The Glance of Joy

 

The heat of the day knocks me over.

I feel tired with words

With actions and of being.

Hours later,

The night birds resume 

Their trumpets of merriment.

The return of the night

Fills my home with peace.

Now, a freshness knocks me over.

The sun's light is what the world loves.

The day fills people with joy.

Nevertheless, the night birds

Cheer up and so does me

At the declaration of night

By the setting sun

When the moon bounces in

And throws a smiling glance.

Tranquility takes a fresh shower

To live, to love the night.

When the day collides with me

Something pricks me over

Whispering muses of reluctance 

Wanting to run away from 

Humiliating human spaces 

Clothed in humble coats of sanity.

I find sanity at home

Where I could be me, the real me.

Yesterday evening, when I woke up suddenly from an evening nap, I could sense the night slowly beginning to embrace the sky. The sky that was fed up with the sun's heat. I mused about how much I love the moon. And how I've always loved it. I instantly wrote this verse which happens to slightly express my joy in the glance of the moon. The smiling glance. After one and half hours, my mom called me to be a spectacle to a stunning sight. Something I'd never seen till now. Something which doesn't happen often. From the outhouse, we could see a line of clouds in continuum, with only the upper periphery of the cloud cluster visible, in which one couldn't be identified from the other. The upper margins were illuminated with bright golden light, something which is very rarely seen in the natural world. Just like a stunning painting or a perfected piece of art. The boundaries were glowing in light, out of which the moon slowly emerged, spreading light onto the remaining parts of the cloud cluster. Within minutes, it sprang up to the top of the cluster, the full moon blazing in light. It was so heavenly that the moon could never be more beautiful than this. I know that I haven't done full justice to the original magnificence that we saw. Because words cannot express it. Or at least I'm helpless in painting the exact experience in words. Seven minutes of bliss. No history, no painting, no music would ever cross this beauty. Every human medium of expression would fail in portraying this sight in its totality. We had seen the full moon before, we had seen the moon gliding up, but this was so different from all of them. Even my mother said that she had never seen such a beautiful vision ever in her life. This is no exaggeration. It was as if all that crushed you, all that troubled you melted away in a moment. Limitless joy wherein you simply would like to dwell. It was as if the happiness left in this world was concentrated in the moon. It was as if the verse lines I had written one and half hours before, reflecting my love for the moon's glance, had touched her so much that she badly wanted to visit my place. Or make herself visible in every possible way, extremely draped in beauty. 

Sometimes, you feel happy all at once through passing moments when you least expect it. Sometimes, happiness is searching for you to hold hands with you. To pace up and down through the green pastures of your life, crossing streams of your being. Sometimes happiness comes to you all of a sudden. And at times, enticed by the comfort of despair and dissatisfaction, you tend to push the happiness away, accusing it as an intruder. All of this is human. It's not about absurdity, it's not about you being a boring person, it's about being human. And it's ok. After all, through moments such as these, happiness would find its way towards you. Towards you, the wonderful human being. Once it does, celebrate. Live. Live the moment.

- Vinaya Mary