Tuesday, October 26, 2010

THE VASTNESS AND THE NIGHT

The Night had a
Captivating Vastness to it.
The Vastness of
Allure
Liberation
And
Fufilment.

The Vastness
Held the Night,
In a death-like grip.
A tantalisingly tentacled strangle..
Whilst cradling it,
In the tar-black swampy blackness
of its "Nightness".
Solacing it well,
Into the wee hours of Dawn.
Till the Night vanished,
Into the Vastness
of piercingly blinding Light.

Did the Vastness engulf the Night?
And devour it out of existence
Stripping it dead?
Or did the Night
Simply get elevated
beyond the parameters
of being Alive?

Now remains, only Vastness..
Beautifully expansive
And
Eerily vast
Stretching away into
Infinite Unlimitedness.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think nightness means all the difficulties of life...we should overcome all the problems and move towards the light..then to the eternal path of moksha..these two are interconected i mean nightness and vastness...even in Geetha bhagvan says there is no existence for both independently..light and darkness...the vastness is the brahman...when darkness falls light is just around the corner...it is not going anywhere..so whatever be the situation just move on...into the light of heaven...which guides us through the darkness...if we are morose just look into the vastness of all the opportunities aroung us..it is waiting for us..and if we realize the greatnes of vastness then no fear in life..becos it is the ultimate brahman..

nishaa said...

@ANONYMOUS
It is always interesting to read how one poem can hold so many different meanings within it depending on the reader's frame of mind.

Yes,like you so aptly mentioned Night or darkness can signify the problems,the hindrances or obstacles on the path-way of life...and Vastness the light towards which we should aspire to move...and like you point out Vastness can also mean Vastness of opportunities when things look bleak on one front...like they say when one door closes another opens!Vastness is always present to cheer us up when we are made morose by Life.

I especially found very profound this line of yours "Even in Geetha bhagvan says there is no existence for both independently..light and darkness"...it is a deep line which encompasses the essence of spirituality...light and darkness,pleasure and pain,laughter and tears,ups and downs...contradictory or opposing emotions form the basic structure of Life and make it what is...and Equanimity of Mind amid all these ups and downs,highs and lows is the true hallmark of an advanced spiritual soul.

Anonymous said...

Saphires of Solitude

The poem The Vastness And The Night is a meaningful monologue of heart.The title suggests its rich symbolism.The poem encompasses an idea,a metaphysic.

The traditional imagery of the poem involves whole spirals of meaning and acquires a haunting,universal quality.It can be read as the epic of the Soul and the lyric of everyday life.

All modern poetry is sustained by the living waters of our racial tradition and by the continuing breezes from the West.Travelling in the no-man's land between Illusion and Experience man must harbour the chalice of Self-knowledge.There is then hope that sometime out of this tartarean darkness will rise the dawn of a new life that will take one to the regions of unending bliss.

The poetess attempts to tell anew in the contemporary idiom the familiar Gospel of Christ-the universal Christ,everybody's Christ.Nothing dies in the realm of God.

The poem can be read as the apocalypse of the passage from darkness to light as enshrined in the famous Vedic prayer "Tamaso ma jyothir gamaya" as also from the present death-in-life to a life of fulfillment.

This is a poem of becoming,the night into the vastness.The poetess enumerates the images of the cradle,death-in-life,life-in-death,solace,the fierce old mother,thus bringing life and death together.

The poem ends with a mystic affirmation.The last stanza sums up the essence of the Shanti mantra of the Upanishads("Om poornamada poornamidam")proclaiming the omnipresence and omnipotence of Brahman(Cosmic spirit).

The message?Individual man still carries within him the seed of future perfection.Man today feels crushed by his seeming insignificance(The Unbearable Lightness of Being-Milan Kundera).But the human adventure is not ended.Life is worth living still.Hope beckons,Grace is unfailing.Man can exceed himself and grasp at the power and the glory that await him in tomorrow's world.To reach such impassioned verse that articulates robust faith in a future is a tonic after a diet of decadent modernism.

nishaa said...

@SAPPHIRES OF SOLITUDE

Firstly i think this critique is so brilliant that it outshines the poem and elevates its meaning to another level altogether.Like they say, the more brilliant a critic or a reader is the more meaningful a poem becomes! I think your comment is worthy of an analytical critical commentary of its very own.

The basic idea of this poem germinated from the lines of Robert Frost about the well-travelled path and the path less travelled.Though the well-travelled path does provide solace in its "safeness",paradoxically it is also a slavery.There is no worse tyrant than the safe,conforming,well-travelled path which one follows out of a fear of non-conformity.

And when an individual hides in the darkness and blackness(Night)of conformity, the Vastness of non-conformity and the sense of liberation and fulfillment which it has to offer never ceases to hypnotise and cradle his soul and almost strangle it with magnetic unease...

Ultimately Vastness or the path less-traversed remains just that..a mirage,and like you mentioned almost an illusion...or maybe an oasis in a desert of conformity..giving us a few moments of greenery in an otherwise barren life of total conformity.

vibha reddy said...

hi nishaa,

wonderful to read a poem that takes me to another world.

if u remember me, you used to read my articles. i happen to read your comment again and remembered you

vibha
http://dreamz-r-forever.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Heres what youll find in this packageI want that literacy rate in our country should be hundred percent, we should leave no stone unturned to achieve this target This game could end up being very difficult whether it happens, but the Steelers really are a more complete team compared to Raiders and may probably dominate the clock enough to win appears like they crave added in precious stones and added gold to bless the following year's victory Relations that exists in every Nigerian university is terrible, most times teachers find it impossible as a result of fear to knock at the doors of lecturers offices because they may just be asked to walk away for reason at all, good or bad Step 7 crucial to our success
The warfare can heat as very much as volcanic temperatures if it's in between division rivalries, such as the Jets versus the Dolphins or even the Eagles versus the GiantsSeveral of these sports goodies are MLB jackets, NFL hats, NFL throwback jerseys, NFL reproduction or genuine jersey and modified NFL jerseys The Buccaneers team name was written in a new font, Totally Gothic, and was either red with shadows of pewter or red and white You will discover 32 different Nfl teams from everywhereSearching for cheap airfare through websites You can search for cheap airfare through websites like These jerseys, although they represent all very reputable players in historical past, simply look superior However, as of now the NFL years are over for most team and for most fans
9 team selected, became the first Chinese player Accessories: sunglasses, tie,belts,jewelryBills trainer Chan Gailey stated, If I benched everyone for each dumb error that was created, there wouldn be any instructors or gamers available because we e just about all created dumb errorsOn the interpretation side, the interpreter should be court certified, preferably The following year he finished the season with 71 tackles and seven interceptions and was voted to his first Pro Bowl

[url=http://www.redskinsnflprostore.com/josh-wilson-jersey-elite-c-6_41.html]Josh Wilson Jersey[/url]
[url=http://www.officialtexansfanstore.com/kareem-jackson-jersey-cheap]Kareem Jackson Jersey[/url]
[url=http://www.nikebroncosjersey.com/nike-peyton-manning-womens-jersey]Peyton Manning Youth Jersey[/url]

Anonymous said...

top [url=http://www.001casino.com/]online casinos[/url] brake the latest [url=http://www.realcazinoz.com/]casino bonus[/url] unshackled no set aside bonus at the leading [url=http://www.baywatchcasino.com/]loose gratuity casino
[/url].