Surrender and the Joyous Sacrifice In my small and limited room of mind I could not understand but only sense As when the heart grows wide embracing all, The Presence at whose feet I humbly knelt. She seemed a mother speaking to Her child In gentle tones of such transcendent things, Of music's source and soul's awakening And more, but I was captive of Her smile And the mind failed and only God was there. And then She briefly loosed the sacred fire That entered in the heart's profound recess, Never to be quenched by darkling force, A flame that rose and burned within my breast An entire conflagration of the being,

The Days Grow Each More Beautiful When I least suspecting, knotted and tight, Vexed by the deep frustrations of my toil, Release my hands from the wheel and see the bright And blue-green earth, the life-force in her soil Bring forth from Hyacinth's store such fragrant dreams Or the cupped Magnolia's splendid chalice-bloom, I know my life is other than it seems And for a moment leave the little room Of self and walk in fields of the timeless ray. Round our lives the vernal choirs sing Waking our souls to the anthem of the way To find within ourselves eternal spring. A light descends in us from heights above And the

And I Will Offer Flowers - To Mother - May 3, 2001 And I will offer flowers from the garden of my soul, Blooms of fragrant tenderness, thy radiance to extol, Creations from the occult store of earth's vast treasury Light-filled forms that move the heart to deep humility, Incense-laden cups of gold and nectar-bearing bells And violets of modesty from purple shaded dells, Majestic-scented peonies, the gilded iris' hues, The crimson rose of sacrifice that all thy love imbues. I'll gather the aromatic leaves of angelonia And adoration's blossoms from the tree of cordia. The gentleness of lathyrus, the nodding columbine, The boldness of celosia, th

Emergence of the Soul Even in my youth's most carefree hours Counsel I sought among the realized few Drawn to their inner strength and hidden powers Deeply I drank at their wisdom's fount and drew The sustenance of spirit to survive The arduous emergence of the soul, And its descent into the earthly life And the promise of high and hidden goal. But Desire was too much with me, the "I" That wraps the world into its packaged view, Ego that swallows all God's mystery And thinks itself the knower of the true. As one held under water I strove to rise Locked in the grip of a fierce and downward force, And struggled with the surfa

Bearer of Supreme Delight Borne on a current of time's events, Hurried from scene to moving scene , The pace of days all calm resents And contemplation's inward mien. This multicoloured chain of Fate Binds our feet to trodden ways Imposing on the frail and great The poverty of mortal days. Not far beyond yet hid from sight God within the human grows, Bearer of supreme delight, Consciousness that sees and knows The future's face our minds deny Our purpose here to sanctify.

To Mary Helen Soul in Sleep I watch you sleep at peace in troubled days, Sleep of the Innocent who bear the wounds The world inflicts with quiet dignity. Floating through dreams as on buoyant seas, Unteared your face, unstained its radiance, Aglow, attuned to finer harmonies, Those mysteries beyond our sight and sense, And on your brow divine tranquillity. Still I watch unknowing where you perchance Do soar, but on your beauty ever I glance And know your secret soul with God communes Illumining my life with lambent rays. I shall gather in sheaves your acts of tenderness For I have reaped far more than I have sown Your simplest gifts

Sonnet For a White Swan She befriended me, I so lacking in grace, Though out of her watery field she too, ungainly Mounted the dew-covered hill to receive my embrace. Approaching with snow-white breast bared willingly, Muttering low her sounds of deep content, As I held her close and ever so lightly stroked Her long and lithesome shape with her consent. A godlike dispensation here evoked, A joy forever in the heart enshrined, Beyond all words this investiture of love, An eternal moment's harmony entwined, Blessed by some winged archetype above. Transcendent was the honour of this day, A mystic gift that in my soul shall stay.

Earth in the Balance Earth in the balance seems to hang in space, A vision dimmed by sullen clouds of fate, Of her former glory lingers but a trace Amid the war-torn ravages of hate. Her body cries and seeks the healing balm Her painful deep and bloody wounds to stem, Recover youth, joy and ageless calm To bear the weight of Heaven's diadem. Love perhaps with swift enfolding wings Will wrap the world in a Mother's tenderness Heal the suppurating sores and stings That stifle in her the voice that would express Eternal truth, all evil to forsake. For in the hour of divine largesse Bodies of a finer, subtler make Bearing the

Godhead from our Clay What sudden arrow from the bow of God Has pierced so deep this dense unknowing breast, What fire torched the fortress of the heart And forced the doors of soul ajar and blessed As might an ancient tree whose kindly boughs Protect and shelter give and nourishment, With rain of Grace this parched and dormant soil That little understood divine intent Yet moved to rhythms native to higher spheres While outwardly engrossed in matter's play, To storm the seas and sail to eastern shores And wake to the sun of a near yet distant day When all the masks are torn, and truth revealed. The divinising substance here at

The Warrior, the Hero and the Athlete Where the warrior runs on the roads of life There too I speed in syncronicity, One among a multitude of men Seeking the divine felicity. The hero outstrips the hurried pace of Time, Calm he eyes the distance to the goal, No treachery or foe can turn his eye Or bar the forward journey of his soul. The athlete honed in strength and grace endures And meets the inner challenge with resolve, Laurel-crowned in the stadia of life Outruns his darker nature to evolve New forms to hold the spirit's force and field And to the Light Divine his nature yield.