Model the emotions

[ by Charles Cameron — if you don’t like most poetry, try this ]

While I’ve been confined to bed, my poetry has been moving towards the topics I write about here on Zenpundit — and here I want to present one such poem, clarifying my view of the importance of emotion:

Model the emotions, and aha!

Model the emotions, map them against a globe,

color here rage, here despair, here

indifference. Color the subtleties,

the overlaps, undercurrents.

Note the sectarian passions,

pilgrims sweeping towards Karbala

for Arba’een, for whom

every day is ‘Ashura and every land is Karbala.

Color their thirst for martyrdom,

the sparks of attacking Sunnis,

get down to the gritty level where you model

explosions and bullets themselves,

the broken limbs of children:

model the emotions, you have the world.

Pinging Madhu?