Pigeons Poem by Daniel Trevelyn Joseph

Today I stopped midway on stairs of Bandra sky-walk
On the eastern side and looked southwards,
To find four men playing badminton with verve,
And between me and them a group of pigeons.

They are the popular blue-rock pigeons,
Identifiable by the broad, black two lines
Above the legs, the pink feet:
Male and female many in number eating grains

Given by some kind soul, every morning.
One male I saw courting a female,
With the usual lowering of the feathers
On one side, circling and ready to mount.

But the female kept weaving her way among others,
And the male kept chasing without succeeding,
And then the female flew away under the Sky-walk
To the western side and far away.

The male had a momentary disappointed look,
But turned to push another male out just like that.
Just then one bus in that Kalanagar bus stop nearby
Changed gear loudly making these hundred pigeons

Hop up all by a foot and when noise of gear was over,
To descend down to pick up the remaining grains.
The gap was like that between two heart-beats.
I was happy to see nature's shock at noise pollution.

Thought I should capture the moment, and since it was
6 30 am and I had no camera, and I am not a painter,
Nor sculptor, I decided I would try to write a poem
When I go back home, and if I remember to do so.

Continued my walk of four kilometers, and on way back
I found equal number of crows, like the Aryan invasion
In the north-west of India so many millennia ago,
Standing one side of these pigeons, who continued.

By tomorrow I shall complete my sixty eight years,
Perhaps complete the Pleasures and Perils of Ageing
Out of Time, the book by Lynne Segal -
Really, I have enjoyed my seventh decade so far!

Despite all the health events like sub-arachnoid
Hemorrhage and second angioplasty, diabetes and BP
I am very happy, trying to strengthen my memory,
Shifting the importance from reading to implementing!

I have earned more during the last few years
Than during the 37 years I have been in the IAS.
And with more scope for doing what I like,
Watch the pigeons feeding I count above everything.

My wife and daughter sit with me taking coffee
Every morning and pamper me with love, and sometimes
Criticism, I am learning to take without getting
Angry not even inside, saying with Tilopa to Naropa,

'Shut firm the mouth, and stay silent.
Empty your mind and think of naught.
Like a hollow bamboo, rest at ease with your body.
Giving not, nor taking, put your mind at rest.'

Do you know 'if the mind
When filled with some desire,
Should seek a goal,
It only hides the light?

(Or that) although the Mind is
Void in essence,
All things it embraces
And contains'?


19 December 2013