The Happy Wanderer

  “If there were no poetry on any day in the world, poetry would be invented that day. For there would be an intolerable hunger", poet Muriel Rukeyser once wrote. How true! And yet, the most poetic thing about poetry is how its beauty can be steeped in oblivion in a matter of minutes.  Readers and poets question themselves time and again- "Do we need the poems that take minutes to weave and minutes halved to read? Do we need poetry in our lives?” I’ve asked that question too. And I've found the answer. We need more poetry in our lives. Poetry is like a placid stream- gentle on the surface, bubbling, spouting. The swift verse is the fountain; its creation, in a matter of minutes, the work of months’ thought flexing and wrestling to find the best way to manifest.  A thought sparks up in dim light, And wedges past several footstools To transform into a lingering piece. Toadstools bright with color Deck the narrow course  That the thought pursues And impart their color t...

"If you want to leave your footprints on the sands of time... do not drag your feet", Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam wrote with flourish. As the relevance and bearing of his wise words sinks in, I am reminded of the times the feet inevitably drag themselves on the sandy shores, the deep, solid marks they leave in the moist sand while the hand scoops up tiny, patterned conch-shells from the wry scalp of the sand. I am reminded of the moments that I have spent standing at one spot, allowing the breeze to blow around and against me, and watching the waves gush in and ebb away towards the setting sun. I am reminded of the quiet reflection that accompanies the imprinting of a shallow footprint in the damp Earth. And that is when I realize, merely by taking this line at its face value, what its meaning truly is. That one doesn't leave behind footprints on the sands of time by dragging one's feet- by rushing, flippantly flitting from one place to the next, checking off boxes without kn...