It is for You to Know

“Is it the end? Or the beginning?
Or is it too insignificant to exist?”
I asked the sea at the seashore.
It roared, “It’s for you to know!
For I may tell the folklore,
But then it is for you to know!”

I let my skin feel the sand underneath
Mighty water touching my feet
As if saying humbly
“I bow to you and you bow to me,
Acknowledging the me in you and the you in me.”
I asked the water “what if I want to be
As calm and ferocious as thee?”
It said, “You are what you want to be,
But it’s not for me to guide the fleet.”

Another day and the wild wind blows.
Birds sang, the wind whistled,
And the leaves danced on the snow.
“O Wind! O Wind! How can I smile
when I feel so low?
My heart is broken and the love is gone.”
The wind rattled at the window sill,
“No matter who comes and who goes,
Believe in thee and rise when you are low.
For that is the way of life, it will always flow.
But it is for you to find it slow.”

Cold winters came and came with it
The urge to sit near the fiery wood pit.
The sparks rose in the fireplace.
I could feel the warmth as the fire is lit.
It’s when I asked,
“I am wise and old now, you know,
Still will you guide me to the path to the heavenly hill?”
The blazing fire replied in a split,
“I can light the path, the path to all the hills,
Or can burn the world
With the demons in it.
You can do it too but who am I to say?
All you have to find is the power of will.”

Seasons passed and the years yawned,
Another day came and a new boy in the sun shone.
Wind played with his hair
and the water flowed to and fro.

At the sea shore, he asked for help
To find all that he has lost.
And the sea said, “I know the quest you are on,
But destination, it is for you to know!”

Shivani Kaushik

Shivani Kaushik is a software engineer by profession. She is working with a multinational company at Pune. Her hobbies range from writing to drawing and painting. Recently she has made up her mind to work on the commercial aspect of her talent.