banner:
because of the wind they are rushing onward from moment to moment.

Their onward rush is visible, and the wind is unseen:
may that which is unseen not fail from us!

Our wind whereby we are moved and our being are of thy gift;
our whole existence is from thy bringing into being.

~ Rumi, Masnavi Book I- 599-607

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Tuesday, 19 December 2006

Folk Hero


Folk Hero

A lyric of screams
writes itself on the wall

Or was it the prisoner’s hand that wrote?

Once I could summon
Horses at will

Once I could fight
Strange wars with evil skulls

But that was long ago…

Then they trapped me with
Their poisoned grapes

I can tell you
I was suspicious of them always

But the air of the home
And the cool wine of the hosts
Killed the fireflies
I had sheltered in my fingers…

I limped about the house
With its cries of crooked newborns…

I could not grip my magic arrows again;
Arrows that shot hurricanes once…

Crowds came to see the miracles,
I remember…

I could
create rain…

Mind you, not all of us can create

But that was long back…

An epic of screams
shrivels the blue garden

Now I scream at the guards at times;

Or play cards with the hosts,
Weeping when I lose the King…

I think my own land
Has forgotten my stories

The bauls don’t sing of me anymore, I think.

5 comments:

Diviani said...

the pic goes with the blog.

and whats more, i like the first poem so much i'm wondering if someone else has taken up residence in my mind.

Sheelonee said...

the last 6 lines...gripping..trampled glory...i lyk the explicit imagery n the pic too...the pic most def stands out...

tina said...

"limped about the house
With its cries of crooked newborns…"
uncanny



'baul' a motif?

Inam said...

hmmm yes...I'm kinda fascinated with the baul's search for freedom and his metaphysics...they are India's ancient answer to modern surrealism...I mean their lyrics...

rohit said...

the imagery is great its seldom that i can visualise when i reda but for this one i culd actually see moving images