Charlie Chaplin - Making A Living Poem by Ravi Panamanna

(Peeping into his boyhood days
as I go around his places in London after reading his biography) .

As I pass these inns
I am searching for The Kid.
As I cross these London streets
I am into those whispering winds.

Peeps in through decades a sobering face-
From the window of the Pownell Terrace,
From the corners of the Kennington Park,
From the darkness of the Lambeth orphanage.

In the silence of that Oak Street home,
I am listening to a mother's hymn-.
And from these meadows I pass a glance-
Cain Hill mental asylum is a lingering pain.

A broken childhood, deepening sighs,
Divided parents, penniless days.
As I pass the Norwood, Han-well schools,
I am living the moments of his life.

As the West End wind kisses my chest
A lovable tramp whispers unto me, that
‘Life is more than Making A Living;
Life is more than the charms of Limelight'.


13th January 2018.