What the Elements Taught Me

Earth taught me

to embrace all, to outlive all,

to know stasis is death and

to evolve from season to season,

to be on the move within and without



Fire taught me

to be aflame with desire,

to dance, dance, dance,

until all desires turn to ash,

to sanctify the world with grief,

to illumine through contemplation

the ocean’s womb and the granite’s heart



Water taught me

to ooze unannounced

from eyes and clouds,

to seep deep into earth, into bodies,

adorning both with tender leaves and flowers,

to strip myself of name and location

and merge with the magnificent blue

of memory’s final horizon



Air taught me

to sing disembodied through bamboo-clumps,

to prophesy through leaves,

to lend wings to seeds,

to be, at once, a gentle caressing breeze

and a speeding , howling, storm



Ether taught me

to be full with the full moon,

to be null with the new moon,

to be the red, red flush of dawn and dusk,

to be everywhere and to be nowhere



The five elements taught me

to be one with all,

to be detached from all,

to be changing forms forever,

until the day of my deliverance

from the world of forms.


-K.Satchidanandan

(Translated from Malayalam by the poet)