SOULspace

   There in a corner you stood Tall and ram-rod straight! I would have missed you If his shout had not made me run, Towards your majestic girth. 1869 - I rub my eyes with wonder... A hundred and fifty years ago you were planted, To witness the passing time.   Hello dear ancestor, I greet you with delight. Hello dear old tree, I hug you with tenderness. You, my evergreen have lived a long life, In your corner all by yourself. Perhaps, Whispering to your near and dear ones, In a language known only to you.   Wonder what you have seen and heard and felt in all these years, Wonder what secrets are known only to you, Wonder what you feel about me and the hug I give you, Wonder if you will live, long after I am gone...  A witness to the passing time.           ~Meeting a tree planted in 1869 ( Sims Park Coonoor ~ Nov 18th 2022)

Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark, That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved. This is Sonnet No.116, and I'm sure you know whose it is! Our own inimitable Shakespeare! I remember reading this in school when I was in 10th standard. It has forever haunted me with its timeless thought. I never internalized the full meaning of these words back then. (I could not have!) But now maturity, time and life has taught me how valuable, and meaningful these words are....

  The Walrus and The Carpenter Lewis Carroll (from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872) The sun was shining on the sea, Shining with all his might:  He did his very best to make The billows smooth and bright-- And this was odd, because it was The middle of the night. The moon was shining sulkily, Because she thought the sun Had got no business to be there After the day was done-- "It's very rude of him," she said, "To come and spoil the fun!" The sea was wet as wet could be, The sands were dry as dry. You could not see a cloud, because No cloud was in the sky: No birds were flying overhead-- There were no birds to fly. The Walrus and the Carpenter Were walking close at hand; They wept like anything to see Such quantities of sand: "If this were only cleared away," They said, "it would be grand!" "If seven maids with seven mops Swept it for half a year. Do you suppose," the Walrus said, "That they could ...