Don’t start!
By Bhai Baldeep Singh

Don’t start!
don’t even think to!
close in?
not even in an entire eternity.

For there isn’t a space
—a place wherefrom to begin, nor
a place whereto to go.
There aren’t any steps my friend!

Not one,
nor the second
or the third step.

If you will,
you will start from an
—in an illusion
—a delusion.

Steps aren’t
that one has ever taken
or any
that one can take.

Not one moment
that has ever gone by
or that,
which will ever come.
There isn’t an idea
called wait
nor longing
nor happiness
or a tear forming.

There aren’t colours any
there aren’t grounds beneath
no people
no questions
no answers that
one may seek, or can give.

No singer
no song
none to sing up to
no heroes
nor villains
not many
nor two
but one.
Oneness!

Don’t start!
don’t even think to!
close in?
not even in an entire eternity.

For there isn’t a space
—a place wherefrom to begin, nor
a place whereto to go.
There aren’t any steps my friend!

Bbs
30/10/2014
C-43, Nizamuddin East, New Delhi 110013 India

________________________________________

Note:
Anne M. Stadler posted this one, minutes ago and I got the chance to read David Whyte‘s poem “Start Close In” and also saw the photo and then, a few others that I really liked. Well, reading his poem prompted one outta me. I am a nobody as a poet nor a photographer, at least not yet but here is a photo I took the other day aboard a Lufthansa flight, Monday that is, not knowing where I’d use it, if at all, and lo, I saw David’s “steps” —I just could not resist. Courtesy to David Whyte’s, his poem reads as follows:

START CLOSE IN

Start close in,
don’t take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don’t want to take.

Start with
the ground
you know,
the pale ground
beneath your feet,
your own
way to begin
the conversation.

Start with your own
question,
give up on other
people’s questions,
don’t let them
smother something
simple.

To hear
another’s voice,
follow
your own voice,
wait until
that voice

becomes an
intimate
private ear
that can
really listen
to another.

Start right now
take a small step
you can call your own
don’t follow
someone else’s
heroics, be humble
and focused,
start close in,
don’t mistake
that other
for your own.

Start close in,
don’t take
the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don’t want to take.

START CLOSE IN
River Flow
New & Selected Poems
Many Rivers Press © David Whyte
Brick Path, Langley, WA USA
December 2013