Of Diviner Things – The Kingfisher He looks at me and I at him And the heart is charged with ecstasy. As he flies from limb to golden limb The air is signed with poetry. Surveying the shallow pools below, He dives a bolt of flashing blue And all my soul retains the glow Ethereal of feathered hue That rises up a coloured prayer As once such beauty filled the skies And melodies upon the air Were heard in halls of paradise; Orpheus on his singing lute Caressed the softly yielding strings As Krishna played upon His flute A music of diviner things.

The Godhead Hid in Us As the Beautiful within her grew I was made aware of our eternity, A loveliness of soul I never knew And moments lived as one identity. But memories are bondage to the past I now must push aside my soul to find, The karma these forgotten selves' amassed Discard, for all our joys and sorrows bind The spirit to reflection's endless round. Each moment we must recreate anew Our lives till That for which we came is found, False appearances supplant with true, Rebirth in seconds count, not termless years Until the Godhead hid in us appears.

Our Planet I walked by barren trees the borers killed And through forsaken fields where toxins spilled, No hand was there for many a verdant spring To bring earth back to fruitful blossoming. The dogwood whitening the mountainside Was gone, a casualty of anthracnose, Diseases surging like a mighty tide, Lay waste to the camellia and the rose. The rivers ran polluted and the streams No longer could support aquatic life And all my childhood's memories and dreams Lay dashed upon the barren soil of strife. One feels a great malevolent force at play With man the puppet readily to hand, The blood of thousands spilled within a day

A Legacy of Love I would leave a legacy of love Regarding the evolutionary scale. Is not the worm the body of God as well Working in the earth from which we feed, Among swift-flighted singers that trim the air, The silent beasts whose hearts beat one with mine, Children in whose glow the years depart To leave me youthful in an ageless frame, And men and women whose presence lifts my soul? All things are most divine and none are less Nor more divine to the seeing eye, The Beacon who guides this ship of self to light.

The Garden I Left Now I am gone and the rhododendron bells Ring silently for none is there to turn Whose heart is called to wonder mid the swells Of grasses where the summer roses burn. Hand in hand together then we grew Closer than the lilacs in their sprays, It seemed to me her earthly presence drew Immortal joy as nectar of our days. I live in sanctum of an Ashram's peace Far from the spring that leaped through winter's arms And ran towards autumn blazing in the trees, Remembered summer with its drowsy charms In contemplation at the season

All Darkness Dissipate  September 22, 2004 Elusive sleep why come you not tonight When all the dark enfolds me as I wait And a thousand thoughts within my brain alight, Unwelcome visitors through the open gate Who press for recognition as I lie Confounded by the world that we have wrought, Our hatreds cowled in twisted piety, The endless wars summing up to nought. When shall the radiant soul of man appear, Its light dissolve our ignorance and hate, A heart that draws all living creatures near, A force of truth all darkness dissipate.

The Work For Which We Came I thought I might a singer be And voice my heart's felicity But an unknown divinity Caught my song in a golden jar And held it close while I grew far When bright horizons called to me. Perhaps I would a writer be, Explore the ultimate mystery In words through which the mind might see What thought unable to perceive Or from imagination weave, The drama of eternity. Now I have found the inner sun And all my life is new-begun In presence of the silent one Who sings of the infinity Of love surrendered unto Thee When the work for which we came is done.

Bride of Life I might have heard the winds of silence Blowing through my soul Or learned the names of distant stars Seeking a nameless goal. I could have travelled deep within And found the place of calm A peace no wayward breeze could shake, The silent spirit's balm. But something in me tugged and pulled And gave me little peace Until I found the Bride of Life Beyond the farthest seas. One glance sufficed to cleave my heart Wherein She lit the flame, To fulfil the meaning of my birth For Her my being came.

For Sri Aurobindo The Crystalline Translucence of Your Thought The crystalline translucence of your thought Illumining the ancient mysteries, Your words like jeweled treasures finely wrought Recall the soul's forgotten ecstasies. Behind this whirling sphere of molten fire I have caught within your voice eternal strains Of rapture as upon a spirit-lyre, A music healer of our earth-born pains Is heard amid the violence and din Of this too-loud creation in the vast. O seat your presence firm and deep within, Absolve my vain transgressions of the past, Your calm that soothes the passion of my sea

A Children's Story of the Golden Age – told in couplets For Khusali Paradise on Earth June 18, 2004 "She comes, my child, graceful as the trees That bend in homage with the morning breeze. Her hair seems woven of sunlight's golden strands And in the fragrant petals of her hands . . ." "My father, this bird of paradise came down Onto my hand, his song to me unknown Though I have studied carefully the call Melodious of meadowlark and all The sweet replies of singers on the bough. O father shall you take him to your brow And from the eye that sees discern his heart Or why he came reluctant to depart