Written piece
Empty Seashell
Tajrian Islam
Bangladesh
About this piece
This poem is solely my way to put everything in my complicated mind together. And in my mind, I hold the rage towards war and the destruction of nature, and my love, solidarity, and stand for the war-torn people and nature.
In my tiny little place,
With my heart and me alone,
My heart whispered that nothing had more sadness than the world of my own.
And my world was nothing but my heart and me alone.
Then I heard a knocking on my heart’s window,
And a banging on its door.
It was all the sadness pounding to escape,
And all the happiness trying to invade.
I tried to open the window,
And tried to open the door.
Alas, my heart couldn’t open, even with everything I had known.
So I set out on a journey to the outer world, rather than my own.
I went to the seaside and found a small seashell.
Though it was all radiant on its surface,
But hollow at its core.
I treasured it with me and went beyond.
I went to people, and from afar I saw chaos, hatred and squalor.
They made all the happiness outside my heart disappear into the unknown.
So I went to nature, and I saw peace, love and splendour.
They opened the window, and the sadness was gone.
But when I went closer to it,
I saw all the terror it always hid,
The window closed from the terror again,
And so, I went to people once again.
From closer, I felt the love within them.
And the warmth of their love made my heart firmly open.
But there was nothing left in my heart to escape,
And nothing out to invade.
So my heart now is hollow on its own,
As the shell I had been treasuring all along.
This was how I’d express my heart,
To show the emptiness I hold, and the freedom I crave,
And love I want, and the war I detest.
But the more I think about it,
Everything tangles up even more.