Mystical Experience I have looked on things that were not there, Scenes so marvellous the eye Not unaccustomed to inner sight Nor stranger to beauty, could not contain The vision of the wakened heart. Whether in sleep or deep dream-state, Beyond the frontiers of the mind They came, the great enlightened ones, Yogis, sages, seers, to me Clearer than the eye can see, More real than flesh and kind, so kind, To teach me and to counsel give, But with such tenderness, as if A friend and brother bearing light. I have heard music with an ear Closed to the noise and din of earth, The too-loud mockery of song, Celestial, exquisite and d

As Time Allows 7/22/09 I will remember her as time allows, And all the infidelities of love. There is a blindness comes upon the soul Of those who unequivocally love, Discretion lost, the heart a seething mass, The mind unable dispassionately to see The flawed relationship, the nagging doubt That ate at her, consuming all her joy, And lacking wisdom's seal and the soul's stamp I wandered blind in alleyways of fate. But I shall see someday as time allows Perhaps her love was flawed but yet sincere, Inapt to overcome the treacheries Once suffered at a brutal father's hand. Though she is gone and lost to me I know I will remember her as time a

The Heaven of Which We Dream How can we speak who have no-thing to say Of life that lives beyond the sense-bound soul, A limited vision of the empiric all Cannot filter out the false from true Locked in the guarded palace of the mind. For even in our sleep we are unaware Of forces that can aid or malevolent Spirits that delight in wrongful deeds. We must break the walls of ignorance And free the bird imprisoned in the heart. A day will come when we shall truly see Beyond the anchored present and the past, In the moment live the heaven of which we dream.

In a World Recast 12/22/09 A hundred random thoughts assail the brain Yet above the mind the silent spirit waits And knows the hour is not far from us When the Lord in all His splendour shall descend, Annihilate the darkness and the din Of discord and the errant ways of men. One breathes this truth in the air of Auroville, Beneath the Banyan, tree of unity, And in the Ashram's sacred atmosphere. We are but instruments on which He plays, But more than pawns in a chess-game with fate; Conscious we may become when all is done With our plenary assortment of desires, Transformed by Light in bodies built of light, Divine, in a world recast, tran

Knocked Out Prone on the soil of boyhood I lay unconscious as sin, A child of the deep-silenced wood, The birds sang to me from within. I slipped on the grass and was senseless, My head hit a stone or a clod, I felt an unearthly bliss As if touched by the hand of God. Such melodies came that morning I would have liked to stay But I heard my mother shouting, 'Get up, go out and play!'

The Wanderer to Mother I am the wanderer who finding home Across the seas ten thousand miles away In ancient lands beneath a burning sun, Returns again to the soil that saw me born. Now time and distance pale beneath your gaze, The years condensed to points upon the path That you have willed this errant one to tread. I am a bridge across two continents, Carrying the cargo of the self To be off-loaded that my soul be free Of all the burdens of the heavy past, Emptied, and filled with wonderful soul-desire No more the heavy weight of earthly cares But lightened now, moving towards your feet.

Song to Beauty O frozen beauty on the heights, Snow clad peaks that few would dare, Seen from thirty-thousand feet, A dream vision beyond compare. O beauty in the forest's heart Scent of hemlock groves and pine, I would ever wander there And merge my silent soul with thine. O beauty of the fragrant fields Where I have walked and found relief Shuffling off these mortal woes, The pain of loss, the sting of grief. O beauty that I cannot see, But bow before thy divinity.

In Thee I Have Found Rest Now the rains, as lightning sears the sky, And though the drought remains within this heart And sorrow lingers like a departing friend, Through long days that stretch into the night, I labour at the tasks I must complete Before the spirit leaves, the honoured guest, The body that now weakens with the years, A mind forgetful of the daily grace That leans to earth and blesses pure intent. Better that we cannot see the end, For with each breath there still is time to grow. The gardens beckon and the chant of OM. In Thee I have found rest, my heavenly home.

Progenitor of Birth I believe the inner stress that heralds change Opens doors once shut to mortal thought And through the numbing pain of body's trials And the grief we feel for that which we have lost, An opportunity to rise above ourselves, Our human weakness and our long-held woes, To come into a place known long before The entry into birth, the shock of life That brings with it forgetfulness of soul And the destined goal for which we suffered birth. Youth is a blessing, age a blessing too, For one can, in the torrid race with time Outrun the past and into wholeness leap, Beauty the progenitor of birth, Love the manifest di

Louisiana Bayou 6/23/09 I remember well the silence on the boat As we began the bayou tour that day The water grass so thick it seemed like land, A stillness covered all, the sky steel-grey. A sudden fear as we came upon the snakes Sunning themselves on limbs of fallen trees, Poisonous and lethal moccasins. Faintly in the distance by some cays Children were swimming in the turbid stream Unmindful of danger, unconcerned with death. And then a great white owl at its kill Rose swiftly as we passed, we held our breath As the guide now warning us to call If snakes dropped from the branches close above. Yet there is beauty here and ghostly bl