A LIFE AND DEATH PERSPECTIVE
Living and dying,
Should not be deemed as surreal;
They are both so real:-
The crucifixion was real;
Likewise, was the ascension:-
Living and dying;
Physical realities,
Canvassing the soul:-
The soul sowing the spirit:
Is not Christ still here with us?
Never fret dying,
And being retired from life;
Spiritual pension waits:-
With washed feet of love’s labors,
Live and die in God’s glory:-
Life said to death,
I make people live and thrive.
Death said to life,
I make them barely survive and die.
On and on they went;
Back and forth they said:
I fill people with joy and gladness.
I fill them with pain and suffering.
I give them hope for tomorrow.
I give them grief and sorrow.
I fill them with songs of melody.
I give them songs of misery.
I teach people that there's life after you.
I tell them that there nothing after me.
When time shall be no more,
I offer people eternity.
When time shall cease to be,
That will be the end of me.
An engineer's uniform
sparked a child's imagination,
and, one strange and early morn,
he was in a railway station.
An old man lost in reverie,
couldn't begin to understand.
His cloudy eyes could barely see
a young lad's outstretched hand.
There, beneath a station clock,
by knobby cane, supported,
all choked up, he couldn't talk -
how was he here transported?
His railway watch, long unused,
hung from a chain of gold.
Thro' stained-glass windows' light diffused,
he saw a palm outstretched to hold.
Then, like a railroad car on a mobius strip,
a child woke up from a mystic dream,
as an old man dropped in the child's grip,
a watch, and vanished, dead, like steam.
Beyond the boundaries of life and death,
My friend forever, you have positioned yourself
In the sublime horizon of my heart.
Your majestic shrine glows with a light,
With what a profound hope and immense delight,
I extend my arms to the powerful expanse.
The quiet night has embraced and draped
Your feet with her sprawling dark hair,
How enchanting is the song the universe is immersed in!
Emanating from the strings of your veena,
The world becomes one with the tune of your music,
I feel a tinge of melancholy emitted by the sadness of the melody.
flowers bloom and die
natures cycle -- life and death
rotating beauty
"Am I truly living?"
Death whispers to you:
When you close your eyes,
Death was there with you.
When you open your eyes,
Birth was there with you.
Yet, we still ask:
What is life, and what is death?
Have we not lived through it
Hundreds, thousands of times?
You know not death, even in dying,
Just as you know not life, even in living.
When life and death
Kisses
The limits of time, dare to live.
In the moment, and not get trapped;
Into an abyss loop, where routine
becomes repetitive motion in a
delusional dream, where weightiness
Needs release from a thousand memories.
Your book of life opens without permission.
Then collapse into transition, given a sigh;
Is it a relief? Or disbelief. This life’s lived
In each breath, so breathe deeply where
Everything fades through blurred tears.
No matter how many years! Shadow fears.
Of those ephemeral years, entwine vapor.
That every heart beats: Sojourn, sojourn!
This kiss unites wholeness and clarity.
Now clothed in divine brilliance.
Where light rests: in humility.
Eternally, eternally all clocks unwind;
To be rewound — a life untethers to be re-bound
Old eyes forget the forewarnings wisdom teaches;
They widen to look anew where experience beseeches
Set sail into the ancient light anew—
Adrift upon a mirrored sea of stars and lulling waves,
Rocking steadily and toward an enlightened litany
Of ideas and shapes that mould us as we wake,
In loving arms and eyes that behold us
And each little breath we take,
One new timid star, shining amongst so many,
Outshine and out-reach the distant rims;
Cast an urging light for our daunted whims
Held in check by the shackled limbs,
The instilled deprecation that dims.
And let my eyes unbind, aglitter—
The horizonal-line—
Trans-destine—
And free.
An iteration—
A fantasy—
Adream midst destiny—
A new you, a new me.
Life got the best of me
...death got the rest of me
limbs dance in a breeze
as I gaze out the window
seeds are planted and in
time a garden grows
soft winds say rise
from once dormant ground
and a cover of compost
flowers sprout and grow
and stretch toward the sun
from death new life found
I look out the window
see a goddess burdened
by the bag of seeds she carries
the morning inspired
an act of love
*off-sonnet form
Life is the sound of children laughing in the morning,
Death is a silence that never speaks.
Life moves fast, it loves colors,
Death stays cold, it does not need the sun.
One grows like a young tree,
The other comes quietly to end everything.
They never walk together, even when they are close,
Because one is light, the other is stone.
But life always beats before it falls,
And death always waits without a word.
Even if a fierce rain subdued at its core beats against me
do not open the window and welcome it
Even if a wind bowed and gently gathered comes seeking me
do not unfold the crumpled memories
Even if wrinkled years pull at my shoulders
like the ebb tide drawing away do not look back
When death like a mothers embrace murmurs softly
hold it while sharpening the dulled life
Fold life and death together
Along doth death walk with life,
Along doth sharpen its knife,
Going far all along the way,
Together life cycles they slay.
_____________________
Sanskrit Translation | 20.01.2026 | death, journey, life, liberation, quatrain
Note: Some quatrains called shlokas in Sanskrit are known as Subhaashhitams, words well-said. This one from Ramayana on life, death, and liberation is thought provoking. It says, death takes its journey all along with life. It gets born and reborn along with life. And during lifetime, together do they work for liberation beyond life and death. The transliteration follows.
saha eva mrtyuh vrajati,
saha mrtyuh nisheedati |
gatvaa su-dirgham adhvanam,
saha mrtyuh nivartate || Ramayana-Valmiki ||
On an old tree, cranky and high, Hung this pathetic and chaotic life, As charming as a golden ripe fruit, Yet as hard as the rocks beside the mountains.
Often, as the tide draws high, Footprints of desperate, grasping men Scoured its root, Seeking the magnitude Of the endless gains of life.
Life is frail, yet so beautiful. Days are like the sun, But they grow dim when nature calls. Death ushers into a realm of solace, Yet life struggles, Fighting to stay in a futile battle. Nothing is too much a gain or loss, Not even the earnest fight Against the unprecedented escape from death.
Do not take too much or give less, For life bears its own scale of weight, Balancing your ways With dictates that may be insufferable.
Still, this pathetic and chaotic life Doth have something to offer "The best heaven we see now" Though hanging on an old tree, Cranky and high.
Oh, death
You skulking bastard
Why doest thou hide
As life struggles
To be free of you
Escape your torment
And life
Why must you linger
On the edge of death’s scythe
Fading ‘neath the darkness
Of his rancid robe
Oh, life
We cling to thee
Yet still you fail us
And death’s
Ignoble presence
Cannot spare us
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