Over The Edge

"To burn always with this hard, gemlike flame, to maintain this ecstasy, is success in life."

~~ Walter Horatio Pater, "Studies in the History of The Renaissance - Conclusion"

"উত্তিষ্ঠত জাগ্রত প্রাপ্য বরান নিবোধত।

ক্ষুরস্য ধারা নিশিতা দুরত্যয়াদুর্গংপথস্তংকবয়ো বদন্তি॥৬৭||"

~~ কঠোপনিষৎ

("Arise! Awake! Approach the great and learn. Like the sharp edge of a razor is that path, so the wise say - hard to tread and difficult to cross."

~~ Katha Upanishad, Source: "The Upanishads - A New Translation" by Swami Nikhilananda; Courtesy https://www.shankaracharya.org/katha_upanishad.php)

Footfalls muffled in the grass on a misty morning,

I stopped a while beneath a tender leaf.

Bowed down by a lustrous dewdrop poised on its tip,

like a fly trapped in amber for a million years,

It lay buried deep 

in dreams of Armageddon.

Is this what

Being alive, every moment, means? A raging war between

Blending in and standing out?

Seizing the day and retreating in shame?

Holding fast and letting go?

The willing spirit and the weakening flesh?

Crippling fears and explosive acts?

Blind trust and iron control?

Mindless lust and fruitless pain?

Flowing tears and depthless eyes?

The white-hot coal and the glittering gem?

Oceans of fire and deserts of ice?

Being alive, every moment is rolling

The stone up to the mountain top;

Being alive, every moment is watching

The stone roll off the mountain slope;

Being alive, every moment is choosing

To live by chance or die for a cause;

Being alive, every moment is hoping

For one more fight to breach the immortal coil;

Being alive, every moment is dancing 

Unfettered on the razor's edge;

No more. No less.