Poem: Joy

Copyright@shravancharitymission

By Kamlesh Tripathi

JOY

In search of joy I wandered,

Only to be squandered.

In search of joy I plundered,

And while doing so I blundered.

*

And like an alluring dream joy enticed me forever,

Into actions of demean, that played havoc,

With my simple serene.

*

And in the voyage of life,

I thought important was the end,

And not the means to the end,

So I adopted various means,

Only to achieve the coveted end,

Until one day I realized,

End is only fruitful,

If it is through the right means.

*

And while running after the joy,

I could only find the venom of waste,

That had left me high and dry,

To the rigors of haste.

*

For joy was not any achievement,

Joy was not a prized possession,

And joy was not a status symbol,

And joy was not a complexity.

*

For joy was simple, joy was invisible,

Joy was small, Joy was tiny,

And joy was not tall,

Yet it took me a lifetime,

 To understand joy,

And only in that manner joy was tall.

*

I wandered and squandered,

My life in search of joy,

And ultimately realized,

Joy resided in my laughter and in my smile,

In my sleep under my pillow,

On the roof and even under my feet,

And above all in my eyes, and in my mind,

Which all this while I couldn’t identify.

*****