Is There a Music? Is there a music to the listening ear Unrecognized as ether to the eye, Is there a sound that every sound contains Whose music guides our human destiny? Is there an ode divine we cannot hear Of which our lives are but a brief refrain, Is there a Singer of celestial song Whose music can assuage our human pain And carry us upon its silver waves, Melt a frozen heart or move a star, Refashion us to sacred harmonies That we may become what we truly are.

Beloved Mary Helen – In Memoriam I held her dying in my helpless arms, Powerless and impotent to save And called upon her spirit heaven's balms. My human love such as it is I gave And every prayer addressing Him I said, To light the pathway to her rest and peace And bless this cherished soul on Death's grey bed And from the body's temple grant release; But mostly prayers of the heart's gratitude. Aware that she was in a state of grace, This moment of life's final interlude That every soul now born on earth must face. I think of the more I might have been and done Unworthy of the love embracing me This aura bri

At Thy Feet The arrows of hate that pierce the heart, I place them at thy feet The lance of words that tear apart The beautiful and sweet, The evil lords who with us play And with our good compete, The higher thoughts that often stray I lay them at thy feet. My ignorance, my pride, my will The errors I repeat The dark that lies within me still I offer at thy feet.

Black Snake I remember the snake I met When raking in the woods. He was shiny and black, All friendliness. He slithered over my shoes As I built a pile of leaves, Then in a burst of speed In a body without hands or feet Movement built on grace, And he was under the pile. He was probably hungry. I moved up the hill, Raking as I went, He came slowly behind me, By my side again Then under the next pile. The boys who helped me that day Came from Mexico. They killed every snake they saw, Not this one in my yard. I never kill snakes. Think of the beauty they hold, The tongue that smells the prey, Stillness and sudden speed.

The Songs of Angels Welcoming I saw as on a cinematic screen The papyrus of all our life unroll Revealed was beauty to the eyes unseen And the never-ending vistas of the soul. Floating through dreams as on buoyant sea, Unteared your face, unstained its radiance, Aglow, attuned to unearthly harmony And plenitudes exceeding sight and sense. Then pain the dark companion came in sleep And with him came the breaking of my heart For death into your weeping cells did seep; I know not why such beauty must depart. Our life of bliss lay shattered in a day When hope had fled to chasm depths unknown To all except the Witness

One Whom I Love Who drew that orange streak across the sky, Suffused with tints of pewter touched with teal, Was it the hem of God passing by Or phenomenon of science most surreal. I watch the birth and death of lovely things Of birds and animals, beloved friends And feel the joy the spirit's oneness brings The peace that through this woeful world extends. I feel the pain of others as my own And with less seeing eyes than those who are blind Know I am not I alone in the Alone That

Rose of God The poem Rose of God by Sri Aurobindo, one of the most beautiful and powerful of his shorter poems, was set to music by Ida Patterson. Ida founded the Sri Aurobindo Center in Minneapolis under her careful and devoted care, many people learned of Mother and Sri Aurobindo. During my first stay in the Ashram I was asked to sing Rose of God as a private concert for Nolini. I practiced with Olga, a stalwart of the Ashram school as a teacher and pianist. Nolini sent a message that he would come on a certain day. This was among my earliest m

The Gates of Night Sept. 30, 2005 Yes, I have read the poetry of death And eulogies so eloquent of life Yet drew in pain each shallow, lonely breath While sorrow cut me as a surgeon's knife Pierces the body's walls to heal the heart. I walk in a penumbra of the sun Or an eclipse from which I cannot part. Three years have passed, the healing scarce begun But slowly as I wander in a haze Of memories of bright and tranquil hours When the light of th

The World Remake There is nought here but leads us to the grave Or worse, a hungering unfulfilled. What greater loss than if the soul awake To darkness in the pits disbelief Having grown accustomed to the light. O pilgrim spirit refuse the ego-road Well-travelled, trod by countless erring feet, But on a lonely height stand unafraid For one who waits within thee is the guide. His hand shall stay the hordes at evil's call, His strength thy strength to face the foe and win From death the body's immortality, A compass ever fixed upon the truth, A mind enabled that sees the guise of sin, The heart become a universal heart To hold the suff

Prayer to Return and Serve I would not wish to disappear And end my love affair with life In some nirvanic atmosphere Devoid of struggle, free of strife. For One shall come, a promise keep In a body built of golden light. How could I wish to lie asleep In some serene eternal night? No, I shall come and purify Each atom and transform each cell To serve Him with all dignity As He allows, to serve Him well, And She who gathered us to share Divinity in human dress, Our Mother in whose gentle care My soul receives Her sweet largesse.