In Tibet (11/21/02) When I first read about the butter lamps I could smell the smoke that filled the spacious halls And darkened tapestries on temple walls I heard the call of bells in far-off camps And stars like candles in the frozen night Appeared as on the table of a King, I knew the song the spinning prayer-wheels sing And recognized this strange familiar site As one who passes through a childhood town Remembers lanes forgotten by the rest, Knows secrets no adult has ever guessed And every path his feet have travelled down. I saw in vision's cle

Passing of an Eternal Flame - For Mary Helen I have known a love transcending human love Who sought with grace and dignity to find Her soul's directive beckoning above And rose to touch the feet of heaven-kind. One who chose the earth for her domain To incarnate in human form and strive, Accepting sorrow and accepting pain That the hour of God in all may soon arrive. I stood the vigil as her breathing slowed Repeating constantly the sacred Name Upward the life-force in her gently flowed The silent passing of an eternal flame.

Loss and Remembrance I understand the poignancy and pain Of kings who suffered irreparable loss, Who owning all no longer did retain Aught but sorrow and her maid, remorse, Who built their mausoleums and their tombs Remembrances of grief they could not bear And lay in gardens redolent with blooms The bones of the beloved and the fair. And if they had their life to live again To see the cherished smile, the warm embrace, Would they requite all wealth for the sole gain Of eyes beheld on Beauty's worshipped face, Meet all the unfair challenges of fate With equal heart, accept the peasant's toil, The labourer whom all manipula

The Word that New-Creates Too frail our language still to speak of love Or God or Joy, too wanting are our words. A language growing by experience We must expand our vision and the sparse Vocabulary of impoverished phrase, Supplant with new-formed terms by light defined That vibrate with the syllables of truth Descended from those greater atmospheres We seldom glimpse and yet must claim as ours. An etymology by God revealed, Our leaps into the unknown conscious grow And all our being vibrate with the Word. We shall one day all nations understand, No language closed to the enlightened mind, No tongue obscure to one who hears beh

No Joy is Lost Soft as a melting dream the flowers fall Upon the dew-filled cushion of the grass, Their life destroyed upon the tempests' squall All fragrance lost and empty is the glass Of sky that held this rainbow of delight, As fade the shades of day when suddenly Is drawn the velvet curtain of the night. And yet no joy is lost, there cannot flee From mind or eye a beauty that has been Or love that filled the chalice of the heart. The brown of earth, her dress of vibrant green Absorbs all change, a thaumaturgist's art, And we who suffer, laugh upon her breast Partake of her renewal and her rest.

Tree of God This is the tree beloved of the Lord, Wounded now by strokes of human hate, Its pain we feel as if a tyrant's sword Slashed us when we sat to meditate Beneath its flowered branches blessing us; All the ravages of time withstood Whose roots support the Bodies Glorious. We servants and attendants though we would Cannot replaced the severed limbs nor heal By human hand or help by human prayer This mortal blow delivered with such zeal Upon its crown of beauty once so fair That souls who shed the body would reside Within its kingly home to be near Her, The Mother of all lives, the Godhead's bride. Our offerings of frankince

Winter Haiku - Scroll V Silent world, World of dreams And dreamers dreaming springtime dreams. Sudden deer Caught in light Bounds to safety in snow-clad night. Crackling snow Upon the bough Winter's silence broken now. Barren limb Still host to those Bright singers of the frozen morn.

Autumn Haiku- Scroll II Blowing leaves, My work undone, Dance in glee around my feet. Autumn fires, - Sparks fly up Embering the coal-black sky. The maple trees Sing beautifully Their songs of orange, gold, and rose. In silence I cut Dead peony leaves, Already the blood-red shoots awake!

Two Came Down In all material things that knew her care A residue of consciousness survives As if her soul departed lingers there And casts its perfumed stillness on our lives. Across the fields her sweetest joy caressed Where sudden flowers rose before her feet, Darting winged joy from branch or nest Arose in song her sun-bright soul to greet. God's special ones seem often to die young As if the earth could hold not long their light, The singer struck before his song is sung The poet taken in his soaring flight. Yet two came down on earth, death to slay, Their Force to vanquish darkness, Grace to heal, He the bringer of the golde

The Music of the Future The music of the future calls to us, Its harmonies too subtle for our ear As we our few and tired chords repeat That move us less with every passing year. Shall no new anthems sound upon our souls, Or melodies descend from heights sublime To open us to hidden worlds above, Beyond the finite boundaries of time. I sing of joy that lurks in sadness' heart And love that lives within the core of hate, Of beauty waiting on the sill of life That would descend and change our deathbound fate. For I have glimpsed in human form the Lord Who opens us to heavens full with song, He brings to earth the great tra