The Awakening of Interest in Life

K Radhakumar

The eastern horizon is all aglow,
The dawn chorus has died down
And the morning is wide awake.
Birds are flying in all directions,
The tops of garden plants are swaying
And the scent of the flowers are wafted along
By the breeze blowing a wind of change.
Quiet dances the newborn earth
To the music of the morning
A new day to start a new life.
Feeling better after a good night’s sleep
Life wakes to a promising sky.
Out in the front garden, children are playing
Having a wild time, throwing flowers at each other
Catching a butterfly that flits in and out of bushes.
The children smile in the warm sunshine
Their eyes full of laughter
And oozing with enthusiasm and confidence.
Ah, life is full of hope.
That black mass of a hill
Stands in the distance
With the blue sky in the background.
The green bushes are a mass of flowers;
The whites and reds of the branches
The pinks and yellows of the sky –
One is reminded of the tail feathers of a cock.
The wonderland reveals hidden depths of life.

What takes one to one’s childhood days?
What makes one live in the past?
Childish pranks, lies, jokes
(That make no sense now)
The onset of spring
Of youth and life
Why are memories sweet to the core?
Does one lead a hard life?
Why does one dream and live in the future?
Are times hard to send one back and forth
Between yesterday and tomorrow –
One never lives in the present?
There is no today in the scheme of things.
Bitter-sweet taste of the harsh realities of life!
Why, one is blind to the beauties of today
The poetry of an early spring morning.