Birthday Poem by RAJ NANDY

BIRTHDAY

On the seventeenth day of April
each year,
I am reborn!
Having crossed the mid-way mark
before long,
At times I have begun to tire and become
worn!
I also require extra breath to handle,
Every year to blow out all those piling
rows of candles!
So now I keep a single one burning, -
to symbolise,
That I am well, kicking, and alive!
Having gained in wisdom, as I ripen
and mature,
Trying to enrich my life with His
blessings galore!
With efforts to purify and cleanse my
soul,
And His divine kingdom to behold!
Which perhaps lies, on the other side
of the whitehole!
In a dimension beyond space and time,
Where the souls of the dead are said
to reside!

These birthdays come to rejuvinate our
lives,
To face life with a firmer resolve, but not
to make cowards of us all,
And never to fear the Autumn's fall!
My single candle burns bright shedding
its light,
On the altar of life, and shall survive, -
The unseen thurst of death's keen knife!
For the brave dies only once in their
life!

-Raj Nandy
New Delhi
17 Apr 08