Narcissus

I sit in the centre of a black hole, thwarting

Light rays and science laws, charting

Joys and sorrows of the universe, mixing

Memory and desire and love, longing

To draw the universe to my core.

I am the nucleus of a singularity;

And my love surpasses infinity

Flowing from the plenitude of my being

And bounded, alas, by a black horizon.

Nothing can ever go beyond the horizon.

Love is a great conqueror.

Echo was the best of all

   that I ever drew to my core.

She was

   the distil of the finest mist

   the ardour of the deepest hope

   the sigh in the sweetest dream

   the pearl in the saddest tear

Echo was the best of all

   that I ever pinned with my love.

Hurled into the whirlpool

   that swirled inward

      from the brink to the core

         by the charm of my warmth

Echo was the best of all

   that ever pined for the best. 

I am the best.

I am the core of the fire

  that burns in the human heart

I am the heart of the calm

   that lies in the deepest ocean

I am the spirit that throbs

   in every waft of the air

I am the life that aches

   in every seed in the soil

I am the force that snaps

   the chains that bind the soul

I am alpha and omega

   the beginning and the end

I am Narcissus

Whose love is a whirlwind

That sweeps over the horizon

Drawing everything into my heart.

I love them all because they are all mine.

Mine.

Mine was she.

Echo was the best that I ever made mine.

Echo is now a sound

   that haunts the horizon

      unable to snap the cords

         stretched tight across her breast

            by my love.

Love is a great transmuter.

I long to draw the universe to my core

And hold it in a tight hug

And mumble gently,

“I love you!  I love you!”

Notes: 

1.      The similarity of the first stanza to the opening lines of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land is not coincidental.

2.      The original Narcissus of Greek mythology spurned the love of Echo, because he was too much in love with himself. The Narcissus of this poem loves Echo, but he loves the whole universe, longs to hold the universe in his embrace.

3.  The poem was written more than twenty years ago, about a year after my marriage. 

4.  I'm posting it again after so many years simply because the poem has been rising in my consciousness again and again these days with a meaning quite different from what I had in mind when I originally wrote it.