White Spaces, Grey Shades 







This is the line that challenges emptiness Then lapses back into the scrounging For something to say or do To preserve us Ironic, we the champions of Bridging distances are Mute A desert wind sweeps The plains of my battlefield mind Trying to lift up some souvenier Some reason to stay and not move It is the feeling after the Last day of school In the last year Locker cleaning Incredible the rubbish we Lock up Then discard Have we relearned old lessons Contributed something vital For the perpetuation of the species The institution The individual Doodle on a paper so that In the throwing away It was not a waste of paper Where was the value in That excercise We fill our empty spaces As we fill an empty space And hope The impression we make Is greater than the sum Of our impressions Interesting That every artist As every child Is taught With pencil in hand To fill White Space With shades of grey Richness in texture Variations of tone And erasable Interesting That every artist As every child Is taught Of absolute values Of blacks and whites Of contrasts in color Good and bad Right, wrong And consequences Ironic, The struggle we face Trying to preserve A penciled Individuality And for the Universe To acknowledge our Singularity Amidst all these Systems Every impulse Every feeling Struggles with the paradox Of embracing and challenging Simultaneously Four realities clash In every word exchanged Old doodles Which I've never thrown away Can't throw away Teach and reteach Tenderness... Excitement Perhaps the essence - I throw out nothing The closet of the mind As that of the tangible becomes more cluttered Tracing different realites Of hope, anticipation, Palpitation, savouring, Distance, coldness Harshness, fading As so many dried roses Which I dare not discard Since each one bespeaks a dream Withered? Perhaps I am not great enough To consolidate impressions To create one Impression So, I suppose Before Unity can come With Us We must see each other As multi-dimensional ones Instead of many one-dimensions

(1999)