Over the last decade and longer I have written so much in these columns that I frequently forget a vast majority of it. It is for that reason that I regularly check the visitors’ log to my blog to see who is reading what on it. This morning I found that someone had visited a post I had written as recently as January 16 this year but completely forgotten about it. I think it is exquisite and deserves republication.
My plan this morning was to write about why America needs at least one more political party, if not more but that some other time. So here goes:
January 16, 2019
I would rather that I was a physicist who had a measure of poetry than a poet who has some tenuous comprehension of physics. I say tenuous by my standards, having spent some four-decades with physics during which my comprehension has ebbed and flowed.
Speaking of physics and poetry, one area of physics rich with poetic possibilities is quantum mechanics because it has the appearance of profound mystery. I have written some poetry on the theme but the one that got written in English around 3.20 a.m. today has become my favorite for now.
Just to illustrate how the poetic mind works, barely within minutes of the first one the second one got written in Hindi. They both capture very different ideas.
Wave Function
I was a wispy wave
of numerous
indeterminate, insubstantial
positions
until
you engaged me and gave me
substance and existence
Then you looked away
and I ceased and returned
to the realm of
infinite possibilities
--MC
खुशबू
ख़ुशबू हूँ मैं
बेवफ़ा हूँ
लिपट जाती हूँ उस पर
जो भी मेरे नज़दीक से
गुज़रता है
कुछ देर साथ निभाती हूँ
फिर लुप्त हो जाती हूँ
--MC
(Below, translation from Hindi)
Fragrance
I am fragrance
promiscuous by my nature,
Attach myself to
The one who brushes past
In a short-lived embrace
And then evanesce
Mayank Chhaya
Note: The photograph has nothing much to do with the blog except since the post is about me, the self-portrait makes sense. Even the painting behind me is my version of me.
