Handmaid of the Truth

I live in sanctuary of the trees

Around me hosts of friends self-assured,

Saved. A moment of conviction counts

An eternity the faithful spend with God.

Not so for those who walk diminished earth

Slow to heal the million gaping wounds,

Despoilment, denudation, once divine,

But now contaminated, rape of soil,

Polluted streams, no longer spacious skies

Or oceans' purity and lakes pristine.

O human soul from this mud house arise,

The human beast transform to god-like mould

Else world-iniquities shall scream your name,

Blood lust and greed the tag of infamy,

Slave of forces far above your fears

Marionettes of evil's iron fist.

She said: "There is only one way out."

Surrender of the self, acknowledgement

Of one Supreme who dwells unseen within,

The offering of all to That which is;

And then the vast experience of peace

A calm unshaken by the blows of fate,

As Knowledge from beyond the mind descends,

And faith that is the handmaid of the truth.