The Samurai’s Mantra

Fire, Air, Earth, Water and Void
Five rings that hold and bind
The secret of life and death

The aspects of fire
Are that it consumes all
In which souls are tempered
Until they are flexible and strong

Fire, Air, Earth, Water and Void
Five rings that hold and bind
The secret of life and death

The aspects of air
Are that it smothers all
Fills all emptiness
As it rides on the back of winds

Fire, Air, Earth, Water and Void
Five rings that hold and bind
The secret of life and death

The aspects of earth
Are that it contains all
Wild energies unleashed
Yet it remains undeterred

Fire, Air, Earth, Water and Void
Five rings that hold and bind
The secret of life and death

The aspects of water
Are that it is relentless
Always moving back and forth
Moving without if not within

Fire, Air, Earth, Water and Void
Five rings that hold and bind
The secret of life and death

The aspects of void
Are that it is eternal
It is everything and nothing
It encompasses all

Fire, Air, Earth, Water and Void
Five rings that hold and bind
The secret of life and death

Philosophers and Fishermen

The sea calls to us who listen and can heed it,
For we are of the sea as she is of us, the sea that is,
That’s why we who are wise return to her,
She it is who’s our mistress and mother,
She feeds us from her bosom when we be famished,
And lulls us to sleep at night in her embrace.
But her brother’s the winds are a mischievous lot,
Blowing here and there whenever it takes their fancy,
Sometimes buffeting us and whirling us about,
Till we kneel to say our final prayers,
Then at times they becalm us and forget us,
Letting us fret and exercise our patience,
Days on end they torment us thus,
Before finally given us head with a blustery blow,
So we can search for our native shores.
We shrewd few know our benefactors,
The stars that is, who guide us along,
Constant and a familiar presence,
Through dark and forlorn nights,
They tell us, we who can read them that is,
What lays ahead for us in years to come,
Never have they faltered in directing us,
There they smoulder like frozen fireflies.
But nothing warms our heart more,
Than a homecoming and the feel of land,
Steady under our feet with promise of reprieve,
The warmth of women and roast beef,
And furniture that isn’t tied down,
If the sea be our mother,
Then this here be our father, land that is.


Our Elemental World

Third planet from the Sun,
Ninety two million
Eight hundred thousand miles
Separating the two.
A thirty thousand mile
Circumference distance.
Seventy Percent Water.
Nine thousand miles above
And eleven thousand
Below the sea level.
Our Elemental World.

The Earth is made up of
A Core, Mantel and Crust.
The Core is part solid
And part molten metal,
Nickel and Iron ore.
One thousand, eight hundred
Miles thick formation of
A solid rock Mantel,
Under the surface Crust
Of twelve tectonically
Constantly drifting plates.

A gaseous atmosphere
Surrounds our planet Earth,
Of which seventy percent
Consists of Nitrogen.
Which leaves a ratio of
One fifth of Oxygen.
What remain is partly
Carbon Dioxide and
Argon, Neon, Krypton,
Xenon, Ozone, Hydrogen,
Helium and Radon.

Copyright 2001 Nasrullah Anwar