Patterns Poem by Kishore Asthana

Learning to talk
Learning to walk
The struggles of youth,
Then romance
Followed by the mellowness
Of spiritual calm

First the dance
Of the body,
Then the prance
Of mind and heart
And, finally the warmth
Of the soul

My Gods and demons
Churning away
Past the problems
Past the riches
Till the nectar
Of immortality emerges

Sagar manthan
Repeated
in fractal patterns
Again and again
On many canvases

The toil of life
The foil of love
And finally,
..........finally
The magic elixir

I tend the fields
As the young grape
Starts in my vinyard
Ripens, and then
Ends in my tavern
Guided by the divine.