Soul-Flower

A flower whose name I do not now recall

Blossoms in the centre of my heart,

A rose perhaps of psychic offering

Or mystic lily of the Maker's art.

Long has it lain asleep in dormant bud,

But now in the warmth and blaze of its refound sun

Unfolds to beauty and the touch divine

Yielding in sweetness to the fragrant One,

An opening made in the dense clay of self,

But the full and final flowering awaits

The momentous change, the true decisive turn

Toward the sound that ever reverberates

In our souls and in ourselves, the mantric Aum.

And when we live in that subtle state of grace

All will be changed for suddenly we see

That life is god-infused and we embrace

The unity appearing in our midsts,

And shining at the centre fire-bright

A harmony of elements divine,

In the pulsing glow of a luminous inner light

An inflorescence perfect beyond compare,

Rising from a consecrated soil

Offering to God its rapture-bloom

Through centuries of slow-evolving toil,

Replenishing our lives by its sacrifice,

Connecting the aspiration of the earth

To heaven-bliss soaring it ascends

And scatters the seeds of a greater being's birth.