Kids Corner

Poetry

Tiny Jeeya

by MICHELE GIBSON

 

 

The following poem is inspired by a recent attendance at a kirtan service where I found myself distracted by the innocence of tiny Jeeya Kaur - soon to graduate to the age of two!  

 

 

Tiny Jeeya greets the adults from her mother's arms

Her plump little hands with palms together

Wide eyed, she studies the movement of their lips

‘Sat Sri Akal,' she will shyly venture

 

She hesitates at Babaji's room, a pious crowd around her

Her tiny toes brake into the sheets but she is coaxed through the door

Her chunni slides off her head and dangles from one arm

She is guided to her knees and rests her forehead on the floor

 

The adults sit, now she herself is level with their eyes

She is no taller than the resting scripture

She listens as they reveal the Word,

But she is focused on the vessel in the corner

 

Jeeya steps slowly toward the covered bowl

She tests the tenor of the room, the resolve of those within,

The harmonium bends and moans within her reach, she is not moved

The tabla drives the resolution of the hymn

 

She pleads with her eyes but they do not see

She reaches for the bowl but is whisked away

She waits, the giants rise, she is a flower in the forest

And they will not sway

 

Ardas, then Hukam, and she rushes to the bowl

Her tiny hands together shoot into the air

She has implored, beckoned and beseeched in silence

But one Bhai Sahib now sees her waiting there

 

Ahh ... Parshad!

 

 

June 4, 2009

Conversation about this article

1: Priya (Cambridge, England), June 04, 2009, 11:49 AM.

Wow! Michele, you present such a fresh look at ourselves! I look forward to your poems - and secretly pray that you will, one by one, visit the full gamut of Sikh experiences ... and share each of them with us. You are such a gift to us! Thank you.

2: Arvinder Singh Kang (Oxford, Mississippi, U.S.A.), June 04, 2009, 12:59 PM.

Beautiful observations and even more beautifully expressed. God bless you.

3: Dharamveer Singh (Mumbai, India), July 03, 2009, 4:04 PM.

I loved it ... She is so cute. I have a niece 8 months old and would love to see her doing something similar when she grows up. She does eat the parshad now too but isn't able to walk over to the bowl yet. Dear editor, is this really a poem? Whatever it is, I loved it ... the description was very good. [Editor: Yes, it is in the form of a poem.]

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