My Encounter with Lucy

It’s been a while since I have had either the reason or the motivation to pick up a pen and write; write with a cause, and an enthusiasm to lend expression to my deepest feelings. Very rare has been the occasion when I felt words and sentences taking birth in the deepest corners of my heart and flowing spontaneously to the tips of my fingers.

Very seldom, if ever, does an imagined perception of goodness, beauty or virtue manifest itself in real life in the form that it was imagined or dreamt of. Even the magnificent Yarrow could not live up to Wordsworth’s imagination ("Yarrow Unvisited" & "Yarrow Visited "). When such a thing does happen, however, it happens unexpectedly, as in this case, in the unlikeliest of times and places, and it would be a sheer waste not to record the priceless sentiments of such an occasion for the sake of posterity.

My most recent encounter, a sweet tryst in a dreary environment, reminds me of Wordsworth’s Lucy. Lucy inspired Wordsworth (“She Dwelt Among The Untrodden Ways”) and Wordsworth’s poignant eulogisation of Lucy has always fascinated me. The great poet’s sentiments echo in my own soul today, and I cannot ever believe in them more than I do now. The striking similarity of the contrasting environments which occasioned the encounter so vividly described by the poet and the one which affected me in no different way made me wonder, at the sheer unpredictability of life and at the potential for wonderful surprises that it possesses. I have deliberated within myself as to the most apposite expression that my thoughts should take, and convinced myself that only Poetry, which is the sole medium that transcends all forms of prosaic expression, can lend the subtlety deserving of such a subject; and so it is poetry that must be the vehicle of my expression.

The scene is the watery wilderness of the Indian Ocean, and the location – a gigantic ship, which reeks of metal, metal and more metal: 

Cast away, far from shore, on this gigantic craft

Gazing into the sea, my face meets a pleasant draft

Amid sounds of steel and a deafening hum, I stare

With wandering thoughts, into the dark, misty air

Lo! What is this transformation in the haze?

Do I see a winsome face, in this God-forsaken place?

Unbelieving as I stared, my senses all in a twist,

A fairy t'was in the mist; my feet were unsteady, as if the ship was a'list

She smiled so bright, it shattered the dark,

A voice so clear, she could’ve been a lark,

Countenance so serene, like some divine art

And a manner so simple, it caressed the heart

Was I swaying between reality and sleep?

Was it but a vision, of my feelings so deep?

Can the creature of the world of dreams

Walk the hard ground of reality's realms?

Then she spoke, and enraptured I listened so

Then she sang, and enchanted I listened more

The world seemed to float up to the skies

The sights around seem’d to drown in her eyes

Time was long lost, Sleep was forgotten,

Duty and Responsibility were now step-children

Worries n Cares were banished from Earth

The air was so full of fun, so drenched in mirth

The morn approached fast, methinks just too fast

The good times were not destined to last

She wafted into the dissolving dark, leaving a trail of silver light 

The noise came back, the hum returned, reality was back in sight

Wistful we stood, my solitude and me

The playful waves were dancing in glee

The whispering breeze was saying to me

Your own dreams are still yours, so mourn not thee