Monk Poem by KATOCH P C K PREM

1. MONK

I am the monk naked
living in back-lanes,
of a holy-city unnoticed
that exists somewhere near a river.

I am a glass and still clad
in many coats of ashes,
and I chant rhythmically
prayers of life unknown,
and death with a dark cosmos.

For it is a Vedic dictum
‘Violence is no violence'
so fight within to create,
to erect a God for all
that will create a world.

Thus monastic rituals continue
and usually come and sign warrants,
with themes of men and politics
to declare open treasures of freedom,
conceived by ascetics,
for men and their Guru under a Tree.

I carry life on religious wings
and chant ‘Sangham Sharanam Gacchami.'

With the ideal of Astra and Sastra,
I create existence and God
and so this constitution unwritten,
for my democracy without
that remembers dates and not men.

(The Bermuda Triangles 1996)