Nothing Apart Nothing is apart from me, The snake that glides across my feet The hawk that watches from a tree And from my hand takes proffered meat. I feel the presence of the trees The great protectors of the soil Even the rude Canadian geese Who all the pristine waters roil. The bee whose sting is poison-laced The insect hordes with painful bite, If to the source of all are traced Are moments for supreme delight. Above the silence and the sound In me both heaven and earth are found.

Golden is My Destiny I was born in the summer of thirty-eight And now comes calling sixty-eight, The bones less strong but joy is there In a heart that still would contemplate. I watch the world in its frenzied round The schisms that pin us to the ground The hatreds that serve as our daily fare The creeds and the dogmas to which we are bound. I review the decades as they drift by Observe the years as they seem to fly, Full grief and loss I have had to bear But golden is my destiny.

Les Conchis Joy burst forth like orange flowers Set among the fields of gold, All man's sere and lonely hours Banished with the morning cold. The sky was charged with heaven's light Burning through a cloth of blue, Still and fragrant was the night And all my love surged out to you. Now as I travel lone again To walk in loveliness of hills Where forests soar towards God's domain And from the snow-topped heights there spills The silence of eternity, I am with you at Les Conchis.

Weep, O Man The lightning cracks, the raindrops splatter, The wind comes moaning at my door, I witness the great upheaval in matter And sense destruction at its core. Earth revolts against our greed, Volcanoes belch and lava flows, Tsunamis crash and then recede, Before our eyes the fire grows. Our triumphs are but children's toys, We have soiled ourselves with wanton need, Desire and lust for temporal joys Committed every unspeakable deed. Weep O man for human wrongs Inflicted on the innocent Awake to that which in us longs To change before the hour is spent.

The Bliss That Once Was Ours Here I live my days in cloistered peace And yet the world flows freely through these veins And all its tribulations seem to sum The question that inhabits every heart That seeks for freedom in the chains of fate. Escape is but a door to another cell Who would leave the earth and all its woes behind. A saving hand above our suffering state, A force divine upon our tortured race Awaits the turning of the soul to light, Conversion of the aim of life to That Which silent sits within unsounded deeps Preparing through the centuries a path Sun-strewn on which we may proceed with joy To find the bliss that onc

Timeless is the Love That Through Us Flows In your embrace eternal sorrow fled Beneath the waves; revivifying peace Enveloped me and drifting through the hours Beauty came, arms filled with memories Of gardens in the sunlight of your smile; A diamond love looked at me from eyes That through life's million veils with ease could pierce To an inmost view unmasking each disguise. O child with your touch infinite blessings came As balm to heal the wounds within my heart. Your laughter echoes through the vaults of time. Though from this sacred place I soon depart I hold you close, your presence lives in me And timeless is the

The Miracle of You Tell me beloved whence thy beauty springs It is not born from earthly dust I fear For in your voice celestial music brings Diviner sounds than those on earth we hear. Your wind-blown tresses billow in the breeze As gentle waves are lifted by the wind And in your cheeks a rose eternally Blossoms and your eyes with shadow limned Engulf my heart and almost now it seems The beneficiary of second sight Am I, or from another world of dreams I glimpse thee golden in a golden light. O sweetest soul you filled my world with bliss And in your silence I in silence grew. You left me with a last eternal kiss To venera

To Be With You Again I will not forget And even at my death Will speak your name aloud And with my final breath Sing forth a note so clear The heavenly hosts shall hear, The sky without a cloud Reveals your image near. Remembering when we met Even at my death, The scented flowers of earth Not sweeter than your breath. I have counted out the days And marked the years that pass As lilies sang your praise, Lay long upon the grass And dreamt of a world to be Recalled the lives I've led Throughout eternity, Then ate with tears my bread. Knowing grief must go, Sorrow and biting pain, I shall wil

Vision of the Avatars Let me now my story tell Of comets shooting from the sky And auguries that I know well Of souls that grow and never die, Of all the beauty man has known Triumphant in a humble flower, How goodness multiplies where sown, The sight of seraphim who tower Above the paltriness of days, Above our waking and our sleep, The guardians of ancient ways Who catch the silver tears we weep Protecting us from our self doubt, Guiding when we know it not Chasing entrenched evil out, The hostile forces and their lot Who keep men ignorant of God, Chained to the daily, senseless round Some who run while others plod Pinn

Matrimandir Gardens Christmas Eve 2006 Such peace pervades this charged atmosphere, As if the tread of silent angel feet Now quicken the earth and wake the soul of man To see the Light most radiant in the East. A gracious harmony, a pure delight Descends, and from the fragrant fields of God A music now we hear unheard before Or only in the unattainable spheres. Hearts are charged with love and bodies glow A force transcendent bonds these varied lives; In the gardens of the Mandir we are one. Give all you have or ever shall be to Her Who transmutes sorrow to eternal joy, This world of pain to ecstasy divine.