An Ode To Winter Poem by Preeth Nambiar

The music has stopped, and now there is silence all around me! People have departed, upon the bank of frozen river of time I am here, alone chilled in silence. A stage once full of cheers reminds a cemetery where the pleasures of the senses buried deep! The distant valley has disappeared in mist, upon my thin body rains the flakes of ice! Long time I am here looking for the travellers who pursued their way through this narrow banks! Its winter, when even the wind sleep beneath the blanket of ice!

Holding the root deep unto my existence, I used to wake up in the morning to wither my flowers! During the moments of deep meditations, I gave my space for the wanderers of the sky! Upon the grass grown in my shade, rested the souls tired in their voyage! My Lord, life was an inn for the refugees of time! The distant path carpeted with bright white snow is now empty! Where are they? Where is that little girl, the bright sunshine, who kissed me in the morning and took my flowers to the shrine of serenity?

There was music around me, the fragrance dancing, warmth enfolding! Dense leaves blushed by the kiss of his beloved whispered each other their heart joyfully when their beloved continued journey to the horizons! In the lonely nights stars blinked their eyes, sighed seducing to her mesmoriszing beauty! There appeared fruits upon my branches, fruits as bright as my beloveds and as delicious as my longing! ‘Take these with you', I told the passersby, ‘for you to have it on your way stretched to immortality'!

The leaves once green remain scattered beneath my naked branches. When the west wind took them far away from my vision, I wished to stretch my arms to hold them back and to embrace them once again! Alas! I am frozen in my pain! The violet flowers swayed in the lullaby of the breeze, upon which I dipped my love, has dissolves unto earth's forgetfulness! Upon the isolated valley, there appears not even a bird to fetch my longing! The colours of life merging into white-the bright white of snow!

It's January again! There appears wind touching my thin branches and I feel pain shattering my consciousness! When the warmth of sun touches my shivering body, are these my tears dropping unto the soil, or the mist that cover deepest of my consciousness? ! My Lord, take me not to another winter my flesh loose its vigour and my soul its life! Let the streams carry my tears and travel across the mountains to touch the lives in the valley and then to disappear unto the distant ocean!

And that's why the ocean is salty, but contented with life!