The Lord will lament

The Lord will lament

P K Routray

In the Himalayan terrain

despite immense physical strain

the saints wander to be wise.

The nature acts as their teacher in guise.

Their calm composed posture

incited me, a desire to nurture

to spend some time in such a forest

to study “ How do the wisdom there saints harvest.”

With this burning desire once I took a break

to wander in the forest ignoring the physical ache.

One day while on my daily visit in the mountainous terrain,

Lo! I beheld a beauty, the thrill hard to explain.

It was a snow lotus dancing on its stem at its best

as if its beauty and fragrance fulfilled my quest.

Being forgetful of the frames, the lotus and I am born

I started a dialogue with it, the snow lotus the flower we adorn.

“Hey Lotus! Why do you blossom in such isolation

where to sing on your beauty and fragrance there is none?

With a gust of breeze the lotus on its stem bent towards me

as if to tell “Hey passerby! I am not alone as you see.

I enjoy the nature around me with its plethora of treasure,

its height and purity with blue umbrella above to shelter.”

To my vexing question “If I pluck and crush you”

It bent further low as carrying its fragrance the breeze blew

as if to tell with humility, it will go to the dust happily satisfying me

but scattering its fragrances around everywhere with glee.”

I thought for a while to pluck the flower and bring it as a prize.

but the lesson learnt then thus prevented me as I became wise.

“Beauty is to be admired but not to be used, possessed or destroyed

lest the Lord, the creator will lament for the greed creating the void.