The Stone Mason One learns to feel the nature of the stone And understand the way it must be faced. The artist's hands are rough but his heart is true, He sees the beauty others cannot see Who look at rock and rubble at their feet, But more than this he knows that every stone Must harmonize with others in the wall. There is an architecture he must build, A harmony that he alone can find Among the dazzling patterns and the hues. His art does not condone the use of lime Or concrete peering from each interface. With a level eye he measures pitch and point, An elegance creates that must endure All seasons and the wearing down of time. The c

Live the Light We Are Within An inner music tunes the ear To sounds unheard that disappear In the turbulent and noise-polluted mind. When ears are closed to humankind Little there is that we can hear. When we are by confusion led, At every step a dark 'instead' Turns us from the destined way To vanity or roads that stray, Then we are less alive than dead. A consciousness now seeks to win (No more to err, no longer sin) From nether forces that control Both life and mind, our very soul And live the light we are within.

The Hearth In Which The Holy Fire Burns. I thank you O my body for these years And all that you have borne of my abuse, The excesses of youth, desire filled, And illnesses that I allowed to pass Through the subtle envelope protecting me. I worked for him, the father that I loved Pushing you past the limits of your strength, Servant of my soul, the spirit's home. I thank you for the days that I have left For the eternal moment that is now And for the future and these sleep filled hours Of quiet and regenerating sleep. I shall care for you, no longer to despoil The temple ground, the sacred inner site, The hearth i

Music of the Prayerful Heart A thousand lyrics wait upon the song That lies unsung upon the lips of man, Melodies of soul for which we long And poetry unheard since time began. An impress of divinity we feel And sometimes glimpse in rare refracted light; A splendour on our smallness seems to steal And lift the opaque curtain of the night, The ignorance that holds our hearts in thrall, The greed that grows beyond all self control The frantic pace that blinds us to the call And sorrow that exerts its painful toll, All joy of life subservient to need, A monotony in which all higher thought Accedes to base necessities

Sanctify with Love Soon daffodils will break the crust of earth And crocus flower cheerful in the snow And all these silent harbingers of birth Will move the heart and everywhere I go The eye arrest, enchant for my delight The fragrant earth ablaze like a moving prayer To displace the dark hegemony of night. And I shall kneel at peace for in our care Are gardens of a consciousness to build Not yet descended to this mortal zone But waiting till the ego soul is killed, Desire dead, the inner vision grown To encompass life and sanctify with love Our labour to the One in whom we move.

Stillness Like An Ocean Music, the remembrance of thy love, In future lives will weave its melody Into the silver silence of my soul. As the magic of the dance enraptured me, I longed for beauty all my life to know As Nature held me in her vast embrace. The seasons now with bliss undying swell, My fount of hours overflows with Grace. I gaze upon thy face and all is well And shall be well when beauty comes to stay. How I have loved the warmly setting sun And dawn with all her glories on display, Bright snow upon the ridges of the world, The soil of earth on whose warm breast I lay And mountains rising up towards heaven's

O My Beloved O my beloved with the eyes that heal How often have I bathed in those bright seas And in their depths diviner love did feel Above the sorrow of the centuries. The years have flown, the ship of time sails on, The oceans of the world now chart my home, Old cloaks discarded for the new I don No more the restless vital self to roam. I move towards familiar distant shores, In the shaping of a world participate, Wherever I turn I see an open door Of welcome; is it then my spirit's fate To walk among the sanctified and pure And know within the One in whom you dwell, All darkness and desire to abjure, The thought-streams

The Dancers The music came and on the ear of night Merged and swelled as from a harp of bliss, Its harmonies descending in delight, Its melodies like the beloved's kiss. These finite bodies singing circled round The lantern representative of soul Chanting as one who inner peace has found, In silence hears the distant oceans roll And in his depths repeats the sacred Om. In that moment when the hours disappeared One saw the dancers moving through the room, In perfect synchronicity they neared As suddenly there rose from the heart's core A hymn of gratitude, a song of light, Eternal chords unlocked an inner door To beauty and the e

Music Like an Anthem of the Soul Music like an anthem of the soul In waves of ecstasy descending came, One body sang, one voice rose up in prayer Calling on the great transforming Name To guide the heart to realms of unsung bliss And catch the unvoiced stanzas of delight, To open wide through sound the spirit's door This finite life to bear the Infinite: Chanting the hymns of love that made the world, Intoning the stanzas of the odes divine, United tongues a new creation sing Embracing all, the deity enshrine.

How to Tell a Father He asked me to hear him sing. Confusion lined his face, "They keep telling me Shh and hush me down." I played a note, he sang. How to tell a father That he could no longer hear The music that sustained him Through all the pain-filled years And in the days of joy? The choir was his home, A loft in a little church Free for an hour from care And the burdens that he bore. A first deafness perhaps Or something of the ear, What sadness in his eyes As his world fell apart. How to tell a father . . .