An ancient sea
Not the blue you normally see
Shallow wavelets
Are out of its depth here
Tucked in the depths
Are not fish that slice through water
In a place as free as air
Sleepers are unwelcome on this sea bed
A divers paradise
If one forgets to breathe
Only the weightless may rise
Out of this bottomless sea
The pressure of a chase
To a happy reward
Fueled by thoughts
That float on pleasure and pain
A periscope surfaces
Time and again
Witness to the torment
That a slip of memory brings
A speck on the surface
Becomes a giant in the deep
Fortunate are the handful of barnacles
That are a witness to this
Sand and rock
Fall to the floor of the sea
The eyes that see the deep
See a sea of a different kind
There isn’t a shell
For bottom dwellers here
Hidden on the surface
Is the pleasures of the deep
A dust storm rages
Waging a battle with the waves
Winds pull the waves up
As waves try to sink the sand
Neither reaches the bottom
For there isn’t one in this ancient sea
The fight of the sand and waves
Clouds the depths that matter
Mimicking the stillness of the deep
Hands and feet go numb and stiff
Sending waves of searing pain
Making the mind abort the search
The searchlight can be easily lit
And its direction effortlessly set
A short order of time
Is all that a curious mind can sustain
The frame grabber of the mind is always on
Sighting countless clay pigeons
Flying in every direction
Not hitting a single target that can stop the game
A secret stash of reel
Keeps the cinema houses running
Eyes that love this illusion of ever changing variety
Shun the depths of the ancient sea
In a watertight shell
There isn’t room to grow
When the portholes are painted in color
How may one see the never ending wonder?
The surface of the sea
Does not easily part
Whether battered by storms above
Or by an earthquake below
The mind skims the surf
Protected by a fleshy hull
Always hoping for placid waters
Is left exhausted by maneuvering away from an ever present tempest
Made to float
Not to dive
Holding a drop of water from the deep
A crucible for a time is the mind
Recognize the taste
Of every drop of time
Salt washes ashore
As sugar remains dissolved many fathoms under the ancient sea
A cradle afloat for a time
Spawns civilizations that have come and gone
Life forms float for a while
Like buoys with eyes anchored in place
Caught in an ocean swell
Time and life
Are finally regarded as equals
Eyes dream with the sky, while the legs struggle with the waters below
The world is an anchor
That melts with time
A rare opportunity has come
To set sail towards the deep
The winds of change
Blow only one way
When the will in the heart
Is unswayed
What could have been?
Or what will it be?
Have no meaning in the present
Every effort that’s made, strengthens the muscles of the mind
By fighting the tides of the world
A powerful swimmer delights basking in glory
A skilled diver savors the silence
Of slipping unnoticed into the depths of the ancient sea
The mind rides the arc of time
Catching its high and low points
The rise and fall are limited as waves
That roar in the shallow seas
When all the debts are paid
The voyage to the ancient sea is a given
The debtless one
Is also the deathless one
- N. Seshadri
