The Evening of the Year The brown leaves hung unwilling yet to fall And chrysanthemums bloomed mid the wild drakes call As the first snow fell in the evening of the year. We were stunned to silence and our sorrow grew When they brought us word that her days on earth were few And darkness drew close in the evening of the year. And when our tears were spent and silence reigned We viewed our life as His alone nor deigned To look beyond the evening of the year. Casting out doubt we discarded the mantle of fear Drew gratitude round calling the grace ever near And passed beyond the evening of the year. Now time is foreshortened

Attack and Resolution 12/28/01 In a darkened bed of night cradled I slept With one eye cocked to check the evil being That haunted me, with sudden motion leapt From the shadows of my undiscovered self To pounce upon my breast, its stranglehold A firm and ever-tightening noose of hate. I fought and grasped those iron wrists, those hands So cold that threatened to annihilate The spark of soul and still its breath of light. As its grip intensified I knew, I knew the way to overcome The Fiend, With one last failing gasp I called an

Heaven-Bird Enfolded in our deepest dreams A soul embedded seeks release, A spirit-force whose radiant streams Reflect the vastness of its peace. A truth awaits, a puissant Word, A light within our body's cells, A sound within the silence heard, A music of far-off temple-bells Entices the mind from reverie Of idle, vain imaginings, From sleep to wake and waking see The heaven-bird on silver wings Rising from the breast of night, Resplendent in its Godward flight.

Traveller of the Night A sadness settles with the sinking sun, A light gone out and all the earth grown cold, The inconstant stars reflecting yield no warmth And cavernous night resumes its stranglehold. In unconscious dream or nightmare wanderings Where dark pernicious visitants abound We walk the shores of dark unknowingly And enter realms we were not meant to sound. When we into those nether worlds descend, Unaware of guardian or guide, Devoid of sight we cannot comprehend The dangers of the soul that might betide The traveller of the night in these fell deeps Where the Betrayer is often garbed as friend, His approachin

Earth the Chosen Softly the moonlight falls upon my eyes And round my soul the scented jasmine flows, I am smitten by these earthly majesties, Intoxicated by the deathless rose. I live for light, drink in the fateful stars And all my ardent wanderings incline To beauty that no mortal trespass mars. I scan the far penumbra for a sign That prophesies the advent of thy feet Treading again divinely sanctioned soil, A trysting-ground where man and God may meet And all the stumbling nether forces foil.

Upon the Spirit's Stance.htm Upon the Spirit's Stance A current of anger caught me unaware, Ripping through the nervous envelope Usurping calm and commandeering voice, A foul invective found unlimited scope. As quickly as it entered it was gone And I amazed looked closely and fell still Astounded at lost control, the impudence Of forces seeking human minds to fill And human forms to work their nether will. A lesson learned of constant vigilance To guard the secret dweller from attack And found our lives upon the spirit's stance, Instil the peace impervious to assault And open to God the sealed and sacred vault.

Awakening to Inborn Light We know not what the hour shall reveal Yet all our acts on certainty are built, Ignorant and blind still we feel Accomplishment and shun the weight of guilt. Rarely do we turn our gaze within To view the miracle of soul and space, The wonders of the spirit mid the din Of days and miss the ever-welcoming Grace. This moment in the panoply of life With all our stars and all our hopes aligned, When peace descends mid all our warring strife, Arriving late to consciousness shall find The secret of the godhead's plunge to earth, The meaning and the message of our birth.

To Mother and Sri Aurobindo Holocaust of Man The blue and pristine lakes polluted now, Work of the ego-self of man, his greed A tempest of desire's endless flow, His skies a dark miasma sorrowing bleed Their acid rain and weep the tears of death. The forests fall and life-forms disappear, The seas are drowned in effluent, our breath Labours in fumes of a noxious atmosphere. Disaster and chaos sweep the suffering earth And caught in the rapids of our errant deeds We are carried from birth to meaningless birth Playthings and puppets of wild and wanton needs. But Two have come to set earth's destiny, Progenitors of godhead's r

The Work Before Us As the drama of our lives intensifies And moves toward a high predestined close We are given the Word whose truth revivifies, A joy intoned above death's final throes. But if we look behind or tell our stars The future stillborn lies within the womb Of sleep for we treasure too dear our wounds and scars And higher possibilities entomb. We must shed the mantle of our beleaguered past, Our charge is to refuse our former state, Dismiss the actors of our makeshift cast The febrile attitudes of mind negate Nor walk on tired thoroughfares of thought That nowhere lead and higher gifts misspend, As vagrants boarding

Behind the Veil of Form Seated in the holiest of shrines A Presence works unseen by mortal eye Unknown to mankind's outward-gazing view Whose limit is the reaches of the sky. He who threads the fabric of our lives And moves in us as comrade, brother, seer, Beloved paves the Way through centuries And measures not the hour nor the year. His purpose clear who shapes our destiny Even our rebellion understands, To free from bondage the imprisoned soul And lift us with supreme almighty hands To heights divine and growth in rarefied air, Affranchised from the age of our despair.