Love song to Body

Photo: Geoffrey Dunn

In You I felt the first stirring of Death.

In You is Death’s last abode.

Why did I wait till Death’s birth

to dance my love for You?

Why, when You recede, snatching presence,

do I lament my wasted years?

Why did I not breathe Your scent?

Why did I Your pleasures shame?

Each day, you brought Cosmos

into the beauteous intimacy of Your hips.

Each day I gazed at the skies

and conquered distant galaxies.

Each day You beckoned

in one thousand and eight seductions.

Each day I rejected

ignorant of Your sentience.

Now You say: thus far and no further.

How did I miss your poetic flowering

that enfolded my lifetime?

How was I deaf to your ancient chants

while I sat at strangers’ feet?

How did I deserve Your Shakthi?

And the baffling infinity of Your finitude?

How could I dare to fall into Your night

and lose me in Your secrets?

Now You say: thus far and no further.

Ten thousand rivers of tears have I.

Ten thousand howled laments.

Ten thousand stories dismembered.

Ten thousand flights from You.

This moment when transience its noose binds

this moment—I am finally real.

This moment the grief of all lives

pierce me as million arrows.

Now I say: I end here and no further.

In these dying beats let me dance.

One last time. One first time.

Dancing Death we may yet love—

mortal, mysterious, and material.

-Padma Menon

This poem is inspired by the Rasa of Karuna (pathos, poignancy, melancholy, quietude). Yama, the Deity of Death, is the archetype of Karuna. The connection between death (Body) and compassion becomes clear in experiencing the dance invocation of this Rasa.