If You Like Poem by Daniel Trevelyn Joseph

My poem is like a star,
To notice which, you have to see
Patiently, lovingly and closely:
It is just a dot of light
But it is there, now seen
Behind a cloud of earth
Or its own, or through the cosmic dust
Across the light-years of gap
Between your and my human experience.

It stands for itself, and not
For fame or meaning or money;
Things that don’t count:
The observation or thought or feeling
Embedded may be trivial,
But the judgment is whose?

Sometimes the star shines with bright colors
Like the Canopus of the Southern skies,
The ancient lighthouse of Minicoy
Seen from ship 'Bharat Seema'
Proceeding towards Lakshadweep Islands,
Across the darkening silent seas
With a thousand tourists, many domestic.

Mostly the star-poem is still, sometimes it winks,
Rarely it flutters its eyelashes
Like a girl who has connected
And made the impact on you, and
You are not wrong to think
It is in the mind of the reader who connects.

I love to think it is sensitive,
And hence not loud, not seen
In the garish light of your busy day:
Read it at night, slowly, and in peace,
And again, and if you like.