The Great Romance I walk in wonder where the dogwoods bloom And watch a cardinal red against the white Aware that in the heart is ample room For beauty and for sweetness and delight. We war and hate uncovered in our greed, Our legendary lust and power's thrill To fill the bloated ego's wanton need, Mental beasts trained to love the kill, Unconscious puppets of a lethal force Or docile servants of an enemy Who lurks unseen to plot our downward course And drive us towards the gates of infamy. In pain we labour and to death we yield Unwilling to admit the God within, The inner chamber's door lies bricked and sealed And all our

Prayer of the Singers Celestial music born in human hearts And raised in simple choral offering In this still hour when brightly burns the flame, Our meditation rises up to Thee. Grant this day that we may chant as one, Each soul in adoration merge its sound In strains of an increasing harmony. Delight and gratitude essential chords And love that interweaves life's melodies, Surrender's song, powerful and vast To soar from this collective entity. Let not the mind attempt to interfere In music that transcends the mental plane, May it lie still and in that stillness find A resolution and sincere desire To join this soaring canticle of m

The Nearing Goal The dull skies dripping in the morning rain Cannot obscure the beauty of the trees, The freshly crowned magnolia's crimson stain Or flush of white, like stars on darkened seas, And green that covers the renascent earth. The cherry tree in airy clouds appears And daffodils beyond all reckoned worth Rejoice and bloom unmindful of the years That fleeting pass or mortal brevity. The splendour of the seasons holds my soul; Beyond my window's pearlescent drops I see Through fog and mist and death the nearing goal.

To Mother, Our Origin I hold, I cling, but barely now To some beyond of truth, Waves of grief and anger flow And beauty wont to soothe. But still the tears, the silent tears In rivulets wash down. I am stained by sorrow, cleft by fears Deep and darkly sown, Fears that I may wake one day Late to realize The Light is quenched and lost the way To a force that all denies, Or in my somnolence of dream Drift on the world-tide That drowns all souls of low esteem Unable to decide, Accepting fate, the karmic law As ultimate decree, Whether to press against the bar And set the spirit free Or ride the Wheel

The Golden Reins of Consciousness When our days were young and you and I were free O my beloved with the sunlit smile, Whose eyes like pools of lapis lazuli My image held as in a crystal vial. My soul was rapt in beauty's ways by love Surrounded by the peace of happy years As the brightening threads of our morning marriage wove A tapestry of life unstained by tears And moments of divine awakenings, A visionary dreamscape of the Real That hides itself behind apparent things, Our nuptial vow and inner spirit's seal. Then slowly as the star-swept evening yields To the richly coloured wedding of the morn You le

Fall and Reconciliation Frequently we fall from grace As old desires have their way, Usurping the spirit's hallowed place, Revelling in sordid play. The Witness in the background waits Regarding with eternal eyes As the lower nature sates Its ravenous propensities. Although the inner cost is high And painful from the depths our climb, The soul assured its destiny That lies beyond the tides of time Prompts the being's voiceless call To purify the temple-ground, Determined never to forestall The cleansing love again refound.

From Frozen Stillness The first few desultory leaves drift down And morning chill invigorates the blood, The wisps of vapours on the lake have grown, Their billowing presence heralds autumn's mood. Summer yawns, her labour now complete She is content to rest, prepares to die The yearly death at winter's frost-white feet, While in the earth her seeds embedded lie Sustained by faith; their atoms energy Pent within the core move slowly now Confident of the Mother's mastery Sleep and dream as nature will allow, Of growth that leads to fruitful blossoming, Renascent joy from frozen stillness wakes, Headlong rushes into the arms

Music in the Gardens of the Lord^s Design.htm Music in the Gardens of the Lord's Design I heard the anthem of the spheres and found Within the music of infinity, Supporting by its lone eternal sound The arpeggios of lost divinity. But in the decades since I touched her feet All has lain quiescent in my breast, The soaring trills, the varied rhythmic beat Are stilled as when the heart is in arrest, For peace is yet a stranger on these shores As I look across the oceans of my song, The chords of truth upon life's soaring scores That swelled within me lovingly and long. In human years approaching sixty-five A voice outworn, unable to retain The vibran

Full and Final Advent The turning of the years and of our lives Continues as the flow of birth and death, Love seeks its home in the heart's small openings, The soul's divine compact the human drives To seek fulfilment with each aspiring breath Beyond mind's fanciful imaginings. Orion, grand protector of the skies Guards this metal miracle of flight That speeds towards my spirit's secret home. Let there be nought in me that still denies The full and final advent of the light. Soaring through the solar night I come.

Before Whom All Creation Bows I am in hiding in my body's shell, The long days drifting slowly into night. Grief the measure of my being's hell Where all is claimed by death's intrepid might, Or so it seems when lost is beauty's bride And joy illusion's mask has turned to grey Life's meaning that the soul had once descried And the path that seemed a clarity of day. But now I live in an unknowing cloud Of present, past and future unaware, I walk uncertain ground amid the loud And jarring acts of evil and despair And live among the masses who are saved Accepting Christ as the sole deity Within their hearts the crucif