THE PHOENIX

 

R.Y. DESHPANDE

 

As in a descending flight,

Descending from the sky because

Our gaze has yet to climb

The blue rapture of his song,

You can hear the applause

Of his coming, you can see

The Phoenix ablaze in the air:

Between what is and what shall be

Swoops down the great flame-bird.

Even when he flies from life to life

In his living there is no gap

And his fire burns everywhere;

He has no need of death to reach

What cannot be breathed in Time.

His journey is a single lap

Compressed like speech

In the beginningless word

And his hour is all Eternity.

 

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