A Poet Departs

The news read: Well known poet and intellectual, Vijay Nambisan, passed away yesterday after prolonged illness.

I am no poet with my feet, I think, firmly on the ground. But muse, however weak, occasionally strikes

This Body That Confines

Sad that the spirit eternally seeking freedom is finally free

We can no longer listen to its voice

The words of beauty about integrity and privacy

Sad that ultimate privacy is beyond the body

Does one need to get beyond the body

To find oneself as Gurus and Seers

Keep telling us? Or does the body

Sustain the inseparable spirit?

The Yogi tries to train his mind

To master the body and search

For that real ‘You’ and attain

Eternal bliss, or so they say

Why does a poet feel compelled to find

Ways to succumb to all the temptations

Abusing his body in his search

For that inner, illusory spirit?