Retreat Poem by Ramakrushna Sahu

The sweet song of the bird
Is not speaking of it presence
Here and now only
But of its eternal presence
Beyond time and space

Nothing is permanent here
The shadow is changing its shapes
The colour is changing its shades
With the frequency
Of the moving eyelids
Even the shadows and colours
Like clouds are there now
And then not

The earthen stage
And the role you played on it
With the desir to be immortal
Are all wastes
To be thrown into oblivion
The time has no space in it
Except blankness and silence

All words, forms, colours
All thingness are the expression
Of nothingness
As the tree is an expression
Of a tiny seed
To retreat into it again

Stick therefore not
To your dreams and desires
Cast on the screen of water bubble,
Like a flower with beauty
and fragrance
Sprout and dry out with a smile
That speaks of eternity.