Betty Shearman rscj | Ishpirya rscj

Holi

He stood above the impassioned crowd
strong and graceful
man and woman, both.
Fluid gestures of intricate precision
attract, repulse, draw forth again
the devotees advance, as
waves of  in-coming tide, moon-bound,
run to embrace the shore.

Untainted love dancing between him and
their longing souls inspires
this teasing play.
Krishna   Krishna  throw me and orange!
How much do you really want it ?
Krishna   Krishna  give me Yourself!
How much do you really want it ?
Spinning high in the air an orange
falls into my outstretched hands.
Share! Share! the crowd demands.
I give it all away.
No tiny piece of peel is left for me,
So richly graced
to play this night of
Holi.

Holi is the Hindu  Spring Festival. Socially, it is celebrated by mock battles of throwing coloured powder, lighting bonfires at night and much laughter.
Religiously, it celebrates the teasing play between Lord Krishna
and the village milk maids. This play represents  the intimate, play of spirit between the individual soul and God, described by Mystics in several traditions.

The  Final  Freedom

Peacefully, the dying sun blazes colour
on the  mountain slopes before me.
A shock of flame bursts open
and fans out.
But this no sunset after glow.
The Hermitage is alight!

Wild dance of wind and fire,
Lord Shiva in ecstatic destruction
leaves glowing embers
far into the night.

Compassionate dawn smoothes
the smoldering scars;
roofless ruins,
mud walls burned black.
The hermits ?   gone.

Who fired the Hermitage ?
Was it the final freedom,
to bar their
last escape ?

The mud and thatch huts built along the bank of the Ganges at Laxman Jhula, N. India were destroyed by fire on 25 March 2000.

Ishpirya rscj
Province of Central Europe