From default yes to designed no
O to live life in relentless outreach
And still stay put, stagnant, nowhere to reach,
To struggle hard, getting not so in hand,
To feign busy as if a butterfly,
Or a productive bee nevertheless,
O to say thoughtless yes in place of no,
To make hurried choices on onward ho,
And still fail to find meaningful flurry
Amidst meaninglessness of life lived in hurry.
What need be done not so in life to fret
Is slow to say yes, to deliberate,
Not so quick, vacillate nor hesitate,
A secret to live life free from regret.
‘Wish, I’d courage to live life but my own,
‘And not lived per someone’s expectations’,
Some, terminally ill on deathbed, wish.
A firm and deliberate no often
Saves one from a thoughtless and a suicidal yes.
And oftentimes to opt what not to do,
More telling turns out O than what to do.
Homo sapiens are we, for, we can think,
And humans, not apes, for, we well can choose.
Why, one wonders, man opts for default mode,
Over a more proactive design mode.
For, less is often more, even better,
Why not that be the choice, a chosen mode,
Mere invitation’s no reason enough to go.
Let’s chase nothing in life nigh meaningless,
Nor forget to pursue the meaningful,
Nor miss out what’s central and essential
In blind pursuit of things peripheral.
In focusing upon the dead knickknacks,
Not to forget what’s alive, very life--
Things ever so meaningful and blissful,
Not deceitful, truthful, nor beautiful,
And say a deliberate no than a quick yes.
________________________
Blank verse |15.02.2025| life
Note: This blank verse in iambic pentameter by and large, each stanza of nine lines, the ninth line being a hexameter.
Copyright ©
Aniruddha Pathak
|