The Monk on a Hill
A brand new road digs its way up this trail;
what use is it to an old monk on a hill?
Except our lands and rivers will be up for sale
and my people drunk on easy money for a summer.
The low hum of engines from the valley below,
the rat-a-tat of machines on rocks
invade my wooden hut at the forest’s edge.
Not a single cloud gathers over a crested horizon,
time measures itself with the fullness and fall of fruit.
Green rice stalks bend in the early autumn breeze,
scent of large cardamom on wood smoke float on balmy air.
Even in this serene stillness of solitude,
this mind can still be all a chatter.
As a child I was a little devil I’m told,
always jumping, climbing or breaking bones
till my suffering parents surrendered me to a monastery.
Four scores and one this November,
that restless child still remains-
impatient, foolish and a pair of quick feet for distant shores,
though it’s been long since I last crossed the Teesta,
The dusk soon blots up the colors of the land
smudging the outline of hills with night’s ink.
The shrill drones of cicada relay from bush to tree,
a flutter of wild wings settle to roost
and flicker of lamps dot across the darkening landscape
closing another day in this sacred soil of our forebears.
I have no regrets to look back,
tomorrow is just another day.
Snow on the mountains, a rustle of leaves in the woods,
a pot of tea on the boil and verses from the Heart Sutra.
What more can a silly old man want?
Until the rhododendrons bloom again,
you will find me, none the wiser, plodding that old path
which disappears into the far bamboo grove.
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Guru T Ladakhi – Guru T Ladakhi, born in 12 Oct 1967 Gangtok, is an Enterpreneur by profession. His interests span Travelling, Cultural Anthropology, and Malt (preferably Single) Advocate. He is a Film buff and dabbles in photography. Above all, he says, he loves Poetry. He considers himself an accidental businessman as he is more comfortable talking arts and literature. He is a published writer in many national & international journals. His poems were included in the Dancing Earth: An Anthology of Poetry from North-East India edited by Robin S. Ngangom.
