Faith Must Live in Us Three freezing nights in the leaping month of spring When buds about to burst were smitten down And all the earth a dull and dungeon brown Shattered were the joys to which I cling. Though leafless trees would rest to leaf again, Beneath the soil an energy and flow, A Will of Life to blossom and to grow More beautiful for suffering the pain Of Nature in her self-destructive moods. Each day is a struggle as the world is torn By violence and from its beauty shorn. I walk now through no lush and green-crowned woods, And suddenly as I am standing there Buds break forth upon a limb once bare. Alone in thought, resolved wit

Death is Such aTemporal Thing 3/30, 2007 Splendidly the dogwoodsburst On open land, among thetrees, Their coming does notslake my thirst Who have seen the greatmagnolias freeze When winter thoughtshad fled the mind. Grief and joy aremingled now In seasons fickleand unkind Who deal to life thefatal blow. Man too has masteredthe killing fields Unable to rise abovehis state, Half animal, toviolence yields Consumed by centuriesof hate. The air seems lesspolluted here And Nature flowersunconcerned Welcoming in anotheryear As from the east I havereturned Though move lessswiftly than before Look more within yetcannot se

They Say a Hard Freeze Will Come They say a hard freeze will come An ending to this glorious week When flowers burst through swelling bud And miracles on miracles Appeared before my awe-filled eyes. The vivid azaleas colour the path, Viburnum like dancers with pom-poms leap From garden borders and the phlox Cover with gaiety the earth. A few magnolia blossoms cling To branches breaking forth in leaves But now has come the dogwood's hour. I have read that Christ was crucified On a cross made from the dogwood tree And a spell was cast by God himself That never again would its trunk grow Large enough to hang a man. Natur

Widened is the Heart Often the exultant voice of Spring Has greeted me in flowered field and wood In mornings of her joyous offering And evening's quiet peace and pensive mood. I have watched the new-born flutter in their nests A parent's patient voice upon the wind Through beauty know that all my life is blessed, Widened is the heart and unconfined.

The Healing Music 12/29/07 I saw a love that night though filled with zeal Could not believe, and damaged by abuse, Beaten so the wounds have yet to heal Now for humankind has little use. The painful visions of a pain-filled youth Scars not healed through adolescent years, Remembrance of the evil and untruth Have settled in the soul a host of fears. Only a light, a peace to waken inner sight Or tender touch upon a troubled heart Might lift the hurt she lives with day and night That from childhood's nightmares she might part. Now she is gone, this youth that made me young And all the days of loveliness and sweet, For there are songs

A Kiss From Continents Away May12, 2007 Her voice a sweet caress across the seas, Her laughter like a sun dispelling night, Her words melodic like a wingéd prayer To ease my pain and troubled body's plight. This golden child's embrace my soul renews, Her words a promise of enduring bliss, A blessing hidden in a human guise, An angel come to heal me with her kiss.

The Name, Narad In memory's eye I am aware Of a soundless room white on white And seated there in a high-backed chair The reason for the world's delight. With measured pace I crossed the floor And knelt to touch Her golden feet Then slowly rose toward the door But in a voice so strong yet sweet She said to me, "Look at your card." I opened the sacred envelope And saw my name, heaven's bard Then all my soul was filled with hope And when I looked into her eyes The love I saw caused me to weep, A love c

World of Unparalleled Delights February's daffodils appear Thrusting through the thickly frozen soil And I awake with them the dancing years Regardless of past suffering and toil. As from the stem the golden flowers rise I too shall grow apace, my spirit soar Fling far from me the being that denies, And blossom forth from earth's enchanted floor To find my spirit's truth upon the heights From which I came a thousand lives ago To taste this world's unparalled delights And in a body learn to be and know.

A Greater Being’s Plan.htm A Greater Being's Plan What have we learned when death arrives at last To claim the body from the deathless soul, An uncertain recollection of the past A present peering towards an unknown goal, An unknown future for which we are unprepared. Truly the race is never to the swift But to those who through enveloping darkness stared Unflinching; for them the light, the priceless gift Who found the spirit in desert wilderness, Atop the hill, across forbidding p

Bringer of the Heavenly Light The whispering grasses welcoming her feet, The branches bowing low to shade her hair What plenitude of grace that we should meet The Creatrix of the worlds seated there In a little room fronting Bengal's shore. We who from the caverns of the night Or spaces cold upon a darkened plain Were led by fate and by awakened sight To see the light we lost once again And open to Her love at being's core. He is the calm that gathers in the storm She the bringer of the heavenly light, Who guides our souls and shields us from all harm And sheds on us Her great and golden light That we may tread the path