For Mary Helen Ashes to the Sea A strange and settled calm enveloped me This morning when I said my last farewell. I walked in peace no sorrow could displace, No anguished thought intrude down to the sea. The sun though cloud-obscured would soon arise, The eye of moon closed slowly sinking down Into the pensive day's awakening. They gathered silent by the parapet Watching as I walked through waves and foam Releasing your body's essence from my clasp. In this hour of serenity when loss Is but a dream and grief a luxury You would not countenance in your regard, All pain expunged by grace, the wounded heart Widened to encompass life and d

Our Birthright and Our Goal We are but shadow-figures of ourselves, Unconscious actors walking through the day, With unknown dream-worlds peopling our night, Marionettes descended from the light. And yet sometimes we feel a press of soul Upon this dense, half-conscious envelope, A deep unspoken need that asks for more Than time allows through life's fast-closing door, A need to know in an uncaring world, A need of peace when all we see is war, A need to love not for ourselves alone, To feel the Grace that from our lives has flown. We are descendents here of some vast Will Assuring us that all is not in vain, For truth

To Mother Journey Towards Divinity I sought her in the silver stars And in the gem-encrusted night O how I sang when She appeared In waves of coruscating light. I vowed no other would I love For none could match her fierce and sweet Embrace, the force of God's desire Who silently on dove-white feet Impresses earth with Heaven's fire. Her royal presence drew me near Her voice like music wove a charm And all my life became a sphere Of gratitude and offering Encapsulating joy to be, Surrender of all I held most dear To journey towards divinity.

The Peace That Consecration Brings I walked alone in a dark deserted wood Where briars held the lower ground that year Among foreboding trunks in silence stood And found a path that seemed to disappear Advancing neither towards the light nor dark, A strange inhuman path that drew me on. Around me dying branches bare and stark Impeded my march towards the burning dawn That leads to joys we cannot yet conceive, And secret haunts where Beauty undefiled Lives the truth our spirits must retrieve When all our warring instincts are reconciled. I walked through death and walked through life again And with each birth the

Guardian of Divinity The wounded tree is weeping now, Suffering from Nature's blows And the uncaring souls of men. The grace of blossoms it bestows On pilgrim, devotee, and saint, Cooling with its verdant shade Those who have come in offering And under its arching branches prayed. Shall we who bore her touch, her love Do nothing in its needful hour, Saying, "It is but a tree (Ascribing to ourselves such power!) And sooner or later it must die," She who gave it to my care Who guides us on the sunlit way Of our least acts is most aware And our neglect or apathy. Thy splendour dawn in us to see No mere tree but

Autopsy Tear the animal mask away, Strip me to the barest bone You shall not find the golden ray That long within my heart had shone. Open the skull, expose the brain Examine it if you must, You shall not find me, look again And look until I turn to dust. What is the measurement of soul Or She who dwelt within this breast Never shall you find the whole When all it is but parts you test.

Peace Advancing As A Bride Were we but made to war and play And in the painful hours weep, To drift our lonely nights away Upon the weary wings of sleep? Or is there more we cannot see But feel behind earth's heavy veil The promise of a world to be Beyond this body's brief-lived jail. See the blossoms in their eyes, These sun-bright children lately come From the shores of Paradise, The deathless soul's eternal home, To walk with us on earth awhile To help us find ourselves through love. Bask in the sunlight of their smile And feel the bliss within us move And peace advancing as a bride On feet of

Look, the Stars! Look, the stars and burning galaxies That in the silver silence deck the night With bridal sprays and shower their delight Reflecting but the brilliance of her eyes. For with the dawn each life begins anew. See how these symbol flames light all our skies, A wedding march of bright eternities The radiant smiles of heaven's retinue. Death is but an instant in long time. Look to the flowers for immortality And the mighty rivers that rush to meet the sea And the mounting hills that ever higher climb. This fiery orb has charged the earth with life Yet is but cupped within her mighty hand, Its fires burn as ours at

In the Rapture of Infinity A far off goal of a distant dream Calls me from the slumber of my days. The hours lengthen quickly into years, Recurring habits harder to dislodge Than mountains men once moved alone by faith. I labour in a garden built by love Beneath the burning sun; the breezes chill And memories of dead I knew and loved Return to me at every season's end. I am saddled by the past, restrained by fate And still the voice beseeches me to leap Beyond the little self, this tomb of grief, Free the body from the yoke of time Obliterate the heritage of birth, Ascend to truth, let silence be the guide, Cast out the demo

Where the Starlight Flowers Beyond the nothingness I am, Beyond the call that comes to me As water bursting through a dam Rushes to embrace the sea, Beyond the God I worship here But cannot find within these walls, Not in the spring or waning year Though thrice we met in timeless halls, Aware in silence He is heard And in the ruby heart of love, In the stilled mind the Creative Word Flows in torrents from above. In outer joys He too is found But fleetingly, I cannot grasp His feet upon the sacred ground Or long sustain His fiery clasp. And yet my prayers serve to maintain This life through all its