Human Endeavor Poem by Sadiqullah Khan

In the early spring, when the sun has become warm
When all the trees have started wearing the green foliage
When the stems and roots grow in opposite direction
To give sustenance to life
When the birds in their breeding frenzy
Make love in open, and then return to their nests
When the chirping birds, after hours of flight
Making and beautifying nests
When the season of fresh fruits arrive
With news of bounties
And when the dry streams start flowing

Why I make so many references to nature
Why not into the deep world of the human nature
Why not the consciousness mixed with the natural existence
Why not that deep anguish of unending love
Why I do not refer to the killer hate
That separates the humanity
Why not into the deep labyrinths of the inner self
And in the dark and luminous alleys of human conscious
Why not the soul and all its accompaniments
Why has that concept of god evolved in me

Leaving aside all this,
Why I should not refer to the human intelligence
The Newton and the Einstein
The human intelligence which is the highest invention
Why I do not refer to those signatures of human civilization
Where is the collectively learned experience
The libraries and the scientific accomplishments
To the doctor who invented that drug for me
And the airplane that I travel
The modern education
Why I should not write here
The monuments of Manhattan
Which I was amazed to look at

Why I do not write about the struggle for peace
Why I have forgotten the Aristotle
The Rousseau and the Marx
Of human liberties
Why is it so that I am lost in a deeply pessimistic world
Of the unknown
Why is it that I do not look at the microchip
That has made my world so wonderful

In this early spring
I praise thee
O human endeavor to survive
To make the world beautiful
And to defeat the forces of nature
Those are alien to me
And to defeat the evil spirits
That has made their abode in human nature

Of all the heroes who have laid their lives for the cause
Of all the women and children
Who have lost their lives and abandoned their homes
The struggle of humanity
I salute the unknown hero
The soldier and the laborer
The entrepreneur and the leader too
The anchor and the entertainer
And every one who contributes
To this celebrated human endeavor
The endeavor to make the world a safer place


To strive and move onwards with a cause
I dream of a world
That is free of all the hatreds
And world that is akin to paradise
For we would like to see
Paradise on this earth