To make,
To fashion is
To give appearance
To that which had existence
But not a life.
To make or fashion
A thing,
Is to simultaneously
Make or fashion
The maker.
The made
Is like the born
It will live amongst us
And alter our lives
In some or the other way.
The made
And the maker
Are of value
Not for the profits they supply
But for the stories they create.
Because when the made
And their makers are gone
All that is left behind
Is the memory
Of how things were.
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.
Time
Be gentle
To innocence that
Fails to see the virtue
In simply being.
Our hearts break too easily.
Our pride instantly dissolves in shame.
Our faith gets convicted by belief
And is then ever afraid to be free.
We insulate ourselves in hard coverings…
We become what we are
Never meant to be.
We seek a happiness
That flowed away with our tears
And then dried up.
Time
Be gentle
Teach us how to recognise
That eternal source of love-
The love that is unconditional
In its presence
we are just what we are…
Pretence is not a need
And becoming is not a band-aid
For a wounded innocence.
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 look at myself
A product of
Circumstances x Ideas…
I begin to make a mental note
Of all those
I feel distanced from.
A Ted Talk this morning
Presented a strong case for
Asking the right questions.
And so I ask not
Why I moved away…
I ask: What other horizons beckoned me?
Our reasons for
Nearness or farness, as it were
May not exist within our relationships…
New ideas brought me
To new circumstances
…And to new relationships.
Don’t accuse me
Of carelessness
Or of falling out
I was always listening to you
As you spoke
But were you listening to me?
Couldn’t you tell
I was thinking
Of new things?
Couldn’t you see
My circumstances
Were changing?
Why make a relationship
A constraint for being
Or for becoming?
Now that we’ve grown apart
Can you recalibrate
Your expectations?
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.
Let go
Of all the excess of life
That has stuck to you
Pare it down.
Remove. Trim.
Give away.
Walk away from sounds
That drown
Your own voice
Reject words
That are untrue
Coming from you.
Listen to your silence
Look at what’s left
When all is gone.
Befriend that residue
Cherish it;
Treasure it.
Aloneness
Is not to be foolishly grieved;
It is to be intelligently valued.
Don’t compromise the time
With yourself
For some base company.
Know where
True fulfilment lies
Value yourself.
Life will, sooner or later
Bring you face-to-face
With your own disdain.
Your prejudices will stand
Before you in the mirror
You’ll come to see
You are all that
You had once disowned.
You’re afraid-
Now that you can see it-
That you stand exposed;
And minimized.
Before you can get others
To accept you with this ‘flaw’
How do you go about
Accepting yourself?
When you reject another
You also reject yourself.
Life is disinterested
In your distinction and
In your individuality
But tune yourself to the world
Stand not in judgement, but in harmony
And you will be revealed to yourself.
Why must it be
That every lie
Be shadowed by doubt
Because it contains within it
A grain of truth?
Are all of us
Speakers of a truth
That is only partial;
That in the expanse of life
Is but a grain?
Ask yourself
Is your truth unaccountable?
Is it inexpressible?
Does it need to create a lie
To be true in the first place?
And then,
Can such a truth, be true?
Can we find at all
A lie that is entirely true and
A truth that is not a partial lie?
Wit. Wisdom. Wonder... 