When We Open the Inner Door Now stealthy age upon my hours creeps Though youth resides a sapling in my heart, Yet the Man of Sorrows in my bosom weeps For beauty I have seen this earth depart. What know I of the soul, of others' thought, In the complexity of earthly things, At times I am a dream, a shadow caught In thinking mind's relentless questionings. There are moments few within the spirit's glow When life is seen by different eyes than these, An inner self no longer needs to know, Calm it waits and striving not to please But gather life into its vast embrace. All seeking is an inner knowing's core, All presence

Time Shall Not Lessen Time shall not lessen nor the grave deny The love that bloomed a fire in my heart When first I saw you through the painted glass, The coloured rays that sought your radiance, And all my soul went suddenly out of me As light filled all in that vast corridor. I knew perfection as a dream of God Come down in silence through the whirling stars. So often I return in lonely hours To your fragrance held as in a diamond vial Protected from the poison of the world, Your eyes that drew me into mystic depths Your care that soothed the sorrow of my soul, Your love that even Gods cannot transcend. The mind is faithless b

Bounteous Our Lives He did not weep when I left His fold But gave His hand for me to hold And wiped from longing eyes the tears That worshipped Him ten thousand years. When I returned He welcomed me The prodigal of eternity, And held me in His strong embrace In His abode in timeless space. Beyond the chaos and the calm Beyond the reverential psalm, The hymns we offer to His Grace Transforming through the years His face Till though our eyes His we see In moments of eternity And in our hearts we feel His beat, Bounteous our lives and sweet.

The Soul^s Delight.html The Soul's Delight I have bled upon your thorns, O rose For the way to your heart is bramble-strewn But then such beauty, I suppose May be likened to the inconstant moon. I have known you as I have known the thorn And the sweetness of a woman's breath, Seen beauty from desire born And heard her sigh at the time of death. Though winter comse to strip you clean Of all but barren thorn and stem Apparelled in your dress of green Spring shall return your diadem But the eyes of children fire-bright Will see in you the soul's delight.

Turkey Vultures Huge spectral presences Rest heavily on barren trees Blacker than our blackest thoughts They gather in flocks with surreal ease. Disturbed by my sudden steps Silently they take to flight. They have come to watch the songbirds feed, These dark grotesques of heaven's night. And yet my soul untroubled sees Beauty in their obscenity; Repulsive to men, to God divine Clearing the earth of life's debris.

Beauty Steals the Unsuspecting Heart For beauty steals the unsuspecting heart And in the blood a tremor of delight, The sweet hypnotic urgency of love Courses through dimensions of the soul. Was it fragrance of rose or jasmine breath That held me bound as in a trapper's net My hurried steps now stilled, I could not move, Intoxicant of life and its perfume. Tell me I did not eat my bread with salt And sorrow overcome by loss and pain Drowning hope in an unstemmed flow of tears When the torrent, death, swept my love away. Beyond these few and paltry words I strain To understand the order of things here And cha

The Battle Thickens Now the battle thickens and the losing side is strong Using the very arguments that carried our lives along But twisting, bending truth so as to prove the faithful wrong Is there still more of darkness come, the light for which we long Not visible but present in these hearts that truly pray For beauty and the destiny promised earth one day. We shall not bend to tyranny or lose the sunlit way Our enemies though powerful the spirit cannot slay.

Forerunners of the Future Race. I heard a song of God descend Rich with unknown harmonies Signalling the fateful end Of those unholy trinities That lure men's souls with Circean charms And promise of unending thrills To crush the spirit in their arms With lethal and unerring skills. The music came wave on wave Surging through the fields of life Sending falsehood to its grave Ending error, hatred, strife. I heard the Om chanted here To hasten truth on earth by grace Bear heaven's touch and drawing near Forerunners of the future race.

Stair by Stair Jan. 15, 2011 Why not come and dine with me tonight In silence by a single candlelight And look into a future clear and bright Filled with promise and a strange delight. Why not come and walk with me this day And catch the early morning's brightening ray Nothing need we do and nothing say But watch the wind blow the past away. Why not join me in my hour of prayer Inhale the freshness of the changing air, See beauty born and earth in heaven's ca

The Hawk Returns I returned from my long journey to the East To find the garden filled with thriving weeds No caring hands to labour in summer months. Starting down the steps toward the barn Suddenly the hawk flew over me And perched on the highest branch above my head. Hidden amongst the leaves she greeted me, A piercing dry of welcome in the morn A call so loud I had not heard before, To tell me all was well as I replied And thanked her for remembrance of our bond. The moment was sufficient unto itself Eternity in her sole cry contained. The cycle is complete and in her world She welcomed me as she is part of mine. Though there are not