Monday, 26 November 2012

The Edge of Life and Death


I was not aware of the moment that I first
crossed the edge of this present life, and I am unaware
of the power that exposed me into this unfamiliar
jungle like a bud in the forest at midnight.

But in the morning when I looked upon the light
I felt instantly that I was no stranger in this world

and that the impenetrable without name and form
had taken me in the arms in the form of my own mother.


And I know in death the same unknown will appear

as ever known, and since I love this life I know, for certain
I shall love death as well, for the child cries out only briefly
when the mother takes away the right breast to offer the left.

Adopted from Tagore’s Gitanjali, poem 95

Henry Victor          26.11.2012

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