And Why?   You tell me you deceive, the more to grow In joy of love, more wholly, deeply one; What reason's this? You've veiled your Presence's sun And flung the night upon me, black with woe. What is your Will, your game, I do not know; The darkness thickens round me, dank and dun, No more through me your sweet bright waters run, And long extinguished is the heart's white glow.   And why, and why? I ask again, again. Do you not sense how hard it is for me? How long must I endure? or must I see You even in this night, here feel you close And warm and beautiful midst this sharp pain, And this dark world your rapture's radiant r

Storm   After the beauty of your peace, The rapture of your storm; Your myriad joys and agonies Of colour, light and form:   Swiftness and strength and sudden doom  Upon earth's tortured pain, Straightening lightnings that ungloom  The chambers of the brain.   Dance of the rain-drops in each cell, Translucent, naked, pure; Clean wind-washes which dispel The crowded dreams of yore.   Heaving seas of passionate flame Refining clotted dust,  Etching silently your name Upon the rocks of trust.   And, at last, the heavens warm Of sparkling purities: After the beauty of your storm, The rapture of your peace.

Soul   You who come now through the darkness, Long ways of night and dream and death, Wading through the mud of sorrow, Towards the heaven's fragrant breath;   You, beloved of the Highest,  White child of the eternal Fire, What have you to do with clingings, With trammels of the earth's desire?   Leap and free yourself from bondage, Nor pause nor rest till all be done; Till your heart's gold pureness glimmer, Enrapt within the Beauteous Sun. Page-39

Epiphany   Behold, the Timeless now through all Time shines, Resplendent in each thought and act and thing; The earth and heavens with His Presence ring, And every form enfolds Him in its lines. All grows to wondrous beauty, shapes and signs Reveal the Light's mysterious fashioning, From rock and rock the solar waters spring, The sun-gold flood no earth-born strength confines.   Once long ago seers spoke of alchemy, The mystic stone that can transmute to gold, The mystic wine of life. Now in this hour Of benedictions, hour eternal, we Witness fulfilled the promises of old, The glory of Love's sacrificial power. Page-174

Harvest   In the far dark of being, ere the flame Burst through time-rocks and leaped To immortality and the conscious sun, there came To the fallow field of my earth God's winds that reaped The spirit's harvest in the seed unsown: All the wild night's unstarred, unknown Gold seedlings swept into furrows of light, Planted anew in pure gold clay, and the raining suns and moons and stars Fed their delight. ... And now the flames burst through to meet The gold of the conscious sun: O Wheat Of fire and gold, when this new harvest's done, The stubble and chaff shall also be Golden unto eternity. Page-20

Pralaya   It is the hour of dark on land and sea: The moon with its pale dream-magic is dead, And the stars that spun forth our melody, Cold and uncreating, unsanctified... On the bosom of immortal worlds moves a hand Heavy with the weight of unblossoming power, To crush to leaden slumber the colours of earth, To a dreamless, senseless grey; Into the warm glory-heart of the buds, The sins fall chill and thick with their choking whispers, And darkling strangers submit to the purging curse...   O danceless hour, undaring even to move on Lest the one blessing of inaction be lost, You wait unquestioning the meaningless pain, This sti

Promise   When earth's dream-colours are gone, And you have kept the vow, Silently I shall come and stud The blue stars on your brow.   Through the temple will run a murmur, A noise of waters that roll, And in the clean white air a word Will move across your soul.   The shining fires will weave for you A raiment of golden skill; For you have burnt your thought out On the altar of my Will.   In the shimmering hour of morning When beauty is over the land, I'll keep my word and quietly come, And you will understand. Page-116

O Silent Love   O silent Love, where your pure footsteps tread, The paths of darkness break open in delight; Light floods the clotted anguish of the dead, Washes the ancient karmic vaults of night.   Pass soft: the ether's a-quiver with stars and flowers, And fires burn high in caverns broken and old; The earth lies tranced with beauty, far sun-powers Sweep vibrant through the spaces, winged with gold. Page-143

Unfulfilled Fulfilment   Within this deep fulfilment grows the vision of a richer glory, making unfulfilled our hearts. Our dreams in meeting kiss to momentary glory, and all eternity's white dreams pass unfulfilled... This mock of each fulfilment we must pass, pass its small completeness to gather all those dreamers' places beyond our lone time-paths. The emptiness of this fulfilment grows upon our vision's heart, our fear's heart that dreams the next quick empty moment like sudden death... and dreams too the fulfilment just beyond, — beyond our power: a blessing that shall turn the ways to meeti

Lila   What is it matters, crazy one? — The play of spirit in the universe, the soul dancing its myriad dances to the old remembered tune; the joy-tinks dancers intersperse among the stars, the heart's pursuit within the maddened fancy's whirl of One who dances opposite; the spirit's singing ecstasy in leaf and flower and powerful root, in wind and sun and the limbs of a girl, and leaping waves of the sea; the beat, the eternal rhythmic beat of pulsing blood, the swirl and sway, the poise, the peace, the contemplation, the miracle deep joy of endless interplay. Page-62