Regent and Mate Can we who mourn our loss be whole again? Is there a God to reunite the twain Beyond the borders of the unseen worlds, Beyond the nebulae, the cosmic swirls, Who stands in the exploding universe As Father, Mother, handmaid, servant, nurse Of souls, a Force and Power to rewed, Rejoin by love the living and the dead Who walk besieged the avenues of Time, Through countless births resume the epic climb. The dark prevails and in the balance sways The fate of centuries if grieving stays Our progress and the riven heart succumbs To lassitude and aspiration numbs, The flame reduced to ashes or a spark And heard n

In Consecrated Light The nuthatch on the old oak tree Of every crevice is aware, His call alerts the eye to see This muse of winged mystery. O world so torn by hate and still so fair, The forces of destruction rage In one last battle for control Of earth to usher in an age Where darkness reigns and saint and sage No longer chart the destiny of soul. How we are forced to look within, The evil in our hearts to face, We purveyors of pain and sin Who welcome darkest forces in Have planted evil in a sacred place. O splendours on the fairy wing Who soar aloft in heaven's blue, Will we yet live our song to sing And fro

Thousand-petalled Lotus of Delight Only the material sheath remains Sacred raiment of the Godhead's robe Symbol of the sacrificial gains For man endured, achieved on this bright globe. A perfume trailing like a wind-blown veil Exulting in the breeze's light caress, A fragrance like the heavenly asphodel And all our lives a summary of bliss. Behind the Ashram's scented gates we file, The little that we are we give to her Abandoning desires for awhile, The world beyond a busy whirring blur Of energies and entities that thrive In life's environment, on human fate, Alone She is the light in which we live, Dest

Riptide Twice the sea Accosted me, Its roar and roll A memory Of heaving wave And cobalt grave Exacting its toll And none to save. A fierce rip-tide That tossed aside The self's control, A nightmare ride Where breakers threw Foam and spew To swallow whole The life I knew. A fearsome flow, A force below A gaping hole Through which I'd go, And twice the feel Of arms like steel Thwarting the goal Of Neptune's zeal. I breathed in pain But safe again, Though God extol Cannot explain How all-wise Grace Selects a place To save one soul Or annul a race.

Haiku in Flight Planting iris In autumn chill Two friends smile secretly. Returning home By lantern light Unsteady heart, shaking hand. Now the soul Alone remains In the wreckage we call life. On the surface All is calm Within, a waterfall of tears. On the road A shadow looms, Ghost of dreams and past desires In the desert Wild dogs howl

For Mary Helen 2/15/02 That Which Having Lived I cannot trace the pathways of her feet In those far lands where body is no more, In morns that render sorrow obsolete And meetings with the great who've gone before. For in this world where only the gross is seen The damask roses of her cheeks abloom Are hid from outer sight behind a screen In subtle forms the Beautiful assume. Perhaps a calm detachment will descend And fill the widening chasm in the breast Or angel-choirs stirring music lend To pain-fraught hearts by sorrows songs oppressed, Perhaps, but surely do not believe it so, The dead are no more dead t

Flower of Eternity  Dec. 2002 Flower of eternity descend And with thy fragrance charm the world to bliss In thy perfection's stainless calyx hold Hope for man, for the Eternal's kiss.

Vision of Eternity - For Mary Helen I found the most expensive frames Of rosewood, ebony, and gold, With all the famous makers' names Inscribed, remembrances to hold. And then one day a simple base Among the ornate and refined I bought to hold the treasured face That smiled so gently on mankind. A soul transcending boundaries Whose loveliness the heart retains Cannot be held by frame or frieze Nor even in our sacred fanes Emplaced, surpassing sky and sea, A vision of eternity.

Awake and Yet Asleep I am asleep and when awake asleep, Awake to the injustice of the world, Asleep to all within my soul that waits The hour of God upon our mortal soil. I am awake to pain and loss and grief, These human things that tear our human hearts, Asleep to wonder that is yet to be Arriving at the intersect of life And death, its conscious labour in the cell, The streaming mass of golden rays that rain Upon the earth where souls of light have stayed, Awake to hope that evil shall dissolve As salt in God's immeasurable seas. I am alive to joy that touches and flees, Asleep to peace and calm that settles peace, Ali

Haiku in Pondicherry Blacker than night The raucous crow Scolds the meditating throng. Sadhak riding A motorbike Speeding recklessly towards God. Rail-thin beggar, Loincloth torn Brushing carefully his teeth. Kurta and jeans The modern flair, Bhakti hides beneath the cloth. Samadhi flowers, Bright saris And varied offerings of soul.