Bookman Or Gourmand Poem by Ananta Madhavan

I want to know everything.
I want a study filled with books
From floor to ceiling. I want the time
To read them, mark them, return to them
So many times that I shall have distilled
Their essences and mixed them.

I want to have travelled, known people,
Animals and plants, enough to be able
To write books myself. I want to have
Mastered the sciences, looked through
Microscopes and telescopes;
To arrange all these things in boxes,
Then take them out and make
A great bowl of stew, a philosophical broth.

I shall serve myself big helpings
From a huge soup tureen with a bucket-ladle
On to a basin plate.
I shall lap it all up, slurping, slurping
Like a hungry cat.

- - - - - (1967)