Poetry Friday

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Daisy Goodwin writing in the Sunday Times last week, declared that “a good poem is better for you than pills or therapy”. I have to confess that despite my love of poetry, I don’t think I would go quite that far! I do however agree with her assertion that great poets, reporting from the battle lines of the human spirit “can bring some lucidity into the chaos of existence”. In that respect today’s poem by Kabir, one of India’s most quoted poets and mystics, is a perfect illustration of Goodwin’s belief in the power of poetry.

I said to the wanting-creature inside me

  I said to the wanting-creature inside me:
What is this river you want to cross?
There are no travelers on the river-road, and no road.
Do you see anyone moving about on that bank, or nesting?There is no river at all, and no boat, and no boatman.
There is no tow rope either, and no one to pull it.
There is no ground, no sky, no time, no bank, no ford!And there is no body, and no mind!
Do you believe there is some place that will make the
soul less thirsty?
In that great absence you will find nothing.

Be strong then, and enter into your own body;
there you have a solid place for your feet.
Think about it carefully!
Don’t go off somewhere else!

Kabir says this: just throw away all thoughts of
imaginary things,
and stand firm in that which you are.
Category : Inspiration
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