Autumn Haiku - Scroll 1 Autumn moon Hanging bright Orange lantern in the night. One perfect leaf Red and gold Unmarred by Autumn's touch. Lonely leaf Spirals down, What beauty drifts across our souls. Desultory wind Scattering leaves With sheer abandon and ennui.

The Unknown's Touch If all the world forget and fall asleep We shall recall when beauty walked awhile On earth, the memory of Her feet shall keep Within our breasts and waken to Her smile. And though Night's cloak is hurled across the skies, Consumed the light by which we ply our way Across the vast unknown that sleeping lies Between the worlds of darkness and of day, Love shall prevail and greater light shall come. In secret groves no human eye can see A city rises round a golden dome, A consecrated dwelling-place for Thee. A voice we hear, our spirit's counterpart Echoing through the corridors of time, It grows a living man

O Music If Heaven's vaults would open to my prayer And music of the newer world descend Harmonious to heal the earth's despair Its rancour and it rivalries to end, For this my life as instrument I'd give And listen for the sanctifying sound, To hear again those subtle strains I live That open to us the spirit's native ground. For there the forces of division fail, The fuel that fires our greed, our hate, our lust, In flames consumed, so bright the sun seems pale And all our littleness reduced to dust. O Music touch our hearts, play on these strings The songs that tune our lives to higher things.

A Mind of God I wake in night examining my dreams To find a clue that tugs at me by day Or failing sleep drift on memory's streams Recalling beauty that has flown away, Away from life into the arms of Death To worlds of rest I do not know or see And splendours that would take away the breath, Make all we know an unreality. For death a blatant charlatan or fraud No longer passes there as king of night Nor must we face him fearful, overawed As he is but a tool the growing light Will cast aside when we awake to find The key to conscious immortality, Within the body's walls perceive a mind Of God resolving all duality.

For Mary Helen 2/10/02 To Mother Returned These days so empty of her human smile That cast on me the spell of god's caress, I lay in music's soothing arms awhile Recalling moments of such tenderness At Mother's Feet and in Her constant Grace. Beyond her time's departure Mother spared That I might look on her angelic face A longer spell, and slowly grow prepared. Of suffering's bonds her spirit now is freed And all the harsh disharmony of pain, Her soul restored to Mother as decreed To all who would a higher life attain. Acknowledge then her final peace and rest Enfolded in our sweet Mother's breast.

Mary Helen Departing Bright thou art and shall prevail, O beauty breaking the form-bound shell, Thy spirit grows though body fail, In Joy's abode it now shall dwell. Let not the flow of mortal tears Weigh down thy wings of angel-flight Or all our frail and helpless fears Impinge upon thy soul's delight, Remembrance of those fragrant years, Moments sad and bittersweet, Reflected as His presence nears, Returning thee to Mother's feet.

The Journey Done - To Mary Helen The lilacs in their swelling buds prepare The scented gift of spring, a perfumed air, As cherries burst in pink and pastel glow Remembering how softly you would go Through the garden of our fragrant paradise. Not sadness but a poignant dream of days Recalling again those ever-luminous eyes That on the smallest flower cast their grace And loveliness of smile, the envious sun No brighter than your soul among the stars, Soaring to reach Her feet, the journey done, A leap to joy above all earthly bars. Recalling the beauty of your gentle soul The dreadful price you paid to reach the goal

The Hour Has Begun Perhaps I knew thee ere all life began Or when time commenced its endless caravan, For surely love predates the stars, the sun, And by its force God's labour was begun And surely shall we see the leap from man As once a consciousness awoke in stone. The earth knew then she laboured not alone And slowly grew the life-force in the plant, The Sun her paramour and procreant, Though lingered yet behind the God unknown. Then came the advent of the beast and bird And music from a silver flute was heard Amid the rumble and the thrill of breath And joy so briefly found, so quickly death, But on the fragrant breeze a

In England I walked upon the ancient Pilgrim's Way And looked across the green and flowing downs, The light of England pale upon the day Illuminating sleepy ancient towns With houses joined together at the waist. Along the cobbled streets Clematis grew The rose's fragrance with the lily's paced Luxuriant and glistening with dew. Such sacred things, the ivied church, the cries Of new-born lambs frolicking in the field, Cathedral spires breaking through the skies And towers where the bells of mercy pealed. The choirs sang amongst the faithful few New anthems sounding tired, old, and worn, As if a melody once bright and new Aban

Upon Our Sleeping Floor I listen for steps I shall no longer hear, A voice that held the melodies of spring, And yet I feel her presence ever near, Her love divine that takes from death his sting. Though she is gone, the human form dissolved, Her spirit flown to haven and to rest Will soon return and all will be resolved On earth the sanctuary of the blest. Among the rhodendrons and the ferns Awakened is the heart to Beauty's reign, The meaning of humility returns To dissipate the sorrow and the pain. The feet of God will touch our soil once more, His golden light upon our sleeping floor.