1) A ghost I saw at dead of night
A figment of my crazy fancy
you say
May be a real being to me I
say
With flying snaky coils robed
in white
Inwards what we do feel, take
it as right;
May be, your mind has no deep
insight.
2) Ghosts, our crazy creations you may state
Our guilty fears and fancies
in horrid forms
Our hissing desires disturb
our inner calm;
Our foes whom we bitterly
hate
As if to take revenge assault
our brain
Pricking our conscience with
fear and disdain.
3) Departed souls with raging feelings and
desires
So many births passed and still passion-bound
Linger in weird shapes here on
the ground
Still with unextinguished tongues of fire;
Still like dusty cobwebs seen
here and there
In dead of night wander these
ghoulish nightmares.
4) With dread distractions our minds they fill
Unsettling our rest with vicious
greed and strain
Oh, like wild beasts at night
they prowl and kill
Distorting our dreams for
their selfish gain.
Some to evil spirits
themselves do sell
Enslaved at last to stay in perpetual hell.
5) Our future ourselves we do presage
Desires dreamify themselves on
mental screen
Enacting what we wished but have never been
Caught up in the web of
cravings like birds in cage
With sights bizarre and utter confusion
To shake our sleep with puzzling visions.
6) In dark, strange worlds unknown we float and flit
Crossing bounds of reason beyond our range
Faces we know seem queer and strange
We act like crazy souls in feverish fit
Shocked we fly back with sweating brow
Confused we rewind of what do not
know.
7) Like fabled witches leading men astray
Lust for wealth corrupts us to the core
Dissatisfied they crave for
more and more
To grab more wealth, they get
out of the way
Desire for possessions dooms
all mankind
Unseen demons make us wicked and unkind.
8) More dreadful
than fiends and vampires
Passion for power drags us to lowest plane;
War perverts our minds, the
worst kind of bane;
No empire stays safe with this
devilish desire;
The greatest knowledge misused
leads to greatest fall
Men turn monsters destroying themselves and all.
9) Ghosts are nothing but passions gone astray
They drive us like devils out of our ways.
No distinction of sex or age they mind
Raping and robbing others like
pestilence blind;
They tempt us with their
scintillating charms
Our guilty fears and fancies in
horrid forms.
10) Our lurking sins betray with promises
false
Darkness and solitude wakes us
with sweating fear
Mocking fearsome goblins from
alien sphere
Dark dreams make us shudder in
sleep and toss;
Ghosts, ghastly reflections of our
inner soul
Ghosts, dead or living pervert us
from our goals.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
a) Some to evil spirits --- a reference to Marlow's play " The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus" (1604) in which Dr. Faustus, a well-respected scholar begins his career as a magician and sells his soul to Satan (Lucifer) to get supernatural powers for twenty-four years with the help of another devil, Mephistopheles. After the expiration of twenty-four years the devil kills him and carries his soul to suffer in hell.
b) Like fabled witches leading men astray --- a reference to Shakespeare's play "Macbeth"(1606) in which Macbeth, a brave Scottish General, was told by three witches that he would be the king of Scotland. Encouraged by his wife, he killed King Duncan and Banquo. Still he felt insecure and became obsessed with guilt. At last he was killed in the battle by Malcolm, one of Duncan's sons.
c) Ghosts are nothing but ---- Unbridled passions like anger, revenge, lust, violence, pride, overambition, despair and too much possessiveness provoke us like unseen ghosts and through us make us do devilish acts just for their enjoyment. No exorcist can drive them away except our patience, careful thinking and discrimination. We should be more careful about these tempting passions than weird apparitions and phantoms.
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28th July, 2021 Somaseshu Gutala
