1. A new marathon¹

```

Who am I?

A completely long lost tornado-speed.

Yesterday my supremely uncooperative body

Ran the New York Marathon.

The lightning-arrows of anxieties

And worries did not attack me.

I must say, they have

Always

Been very kind to me.

They do not knock at my heart’s door.

No, not even by mistake!

But cramps,

My unfailing friends, came and

Shook hands with me gently

Even before I had covered eleven miles.

Usually they come to befriend me

At the eighteenth mile.

But this time, after fifteen miles,

They desired to lavish

Infinitely more affection on me.

So they embraced me most avidly

And most powerfully.

Alas, alas!

From fifteen miles on,

I dragged my ill-fated body,

At times with my compassion-smiles,

At times with my frustration-cries.

To my great joy and sublime relief,

The worst possible nightmare

Finally ended

At the end of twenty-six miles.

One marathon-world

Leads me into another marathon-world.

To satisfy this new marathon-world,

Or to be satisfied by this new one, will be

Infinitely — I really mean it —

More difficult.

For here it is not just twenty-six miles

and 385 yards to run,

But to sow the seeds

Of ten thousand flaming flower-poems

Which at long last I shall place

Devotedly, unreservedly and unconditionally

At the Compassion-Feet

Of my Beloved Supreme.

```

From:Sri Chinmoy,Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 1, Agni Press, 1979
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/ff_1