The Reader and The Writer
I read poem after poem Of many and many poets Poems of all kinds; Small but beautiful; Long and elegant; Ordinary ones crafted with exquisite words; Extraordinary ones with words so modest; Haikus and epics Originals and translations Some in mother tongue and some not. I read poem after poem And I looked at the world through them. Poems taught me love and kindness They taught me lust and desire, Bitterness, anger and agony, Remorse and pleasure and pain. And the greatest of all lessons, I learnt through poems. I learnt to weigh my worth as a writer. The writer knows not what the reader finds. The writer expresses not what the reader is convinced of. The reader in me grows While the writer in me watches in silence Or is it in awe? I read poem after poem And as I do, the reader in me rejoices And as I do, the writer in me slides into obscurity.