Sounding out initial pain
the voice forseen from another domain.
Separate realities search and refrain,
one escapes the midnight train.
*
Tension bites the rivers edge,
driving forceful like a sledge.
Can not the vision be pierced by thought?
Then why oh why have naught?
*
Escape me shadows to and fro
let emotions come and go.
Leave them alone and they'll go home
so the story tends to show.
*
In a whirlwind clustered thought
with an echo and all I've got.
Tempt the virtues, I'm not there,
I live inside a circled square.
*
The prisms got incrypted walls.
Not for tension, not for scrawlls.
They are not there, but come again
when you can know them and depend.
*
The mist is not for everyone,
though are not some alone for fun?
Scribbling on thier vacant walls,
farther from the reach of calls?
Hi Katie, I'm back to interpreting after ages. The last couple of months were hectic at work and I barely had time to survive. I did not want to give a cursory glance to your poems because they are always so meaningful. And this one far exceeded my expectations. It was certainly worth the wait. I'm going to read the other comments and your responses to them later so that I don't get biased while writing. Here goes .....
First of all, the poem itself is about a state of mind which has managed to transcend the fetters of day-to-day, humdrum existence and is joyously exploring the unexplored. At the same time, the mind is not unaware that such bondages exist, and are in fact the rule and not the exception. It wonders at the futility of staying bound, and at the fact that this situation is so universal. It is also aware that it itself was there at some point in the past and has managed to soar above it all. It is secure that it can continue to remain untouched.
Now onto the details.... The voice forseen from another domain sounds out the initial pain - I perceive this as a feeling of restlessness one gets when one feels the need to explore the subconscious, the self, the reality, the source of life, everything that ever was and will be. As if there is a voice calling from high above to leave the mundane and move beyond. Separate realities search and refrain - when that voice calls, one responds to it in dual ways - there is a part of us which wants to break the bonds and taste freedom; there is another which wants to stay on and be 'safe'. That is why separate realities 'search' and 'refrain'. One escapes the midnight train - I'm not totally sure what you mean by this, but it sounds to me as if between those separate realities which were searching and refraining, one is victorious.
Just as the banks of the rivers get eroded by the constant flow of water, can the veils of illusioned vision not be pierced by thoughts which raise one above it all? If that is possible, then why no to attempt it?
Having resolved this, one begins to achieve a state of detachment. (This detachment differs from apathy - in the former there is an active detachment, in the latter there is passive indifference).
The fourth para talks about how one is no longer there in a self-defined claustrophobic corner of mind, and dares the temptations to try the virtues. One is sure of remaining untouched in the 'circled square' (which, by the way, is a beautiful way of describing that state of being). I perceive a circled square as a state where the 'corners' or the limitations are erased.
I find the term 'prism' very interesting, because a prism is able to split white light into seven colors. I would see a prism as something which is able to show the details which would not otherwise be seen - something beyond the scope of a plain glass. But the walls of these prism have their pros and cons - they can enhance the visualization of that which is within the light, but at the same time they have walls too - would they not bind again? That is why one has to know the incryptation of those walls so that even when they are not there, they can be made to come (to serve their purpose) when one knows exactly what they stand for and therefore depend on them.
Lastly, the mist can represent something abstract, and something that is all-pervading, light and floating high - almost the subconscious. Not everyone has an access to their subconscious. The last three lines express some ambivalence of feelings - looking at them in one way can mean as if one is talking about someone (for whom mist is not accessible) having reached that sorry state where one is alone - disconnected from the oneness of the all-pervading essence of life and hence trying to build an illusion of life (scribbling on their vacant walls), not being able to listen to 'the voice from another domain' and hence 'farther from the reach of calls'; looking at those three lines from another perspective, one can say that one has chosen to be alone, as in detached from the bonds and the illusions, 'scribbling on their vacant walls' - filling details which one learns during the voyage of exploration, and 'farther from the reach of calls' - no longer being affected by the pulls of the ordinary existence.
Whew! That is the longest comment I've made. I hope it manages to convey something. I'm looking forward to hearing what you think about it.
Posted: Aug 4, 2008
Email this story 
Print Story 
Add to reading list
