Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

Poetry Library Southbank Centre - The Poetry Library housing the Arts Council Collection at Southbank Centre

« Previous item
Contents of this issue
Next item »

Shanta Acharya

print this page

The Vision

 

Krishna, barely past crawling on all fours,
full of a child’s curiosity and love,
        eager to devour the world –

Is one day accused of eating dirt.
        His playmates complain to Yashoda,
Krishna’s foster mother
        who unable to ignore matters further
is forced to chide her charge; she commands
        Krishna to reveal the contents of his mouth.

As she kneels to peer inside this tiny cave,
she witnesses the birth of the universe –
         the sun, moon, stars, galaxies,
the oceans, earth, deserts, volcanoes,
         animals and plants long extinct,
time, love, death, birth, pain, wisdom, ecstasy;
         not a life, leaf, stone, word, person missing.

Yashoda sees herself, all her past
          incarnations, with all the dirt, the dust
of the universe in its place; for a moment
         blessed with insight, the essence of Creation . . .

 

Page(s) 141

Back to top