The Fool - X

This is a poem spread across multiple pages. Please read in order. Please click on links below to read the earlier passages from the poem.

The Fool - I.
The Fool - II.
The Fool - III.
The Fool - IV.
The Fool - V.
The Fool - VI.
The Fool - VII.
The Fool - VIII.
The Fool - IX.


But before the grail and the amrut that flows,
From the sagar-manthan, first the venom flows,
And it is the fate of the fool to drink his hemlock,
and save the amrut for the rest of men folk,
to this end , the fool must be prepared to die,
and joyfully embrace his cross- or learn to fly
and get resurrected and crowned the son of god,
just to return for a moment after three days long
but there is another way out, the way of Shiva,
of drinking, but not feasting, behold the dancing diva,
as he stops the venom midway not letting go beyond the throat,
by drinking and not drinking one can rock the boat,
Oh fool get ready, the venom flows your way neelkanth,
Either you become the hunted or you better join the hunt.


The hunt for the grail, for the magical elixir of life,
The quest that will put an end to all war and strife,
If its poison that’s served first, let’s just prepare for it,
If it’s a fall that kills, let’s just be done with it,
Maybe in the next life, when one is born again,
As the venom is now exhausted, only the grail will remain,
And one would either suffer from a disabling fear of heights,
And never get involved in the quest, spared the blighting lights
of having to take the first step, as one could never climb the hill,
always afraid of breaking the crown, and of a tumbling Jill,
Jack may not be afraid of his life or of the height,
But to picture Jill tumbling in the dark night,
After him is too much even a Fool is willing to stake,
He must do it in this life, and in this step.

For a future that is set in the aftermath of this life
Might be venom free or quest free, but is always rife,
With the possibility that in this life the example he sets,
Is enough to lead to misery, to unpaid karmic debts,
He may think that by dying and escaping from the quest,
And by returning later, rejuvenated after the rest,
He may still be able to end in many lives,
What he couldn’t achieve in single dives
In this life, but remember he is not alone in his quest,
There are lurking damsels, Knights, and its best
To leave out Jill, we’ve already hinted at her,
If he succeeds the fall, with Jill we need not bother,
But thinking of failure the fools heart pales,
What if she attempts precisely because he fails?


Jill is secure, and if not for anything but his miss,
To keep her away from the grails grim business,
The fool has to take that first step now,
And survive despite all odds, holy cow,
There are no rooms for blunder, no next lives to boot,
No other knights one can depend on, they are in for the loot,
He is in for love and for peace and the King,
And for the sacred pearl on his magical ring.
He has to survive the fall, he cannot hope to die
But he’ll live the fall is an atrocious lie
That he is telling himself, he’s deluded to the core,
about the power of true love, about the legends of yore,
he thinks he’ll either fly and give the earth below a miss,
or even if dead, be resurrected by a True Love’s kiss.

Oh fool, to put on stake one’s life for an enchanted Princess,
That might not be real, but mythical, ignoring the devouring abyss
That is more than real and would prove so with the next step he takes,
And the hurt would be real, no matter how good he fakes,
But with one in Love, how can one argue,
His logic is convoluted, only motives seems true,
His motive to spare Jill of the horrors of quest,
Ring somewhat true- as compared to the rest
Of the confabulation he has concocted-if he ever sprang one-
A coherent narrative of why he’s to join and run,
In this quest that is so alien to him – this mad rat race,
The fool is the kind, who likes to work at his own pace,
But the quest is ugly, although the grail might be good,
His motive’s now in the open, no longer under the hood!

It was for Love he’ll take that first step, and for Love the last,
And with Love by his side he will cover the vast,
Journey of a thousand steps, although with each new stop,
Love may change its form; as it has now on the top
Of a hill, the Love he feels now is of a different kind,
More of heart and soul, than can be fathomed by mind,
To the mind, Love should be the same, the same damsel every time,
But to the Knight exemplar, each damsel in its own right,
Is the true Love of the moment, the Love for the mankind itself,
Symbolized by the momentary sparkle between a damsel and self,
Oh Loves true glory, But we’ve digressed a lot,
Let Jill stay hidden, let’s return to the plot
If the story has to move the Fool has to jump,
Or if he is unwilling, let us the fool dump.