The crushing weight of a waterfall
Creates an impenetrable wall
As mist gushes to meet the sky
The landscape becomes a feast for the eye
Every waterfall holds its own secret
Hiding caves that may be sacred
Seen only by those who can brave a dangerous cliff
When eyes close, one gets a whiff
But that vision’s blurry
What’s unseen leads to worry
A sedate river becomes a gushing curtain
Chipping away at rocks, slow but certain
A river’s course doesn’t mirror seasons
Set in its ways, it does not offer reasons
It takes a fall when the road ends
Gathering water drops it wends
Its way to the welcoming sea
Which promises to set it free
Not before it has survived rapids and waterfalls
Nature does not provide coveralls
A waterfall is just a brief interlude
Noisily pouring forth, mostly in solitude
Except if it's the Niagara
It’s unrelenting force, as dangerous as the hot sahara
Everyone lives through a daily deluge
Of pouring thoughts, from which there isn’t safe refuge
There’s a choice to walk away, from that waterfall in the mind
It would open a hidden blind
The world’s no more seen through a noisy wall
The inner one is much vaster than the outer sprawl
Why limit oneself to a narrow neck?
Where thoughts rumble, there is little one can do to check
Loss of the truth, getting buried in the frothy mess
Caught in the swirling eddies, it limits true progress
Like the inevitable mating of the sea and the river
There will be a time, each one melting into the universal giver
Playful nature at it’s best, a waterfall’s a bump and a skip
Never held up as a bargaining chip
Unlike the flow of thoughts, when they are dammed
The mind becomes a joyless space, appearing cramped
That’s never further from the truth
Uncovered when wisdom springs, in old age or youth
It isn’t a struggle when one gives into the current
With a burning desire, that’s fervent
For union, becoming the one who’s always alone
It cannot happen when one sees losses to bemoan
A river leaves waterfalls behind
Leaving memories isn’t that unkind
Giving into the magnetic pull of the self
It is hard to hold oneself
Glued to the mesmerizing waterfall
Of thought, that disappears come nightfall
Unlike nature’s variety
When it comes to natural law, there’s extreme piety
Day or night, a river hurtles to its destination
Forgotten by the mind, when it reaches a comfortable station
When thoughts ricochet in a stagnant pond
The lone witness will never respond
Looking for impersonal beauty to unfold
That isn’t set in a cultural mould
There is so much beyond
When shallow thoughts are seen as a muddy pond
They smudge the lens of true imagination
Turning life into a scripted dictation
Over a waterfall, every drop is fresh
It’s the present moment in the flesh
Futile to hold it back
Few embrace it’s relentless attack
In life, many waterfalls will have to be navigated
Before one becomes antiquated
Each requires a fearless leap of faith
From memory’s wraith
Only then may one see the open seas
A salty brine, that doesn’t harbor man made disease
A waterfall can only be enjoyed when one’s downstream
Amidst calm waters that appear to have lost steam
But the pull of the current is relentless
Leaving the astute breathless
Anticipating the union
The leaves behind every confusion
Leading to the fall of the mind’s iron curtain
One fear not, it is certain
Nature’s guile will find a way
When the waterfall of thought is cast away
- N. Seshadri
