When we talk of Poverty
Cloud Thought, Solemn Cafe, Reality Check
“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” — Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist
What do you mean
When you talk of poverty —
When you talk of
Being small
Being little
What have you seen?!
I have seen some….
It makes me hang my face in shame
Human inabilities amplified,
I see them everyday
Around me,
Jutting out of the morning print,
Screaming from the TV screen —
Living and dying on streets
Relinquished to forever oblivion,
Holes and chill mate-rattling on
ragged clothes,
December bon-fire never enough
to warm bones,
Yet death pyres consuming
the whole — mind, body, soul,
What have you seen of poverty?!
Dreams clutched tight in soiled
hands,
Rubbed incessantly on concrete
pavements
Wishing the genie to make
that serendipitous appearance,
Till it bleeds to coma…
So dead and not,
Arms of heart folded in prayers
Hope keeping distance from
vision lane,
Expectant hands looking for
jobs, menial,to restore petite
rickety bodies,
Malnourished fingers struggling
to feed mouths of her own creation,
Unable to bear the pain—
Swings against gravity,
Finding solace in un-gracing life….
What have you seen of poverty?!
NOTHING. I know.
But,
If you ever gather courage
To come out of your cosy nook,
Away from imbecile sycophantic hoots,
From behind the fictional booths,
And taste the world without dessert,
Let me know…
We can walk the stories
Talk the nights
May be, that day, wake the sun up
from its longest slumber….
But,
Till then,
Crack your coffee
Spill your desk
Tear your words
But remember to close the windows
Before that whimsical breeze wafts in……
She Speaks: Poverty is a complex subject,taking different shapes and wearing varying clothes depending on time and space and situations.Thus going beyond the obvious definition of it, Mother Teressa rightly put:
“The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty — it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There’s a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.” ―A Simple Path
But, can you go before sharing this subtle caution Khaled Hosseini pens regarding the consequences of poverty and its alleviation, in a way this real and shocking:
“That same night, I wrote my first short story. It took me thirty minutes. It was a dark little tale about a man who found a magic cup and learned that if he wept into the cup, his tears turned into pearls. But even though he had always been poor, he was a happy man and rarely shed a tear. So he found ways to make himself sad so that his tears could make him rich. As the pearls piled up, so did his greed grow. The story ended with the man sitting on a mountain of pearls, knife in hand, weeping helplessly into the cup with his beloved wife’s slain body in his arms.” ― The Kite Runner
Painting: Abstract, Mix-media on Cold Press Canvas.
As for my love for Art, I got introduced to a very talented Artist Patrick van Raalten and his ways of visualising Art. Please find below one of his articles that deal with his process of creation i-love-tapestry-weaving-and-here-is-why
A discussion on ‘unpleasant’ can never be complete without the tagging of beauty and today it has to be my friend Trista Signe Ainsworth and her love for food, positivity and life seamlessly weaved into this beautiful article your-abundance-project.
Thank you for stopping by Soul Bay.It is always a pleasure to host you!
