GHOSTS

 

                          

                         

                         

                                               

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