Poem Review: Behold, Beget
Let us close our eyes.
Now let us think of that one person we hate. Where is the hatred coming from? Hatred, triggered by discomfort, fear, jealousy or well, just at the looks.
Irrespective of the source, a seed is sown in our minds. The growth of this seed is fast and furious. The flame of this heat consumes our thoughts, and the poison ivy grows tall with deep roots.
The poison ivy acquires the look of a faceless fiend — a Frankenstein of our own making.
“Most hatred is based on fear, one way or another. Yeah. I wrapped myself in anger, with a dash of hate, and at the bottom of it all was an icy center of pure terror.”
― Laurell K. Hamilton, Guilty Pleasures
Worse, this hatred comes back from within. Raising from the deep recesses of our minds, flooding our thoughts, the faceless fiend — the Frankenstein manifests to haunt us in our nightmares.
But if you have to see the person you hate as a third person, just as an observer, you will see that person smiles and cries like any other person. Then where is the hatred coming from?
Let us do a simple experiment.
I decide to put myself in front of you. This is me, with my smile. I am told that a smile begets a smile.
“A smile remains the most inexpensive gift I can bestow on anyone and yet its powers can vanquish kingdoms.”
― Og Mandino
I am not out to vanquish kingdoms, but just be me. I try to smile, at least once in a while. But with you, it has been a while, dear friend. It has indeed been a while.
I would not know that you have a fiend-me inside you, a faceless Frankenstein. Now look at my face below. Try this with your equivalent smiling picture, if you love yours more.
That is fine. At least, you will smile back at a smiling you.
Simpler, watch yourself in a mirror and smile. You will smile back at the smiling you. Sort of begetting, right?
Finally, it is your choice. Because, whether I am a normal human with a smile, or that faceless fiend that is out to haunt you in your nightmares, it is your choice.
“Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty.”
― David Hume, Of the Standard of Taste and Other Essays
Whether it a flower or a butterfly, or a person with a smile, the beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder —you . The object that you behold, manifests in you — it begets you.
Here is the poem, therefore.
Poem: Behold, Beget
Haunt will I, in your sleep
A poison Ivy of your hatred deep
A faceless fiend of the night
The Frankenstein you brought up right?
Yet this is me with a smile
For you, it has been a while
It’s your choice that shall, as me, manifest
For what you shall behold, you shall beget.
~ Ashok Subramanian
This article is dedicated to the deceased US Marine Sergeant Nicole Gee, a victim of hatred induced suicide bombing.
