A Poem by a Poet

© Abhijit Chanda 2004

With High hopes and low doubts
I stepped into this world
With sweat and toil and midnight oil
The hell began to unfurl

It showed me more questions
Than the answers that I seek
Numbers I couldn?t comprehend
I was alone and naked to my feet

A nightmare grew
One we?ve all seen aplenty
An exam lay before me
But no answers dropped by to help me

Utterly stupid
Utterly shocked
Utterly dumbfounded
My mind utterly blocked

Numbers are for the non-poets
And poems are for me
Omar Kemal spoke gibberish
When he spoke of decision trees

How am I to live through
This hell I have bought
I paid good money
Will they give me what I sought?

Constant torture
Day by day
With incomprehensible equations
The answer to success, they say, is hidden in these numbers
But I told you before
These days have turned meaningless
What numbers am I supposed to crunch?
When I feel so damned toothless?

But by and by something awakes
And stirs within me
A vague understanding is born
One day it shall set me free

Before I know it
This year has come to an end
I have nothing to show for it
I have no pride to defend

But alas! One day a revelation arrives
Mistakes are made by everyone
And everyone survives
I have made many
And so have many others
But if I learn to build my soul around them
The very wall will shudder

Success is beckoning me
I journey to its embrace
Nothing now can break me
For I have looked Hell in its face

..... a poem inspired by the book "Snapshots from Hell"