A Revelation Poem by Shriram Iyengar

The flame rises
Past dark corridors and black ceilings
To skies unknown
The smoke moans out of windows
To be carried
On the backs of a raging storm
Across a lulled sea
The gulls fight over their fish
cawing and clawing
As the rest of the fish watch from the bottom.
The clouds hide the red sky
While the sanguine sun sinks itself.
Its bloody robes leaving a mark on the background
A lone eye loiters
Intently capturing the moment
Till the portrait becomes a part of it
A tear rolls out
Out of its fortress, stubbornly it takes form
White, spotless, pure
Every atom of its existence carrying a pain
Deep, obtuse and hidden
The pain struggles to be contained
And rushes past
Careful hands that seek to hold it
Crashing to earth
And shattering to a million fragments
Each a million more
Emitting a radiance so bright
That cannot be seen
Unless a million more eyes wake
And take in that sight
Of an immortal struggle of light against darkness
Till the sea itself washed ashore
And took with it every light that eye could discern
And the world was dark
Dark beyond darkness
A darkness that neither sound nor light could pierce
And out of that darkness
Rose a flame, its yellow tongues licking the pitch black air
Till the air caught fire
And every being was enveloped in it
The fire was all
The universe was in it
And the eye that held it, saw everything.
The vision saw what it created
And created anew as it saw.