Between
Between the detachment of a leaf
and its falling
Between the thrown stone
and the shattering of the mirror
Between the rolling rock
and its landing
Between the bee's touch
and its sting
Between dozing
and deep sleep
Lies the lapse
between
life and dying.
Words and I
Words trickle
And build a nest
Little by little
In the fore of my chest.
Words patter
On the roof of my mind
And pen a letter
To night and sunshine.
Words pour
And awaken my heart.
They shout and roar
Then dash like a dart.
Words spout
From the recess of my soul,
They cast doubt
And there wisdom sow.
Words are like rain
That announces the crop.
They soothe my pain
And beckon me to the top.
Transcendence
The silence of memory
Is sweeping the swelling waves of time
I am a humble, downcast slave
Caught in encompassing incomprehension:
People come and go
Like tumbleweeds along the road.
Uproot your fear and come along
For nothing will remain, nothing will avail.
I am tied to the invisible:
My roots transcend the earthly soil
They are entrenched in heavenly, ethereal sands
A deluge of blessing pours
Into my heart and lets the upsurge
Of remembrance refresh my way to death.
Uproot your fear and come along
For nothing will remain, nothing will avail.
Time will go on
Whether you're poor or rich
Young or old
Time will go on
Whether you're red or yellow
Black or white
Time will go on
Whether you laugh or you cry
Whether you go south or north
Time will go on
Whether you're speaking or dumb
Whether you're blind or sighted
Time will go on
Whether you're tender or harsh
Just or unjust
Time will go on
Whether you're a king or a serf
A genius or a blockhead
Time will go on
Whether you're single or married
Famous or unknown
Time will go on
Whether you know it or not
Whether you agree or disagree
Time will go on…
The death of a tycoon
For fifty long, long years
He strained and slaved;
Drudged and struggled;
Slogged and sweated;
Toiled and laboured;
Strived and …. Died.
He purchased cars he was too busy to drive
He ordered planes he scarcely flew
He bought houses he did not have time to live in
He acquired ranches too remote to visit
He paid for furniture he hardly ever saw
He procured antiquities for mere show.
When he passed away
Neither the cars, nor the planes
Nor the houses, nor the ranches
Nor the furniture, nor the antiquities
Wept for him,
Nor cared a fig,
Nor felt sorry
Nor even knew he had died.
Their silence eloquently proclaimed
That the wealthy and the indigent are
Equal beneath the shroud.
The deserted university building
The former university building
Has been coldly deserted.
Its walls and corridors, hushed and muted,
Are silently moaning and sobbing.
The doors and windows mourn
The hustle and bustle now gone.
They dimly echo the cries and laughters,
The words of love and passion
Of students in lonely corners.
The lecture rooms are forlorn:
No more teachers scribbling on the boards
No more students taking quick notes
Layers of dust cover the floors
Spiders, hunging down the ceilings,
Are spinning their killing webs.
The staff room is like a desert
Bare, barren and disconsolate.
The university library,
Enigmatically dumb and mute,
resembles a headless lady
Lying lifeless and disfigured.
The cafeteria is sad and still
It is thirsty for companionship,
Hungry for warmth and tenderness.
The lift has come to a standstill
And is transfixed downstairs.
Like a gaping toothless mouth
It stands in its steely solitude
Withdrawn and taciturn.
The locked university gates are
Absorbed in meditation.
They want to understand what has come about
But the only thing they seem to know is that
Anyone who enters is doomed to come out.
If in the same spirit
We may live in the same continent
But be ever discordant
We may live in the same homeland
But be deeply divergent
We may live in the same town
But be daggers drawn
We may live in the same flat
But be worlds apart
We may live in the same room
But never be in concord
But if we live in the same spirit
Then never shall we part
Irony
They buried him
Beneath the tree
He'd planted previously.
The tree was delighted to
Shake roots with him
And burrow joyfully into
His responsive body.
This unilateral greeting
Infused the tree with vigor
And enhanced the green of its leaves
With glamour and sheen.
The one God
I looked at the sky
And asked:" Who made you so high?"
It replied:" The one God, of course."
I stood under a tree
And asked:" Who made you so green?"
It said:" The one God, of course."
I gazed at the blue sea
And inquired: Who made you so vast?"
It replied:" The one God, of course."
I looked at myself in the mirror
And raised the question:" Who made you upright?
Who gave you emotions and thoughts?"
My heart replied:" The one God, of course."
The sun, the moon and the stars
All gave the same reply:
The one God, the one God!
From whose breath we all start
And to whom we shall return.
Words and I
Do words swim in me or I in them?
Are words the sea and I the fisherman?
Are words a forest and I a tree
Or I the forest and they the tree?
Do words crowd in me or I in them?
Are they the door and I the key?
Am I the head and they the tail
Or I the tail and they the head?
What I know for sure is:
When I am gone
Words will remain!
