Communication

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world not possibly born until they arrive and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born"

~Anais Nin

Photo by Amitabha Das

Confessions of a wanderer

My restless, wandering spirit
Takes the greatest pleasure
Sweeping across faraway places
Searching for elusive treasure

Each new land I visit
Welcomes with open arms
Shares with me its secrets
Enchants with its charms

Stay on; settle down; people plead
Why this need to roam?
How to explain to these gentle souls
That it’s the road I call my home?

Hopes, dreams, love, joy, tears, desires
These ties conspire to bind
My soul seeks, in an onward quest
To break free, to unwind

At times want to take as souvenirs
The things that give delight
But I let them go with a gentle sigh
You see I’m traveling light

Yet some things become a part of me
Moments lived, memories
My ports of restful shelter
When I sail turbulent seas

What treasure do I then seek?
What is it that worlds encrust?
Where a single path can well suffice
What fuels this wanderlust?

I think it’s simply the journey
That sends me on my way
And some of life’s best-kept secrets
Unravel along the way

The heady heights of freedom
The depths of solitude
Can someone, not a wanderer
Know its magnitude?

So seek new roads, oh wanderer
Lest one day you awaken
Burdened with a heavy heart
For all those roads not taken...

(Inspired by Avi's post Wanderer's muse on S&C, Ryze)

*Photograph by Amitabha Das

The struggle within

It was the eve of her birthday
The party had just begun
Her friends were all around her
The air was soaked with fun

When blowing out the candles
(There were just twenty-five)
The room full of song and laughter
Made her feel so alive!

Today the voice inside her head
She was determined to ignore
So clapping her hands to the music
She twirled on to the dance floor

Hungrily she savored the moments
Drinking deeply from the cup
And again she briefly wondered
Why one would want to give up

But then the demons grew stronger
They had for the past two years
No, no one yet knew about them
She had not shared her fears

And so the voice kept calling
From dark recesses of her mind
Teasing her to step off the edge
Severing all ties that bind

The world thought she was quiet
But her world was full of noise
As endless doubt, desire to live
Battled the raging voice

Oh this pull-push was too painful
She wished that it would end
She told herself, a dreamless sleep
For sure her soul would mend

So when the party was over
She kissed her friends goodnight
And when the last of her pals had left,
Turned on the bedroom light

Then lying quiet on her king-sized bed
With a prayer to disencumber
She took a handful of sleeping pills
And drifted off to slumber...

Moving on

My dear Jane,

I've moved two houses down the lane
Where your once best friend pays heed
To my every possible need.

Now that we have parted
Let me tell you how it started.
You were busy with your job at Wal-Mart
When Rosie wormed her way into my heart.

In the evenings she often dropped by
Bringing me my favourite, apple pie
One thing then led to another
Soon, I was going to be a father!

She told me then I had to choose
And I saw I had not much to lose.
Jane, I don't mean to sound rude
But you were always way too prude

At times you behaved like a nun
Now my Rosie, she's a lot more fun!
In cooking she is as good as mum
She does not grudge my daily rum

No wars over the toilet seat
No nagging if I'm not all neat
No pestering me to mow the lawn
To walk the dog at crack of dawn

The best is that she does not shout
If I forget to take the garbage out
You know Jane, now it seems
Rosie's the girl of my dreams

She is the light of my life
So it's goodbye dear wife.
Do hope you will soon encounter
True love at the Wal-Mart counter

And if it's not too much of a bother
Will you please be our child's Godmother?

Do reply without fail
Send your reply by mail

I remain (a husband, now gone)
Yours faithfully,
John

(initially posted on S&C, Ryze as part of a 'Dear John' letter writing exercise)

On companionship

"All companionship can consist only in the strengthening of two neighboring solitudes, whereas everything that one is wont to call giving oneself is by nature harmful to companionship: for when a person abandons himself, he is no longer anything, and when two people both give themselves up in order to come close to eachother, there is no longer any ground beneath them and their being together is a continual falling."

~Rilke

(Photograph by Amitabha Das)