The Abyss Replies...

very good Max

Very good Max. These sentiments about the abyss could take on a personal aspect for the reader as well as your own feelings concerning this unknown. I have enjoyed many emotions from these few lines. Fear, confidence, uncertainty, it is penetrating for me. Love the question, and the fact that it could be the combination of a soul, and it could also be frightening, or slightly doubtful. I loved its envasive capability for me.Ellen B

You and Nietzche, what a pair. He did away with the soul so he wouldn´t have to clean it, once he found out that his void was giving him the silent treatment. But you´re like me, Max, stubborn in your spirituality, reckoning the Whole has turned his back on the part. That´s why I like you, brother. You´re like me. And that frog over there. And that broken umbrella below my window. And Dali´s lobster phone. And--

Having "whisper(ed)" and grown weary to the point of sickness, the darkness responds with a cold confronting refusal to give voice. But there is a response, silence like "hits me like a door in the dark." Leaving only wondering and angst.

With age, a sage grows older, and with age, become more tainted with time (or worse, that they have tainted others), and soiled beyond their ability to cleans themselves. In the knowing of it, they seek desperately and appeal to what exceeds their existence, a "greater power", to guide them now and into the beyond.

This is a difficult state of mind to endure on a sustained basis – to be sure.
Even these brief moments of consideration heats my passion and my angst; my passion to live more wholly in the present; yet an insatiable craving to prepare for the terrifying unknown.
What birth is there to death, what understanding to be attained, what peace to be found, or accountability to contend amidst the "murky" and "silent" darkness?

So, how does it make me feel, you might ask? Ooo, ouch, hmm, ahh, no, f*$^%, what, no, yes… Ok.

This is a true poem of empathy with self and for the human condition that we all share. It is a powerful and wonderful reading, Max. I love this one, Max.

Thank you for posting it.

Dear Max Guruji

You made me choke. Indeed its the silence and the inactivity of the mind which gnaws my inerts.

Nimesh

...

just to let you know , i read and grasped.

Well put. Whether whispers into the abyss, or cries to the heavens, the silence can tear at the soul. Good job Max.

Thanks Ellen.
I notice I am getting fewer comments and more votes, plus, a very high standard of 'critiquing' which is the most exciting part of posting stuff here...

I think a good poem has to have an element of mystery -it has got to border on the mystical experience too, if sufficiently 'advanced' from a seasoned pen. I try to write shorter poems that have much more than a mere hint of a meaning.

Your last comment confused me a little : perhaps there is a typo there? You surely meant 'evasive' when you wrote 'envasive'?

Warmth

Max

... so interesting. Cloyingly sweet ... as opposed to ... truly sweet ... achingly sweet ... or that pure sweetness than emanates from the blackness of night - hearing only the earth's heartbeat. This poem spoke to me.

indeed a short, sweet and highly effective poem. very well said. the richness of the central theme is tremendous. at times, we do not need so many words to express something so subtle, apt and direct like this poem. the silence can be deafening, intriguing, perplexing, unnerving or frustrating, it could be anything.

ashphaque babi
muscat, oman

John, dear brother in spirit,
Your comments came early this time -like a gust of rains long before they are due... and needless to say, yours are the most scholarly comments as usual. I have been fascinated by Friederich Nietzsche since my schooldays and he both frightens and fascinates me, mesmerizes and muddles up my mind too. Shall write some more poems inspired by his seminal quotes, soon. Yes you and I share some traits when it comes to spirituality, that much I have discerned on my own too.
Love and light,
Max

Perhaps that silence and that darkness is actually a presence too immense to be grasped by our feeble minds . . . so close that it envelopes us so that we cannot see or hear.

Thanks Ed, your comments are pure Platinum for me. You yourself are such a maestro of the terse verse... and potency is loaded in every word you write. Hence this particular comment, leisurely and all-encompassing in its holistic view of a few words that came to my mind in a flash, on a long walks when I was mulling over the variety of 'silences' that I have to put up with. The abyss formed when hundreds of shades of silences combined -and the poem rose, like an entity rising from muddy swamps.
Thanks dear. Do keep watching this space I am posting some more poems soon.
Warmest

Max - what more can I say then what has already been said - the silence you hear me speak
resonates with the silence you feel...
I'm honored to read and give my humble comment, Salud.

I was reminded of a lost love behind a closed door. But the main character does not know of the loss yet and so encounters the silence. That is the beauty, the reader is left to his or her own imagination as to what lies beyond the abyss. I liked this very much, so many thoughts are pulled from the reader in so few lines.

Sugar coated pleas into the nothingness of a void will satisfy no soul search, Max, save for the eventual epiphany of this truth; an understanding that will hopefully lead the seeker to find another avenue. "The Abyss Replies . . ." has the wonderful property to bring the question to the reader as well as the poem's seeker. Fascinating and rich philosophical poem. I loved the visual artistry that lead to the last line question. There is no way a reader is going to be let off the hook without pondering it.

Dear Douglas Gilbert,
Thanks a lot, friend.
I would need to write another poem just to thank you....
keep watching this space, please.
Warmest
Max

Thanks Apryl, and Mariana,
indeed a poem should be able to pull thoughts out of the reader,
or else it becomes limp.
cheerz!

Thanks Jim,
wonderful comment -yes, I wanted precisely that to happen.
Glad it happened.
Warmest

Max....you have another winner!

The title of this poem aroused my interest Max and I wasn't disappointed with its content either. I love the discordant imagery you set up with sweet talk on one hand and abyss on the other and then the swift denouement that follows, the primordial silence, dashing conclusively any hopes of salvation.

This is great stuff Max, write on!

Max Babi......I can only reply with this that I know
to be true dear man..My Lord has saved my soul.
Your poem was touching Max. Thank You