The holiday is over-

I’ve come back home;

the mountains, rivers, forests and hummingbirds,

all linger

in my mind’s eye, ears, heart and soul.

The virginal sanctity of nature

caresses my soul and enters my dreams,

as I put my head on the pillow each night now;

my dreams are less hostile.

My mind has come to a stilling calm

like that of a monk meditating in the Caves;

Austere, unrelenting, unwavering.

I did not have to go to the cave

to silence the monkey mind;

Only get away from

the concrete jungle of the city,

and permeate into the mountain-scape of the hills-

where the trees spoke their own unique language

of cooperation and cohabitation with other species

blissfully.

Yes, bliss was the implicit language of communication.

The mind has mercifully slowed down after a week of

no mind in the hills;

I shall go to the hills

next year again or earlier,

when the cacophony in my mind becomes louder

than the humming of the hummingbirds

between my ears.

                                            ~Shiitaal Budhrauj

                                                New Delhi, India