By Arts & Culture, Poetry June 7, 2013

What the Elements taught me

Earth taught me
to live with all, to outlive all,
to evolve from season to season
knowing stasis is death,
to be ever on the move,
within and without.

Fire taught me
to be aflame with desire,
to dance, dance, dance,
turning everything into ash,
to sanctify the world with grief,
to light up with meditation
the granite’s heart,
the ocean’s womb.

Water taught me
to ooze unannounced from
eyes and clouds, to seep
deep into earth, into bodies,
adorning both with buds and blooms,
to strip myself of name and place and
merge with the magnificent blue
of memory’s last horizon.

Air taught me
to sing , bodiless, through
clumps of bamboo, to prophesy
through leaves, to lend wings to seeds,
to be at once a caressing gentle breeze
and a raging tempest.

Ether taught me
to be full with the full moon
and null with the new moon,
to be the lush red flush
of dawn and dusk,
to be everywhere and
be nowhere.

The elements taught me
to be part of all,
to be detached from all,
to be forever changing forms
to be finally freed from Form.

 

( Translated from Malayalam by the poet ), 1995

 

 

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