Thriving Mindfully
At times un-felt
That tether us
Time and again
To the
Absolute Unity
Today,
A togetherness arises
Tumbling as tides
Across the Atlantic
Tenacious as tomorrows
Unfolding
Time and again
Taking us all
Ashore
Together.
The Universe
Tends us towards understanding
This unity
Taking us all along
To the arena
That announces
This universal truth
To us all
Traveling
Under the timeless apparition,
Time.
———-
Did you notice that all words begin with the letter A, U , or T 🙂 )
Does the little bird know
Playing on branches low
As she sings with summer flair
She paints music in the air
Do the worker ants know
Amid their busy work flow
As beneath the earth they tunnel
They give the rain a funnel
Does the raindrop know
Falling through sunlit glow
Painting rainbows in blue skies
It gifts wonder to waiting eyes
The arena is open to seeing
There is magic in simply being
This open secret is the alphabet
That you must learn well and forget
Then shall you dance in all your glory
Unaware you are weaving a story
Letting work and wonder intertwine
Living elegantly, this universal design.
————————————————————————-
Does a rock have spirit
Maybe not they say
Then why does a majestic mountain
Lift my soul away
Does water have spirit
Perhaps they say
Is that why a gurgling stream
Makes my soul sway?
Does fire have spirit
Nay! do they repeat
Then why does my soul
Buoy in the bonfire heat?
Does the wind have spirit
Yes there’s a chance
Is that why a breeze
Stirs my soul to a dance.
Some answers are beyond words
As wisdom is beyond wit
There sing those temple birds
Only spirit can awaken spirit
Then should we ever question
Whether an idol has spirit at all
Or should we ask ourselves,
Does the idol move our soul?
In our darkest hours
Past all the loud calls
for help from the outside,
Marooned in a quiet desperation
We look for strength
Within
And pray
Without breathing a word.
In our darkest hours
Lost of hope for tomorrow
With a tear-blurred vision
We long for a sight
Past our plight
We close our eyes,
And pray
Hoping to see
A vision divine.
When we seek music
That’s pure and true,
We seek it
Being mute
When we seek a vision
That’s bright and clear
We seek it
Being blind
While the universe whispers
Every minute
Every moment
We drown it
In din
Day in
And day out.
Then
Should we pity
The blind?
Should we mock
The mute?
Maybe they are just as desperate
For help
As we are
In our darkest hour
Or maybe,
Just maybe,
They meet the Truth
Beyond their blindness
Eye to eye
Every moment
Maybe they hear
Beyond doleful deafness
In eternal silence
A music divine.
We live in times strange, of false claim
Of calling all we own with our own name
How far have we strayed from who we are
No we aren’t our jobs, we aren’t our car
A layer of garment that’s fit to size
Becomes a part of elegant lies
Until fickle fashion changes its way
And those perfect dresses are cast away
Isn’t it the same with that gadget too
How it brings you a thrill and becomes you
Until they come out with a newer range
And make you believe it’s time for a change
With changing trends, it only gets tough
When they say what you own isn’t you enough
And we retire our respect for all good reason
Lest we commit an economic treason
If your identity is determined by all the rest
Your power will be the easiest to divest
And if all this tamasha feels odd and absurd
The time is ripe to steer your course inward.
Beware of that hypnotic popular call
You feel momentarily big, but, forever small
Seek instead that priceless core
Set out, discover, and bring it to the fore.
It won’t be easy as all forces seek conformity
As your deviance is deemed a deformity
But follow you must, beyond all fuss
The undeniable light of your inner compass
And though you might wear an old-fashioned dress
And wield tools that might fail to impress
You will shine in glory, and get way far
In the journey of discovering who you really are.
There is a bird I’ve known for far too long
Only and only by its silken song
As much as I’ve tried to find her perch
I’ve ended up with a fruitless search
It sings melodies like a bamboo flute
While picking and eating berries and fruit
A nameless friend that brings such joy
Yet I know not if it’s a girl or boy !
But one fine day when it stopped singing
My voice, my words, they went missing
For all the penmanship, everything I wrote
Was a quote of the birdsong note for note
With a longing ear, its song did I seek
I waited for a sign many a week
In agony I wondered ‘Did I lose my muse?’
And in mourning I penned down my blues.
With that outpouring, painful and tragic
Emerged an element of elegant magic
I heard its voice note for note
The bird sang the blues I just wrote
It said, I am sorry to have disappeared
I grew afraid of thoughts you too feared
Was my spirited song, a daily drivel
Was there meaning at all in tales I tell?
Bird, I told, you are timeless art
Each of my word is a dipping dart
Aimed at pinning the essence in your song
The pursuit of all artists all along
As bright as you imagine my feathers to be
Your words are light that invite me to see
The silent surrender to art in pursuit
The beauty in song that’s beyond refute
And so we mirrored each other’s thought
Together did flow past the creative clot
We traded our thoughts as we must
And never argued about who stopped first
And we found a vision along with our sight
The bird sang aloud, fearlessly did I write
To tell tales in tandem became our resolution
And I named the nameless bird,
Inspiration.
© 2024 Sreenath Sreenivasan
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