National Poetry Writing Month, Day 23: The Book I Read in Bed

It is one of those nights,
And I am in bed with these thoughts again.
Not the ones that make me lose my sleep,
But those that lighten my mind
After a giant mental leap,
And make me switch off the lights.
What is my place in this world?
What am I doing in the cosmos?
How do I know that I am in the right direction,
And not moving towards complete loss?
Is it the things that I feel,
Or the words that I say?
Which tell me whether or not
I am on the right way,
Towards the destination that they call success
And something which they define as the point in life,
Where you know that you haven’t made a mess.
This makes me sift through my memories
Old or recent, doesn’t matter.
What’s important is how they form the book of this short life,
In forms of individual chapters.
Chapters filled with episodes of awe
Upon seeing the beauty of the world.
Chapters filled with every lesson I’ve learnt
And the person they have helped me mould.
It consists of episodes where I’ve learnt more from movies
Than a person could ever teach.
And how stars and galaxies seem the place worth a visit,
More than the places where humans have reached.
It consists of a friend,
Which has stuck through time.
One who has shared all the laughters,
And has been a constant partner in crime.
It tells the tale of my heart
Which falls every time she says even a mere “Hi”.
And even though it longs to tell her everything,
There are reasons to feel really shy.
The book has songs engraved in it
One for every day and mood.
And undistorted by the sounds around,
They play on as they should.
A wise man once said,
That the journey is more important
Than the destination,
And no matter how bad situations seem,
There is always a solution.
And with these thoughts,
There are many many pages left to fill
In this book that I read at bed
And something to learn every day
Failng which, I’m only as good as dead.
With this I say goodnight,
To the still-unwritten pages
And shut my eyes to sleep
To wake up the next morning,
and complete the rest of
The Shakespeare’s Seven Ages.

Written by Ranjib Rudra