elation
and joy, burtsing out
like a river dammed in by pain
finally released in exhilaration
into gentle calmness
still, but
restless
to feel that exhilaration again
by bursting out
from pain,
am I doomed
to the cycle of
exhilaration and pain ?
while listening to
the dronings of wise men
about peace
they themselves know
nothing about ?
Finally you come to the joining point
of exhilration and pain
where exhilration is no longer exhilration
pain is no longer pain
the joining point of the One
….attained peace is the beginning of greater pain….
Hello Shekhar:
Our lives are compulsively lived whether we want to admit it or prefer to remain in the denial stage about it. Active minds can only linger in a state of calmness for a very short period of time, restlessly searching for the next challenge, the next thought process to work through. The moments of exhilaration are rarely accompanied by displays that invite public interest, they rather take place in the deep reaches of a person’s mind, more with a subtleness than an epiphanic (there is probably no such adjective) outburst. The feelings such moments engender inspire poems such as this beautiful one of yours. There are, of course, wise men or for that matter wise women out there whose utterances about peace are right on the mark. I like this one: ” We frail humans are at one time capable of the greatest good and, at the same time, capable of the greatest evil. Change will only come about when each of us takes up the daily struggle ourselves to be more forgiving, compassionate, loving, and above all joyful in the knowledge that, by some miracle of grace, we can change as those around us can change too.” (Maíread Corrigan-Maguire)