There Is No Perfect Path and other poems

There is no perfect path

At the end of the
Reverent path,
I bowed to the mountain
And kissed the
Damp earth with my feet.

The bliss of bird song
And warmed skin
Soaking in.

What has changed?
Asked the Sage
I have
Replied my soul.

 

Increments

I was beside myself
(an out-of-body experience)
For so long.

I’ve been coming back,
Returning home
In increments.

Testing out
An embodied life
Waiting patiently
For the centre to hold.

 

Rain Song (with thanks to David Whyte)

The blessing of the rain to you:
May you be replenished,
All of you, without preference.
The deepest parts soaked through.

May you taste the clouds
On your outstretched tongue
And dance like the water nymphs
Surrendering to the sweet, abundant
Flow of it all.

May you step into the deluge:
Into the thrumming word of
The answer to the frog-song.

May you be the answer and
The question to which
There are no answers
Except this moment of saturation.

 

Shivani Ranchod
Mont Fleur, September 2020

© Shivani Ranchod
Image Dave Strugnell