Before I become the truth
Must I be the lie?
Living it day in and day out
With tedious self-consciousness
So many facades to keep up
So many consistencies to maintain
What if the point of keeping appearances
Is only to exhaust me to the point of death…?
…And ‘I’ no longer exist?
Who then, will be?
Who will continue?
And what will continue?
If ‘I’ die
Who will live?
And how will truth live
Without lying?
To have something to do
Gives you a sense of worth
It gives you purpose
And continuity and
Therefore, an existence.
Time and movement
Are very important
For my sense of self-
And all that ‘I’ embrace…
I must be other than where I am at 5o’clock.
New places, new people, new projects
All of these make my life
So meaningful, so interesting, so glamorous.
Photographed memories of my day
Leave me with an entertaining sense of accomplishment.
Now’s the time to ask:
Is life the story of one person?
Can life remain imprisoned within a personality?
Without memory and pattern
Who am I? Who are you?
What new patterns are you forming?
What new memories are being created?
What new plans are being made?
As life awaits your homecoming
What are you busy with?
Things remain clean
When we persist
With the act of cleaning.
The action then,
Is more important
Than the state.
A state is indefinite
It can change or disappear
But the action must be consistent.
Persistence and perseverance
Are the only ways
To deal with entropy.
Action is the essence of life
To live , is to be
In an eternal relationship with perfection.
While you persistently act
To keep things in a state of perfection
Allow Perfection to act on you.
Life after all,
Is infinitely intelligent
And inherently perfect.
Disorder, disruption, chaos
Are surface disturbances…
Look deeper. Perfection is at work.
Are these testing times,
Or is this an Act of Providence?
We know what our losses are;
Will we be able to see our gains?
Or, will all questions
Of loss and gain lose relevance?
With the discovery of new values
Will old denominations vanish?
Will our houses now become homes;
Will our hearths now warm our hearts?
Will social distancing
Re-acquaint us with each other?
Will we learn in isolation
What good company is all about?
Will we remember over time
This spring that renewed us all?
Allow time
To take you on a walk
To give your thoughts
A duration.
See yourself
Let go of ideas
And stand free of
Their certainties.
Definitions too
Are not permanent
Love has revealed to me
Other meanings.
The future
Becomes less important;
Plans and designs get replaced
By responses.
Today’s importance
Is self-evident…intrinsic;
Small matters that suggest
Little matters.
Say a prayer
Wash your hands and stay in
Apparently, that’s a good way to end
A pandemic.
And what does today say?
…the unfolding of light
….the repetition of rituals
….the memory of yesterday
Moments left behind
Moments arrived at…
All indicate two points in a continuum.
Let me pause.
Watch change happen…
Let me see time
Work its artistry
How will things be today?
What will lose its charm for me?
What will I begin to wonder?
Thoughts like turbulences
Are pure feeling.
They often lack the language
And the voice to express
Their agitation.
Your reasoning
Doesn’t pacify them.
On the contrary,
It renders them as
Absurdities and incongruities.
To belittle something
As primal as feeling
Is to be arrogant
Of a contrived knowledge
It is to be disinterested in the truth.
To see beauty
Is to awaken
To all that is.
Beauty is not
A matter of judgement
But of absorption.
After all,
You cannot seize something
That grips you.
In the presence of beauty
The mind is silenced;
At her altar, all the senses kneel.
You stand there-
Feeling privileged,
Feeling blessed.
She won’t be spoken to;
There’s nothing
That you can say to her.
Silence becomes
The expression of your awe
And wonder.
Your words
Can’t describe her
For she is pure essence.
Not this, not that
Not this way
Not that way.
She can’t be drawn
Or designed
Or sculpted.
You can find her
Only when
You are immersed in her.
Good taste
Is born out of refinement;
Out of a refusal
To vulgarize life and
To appropriate it for pleasure.
We live confused lives
Scripted by our fickle ignorance
Our beliefs are misguided
Our values, misplaced
Our philosophy, arrogant.
We buy to own
We earn money to buy
We work to earn money
In this organization of our time
Much is lost.
What if you reminded yourself
Life is a gift to be valued
Not a pseudo poverty
Needing pseudo alleviation.
All vulgarity would be transformed…
What could entice man
If he cares not for money
And has not mortgaged his time?
And has understood that
To love is his essential responsibility.
To simply be is humility
To be engaged, but not tied
To be essential
Not excessive…
Good taste is good judgment.
I thought my relationships would endure;
They would warm my heart in my winters…
But they left me heart-broken.
I thought my work would be rewarding;
It would give me a life of purpose…
But it was all make-believe.
I thought wealth would protect me;
Be my insurance against misfortune…
But it can only pay the bills.
I thought discipline and austerities
Would protect me from corrupting influences…
But they caged me in.
I thought doing the right thing
Is the moral way to be…
But I found life to be disinterested.
All that I evaluated to be true
Turned out to be a lie…
But then, so did I.
