Remaining high above the soot
That swirls within one’s caput
Secrecy is finally lifted
Showing how far one’s eyes may have drifted
From the tapestry’s intended design
It isn’t a suffocating confine
Like an entombed mind
The lot of the ignorant among mankind
The wings keeping happiness aloft
Don’t need to flap when the mind’s empty and soft
Such a mind is of breathtaking beauty
Unlike the one burning with desire, which makes it sooty
In that smoke filled room
Thoughts that aren’t heeded to, fume
Setting up a great debate
Whose outcome determines fate
Most are an accommodating lot
Letting thoughts define the plot
Making life unpredictably hard
Even a minor twist can catch one off guard
Riding one such wave after another
A trait that cuts across cultures
It ossifies the mind
Unable to bend, it is left behind
In a bygone past
Lording over memories amassed
Rummaging through those piles
One creates life’s testing trials
How does that matter to another?
When each and everyone has to weather
The same self imposed constraints
That generate endless complaints
The days are filled with one’s own troubles
With many more yet to bubble
Quelling those flames
While striving to fulfil cherished aims
Consumes every waking hour
Such a waste of a great power
Somewhere within is a creative genius
Patiently putting up with all this meanness
Forcing ourselves to take sides
Who decides?
It’s worth taking a step back
There is little danger of a blowback
Each thought wants to create its own universe
Using the senses to rehearse
Such plays abound
But none of them may expound
The deeper secrets
Which will leave one speechless
For an eagle eye to spot its prey
It circles high in the sky, a mile away
The eye of attention
Is the vehicle of ascension
From land that’s finite
Into space that’s infinite
That has room for one and all
It is an unmeasurable sprawl
Accommodating every whim
Whether it is uplifting or grim
The menu of choices entice
No doubt, but it always carries a price
With myopic vision, it’s tempting to get close
Setting aside remorse
Comparative study only happens on this ground
Rising to a higher orbit, this blue marble will surely astound
It’s not only an astronaut who experiences that transcendence
But also anyone who has caught a whiff of the essence
When it’s remnants are scattered everywhere
Why is there such despair?
When eyes pick and choose notions of beauty
They deviate from their primal duty
Which is looking for the unity
And seeing all life as one community
Every life form is a tender shoot
Whether talkative or mute
Even birds flying high
Need a place to rest, other than the sky
The earth provides it all
A silent witness to the rise and fall
Of tides and waves of humans
One gracefully ebbing, the other not so fluent
Kicking and screaming at the two bookends
Of life, living out the in between without making amends
Who loses? Not the earth
Ultimately reclaiming every grain that is added to one’s girth
It is never rushed for time
Following the orbit that was set long before the first clock chimed
That legacy is embedded somewhere
It is found when mind is used as a tool, not a comfortable chair
Only in twilight can that be mined
When the body and mind are not confined
To live out life by the light outside
And the darkness under one’s hide
When the two combine
Another light is bound to shine
Teasing the inner gaze
Which may struggle through the haze
Buoyed by the weightlessness
Of one’s own consciousness
A state is reached
Which cannot be read about or preached
Rendering the mind soot free
And reaching the eternal is then a guarantee
- N. Seshadri
