Transience, Life’s Spark

Dr. O. P. Arora

 

Transience
beauty and effulgence
opulence and resurgence
melody and cadence…
Permanence
shrugs and staleness
boredom and bitterness
ennui and indifference…

Life’s fascination, compounded by its bewildering mysteries
transience turns it into baffling uncertainties…
Transitory happiness, you long for its zing
temporary sorrow, you hope to clip its wing
dark and light, fill us with mystique and glow
hope and despair, we look for tomorrow…

Dating and romance, sweet and sensuous
burns man hot and lascivious…
Marriage to the same sexy beauty
turns you cold and hazy
Her rosy cheeks suddenly turn pale
her tell-tale eyes no longer tell you any tale…

Thrilled by the beauty and elegance
you got a villa facing the fall
boasted of the sprinkling fragrance
joy on the plates gave your guests a big thrall…
Oh! No time for you to have a glance
you sip coffee, alone, and yawn in the hall…

Life’s uncertainty gives you a mystical lore
you yearn to excel, before you go, still more…
If this were your permanent abode
you would prefer to defer things to explode…
Aged and ailing, immortality becomes a stinking drain
You would pray to God to draw the curtain…

Even our greatest, who were beyond Time’s mace
craved release from the fret and fever of the frames…
The Pandavas, renounced their status kingly
chose to walk on to the heaven sagaciously…
Rama, having played all his roles majestically
Thought of the Jal-samadhi in the Saryu stoically…
Krishna too, having lit the light of Divine Fire
Knew well it was his time to move on gracefully…

Death, inevitable, moksha from all pain
your grudges against God and the world, end in gain…
Transience makes the earth green again
Permanence would turn it horribly plain
Change heralds hope, keeps alive dreamy strain
Excitement and zeal, in the new hive born again…

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Dr. O. P. Arora, a well-known poet, novelist and short story writer. He has taught in Delhi University for nearly four decades.