Bear with an Indomitable Will As I leave this sacred place a calm descends Suffusing the environment with peace. I know not how it began nor how it ends Or when I shall attain the great release. Winter is slow to come, the flowers sleep Preparing in their roots the fragrant year, The war drags on and sudden widows weep In eastern lands the people live in fear. Suicide bombings continue without pause As if the death of innocents might yield To darkness' forces their infernal cause And all the world become a blood-strewn field. I leave for India again tonight, Alone to breathe the Ashram's atmosphere Recharge th

Mother of Beauty and Delight The rose in its perfection pales Before Thee Mother of Radiance, Describing Thee expression fails Our voices stilled in reverence. Time cannot contain Thy love Nor the heavens hold Thy force, One with all yet far above Describing for the stars their course And man his sacred destiny. Mother of beauty and delight Heal our human enmity Free us from the net of night, Forge in us the strength to hold God's descent, our lives remould.

A Sonnet to Aaron on His Fifth Birthday It seemed the sun in his ecstatic round On this special twenty-first of May, Leaping the heavens like a fiery hound Paused to give his blessings for the day. In a bright morn of wonder touched with joy Awaking from the depths of dream I heard The lilting childlike laughter of a boy And in my heart a faint remembrance stirred Of burning youth so eager to explore The marvels and the mysteries of earth, Running through the future's open door In the unending miracle of birth. Aaron first among the godlike race Accept my salutation and embrace.

Easter Haiku The earth is clothed In petal-fall, The cherry's final ecstasy. Falling like snow, Cherry blossoms Return to earth the gifts of Spring. Ibow before The cherry tree, Her rain of petals blessing me. Easter morn, The earth in white Silent beneath the dogwood trees.

The Clouds of My Unknowing I wake to voices In the wood, Their song in flowered boughs earth's melodies. I labour in silence Content to be Alone in deep communion with the day. And then I rest Tired and torn By sorrow and the suffering I've seen. Night comes slow Though hardly peace, I live a stranger in my spirit's home. I fall asleep Gazing at trees, The clouds of my unknowing drifting by.

The Far Receding Goal I walked a child among the green boughs weeping Heavy with the weight of fallen snow, And as I walked the woods were calmly sleeping I sang them forest songs from long ago. The hemlocks magical at sunset dreaming, The crackling princess pine beneath my feet, It was a world of softness brightly gleaming, A cloistered space for meditation's seat. But youthful hearts have not the time for slowing With all the earthly pleasures to explore, Too early yet to seek the inner knowing And the heritage of lives on earth before. But now the years have flown and life is fleeing And I have lost the comrade of my soul,

Golconde Portrait The street dogs bark, the moon is full And lorries belch their poisoned fumes, The world is now a crucible In which an unseen flower blooms. Mystic, rising on its stem, A lotus of divine surprise, The supramental diadem Of children born with sun-gaze eyes. I live in Golconde near the sea And walk its glowing black-stone floors, An oasis of tranquillity That leads to occult corridors And trance-like caves of harmony. The outside world intrudes not here Though a vain and rude cacophony Impinges on the outer ear. In an unstained radiance of peace With gratitude I come and go, The soul content, th

Hymn to My Mother O my mother could I have only seen The soul that dwelt within your wasted frame, Might I have glimpsed a visage great, a queen In former births so recognized, your name Majestic sung in choral odes of love, Arpeggios struck upon a golden lute Within the cloister of a scented grove Divine, where Krishna plays His silver flute. I only saw the coarsened outer mould And could not pierce the veils that screened your face Nor share your pain as you grew quickly old And cancer gripped your cells in fierce embrace. O Mother I confess such ignorance Of life and all the joys that lie behind The masks we don for each exp

In Human Breasts One lingering shade among departing rays As night draws down the day to rest and sleep Remains, a hue of orange-gold, a tint As rarely seen before, a diamond glow, No opal and no precious gem could hold The beauty of that flame-like last descent; A beauty I have found in women's eyes And in the kind and noble hearts of men, Peace on the face of the departing soul And joy made manifest in children's song. O earth thy greater destiny awaits Our slow awakening to consciousness, The light now buried as the sun must seem Behind grey clouds or in the darkest hour. But dawn shall come, the harbinger of light. Though years of toil

Commend the Day How meaningless our lives would seem to be If we paused to contemplate, perhaps repent The countless infidelities of mind, How we betrayed our bodies and our souls, Our misspent youth and trysts of later years. Regret like a cross would hang upon our backs And towards some distant emptiness we'd stare. The needs we deemed essential and unique Our woes, our wants, inconsequential things, Our grief a canker that feeds on the roots of life. Though sorrow's tears can overflow the seas Never can they move the gods of fate. As a vase is shattered and the pieces fall So with our fractured lives unless we find Concealed against the f