Bewildering Sea Poem by Mystic Qalandar

Have deceptions fallen away—
like mist dissolving in first light,
or the sun sinking beyond the horizon?
What truly departs, and what lingers unseen?

Something stirs within my chest—
a breath the heart alone remembers.
I rise from ruins, stripped and undone.
But toward what light,
toward what hidden presence?

I remove the borrowed face.
Who now looks through this place?
Only dust of empire and crumbled stone,
or a root still pulsing with trust?

I drink from streams of ancient words.
Are they nectar—or illusion?
What chalice lifts the dead,
what wine clears the eyes of forgetting?

Does wisdom appear as shield,
as flame,
as mirror,
as wound?
Is this the gate where chains fall open,
or the throne of shadows guarding peace?

A melody lifts my soul upward.
Yet where is the edge,
the final resting place?
I breathe your breath; your breath is mine.
Through whose lips does the light emerge?

I thought my shadow remained,
till I entered a garden, quiet and green,
where mercy flows as spring,
and rivers carry the promise of growth.

Every falsehood becomes a guide.
Every delusion turns inward
to unveil a pearl.
And when awareness folds itself to rest,
what vision rises in the heart?

Does silence vanish—or remain?
Does it dwell within,
or strip the self away?
I cry: in you, in me, I am.
But who is left to speak of "I"?

Is light the tender face of shadow,
and shadow light's veiled embrace?

Paradox—
the bewildering sea,
the endless mystery of truth.

—September 20,2025