Demitasse (or "Ensconsed in the heart-cafe") [blank verse]

(i)

The heart well knows
though the surface mind
asks questions galore

consciousness pervades
every cell of the form
who minds the store?

not merely grey matter
nor nervious telegraphy
-- these are mere rind

look deeper into things
under crusts of seeming
the heart is the core

seven hubs in the body
exist -- say the yogis
& rishis -- from crown

of the head to base
of the spine -- & each
is a dream-rife city

with energy-commerce
and meaning-production
-- in each is a cafe

where a poet is sitting
drinking chai & writing
a love-note & sending it

swirling down the lane
to another little poet
in another such cafe

in another dark city
among the seven cities
hidden within the body

and the heart receives
these love-chits -- or rather
the poet ensconsed in

the heart-cafe: he reads
and feels as he sips
his dark cappuccino


(ii)

he reads what the poet
in the brow has quipped
he reads what the poet

lodged deep in the gut
has laced with invective
and the genital gent's

manifesto and he ponders
the erudite diction from
the throat-chakra poet

he reads and enjoys
his dark cappuccino
& sometimes replies

an epistolary tale
a poetry-exchange
transpires in secret

as each of the poets
from within each cafe
proclaims his core view

the heart-poet reads
what his colleagues write
& when he responds

his answer rings true
hence the commonplaces
even modern thought

unaware of the lore
of the seven cafes
recalls in cliches

cliches about how
the heart holds the key
to the mystery of life

the key lies in fact
in a honeyed cappuccino
a'swirl in a cup

what he within the heart
is jotting in the dark --
that I want to read!



------------

responsive to Mayura Sandeep's poem Did you say ‘the heart’?