Butterfly in a Bamboo Grove: Poems of Transcendence

By Dr Harry Persaud

A collection of poems based on the author's journey within several cultures, this was a catalyst for self discovery. The author has taken a broad world view and emphathizes with the sufferings of humanity.Each of us has a story to tell, a poem to write, irrespective of the circumstances in our lives. Some 60,000 years ago a lonely woman knelt beside a shallow grave, placing flowers upon the body of her lost child, saying farewell to a loved one while preparing the transition of its soul into the nether world. A poet was born; there was deep affection for someone, there was beauty in the wild flowers offered and a sense of transmigration of the essence of life into a different and parallel state of existence. Whatever the facts are, the creative imagination and the impulse for eternal life sparked the birth and growth of divinity for continuity into infinity. We were no longer mere animals, we had become humans with the propensity to understand the network of interrelatedness of all things in the Universe.This fluidity is poetry: when birds whistle so sweetly as the sun rises, a river flows ever so gently towards the sea in search of its greater self, the sun reflecting off the face of the moon inducing gentility and love in the hearts of men and women everywhere, when thousands of 'flowered' birds dance in synchrony at breathtaking speed across mud flats never colliding, Monarch butterflies in the millions leaving Quebec and Ontario for Mexico every Autumn. As humans we are also on a journey, we take a bold step forward leaving footprints upon the sands of time for others to follow, as indeed we have done ourselves following those of our predecessors. But sometimes, we must have the courage to step outside the box of secured thinking, breaking the walls of social and cultural convention and face "the land touch not" the "Neti Neti - Not This, Not That" of the ancient unmitigated enquiring mind. For therein lie vast treasures of consciousness to be discovered and shared. In the further field beyond the pale of relative reality the open mind must play to develop its creative imagination and recognize that time and space are one in a great continuum into nothingness. As Self enfolds it creates a world in which it wants to dance, and for me this is the epitome of my journey. My poetry illustrates a timeless repose, the fluidity of change in a state of changelessness, moving forward only to go into the past, the beginning is the end, the end the beginning in an infinite circle called 'now'. The seeking of the "Suchness" without quantification or qualification of the discriminating mind crosses over into new territories.There is a common theme in my poetry, which is, everything blends into one another, a process of fusion and diffusion until the "dancer and the dance become One". I used the butterfly as metaphor for change from a hungry caterpillar brooding in its cocoon only to fly away as a sea of colours "hop-scotching imaginary mounds of flowers". A prime example of the human need for unity with its higher Self is expressed in the river looking for the ocean, the human aspiration to become the stars by "collapsing the world into its soul."My passion for all that is good in life: compassion, understanding, benevolence, spirituality, are all manifestations of my collective experience both in my native Guyana and my new home, Canada. All of the wonderful people who supported me in moments of despair and laughed with me in times of joy are parts of my poetic journey, each one a key on the musical instrument of my life. I will continue to play and sing my song of love and human dignity.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1461055377
• ISBN13: 9781461055372
• Release Date: March 2011
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 134 Pages
• Weight: 0.57 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.3" x 6.0"