Shades Of The Season Poem by Ananta Madhavan

They know the seasons, those plants and buds,
What time of year they should shed their leaves;
When it would be right to put forth on the branch
Some blooms of mauve or pink or blue.

I am wont to get up a little before six,
When it is dark and I must count my steps
To the balcony, ninety 90 feet above the road,
And raise my arms in prayer to the sun.

Our January mornings have been dark,
And at sunrise cloud-mist has drained
The bright inaugural of light to proclaim
The splendour of another chance to live.

Shadows cast no shades or shadows;
But light on solids of three dimensions,
Pours down on poles to elongate their height;
Thus enabling camel-borne travellers

In vast Saharan dunes to know the hour
And distance to the oasis destination.
I look on treetops and their sharp shadows,
Blurred into softened shades of sunlight.

Those who are shadows change into shade
Before they meld into the dark.


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January,2017, Mysuru, India