“At times a total comprehension has overwhelmed me.
At times a perfect communion with everything has filled me with ecstasy.
At times I have broken through my reveries and seen reality in a new way.”
– Excerpt from Chapter 5, Intimations of Meaning, Silo’s Message
They would burst upon me, catching me by surprise, richly colored and highly charged with some emotion or fleeting thought, insight, and realization. Words to capture those moments bubbled up and I scribbled them down on a small notebook I always carried around. Many of them came out entirely as haikus. Here are three…
THREE HAIKUS AND A BACKSTORY
#1
A Sunday stillness.
Not even a leaf stirring
Nor a bird chirping.
#2
White clouds hovering
Low over the rolling hills,
A soft spell lingers.
#3
Sitting, quietly
Under the shade of night—
Two fireflies arrive.
BACKSTORY:
It was a difficult year. The future looked bleak and grey, the days flat and featureless, each one seemingly the same as the previous one.
On the surface, life was fine.
I had a good paying job to fill the days and pay the bills.
I had a comfortable home of my own, a family to look after and two children who were growing up as well as they could in these turbulent times.
But my mind had deserted me and my feelings were numb.
I had this sensation of being gone from myself, absent for stretches of time.
I was going through the motions as if on automatic mode. Coming back from time to time to check out things, then blanking out.
I was sleepwalking, somnambulating through expanses of dessert-like days and black, dreamless nights.
But yes. There were vivid moments that stood out starkly against the monotonous surface of things .I began to look forward to those moments, wondering when and where they would arise.
Those brief shining moments studded an otherwise difficult time, guiding my passage through.
Looking back, I realize that those moments, crystallized in the form of short three line poems, were moments when I was standing in the presence of Meaning.
Notes:
#1. Sunday Stillness. Bird on a tree branch image from Pixabay.
#2. White Clouds. Rolling Hills image from Pixabay.
#3. Fireflies. Lampyris noctiluca image from Pixabay.
