A STRANGER UNKNOWN

On the temple steps, I sat looking at the sunset

The blanket of night slowly started falling

I saw a stranger walking toward the steps

He sat on a step too far away from me.

 

I could not see his face or any features

Loved the way he looked at the sunset engrossed

Almost absorbing every second of the beauty

So peacefully, merging with nature’s hands

 

Then he started to sing a lovely poem aloud

Such breathtaking words of pearls rolled out

He hardly bothered that there was no one to hear

Not a single soul stood up and clapped for him

 

Poem after poem he went on singing many

Some on divine love, some on lingering passion

Some on the painful reality of blood spilt in the war

His poems continued like a gurgling river, endlessly

 

I sat mesmerized, at such splendour of lovely poems

A stranger singing so lovely, just to the earth and sky

I thought I will wait until he finishes, to know about him

 But suddenly he disappeared before I could reach him

  

Every day I came to the same steps and wait for him

With an unfailing hope that he will come again someday

He will sing again, those melodious poems of heaven 

And this time, I would reach him, and learn about him 

 

One day again he came, sang words of pearl, all alone

The poems and music flowed like the stream of spring

Before the music stopped, he got up and moved fast

Into the dark night, he vanished before my eye could blink

 

Every day now, I wait for him, to hear his poems, as I understood

He loves this freedom and wants to remain a stranger unknown

His poems are like nature gifts, not for anyone’s grip or trap

To me, the strings of my tuned heart’s by poem is reason enough to live.