THE DARK DOORWAY

                                       


 

    
                                                 THE DARK DOORWAY
  
               1)        Standing in a line for our turn
                          We move through a dark cavern
                          The first may be the last, the last may be the first
                          We will have our chance at any cost;
                          No creature, however vile, is lost.
                          The imprint of so many feelings past
                          The dark doorway beckons us all at last
                          No special privilege to any race or caste
                          A threatening tunnel beyond, some say
                          A den of fire unseen of blazing day;
                          Loud shouts of pain or pleasure-- who knows?
                          Our journey unknown, our goal none shows.
                                              
               2)        A choking sensation stops our breath
                          As if some power wrenched and drove us to death
                          Beckoning us to go through the strain
                          The shades of our deeds-- pleasure or pain
                          Descending through circuitous den of gloom
                          We grope for light as new worlds bloom.
                          The grip of mental impressions cast
                          A darkening shadow upon our lot;
                          Our attitudes and feelings impact their spell
                          To mysterious shores none can tell
                          Like hounds of heaven or hell they fly
                          To shape our future ends after we die;
                                                                                                                   
                3)       The dark doorway opens and once we go
                          Like blades of grass on swift rivers that flow
                          We can't turn back and say of what we saw
                          None can transgress the natural law;
                          May be a saintly mother with her blessing hand
                          Ready to help us with affection bland
                          Comforting our scars with her divine touch
                          Making us happy very much.
                          No fear to tread like children in the dark
                          A rosy beam blossoms with Promethean spark.
                          At the end of the tunnel, a magnificent light
                          Curbing our lapses with spiritual sight.

                                            
               4)        May be we have to move through boiling woes
                          With mythical tortures of shuddering throes
                          Through molten liquid river of fire
                          Through foulest depths of dungeons dire
                          To sink under the weight of misdeeds past
                          Groaning in the worlds of gloom so vast                                             Purging us to unlearn the lapses in our life                                          Through scorching fire of inward strife.
                          The dark doorway beckons us at last
                          No use of cursing our mistakes past
                          Let us move on with a penitent heart
                          May be, we find a benevolent heart!
                             
                        ********************************
                
              References:

                             1) The Hound of Heaven : Refers to Francis Thompson's Poem "The Hound of Heaven" where God's Love is revealed as a divine hound chasing the sinner till he yields to God's universal love and finds consolation and mends his ways.

                             2) The Hound of Hell  : Refers to Cereberus, a three-headed ferocious hound that guards the gates of the underworld. It symbolises the  inner impressions of man's conscience which acts on his soul after his death and makes him suffer for his lapses. 

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    21st June,2014                                               Somaseshu Gutala