A New Year Dawns

A new year dawns, bringer of promises

And to the thirsting earth a grace-filled rain.

Happy sounds of "Bonne Annee" are heard

Renewing hope that peace we might attain.

Absorbed in meditative poise they sit

Disciples in a still environment,

A courtyard sanctified and richly blessed

That holds the mystery of God's descent.

Morning comes pregnant with new birth

And prayers that our tormented earth might find

An end to ignorance and war and greed

And wake to purpose of a nobler kind.

I sit in contemplation's simple room

Emptied for a moment of the past,

Seeking a silence to penetrate the cells,

A calm unshakable, profound and vast.

Stillness deep unmeasurable I seek

And wait upon the sacred voice to hear

Of things divine, the will of God revealed

Through the mantric word that draws the heavens near.