My mind is like a blackboard
In the school of life, on which the chalk
Of circumstance daily inscribes lessons
In lingering veins and of vainest thought,
Till the will, my will, that of the teacher
And the taught, the darling duster, indeed,
Rubs off each line each way and leaves
My mind free, virgin free, for the lesson
Of another day;
Thus I learn what no teacher in his
Teaching taught, work at what
No worker in his working wrought,
Find what no seeker in his seeking sought:
The freedom absolute, the ultimate
Of all pursuit, the gain of every loss,
The nothingness of everything;
And so one day, when my time to go
Will come, and I pass away happily,
Though not in the eyes of some,
For in their limited vision and
Formulated norms,
I will have gone unworking, unteaching,
Untaught, unthinking, unseeking, unsought,
And perhaps, even unborn?
From Island Poems by Ronnie Patel (Lotus Print ISBN 81-88451-02-09 C.Right Author
About Me
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- Ronnie Patel
- Viimsi (Tallinn), Harjumaa, Estonia
- Born in Bombay prior to independence of India from the British, Ronnie Patel spent several years of his life in London of the fifties and sixties. During that time and since, sometimes in turn, sometimes concomitantly, he became company executive, businessman: fashion garments and poultry farming, actor, film-maker, writer and poet. He has lived and travelled extensively round the world for business and pleasure, and has been an exemplary generalist. Except for the occasional forays, he retired from active corporate and business life well over a decade ago, even to shed, at last, the ubiquitous euphemism: consultant. Among his other interests, which include scuba-diving, golf and bridge he has recently taken up oil painting.
