Re-cognising

Pure home-made ghee
Fragrant with timeless love.

A unique family stew,
with particular vegetables, lentils
spices and herbs...
made especially for me.

Colourfully aglow flowers of Rangoli
that bloom just outside the doorway,
every dawn.

The Beauty of Nature,
drenching pages & pages with ink,
and webpages with blogposts-

A gentle and composed smile,
Or the quiet tears of hurt,
Righteous anger that corrected,
Followed by immediate embrace.

Ever-expanding activity-
A proliferating message of Love,
and a passion for all-
Compassion, encompassing...

All the earthiness of Earth
As only a mother can hold.
Do we have it in us
To really look at her-
And hold her just a little bit-
As she does us.

Lest it becomes too late
For humanity to say,
Mother, I love you too.
At least as much as you do me.
Lest it becomes too late
For humanity
to act from Love.

And recognise that we,
are the missing parts;
Of the puzzle that is She.

- 26th June 2021, reflections from the previous season of Purnam Cafe (theme of contemplation and conversation: "the pattern that connects us")

Behind

Antness of  the ant

elephantness of the elephant

natureness of Nature 

humanness of the Human

deathness of death

lifeness of life.

Plunging deep,

into the heart of form,

into the core of Earth;

into the core of me --

burning there. 

Would that dissolve form? 

Can something be created 

out of nothing? 

Clay and potter --

Her creative energy

her hands

skin and breath,

the smell of wet earth,

and its texture-

mingle on the wheel-

round and round and round... 

and breathe life as one. 

what gives life? 

the mud? 

the potter? 

the wheel? 

all of them swirling together? 

They all seem to matter,

And yet, they all are but matter;

material of life,

that move around a centre.

(What is it that breathes?) 

Who are You? 

What are You? 

Behind. 

the mind cannot but help,

take recourse to what it 'knows'

what it believes--

brilliant as that recourse is.

swirling and churning,

the material of life -- 

Words in a book,

still not what they denote.

And yet... 

Krishna tells Draupadi

in a letter-

on a thousand-petalled golden lotus: 

I am Infinity. 

I am your unbreakable bond,

with everything else.

I am your Arjuna too.

The universe is,

but a reflection of me.

I AM. 

Who is this I then? 

And what can the I create? 

I am an infant

searching for the new 

to come out of me,

while all that there is,

It already is. 

- April 2021

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A poem evoked by the essay, "Why Exhibit Works of Art?" by Ananda Coomaraswamy, which had been in discussion at Purnam Cafe.