April 18, 2009

Old Lady

She taught me with her abysmal eyes,
Of lessons, painfully, in time, learnt
Arcane truths etched into the mounds of her furrowed skin,
Assorted wrinkles, of life's wounds, thick and thin,
Teach me, i pled, for my heart yearns to see,
Past life's pain and pleasure,
What life means to be.

Is happiness a rumour tattled between divine ears?
Is man's ego an inversion of his greatest fears?
What lies beyond the orchard of life? Death?
Brute cessation or a lasting breathe?

Why do you smile old lady, in the midst of life's troubles and toil?

She sunk to the ground beneath her, saying
hither i came, and I will return to this very soil

Happiness is a state, not a smile, pleasure, or a laugh for a while
Surely, life is a stranger to stillness, so do not exhaust your hearts hope, sadness will leave just as it comes, and it is meaning that will help you cope.

I smile for a thousand meanings.

I smile for a thousand reasons.

I smile, said the old lady.

I smile.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Her smile is full of sadness...the wise old lady..

I wonder what represents happiness now, if even the smile represents otherwise...

H

Mohammad Hadi. A said...

haha

*beginning of ramble*

no..do my poems always speak of melancholy? no this wasn't meant to--its a true story of a lady, who was smiling, but had (from my perspective) every-reason not to be overtly smiling. So i asked, and she responded. what i understood from her wisdom, was that life is worth smiling for, there are plenty of reasons to be happy and grateful and that we only live once and we will soon return to our maker--happiness is a state we can either perpetuate or stifle.

of course, life is not a steady continuum--its full of ups and down, that certainly nature will have its course, sadness will come that we cannot help--there will always be reasons to be sad and similarly there will always be reasons to be happy.

many a times, we have the choice between the two and that will determine weather we smile one morning :) or frown another.

and when sadness waxes its higher meaning that keeps us afloat and reminds us of our strength

and ultimately our happiness

*/end of ramble :P*

peace

Anonymous said...

لئن ساءني دهر عزمت تصبرا***فكل بلاء لا يدوم يسير
و إن سَّرني لم أبتهج بسروره***فكل سرور لا يدوم حقير
The wise old man said...


...I think we'll have to hold the stick from the middle...*smiles*

H