Swami Vivekananda                           

An unfinished poem

(New Discoveries, Vol. 3. p. 490. This undated poem is preserved in the archives of the Vedanta Centre, Cohasset, Massachusetts. Cf. “My Play is Done”, Complete Works, VI.)

From life to life I am waiting here at the gates — they

open not.

My tongue is parched with ceaseless prayers and dim

my eyes have grown

With constant straining through the gloom to catch

one ray long sought;

My heart is seized with dark despair, all hope well-

nigh has flown.

———

And standing on life's narrow ridge, beneath the

chasm I see —

Strife and sorrow, darkness deep of whirling life and

death,

Of mad commotion, struggles vain, of folly roaming

free.

On one side this dark abyss — I shudder to see it even —

On the other this wall . . .

- Swami Vivekananda