To Mother   Alone within the agonising night, Earth-broken, ignorant, to You I call,  O Mother-Love who are my all in all, To gather me into your heart of light.   My body vibrates with small flames of white; Over the waters of pain, through Matter's wall, Within the heart echoes your soft foot-fall, Approaching down your mystery-haloed height:   The pathway of the darkness bends and breaks Within abysses of eternal suns;  Within earth's veins and cells the white fire runs, The storms of pain relax to silvern seas; And all my being lost in You awakes Within your body of unutterable peace. Page-10

Through Unknown Tracks   How many veils the mind has woven Across your image in my heart; Should I go straight down through that passage They would but wall me far apart,   And leave me fumbling blind in darkness... — So, brood I, could I close my eyes And plunge through unknown tracks, I'd capture You from behind as by surprise,   And be within your radiant presence, More safe-locked in your arms and sure, For all the walls the mind has put up Against the other entrance-door. Page-117

The Heart took Wings   The heart took wings of radiant things And flew to Him, her Lord; The night-watch shook in agony, But could not wield his sword; The gaoler black raised frantic arms, But could not speak a word.   She flew past all the towers of dark; The sentinels asleep, Stone-still like Rodin's "Thinker" sat, Brooding upon the deep; The elemental purple winds Drew in their breath to weep.   The lanterns in the questioning streets Zig-zagged across the earth, In crazy ecstasy went out, Self-shattered in their mirth; Fragmented rose to stars and danced Attendant on her birth.   She rea

-001_Publisher^s Note Publisher's Note   We are very happy to bring out this collection of poems by Themis (the name given by the Mother to Tehmi for the first publication of her poems). A professor of English Literature at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education for twenty-five years, she now teaches Sri Aurobindo's works. With her fine perceptive insight into Sri Aurobindo's poetry she has over the years shared her knowledge with many of her students and has been a source of inspiration to them. The readers will find it of interest to know the comment Sri Aurobindo made when most of the poems in Part One were read out to him by Nirodbaran:   "The poems are remarkable, especially

"Obsession"   Dear, every moment, every moment, it is but you and you; I cannot speak a word lest any hear your name dance through; I cannot lift my eyes lest someone see within your face And call my love a wanton fancy and a cheap disgrace. I have hid my thought and hid my meaning from their shame-squint view, For every time the thought is yours, and every meaning's you; But they will never understand and they will never see How utterly we two are one, how very utterly. And they have so bewitched my mind, have cast so black a spell I cannot even dare to tell them what I needs must tell: If words so mock the truth of lov

Part One   21st February — Night   The far voices of the earth die: And in the vast lone hush of Being, Thou Foldest Thy love around my cry. ...   The worlds dissolve to darkness now, And in the gaps of emptiness we fly. Beyond the farthest star-hill's brow. ...   Aeons- of memoried night unroll Their cycles of chained Karmic griefs and mirths Across the winging of my soul;   Thou bearest me past myriad births, Fire-wheels of deaths and destiny's control, To silent fashionings of new earths. ...   A white day dawns upon the deep, The frozen rocks of Space divide and free The warm gold mystery they

Renewal   The golden roof has split in twain, And all God's waterfalls, All raptures of the singing rain Pour down the temple halls.   The blue-winged corniced angels wake And see the mother-sky, Out of their marble sleep they break, And quietly upward fly.   On roof and pillar, wall and floor, The irised diamonds shine; Through every fluted column pour Gold rivers of God's wine.   The ancient heathen fane that stood Green-mossed by aeons of night, Crusted within its lonelihood, Is now the shrine of Light.   Within the purple marble veins The silver waters run; Upon the myriad altar-planes Desce

The Root   The leaves were falling in October And laughed with hidden fun, Nudged, reeled and fell, not being sober From taking too much sun.   They tumbled in a mad gold blunder, Impatient of their breath, And being drunk they heard the Wonder Singing beyond their death.   And being dead they heard below them The running, feeding wine, And deeper yet where mad ones know them, They saw the root-hearts shine;   Where held and nursed through all Octobers, Live flower and leaf and fruit, Bright suns which warm, dark earth which sobers, In silence of the Root. Page-60

Dark Roots   From strange dark roots our being rose; the sun That blazes manifold within each head Once flung itself in weltering night, and sped World within world; so too, in everyone The same stars shine and the same rivers run; And each is earth and fire, and gold and lead, Both flaming lotus and it's muddy bed, And all primeval Hell and Heaven have spun.   The riddle of our life that tears the brain, Its every contradiction, every hitch, Are knotted in that web of mysteries dire. Nor is there any issue till we drain Pure nectar from the very pits of pitch, And alchemise the flesh to golden fire. Page-83

To Eros (God's Love Incarnate)   Love, the world will wreck you; wait, Fold your wings before they burn; Once you pass the soul's white gate, There is no peace and no return.   Human searching drops hot wax Over your pure secrecies; There is no touch of earth but cracks The heart's white silence, steals your ease.   Earth is dark, unknowing, dumb; How can darkness guess or see What you are and why you come; It destroys your purity.   Love, you do not heed a word, Risk the night, the pain, the lie; Lightning-winged wild heaven's bird, Come and lift earth to the sky. Page-58