SHADOWS AND SUBSTANCE!

During the early years of my school days,
I was taught to clearly differentiate always,
Between shadows and substance and the
source of light!
About the sun which with its intrinsic light,
Shining in the heavens and burning bright!
Shadows too have two different parts, -
A central cone of darkness and a shadowy
part,
Called the umbra and penumbra, which I had
learnt by heart!
And I also recall enjoying a silhouette show,
Where many dancing figures did come and go,
But that was many, many years ago!

When I read J. Shirley’s poem ‘Death the Leveler’
with its haunting rhyme, -
I felt like a puppet in the hands of time!
But it did impress my sensitive mind!
The poet in his opening paragraph goes to state, -
“The glories of our blood and state,
Are shadows and not substantial things,
There is no armour against fate,
Death lays its icy hands on kings! ”
…………………………………….
Now in the Autumn years of my life,
When shadows lengthen and becomes tall;
Like the lunar eclipse when earth’s shadow
engulfs the moon,
My substantial frame begins to dissolves into
shadowy forms!
It is then when my old lessons get unlearned,
And I can barely discern when shadows and
substance begin to merge!
And my life becomes a fairy tale of dreams,
Like the existence of an insubstantial being!

-Raj Nandy
11 Jun 09
New Delhi
(I have tried to blend the elementary facts of Physics with
Philosophy & Spirituality, inspired by Fritjof Capra’s book –
“The Tao Of Physics”!)

RAJ NANDY

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/shadows-and-substance/