Forever Taking Leave Poem by Ananta Madhavan

We are perhaps alone, each one of us
Isolated in a separate ‘Is-ness',
Which may become, when we die,
A ‘Was-ness' or a ‘May-be' sentiment.

Poet Rilke had an elegiac simile
Of a trudging climber who has reached
The last hill, and beholds from its top
Deep down below his miniature village,
As if it were a synopsis
Of his own life in a fleeting video.

All the lost, unremembered trifles
Of the daily grind, the routine drill
Of shades and shadows, vanities and aches,
The sharp complaint of aching muscles,
The spine eroding; even the irrelevance
Of all his opinions and novelties
Flitting across the screen of mind.

These and plans unfulfilled are, like the vale
Far down below the last hilltop,
Spread out to view through mist and haze.
Had he come this far, this high
Only to linger in fond and rueful farewell?
Not so, poet, each life is unique.

- - - - - - January,2015


The reference in this poem is to R.M. Rilke's 'Duino Elegies',
the last stanza of his Eigth, (1923) . He was a lyrical poet
of Bohemian-Austrian origin who wrote lyrics with a mystic-
philosophic content in German. Translations in English are
available on the Internet.