John Keats Visits Bharati Nayak

A Fantasy for Bharati Dear Bharati, finally we meet, in a moment between two seasons, that shows traits of both, with Spring Ascendent, pouring her warmth over winter's bitter chill, thawing frozen hearts as well as frozen grass. We open our eyes wide to the restored pleasures of morning light, longer days, sweet moods. Oh, my friend, I need help in holding a sweet mood captive - else a bitter mood will intrude, and dispel even these cherished spring joys. Most times I live in a middle zone, neither heaven nor hell, neither redeemed nor abandoned, stuck really, no movement in any direction. Still time weighs heavily on me. There are others present or near-by, but we are all preoccupied with our own burdens of unfinished earth-affairs or uncertain spiritual issues. The silence is often maddening. Perhaps this is a purgatory wherein our souls are completed, a way-station on a highway to a higher existence, which is not even dimly perceived. I am learning a deeper soul-patience... In my life I never expected a long happiness, only moments shot through with illumination and raised to ecstasy. You know this from my poems. But the place I am confined has neither illumination nor ecstasy: it is not gloomy, it is not bright. Poetry has no inspiration, nothing summons me to verse - Bharati, my friend, when you read my poems, silently but especially out loud, most especially to others, I HEAR THEM! My poems I hear clearly, and yours too when you write them and share them. And at those moments you are not just my friend, you are the sister I never had. A brother on one side of life, a sister on the other side, poetry links our souls, and I feel no loneliness in death, and I must believe you feel no loneliness in life. You wrote of your 'heart's musings' and your 'soul's musings' both carried by the wind and 'echoed in tree's rustlings, showered through night moon's beams.' These images must have a secret passage, a pilgrimage of poetry to the shrine of our waiting selves. 'Eyes sparkle / Reflecting joy / Mirroring heart's desire / To merge into bliss.' You see, we share these moments shot through with illumination and ecstasy, my friend, my sister, my poet! We have have prevailed!