A Carpet for Her Feet - For Mother So little left to say, perhaps a smile Or nod in vague agreement to a phrase And hear the tales that pass the time awhile. Around my soul voices like a maze Of sounds implode while I, a soul aggrieved, Recall past joys ere the great abyss Before me yawned and all my being cleaved In two, torn from the heavens of human bliss. In the voice of friend or stranger I hear love And cry for recognition in the void, To dream the dreams that God is dreaming of, A world of light and beauty unalloyed, To move from blind desires, unvoiced hopes, The promised face its veil withdrawn to greet, Our b

I Shall Recall I shall recall when body fades away And soul remains, the full and final flower, Eternal beauty held me for a day And love divine embraced me for an hour.

Ship of God I saw at the edge of some omniscient eye A ship of God to bear the spirit home It sailed on waves of white infinity Towards the blue of heaven's vaulted dome. Beyond the reach of thought or our dim view It soared, the souls of men its billowed sails, And every soul the silent helmsman knew, The Guide who stands the watch as body fails And cuts the webbing of the net of Death To free the spirit from the bonds of pain, Holds in His hands the frail and final breath That we may rest before the task again Resumes and we are borne as clouds to earth On the ship of life to sail on time-born seas Begin again another round

If God is All If God is all is God not here Present in our human sphere, Wife and lover, foe and friend Who knows the journey cannot end Until we look into the eyes Of that for which our being cries And dares confront the far unknown Vistas of the mute Alone.

Haiku At Home Ming vase Centuries old How many hands caressed thy form? Wedding kimono Silver and gold Where is the bride sleeping now? The topmost branch Of a nearby tree A catbird tries his new routine.

Divine Fire Now falls the golden orb of light Burning in a burnished sky Slowly yielding to the night The fire that our souls live by. O Sun of our illumining Linger not long from earthly sight For love in us aspiring Would free the spirit of delight To dance upon the altar-stone In Agni's purifying blaze Flaming down from the Alone All human imperfections raze, Eternity find in every cell And in thy solar splendour dwell.

Oak Tree Dying and One Who Left The bare oak stands a sentinel of grief Its leafless limbs afford no shade or rest, Stark and black, devoid of greening leaf Where no bird lives or builds its happy nest. Death is a mighty shell-shock for the soul Left behind to wander through life alone, A deadening nescient numbness his paltry dole As fades the image of the beloved one. The winter of our sorrow cannot remain For life in us is strong, we must survive The nights of sadness lingering, the pain Of loss; we shall not fail to keep alive

Time For Broken Things To Mend I watch her hobbling up the long high hill That rises from the lake to reach my door, Injured and in pain advancing still To greet me as she's often done before, My mallard friend who lives from man apart Yet chooses to acknowledge me as friend She of the crippled foot and I the heart Both needing time for broken things to mend. Fall has come and russets tint the sky The mauve of asters, bright chrysanthemums Sparkle as the fleeting grasses die. This welcome chill invades the limbs and numbs The flesh and numbing too the heart, But I live on hoping yet to heal The fractured soul before

Eternal Life is Sown 4/6/02 Joy has fled from me relentless Death Who sets the seal of sorrow on my soul And now in pain I draw each laboured breath For one I love your ruthless cunning stole. While yet in fairest bloom you cut her down O ploughman harrowing the fields of life, Pariah of God, nothing do you own But residue of agony and strife, For spirit soars beyond your outstretched hand To rest in stellar avenues of peace In realms of luminosity shall stand One day to break your fateful scythe, and cease To feed your

The Bonds of Night Wild drakes have shed their iridescent dress, The gold of finches fades before my eyes And blue-bright days an other-worldliness Assume as autumn's fires fill the skies. The seasons of our lives, their varied beats Must change as well upon the first leaf-fall, As surging force in stem and branch retreats To sleep in roots until the spring shall call From dormant fields and dreaming woodland trees The first green notes to sound her motived score. And we shall add our songs to symphonies That issue from the universal core Of beauty rising from a world-delight Whose flaming touch shall shear the bonds of night.