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Masks We Live By: Philosophic Outburst

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by Raja Sharma


  Never did I realize how it happened!

  All that counted: 'One' means go many ways.

  Compulsion, uselessness means lot to me,

  I will pass away like a scholar high,

  Ere long new class will spell 'I', 'We', and 'He'.

  Truth never taught, nor teacher brave to tell,

  SHOW with or without wisdom is to end,

  Some more life Alexander did yell!

  Chapter 23: Fibrils

  A zealous ant working to build a hill

  Delights me no less than

  An old man setting his own house on hill

  Shows the measured life-span.

  A child striving to climb a box and hold

  Enthralls me no less than

  A young winner atop a podium with gold

  Brings smiles to the whole clan.

  A bee collecting honey in a hive

  Touches me no less than

  A father, working for palaces five,

  Who passes to past man.

  A tiny wisp of a seed being a tree

  Means lot more to me than

  A beautiful nymph dancing proud and free

  Fades out with tan gone wan.

  Me, my mind, meanings mine for all to mine:

  World with wild weanlings vainly thinks to shine.

  Chapter 24: By the People

  A modern Macbeth somberly attired,

  Surrounding macaques all cleverly share.

  Macaws in all parliaments hardly tired

  Of painting macabre now everywhere.

  Lady Macbeths smile and fly in glory,

  Unheedful of the whines of distant roads.

  The approaching drums of time feel sorry

  To remind the stories of painful loads.

  Tenure ends and protagonist is changed,

  with fresh promises in new bottles of death.

  Own is all and others chessmen in range

  To be hired and fired in classified breath.

  Now I wait for Duncan's Resurrection

  To mend damaged bliss with Godly action.

  Chapter 25: I Take Chance

  Divide people, mar the race, see dark dance;

  Don't ask me to join, for I mere human

  Dressed like you, away from you, I take chance.

  They gave name, I spoke tongue they said was mine,

  This tribe this form that God all came to me,

  Then if I borrowed renounce, why they whine?

  Leave me alone on my own all I care!

  Lost in life, living dead to whole your world!

  Let me make place in rhyme for all to share.

  Peers will peer from poesy that I write here

  Pounce refute reject while you've time now

  Pray, don't bring this along when there we near!

  Chapter 26: They will Say

  It's a son; it’s a daughter, they will say

  Give all Glory to God, sing and be gay.

  Potters begin shaping unformed new clay

  Love, anger, joy, changing moods of the day.

  The gardeners will see fortune's display

  Offspring leaving home one dark dreary day.

  The syringe of delight waits for the prey

  This modern life will bring its own decay.

  Young harsh words they'll wish child'll unsay

  Pierced hearts will never real hurt betray.

  Dancing dear daffodils'll seem like hay

  They'll claim these are not the flowers of May.

  The old grim reaper will hold final sway!

  We sent a beautiful child, out to play!!

  We had a darling child, the tears will say!

  The future's not fair, we can only pray.

  Chapter 27: Perchance

  Hold me tightly, perchance this be last tryst

  Haply in life never again be kissed.

  Fate ordained these fleeting moments to us

  Discern me closely to heart's content thus.

  Perhaps this very night by you be missed

  Haply in life never again be kissed.

  Come closer, for I'll never come again

  Embrace me so that eyes could shower rain

  lest our love's this divine drizzle be missed

  Haply in life never again be kissed.

  Hold me tightly, perchance this be last tryst

  Haply in life never again be kissed.

  Chapter 28: An Added Player

  This life I live was once the sperm,

  This mind in a foreign book.

  Thoughtless sperm found a mate,

  Being one they looked for a gate.

  Did parents know me when close to mate?

  This form I have was once unknown,

  This voice in ether heard alone.

  Mama gave first word to speak,

  Now she listens, only I speak.

  Did she know when about to teach?

  This Mr. So and so was once the sound,

  Sound they make and Lo! I found.

  Sound ‘n’ I have things to share,

  Words are only that I care.

  Did you wait for this added player?

  Play your role and say Goodbye!

  Don’t think much, “Who am I?”

  Chapter 29: Pain Gain Shame Game

  Pain, pain, lasting pain,

  Go find some satanic abode!

  Would that you never crossed this path!

  Gain, gain, lasting gain,

  Release peace from horrific hold!

  Would that love changed your devil's wrath!

  Shame, shame, lasting shame,

  Find salvation never be born!

  Would that no one had love betrayed!

  Game, game, lasting game,

  Leave my true love in a pious form!

  Would that love was eternally played!

  Chapter 30: Abaddon

  This world to me is only undesired

  Transient smile, a heard sound merely wordage.

  The unheard melodies divine, untired

  Flow from Master to this ignorant page.

  Father to me is a failed Daedalus

  Striving to accomplish aberration.

  Icarus vanishing into blue rush

  Mocking at follies of human creation.

  Labyrinth of worldly struggles and strifes

  Leaves me with a deep mournful sigh of grief.

  Now family, kingdom, or nation thrives

  With a cabal's assent in journey brief.

  Judas, Brutus, Iago in harmony

  Playing symphony higher than Babel.

  Abaddon I live in, sad and gloomy

  Pretending a smile, sharing the table.

  Chapter 31: Life Divine

  A step of yours, a step of mine,

  Two souls one being make life divine.

  Your coy smile kindled first pure hope,

  This dark priest's only love in prime.

  Shedding reason's fictitious cloak,

  Plunging in your eyes wasn't a crime.

  They saw your visage in my eyes,

  Altering clime raised love sublime.

  They heard you in my lover's sighs,

  With your name's sound my eyes did shine.

  I curse the time that made you turn,

  Winds of change brought a change of mind.

  Unseen rival caused hurt and burn,

  Thought love betrayed but I was blind.

  I prayed and begged but all in vain,

  I couldn't sing lovers' song of mine.

  Bade adieu, never came again,

  But I am waiting for bell's chime.

  A step of yours, a step of mine,

  Two souls can still make life divine.

  Chapter 32: Own Kind

  "Tiny ant that left the hill digressed,

  With antly pride it distanced from the rest.
/>   In a graceful flight a swallow saw it,

  The swallow swallowed it in direct hit.

  Hawk-eyed hawk harked the chirping of delight,

  Curved claws picked it cleanly for longer flight."

  Thus Godly angels shared stories of earth,

  Various tales of creatures they told with mirth.

  Lord God and Gabriel heard and simply smiled,

  With one creature's ghastly deeds their hearts cried.

  "Yours are parts of nature's perfect cycle, dears,

  One is still there, and he brings only tears.

  Tachyon he tries to find to reach divine,

  Machetes and guns his means of human crime.

  He is the one who I repent to find,

  He is the only one who kills his kind."

  Chapter 33: Daily Armageddon

  Pandora's play in pious world

  Gives rise to doubts in modern mind.

  Grecian tales of glory I heard

  Now to believe them is hard grind.

  Shepherd's wave caused a great turmoil

  BC to AD did time change.

  Resurrection would mend all spoiled?

  Generations passed, world deranged.

  Pagan's armoire fictitious pearls

  Palanquin carrying bride yonder.

  Eastern wail on these shores unfurls

  Unnumbered deads see I wonder.

  The Scriptural end of life here

  Was a grand saga I was told.

  What worse can now come? I don't fear

  Daily Armageddon all behold!

  Chapter 34: Catch the Bird of Truth

  He trudged along, deaf to the worldly strifes

  When at bottom, lure too much to decline

  Every step leaden, some regrets and sighs

  Yet, Mill's wanderer impelled him to climb.

  Treasure-Trove of Muse imagined when young

  Bard, Milton, Yeats, and others kindled fire

  Lyric divine in glory never sung

  He knew yonder golden globe was dark mire.

  Sounds, words, phrases, beads of his fine garland

  Decked with all the beauties his prime poesy

  Many a bald head called it castle of sand

  His glass filled, back bent, his cheeks not rosy.

  Time will take its toll and he will acquiesce

  Strewn lines haply Keats' pal will pick one day

  Will epitaph show how his struggle cease?

  Will Frost stop by now with elegy grey?

  Chapter 35: I am always all Ways

  Then land was green: they sang aloud

  No chaos seen: he saw no crowd.

  Happy Adam and Eve in prime of time

  He heard no keen: they felt no proud.

  They called him all: he was the time

  He saw them fall; he saw their line.

  He witnessed the death of Abel through Cain

  They called it call: he saw decline.

  He saw it clear; he saw it plain

  They all were near; they all felt shame.

  Many false Aron now disguised as priest

  He did not fear; he did not gain.

  Age passed by him: he saw each beast

  No mood no whim: no West no East.

  He stands at a point of inconstancy

  Some shine some dim: cruel he cares least!

  Chapter 36: Shadows of Love

  Dreams are on the wings that mock us,

  And love a whisper among leaves;

  Bliss of Shepard's love beyond us,

  Truth is now like dry barley sheaves.

  Hope like waning breaths leaving us,

  Clutching at every spar we cry;

  Echo our sighs come back to us,

  Sad souls, damp spirits, and dry eye.

  This poem is dedicated to the great master W.B.Yeats whose poems have always inspired me to unfathomable limits.

  Chapter 37: Wandering

  Deep in the valley of flowers

  Once I saw her smile;

  Waves of hair, lotus of eyes

  A vision to beguile.

  Ensuing dreamy long nights

  With unsound sleeps in the dark;

  Morning lines on paper

  With scribbling hand, a deep mark.

  Decades of my lonely wandering

  In the valley of flowers;

  Revealed new buds of poesy

  And I gazed them for hours.

  Hair streaked with gray, mind still

  Lost in deep valley of chase;

  Few sad breads still remaining

  Ere they call me past phase.

  Chapter 38: Africa

  A mere shadow of a body to eyes

  Hunger and fatigue the visible attire

  The world gleefully burning in hellish fire

  Will Divine descend to the mournful cries?

  Sad eyes look for a grain in the parched land

  Ravenous landscape wants more brine of eyes

  Heavenly water before it falls dries

  Mouth the grave of words, a waving dark hand.

  Will the lot of dark continent ever alter?

  Will Luther's voice call White God from heaven?

  When they will not be gnawed by deadly raven

  When skeletal child will never falter.

  Chapter 39: Every Desdemona

  The joy they had had its reason for all

  An angel, a baby, was breathing there

  A moment so divine they felt that fall

  The scene encouraging parental care.

  The mother first to kiss the girl's forehead

  An ocean so calm with currents of gold

  The father's smile bending over the bed

  Arms extending for safe fatherly hold.

  The years went past before they could surmise

  The young girl was now dancing all around

  Passing springs had made her pretty and wise

  The parental delight now knew no bound.

  The dim-lit room had only sighs and sobs

  Ma and pa weeping in their love's embrace

  What gardener feels when a stranger robs

  And a pious bud follows an unknown face!

  Sense of loss in dark ravine of sorrow

  No more calls come from their lovely angel

  Will smiling face appear on the morrow?

  Sad mother picks up her fallen bangle.

  Broken heart, shattered dreams now only friends

  Remorse, guilt don't suffer steps to go home

  Stranger, the vampire, sucked her beyond mends

  Blake's experience led to innocence gone.

  Every Desdemona in life is free

  Many a Milton repeats this story old

  I take this life with both sorrow and glee

  Every event for poet is precious gold.

  Chapter 40: Not in this World

  Angelic wings, bear these tidings yonder

  Last breath clings to lips to see her visage

  Pray, don't let my this wish turn into dust

  Lest time kill only desire, I wonder.

  What words will tell the agony of love?

  How hurt was the bodily form of mine?

  Divinity and death showed some mercy

  Left that life below and raised me above.

  She attired in her white bridal glory

  Stealthily & gently kissed my sad shroud once

  Since that fortunate blessed day in heaven

  The fairies kept me as groom for story.

  O! My deep abode dictate your soiled path

  Beware of soiling my bridal shroud now,

  For only today I have changed my clothes

  Only today taken the holy bath.

  Life did never render this peace divine

  I'll wait patiently till eternity

  I can see the light of those bles
sed moments

  When she'll amble into embrace of mine.

  Chapter 41: Lost with Epochs: Good for Poesy

  Infinite like the universe around

  Thoughts arising now unbound and myriad.

  Why then this mad mind persisted in one

  Who caused me to this deep slumber, sans sound?

  Dark life personified like Plath's "Daddy"

  Lawrence gloomy with stream of consciousness

  Windhover's splendor transient for Hopkins

  I know, for played golf being my own caddie.

  Your silken tresses fit for Bard's poesy

  Pious love vanished with lost ancient ballads

  Chastity sunk in Elizabethan plays

  Remorseless, modern, she doesn't get rosy.

  Chapter 42: My Lines

  My love wanders away

  From all that is man-made.

  Mobbed by faces on my way

  No piper under the shade.

 

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