Sunrise on Mt. Bromo

Writing about the sunrise on Mt.Fuji reminded me of another moving sunrise I had been lucky to experience at Mt.Bromo in Indonesia. It had inspired a poem that is very close to my heart and one which I have guarded. Today, I realized that this blog feels quite personal and safe and so I felt like posting it!

Sunrise on Mt. Bromo

The wind bites

There is a movement in the dark 

Stillness, quiet chaos

The water's rising in this ark

Who are these sailors?

What is this ship?

Where is the captain 

With a crackling whip?

We sail forever on

To what end, I wonder 

The darkened seas behind

And vast expanses yonder 

Darkness below us, above us,

Darkness afore and ahead 

A dense, opaque blackness 

We pierce and penetrate

I grow fondness and kinship 

For the sailors of the night,

I know not their voices 

And faces all out of sight.

Yet together we struggle 

To keep our vessel afloat 

Our ark of the covenant 

Our tattered old boat.

Then something changes.

The dark sphere splits in two 

A line of hope on the horizon

Seeping in sanguine hue

It is fire, yet it's mellow 

It is violent, yet it's calm

It rips and rages, yet it's silent 

And all it touches it embalms

This new hue shows the oceans blue 

The sky above bathed in pink

The mountains green, the corals gold

The birds of many feathered ink

I see the faces of all my friends 

Their souls aglow in glistening eyes 

And in their smiles I find myself 

Reflected in the morning light 

I am muscle, I am flesh

Yet dust and wind and music too

For I am what I feel within me

And who I am; I am to do.

This boat is but a fleeting vessel 

We row today and 'morrow sink

But boat and oar and all these men

Are bathed in light in this blink

And in this blink we make music

A symphony so divine

Of sea and sail and wind and men

Our songs of yore till all of time

Fuji again

I climbed Mt.Fuji again this weekend. Unlike the last time, the weather was perfect and the sunrise was surreal. I am not going to write a description of the trip. Here is a quick poem that kind of sums it up! I dedicate it to my two friends who push me to do adventurous things and make me feel like bilbo!

We climbed Mt. Fuji

On a moonlit sky

Onwards and upwards

My shadow and I.

We crossed the clouds 

It was dark and still

The air got thinner

And strained my will.

The darkness crept

On my neck and spine

Lingered on my fingers

And numbed my mind.

But the moon got brighter

And its halo grew

So I got up to reach it

And through darkness I flew

Well my wings wern't strong

So I didn't fly very fast

But I stepped on stars

And caught the halo at last

And just as I was about

To wear the moon on my head

I was distracted by a light

Piercing, Red.

And with it came music

From the Universe's noise

A clear morning raag

In my own mother's voice

We stood at the precipice

And bathed in its glow

The sheer beauty broke me

And let my tears flow

A rock, a ball of fire

A wonderful cosmic chance

And We the infinite

Bright specks of dust!