The World And I Poem by Ananta Madhavan

Rules
- - -

'Speak true', they said
And sniggered when I took them at their word.

'Play fair', they said,
Winking as they cheated me.

'You will learn the rules as you go on.
If you win, you are one of us,
If you lose, we disown you.

'If you find anything arbitrary,
Put it down to a rule you should have known about'.



Usurper
- - - -

The world is a riot of claws that tear away
Self after self.
No healing done. When I am alone,
They rush in: memos, programs, utopias,
Commands, demands, entreaties,
Cajoling, manipulations. The world is active.

I sometimes feel dispersed
In all directions, to all winds.
Yet I am here, a stubborn stump of ego.
Am I my usurper, my own survivor?
I must find out.


Being, becoming
- - - - - - - -


Unblock me, self or Soul.
I have no name, no care
To bind into identity,
My selves are roaming through the world.

Borrowed words will do,
Or no words at all.
In silence I can hear
A rhythm in the inner ear
Which needs no sustenance from sounds
Or vocables and syllables.

Keep your silence,
Grow native to the place
Of the silent soul in the slip
Of a splintering moment.

Shudder,
Become,
Continue to
Be.