In Bodies of the Lord's Design The truth descending we must weave Into the fabric of our lives, Rework the pattern frayed and torn Of tattered self that yet survives Misuse throughout the centuries. Evolving garment of our fate, The soul in an outdated dress Knows the hour and the date When from the cosmic loom of life A new apparel we shall wear, Shed our costumed ignorance, Be done with all this masked affair. Clothed in light, by love renewed This human model redefine, A golden hue suffusing all In bodies of the Lord's design.

Sacrificial Soul I have walked among the flowers till my soul Was filled with all the beauty life can give, And I remember thee in fragrances Recalled in jasmine nights and rose-filled dawns. My soul took winged flight and soared above The blinding pain of vacant days and hours Alone without your presence and your smile, A haunted spirit in the void of night. I know that life holds nothing more for me Unless I give this loneliness and grief And more, the full surrender of my heart To the Mother of all lives who holds us close, Opening as the champak blossoms break Releasing from the petals of their love Perfume of offering upon

In Memoriam Mary Helen 2/7/02 Soul in Passing She blessed me with her eyes again And love's cup did overfill As sweetly did her soul attain Its rest and peace within His will. A mighty silence filled the room Her pained and laboured breathing stilled, A calm dispelled all mortal gloom, The heart with Mother's presence filled. I kissed her head, her face, her hands Repeating all the while His name As into those majestic lands Departing as a final flame Extinguished waxes brighter still, Towards Their Feet she quickly flew, Felt all life's pain to joy distil And by Their Grace the Quest renew.

In Thy Soul's Proximity.htm For Mary Helen – February 18, 2002 In Thy Soul's Proximity Soon the fairy buds of spring will break And gaily will the scented blossoms dance All Nature from unconscious sleep awake Renew with earth her many-hued romance. O comrade soul we shall not hear again The wren a-burst with song, the eagle's cry Or tread the airy mosses in the glen For you have flown the nest and life's awry. O spirit of thy inner self aware The world is still too cruel to cherish thee, But I have grown to breathe a vaster air For dwelling in thy soul's proximity.

Symbol of the Soul  Dec. 13, 2002 A lone bird soars in alabaster skies Ascending stage by stage the realms of light Planing now he rests, again to rise, Symbol of the soul in deathless flight.

To House Eternal Day I crossed the world to touch Her feet So many seas away, Her smile, her look, Her love to meet Whom all the Gods obey. The road to Her is steep and long And often we delay The giving of ourselves, the strong Surrender of the Way. Silently She works and swift, Moulding human clay To bear the puissant wings' uplift And house eternal day.

In Bodies New I have not seen the mystic swan Circling above our laboured days Nor heard the call of the fluting One Who in our mortal pastures plays. Yet someone called the heaven-bird Softly from its human nest Unfolding great white wings toward Its haven in a Mother's breast. Through sunless days and trackless nights The soul undaunted journeys on Soaring towards the unseen heights Where all that lives as yet unborn Shall penetrate man's deathbound state, This entity so charged by grace, Reverse the program of

Dwelling of the Lord A subtle world few can feel or see Of substance more discrete than organelles Soaring up beyond infinity The home where Lord Sri Aurobindo dwells. Into His white domain He welcomed me An aspirant and seeker of the Way, A traveller towards veiled divinity, A worshipper within this house of clay. He greeted me with gentle soothing tone And bade me sit by Him and then His hand ... What blessings He conferred are still unknown But I am His and this I understand – If I but half-awake and visionless Can feel His living force to rearrange Our lives, what light descending here, what stress Within the e

O Poet O Poet your song invades the shuttered mind And all its darkest recesses are drawn Apart like suns illumining the blind. O Charioteer who drives us towards the dawn, O Seer whose words enlighten all our hearts Voice in us the mantra to renew Our spirit's quest before the flesh departs. The earth cries out and God is overdue In human habitats that house the soul. O sage impart to us the mother-tongue To read the words upon the sacred scroll And all the chants that lie within unsung Give voice to lift our spirits to the skies Of God wherein man's only freedom lies.

Rishikesh - Remembering Ravi Bansal Rishikesh where the Ganges water flowed Swift and green and icy in morning light. I bathed in purifying waters, allowed My body to be immersed, the ancient rite Of cleansing in the holiest of streams. And then I watched a man use dynamite As dead fish surfaced belly up, their screams Silent in the fast-approaching night. We dined on lotus root and talked of God And walked upon the ancient sainted ground Where long the feet of solemn mystics trod And glimpses of eternal life abound. The years that steal our memories away Cannot rescind those hallowed afternoons, The promise o