THE GARDEN OF NORFOLK..

By Debjani Basu

Perhaps it was the garden of wonderland where I stepped in.

No...There were no lawns, no precious statues on the terrace,

But the glory of the garden lied in more than what met the eye.

A mammoth guitar was lying there with some broken strings,

And some unwanted weeds grew over it to hide it from me.

Me stooping to unveil it, touched those weeds and heard,

"Touch me not unless you earn the treasure hidden here"

Staring at those I asked, "What treasure are you talking about?"

Again silence, no reply I got.

Apples, both red and green all filled that garden’s space.

Fiddling with those I thought, there must be some secret vault.

Among them a red one asked, "Want to taste our sweetest flesh?"

After several hesitating moves, I bit off more than it’s half.

The rest half I couldn’t chew, since it fell down…phew!!

Strangely after weeping for long that half-apple told,

"Place me over the guitar, then you’ll get the gold".

Pausing for a while I hummed,

"How can I climb up over the mammoth's top?"

The weeds turned themselves into ladders to provide me the prop moving upstairs,

I placed that half-apple over its roof.

And a canvas appeared there with a beaming glow.

And the chords amazingly started to play a sonata in harmonious flow.
Alas I reached the mammoth’s top.

These were the words which came out of me after I visited the Norfolk heritage park in Sheffield. Sitting on the grass, the barrenness and silence of the trees taught me that individuals must have their own direction. All artists know that they must explore different styles to reach their destinations; they do not allow others to choose if it right for them. Similarly, surrounded only by mountaintops, sky, and silence, I recognized the need to remain individually focused on my life's goal of understanding nature to be able to capture it.