A Teacher

Straight away you never cared
for anything I claimed to be.
I nearly ran away, so scared
you really had it in for me.
You played me like a fisherman
'till I grew tired of struggling
and just let go.

You made me question everything,
like who I am and 'can I sing?'
so everything I thought I knew
dissolved in one remark from you.
You taught by just reflecting me
'till I was blinded by myself
and then saw through.

You stayed despite my selfishness
and idiotic cleverness;
you noted, but were not impressed,
with how I talked or walked or dressed.
You merely waited till I died
from intellectual suicide,
until I knew.

At last my mind gave up the riot,
leaving me in simple seeing;
bathing me in peace and quiet;
drowned in just the bliss of being;
overwhelmed by nothing special;
fed a pure and simple diet,
then I grew.

Displacing all my 'Really care'-ness
I have found another 'here'-ness.
Now, instead of desperate clinging,
something inside always singing.
Beyond my dreams and childish wit,
beyond my hopes and fears and anger,
beyond my precious, mad ambition,
beyond the 'me' I used to speak,
is where I seek.

- by Prajna Pranab, 23/08/2005