Why Nature Is Always Silent Poem by DEEPAK KUMAR PATTANAYAK

Except in summer and early winter
Sounds of weeping and shouting I hardly hear from her
Through lighting, thunder and rain
That she sometimes thinks of unloading emotion
In this humble way and then goes into long silence
Lest she might hurt her children in peace and stress
And until the downing of notes of rain again
That if so she wishes to roll on in days between
She goes serenely silent, serenely silent
For she is a philosopher, thinker and a great saint
How fair she looks when she is awake
While waves after waves of violence follow to break
Her in the face of many a fierce, barbaric and passionate note
Of noises civilisation after civilisation without remorse and regret
Inflicts her upon and she bears down with patience and compassion
And how fair she looks when she is asleep while stars and the moon look on
I listen and gaze only to find her being reigned by a strange silence
Like a shy lady who always loves to stay in guise
Of a newly-wed bride
And we love now and again to peep in her abode
Of eternal beauty matchless throughout this universe
Hidden so deep our mortal eyes through can't see
Bridled audacity coupled with imposing simplicity
Christen her amongst the immortals as the mother only
Whose children she counts
As her graceful ornaments
Wearing them she looks so gorgeous
And losing them she looks so cheerless
Flushed with the pride of a skilled workwoman
She is seen
Consummating this earth a paradise
Silently amidst streams and hills
Woods and meadows, flowers and thorns,
Ocean and sky wherever we see and meet our footsteps
O beautiful dear nature
With calm surprise I wonder what you are
Your elegance, grace and loveliness
No less a model you look when you are afoot with green shoes and a cap bluish
Wandering jasmine and honeysuckles
And rocks and clover fields
In pensive reverie
That I stand awed and am at my wit's end to see
But your silence that you carry along with you always
Haunts me day and night like a shadow not turning to sunrays
And wherein I see there lies a bit of sadness
And in sadness silence
Is it your children defying your admonition so mild
Being impetuous and unbridled?
Or is it the commotion resulting from violence that your children
Inflict upon you time and again?
Or is it your children forswearing the divinity?
For they are living in an age of science as the sovereignty
Or is it the wickedness of some
That causes flowers droop at prime?
Whatever it may be I find time
To take peace home
While watching your fairy hands
Transforming a bud into a flower in silence
And woods naked and meadows grassless
Come alive and fresh
With verdant robe and velvet green
As if donned by your delicate hands unseen
And to sustain youthfulness ever
You bring seasons successive as if spring now or never
And there is grandeur in every event
That you bring fills my heart with great delight
And all in silence happen
The bird so full of life alone
Carols in the woods and the flower at morn
Unfolds its beauty alone in my garden
And the trees unfold their
Buds in mysterious hour
And the stream hurrying away where to as silent as a winter's night
And I might forget myself but not a waterfall like that
As walking hundred miles with a lonely rain
And down the path come the wind like a wolf howling and moaning all alone
And the sea could I but wonder
Your blue depths cold and silent and how deep you are
And the stars how wondrous is your silent speech
That I love so much watching you twinkle is my ache
O my dear nature I am speechless
My head goes down and down for you in reverence
And it seems your silence is nothing
But solitude from where comes vitality, life and our healing
What can I say
And what can I do for you but pray
That when I shall be cold, silent and withdrawn
Make me a flower in your garden
And a star in heaven
From where I shall be lighting you and your children
Forever
And forever