The End Of Poetry Poem by Bipin Patsani

(For my toiling brothers)

So long as there is life, there is goodness.
There is goodness
Surrounded by evil and darkness
With all its ugly profundities
And thus, there is suffering,
The invisible ‘yes' lost in the visible nothingness.
The more the suffering and penance,
The deeper the realization, the storm.
The greater the pang, the better the meditation,
Sharp and intense, the law of Karma,
Savitri standing in the court of Yama.
And then contemplation,
The Phoenix rising out of the Vedic Havan,
Spreading its wings and gliding
Through the blue sky,
That is vast, open and calm.
The bed of arrows is then transformed,
Feels soft and velvety, floating in space,
The kingdom of joy, pure poetry,
The song of freedom and glory.

II
And there in the kingdom of joy,
In the kingdom of heaven
Vision is so clear, so pure and beautiful
That you see the ceremony of joy,
Light and darkness smiling in happy unison,
The visible and the invisible,
All screened before you.
There you enjoy each step,
Each action and inaction,
Watch and wonder like a child unquestioning;
For in the kingdom of heaven
There is no question, each point
Each dark-hole shining with brilliance.
No darkness, no light;
Since darkness is light, light darkness,
And you see the vision of God
As a divine child with all radiance
Smiling his magic smile, and you see yourself
In that child as in a crystal stream,
Doors opening on its own,
The prison, Vasudev and the new born
Emerging one and the same.


(from poetry collection VOICE OF THE VALLEY,
Writers Workshop, Kolkata)