Showing posts with label Poem. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Poem. Show all posts

Tuesday, 10 October 2017

Poem The Valley of Division

The Valley of Division 

Taken in the Cradle of Mankind, Gauteng, South Africa


I’m tired of mustering up the courage
to be myself
So far
its proved to be
                                                an elusive beast
I’m not sure
it even exists

I thought there were treasures
shimmering
 in the cave of my soul
nothing tepid
brutally pristine

But every time I stooped to pick one up
dust
flew through
my fingers

My soul facing its earthly life looks out
through vitreous eyes 
filtering

layers of shoulds and oughts and musts have occluded my moon

Seventy seven times have I skinned myself
looking for me

Each skinning leaves me raw and stinging

Every time I look into the mirrors of eyes I see a different me
so which one am I?
There is one man who…
one man whom I can call a liberator…

when I look into his eyes and he into mine
I see nothing
but light
no edges to myself
So why
can’t I stay
in that vision?


What is it that draws me back
from staying there in the light?

Yet
I return to
the valley of division.

Tenderness wells up and tells me

to listen

Be – not your self –


just be.


Sunday, 15 April 2012

Heart Radar


Heart radar sweeps
acid white line
strips shadows away
The field is clear

Sonar echo senses
submarine contours
in heart terrain
The field is clear

Sodium torch
scours the perimeter
fences unbreached
The field is clear

Flames frame face
by fireside revealing
still waters
This heart is clear

This heart turns
This heart is free
One axis
One praxis
Prophetic

(Sultan Bahu, Garh Maharaj, Punjab 2010)

Wednesday, 11 April 2012

Fan hums 'One'

Often when I go
to wake up my daughter for school,
I lie next to her for a bit.
Today I did.
The ceiling fan was turning
languorously, humming lazily,
crescendo,
diminuendo,
and slowly the pulse
drew my attention.
As I tuned in
to the ball-bearing drone,
I heard it say
'We are one, we are one'.
I smiled.
Then tried to hear it differently.
I couldn't.
It kept on humming
'We are one, we are one.'