Yesterday, Today, Now Poem by Ananta Madhavan

Day by day I begin to wonder
What is it that I have passed through?
Was it time, and is yesterday the Past?
How can tomorrow begin as today
Unless I deem it so?

Is it a cyclical pattern of beats I can count,
Called ‘Adi tala' in my beloved Karnatic music?
‘Adi' the primordial, ancient beyond history.

The heart-beat continues. In that pattern ‘tala'
A listening hand is primed to wave
At the sixth and the eighth interval.
The eight beats of a pattern called ‘Adi'
In classical Karnatic music is a set count
For the tune or voice or the tonic sequence
Of melody or modulation. That hand wave
Is called ‘veechu' in Tamil, a void, as if
It matters not if we mark the digits.

The song has its own interior rhythm,
But the music maker must evoke it
With utter devotion to the Muse,
Sarasvati, not numbered syllables.

Icons and sculpted images are fine,
But the musician must transcend
The scope of song and fretted strings,
To find the measureless rhythm
Beyond the bounds of time.

Waking up is to find one's inner rhythm,
Today is Now.