We Who Wander Here 11/18/03 To walk in the shade of great protecting trees Whose branches crowned with blessings cover me, Alive to signal moments such as these I turn within that inner eye to see The reality behind this world of forms Whose beauty breaks upon the subtle sight As blossom meadows in eternal light Beyond all dreams and measurable norms. The grasses of the earth in greenness glow And I am hesitant these joys to leave, Alone by the spirit's growth one day shall know That earth and worlds beyond are but one weave, A tapestry of some near

Garden of Unearthly Bliss I stood at the Garden of Unearthly Bliss Hoping a magic entryway to find But the gates were locked and the Lover's kiss Denied to the impure in heart and mind. I saw the mystic blossoms opening, A fragrance caught from some forgotten past But could not hold in my dark sorrowing When Death claimed the beloved at the last. I watch the wonder of the Spring unfold And know that peace and calm might still descend If I could leap beyond my grief and hold The vision of the garden I must tend, The flowers' simple offering be mine All poverty of spirit be undone. O Mother let my soul be wed to Thine,

Joy^s Child.htm For Aaron Joy's Child He comes as a wave cresting in delight, His laughter like an infant God's at play Rings the stars and sets the world aright, This sudden breeze that cools the fiery day. His tiny hands enfold themselves in mine And happiness descends into my veins, His kiss a poetry at once divine All-love his gift in sweetest godlike strains. With his embrace all false anxiety And clinging sorrow far from me is cast, His griefless eyes speak of an ecstasy When soul aware of present and of past Takes up again the reins of consciousness Eager to explore the far unfound. Then too, there is a streak of wilfulness And mi

I Am The Mother^s Child.htm I Am The Mother's Child Dawn on Tiger Hill, the blood-red stain Of sunrise on the slopes of Everest, Ten thousand feet below the Indus plain, Ten thousand feet above the icy crest. We have known mountains formidable as love, A deeply spiritual unity, Above the highest peaks we soared and dove Into the canyon depths of tragedy. I have walked alone among the redwood trees And known the joy and sweetness earth can give, Communed in silence with divinities Who far from man's destruction calmly live. In forests where the giant hemlocks grew I learned the secrets of an ancient lore, In the chanting on the boughs my spirit knew

To Mary Helen Temples to the Sky I cannot build thee temples to the sky Or palaces of gold and amethyst, In timeless realms a greater destiny Anoints thy flame-white soul by godhead kissed And all my hanging sorrows are as nought To that which in thee touched my growing days. I witnessed thy heroic battle fought Against the foe who on the body preys And honour thee in flowers we have grown, In gardens of exceeding loveliness And know thee kindred spirit as my own, No day shall pass without thy smile's impress. Reveal immortal one the way of light, My grief to joy transform, to dawn my night.

Dark Night of the Soul Returns The cherished things, all the high ideals Are for the moment lost or cast aside As day when night upon the landscape steals, So many expectations with her died. The compass of my soul is now awry Spinning pointlessly in empty space, And darker spirits tempt the outward eye. I live in emptiness bereft of grace And yield to ancient nemeses my will. Through haze and stupor stumblingly I move, Nothing remains of calm or peace to fill The void that I became when lost was love. I have seen a few who tread the sun-bright path Undefiled by ego or desire, But I have known too well the Fury's w

LookForward Angel Look forwardangel, never looking back, The past islittered with the dreams of men And battlesfought many lives ago. There aresome who having tasted bliss Now bear thewounds of sorrow and defeat. Look upwardangel, never glancing back For darknessfollows us as day the night. Though fewhave risen above the lowly self Upon thejourney's steep and winding track The futurebeckons still, the past recedes, For what islife but a continuum, Experienceupon experience Leading to agoal we cannot see Or imaginewith the faculty of mind. Yet sheddingEgo's hard and brilliant mask, We shallarrive, fulfil the Spirit's quest Accomplishing

Autumn Colours Autumn's cool is on the skin And in the nostrils quivering. The figs turn purple and burst red And the honeyed tongue is pink. We spread black netting over the leaves Hoping to deter the bats. The yellow hornets feast these days In the time of orange persimmons. Through the low crotch of a lilac shrub I saw a young cardinal hanging Upside down in the plastic mesh Dead, more tangerine than red. On the path I met a snake, Nearly stepped on his shiny back But the Genius warned me just in time And I retreated carefully. He raised his head reluctantly And slowly lowered it again When I told him that I m

To Which Our Lives Aspire Scatterer of stars on the black cloth of night, I hear thy voice in the lightning's crack, the thunder's crash. Besetter of all hopes to spur our human flight In thee the warring factions meet, the nations clash On blood-filled killing fields grievously die. The cataclysm and the holocaust are thine And thine the vision seen in dream and darkling sky Sower of the seed that shall make earth divine, Destroyer and creator, anarchist and king, Crucible of love in whose eternal fire All is cleansed: though to our animal past we cling Thou art the ultimate to which our lives aspire.

The Nearness of the Goal To listen with the trance-like inner ear And catch the subtle rhythms as they fall, Alert to sounds beyond this human sphere And footsteps down the corridors of time, To see beyond this narrow vision's arc The splendour still denied to outward sight And watch the trailing raiment of the Gods As they pass through burning day and star-cast night, To harvest the honeyed fruit of Paradise And taste delight in simple, common things, To sip a nectar few have drunk before And know the joy that consecration brings. To breathe the fragrance of the asphodel And the blossoms of the stephanotis vine A sweetness n