I Shall Remember Thee - To Mary Helen Where beauty lives I shall remember thee, In music's strains that touch diviner chords In river-song, the forest's poetry And flowers dotting green and golden swards, In fleeting clouds beneath the blaze of sun Or when I gaze on the eternal sea, Recall the years we two have lived as one Tracing the path of inner harmony. In all that is refined I'll note thy care And when I view the order of the stars Knowing thee close though I am unaware I'll feel thy fingers lightly trace the scars That pain has seared across my wanting soul, For all the suffering I saw thee bear, Thy spirit growing t

The Shores of Oblivion I looked out at the emptiness of space, Haunted by the vision of a face Remembered in the reaches of the soul And heard far-off the bells of mercy toll As I walked upon the shores of oblivion. I saw the dying year, petal fall And leaf fall and heard the wild drake's call, Knew loneliness so deep within me well As I gazed and faced the vastitude of hell And I stood upon the shores of oblivion. I felt the waves lapping at my feet And in the distance sailing Death's grey fleet Carried souls into the unlit spheres And wasting on the sands my useless tears Stared at an ocean of oblivion. When nothing

Soul in Deathless Flight I have succumbed to sorrow once again Though beauty poured her essences on me Yet on the death of loveliness my pain Welled up as on a dark and storm-filled sea A solitary barc is tossed and thrown, Submerged by crushing waves, uncaring tides, The inner being capsized, stranded, lone, Upon these unknown shores where danger hides. In the uncharted waters of the dawn The soul recovered from the shocks of fate, For aspiration ever is reborn, Has once again set sail – the hour is late. A white bird soars in alabaster skies Ascending stage by stage the realms of light, Planing now he rests, again to

Purify Me Look upon me Mother and excise The darknesses that still within me lie, Purify my heart to through-compose The music of emerging deity. Purify my voice that I may sing Melodies of spirit new to earth, The harmonies that move men's heart to strive And seek for God and spirit's true rebirth. Play through this instrument thy godlike notes, Strains that call the troubled mind to peace, Songs that lie within the soul of things And grant from ego's grip the soul's release. As shepherd's fluting to their wayward flocks Or evensong as children rock to sleep, Music of the power to transform Be heard among the chant of sorrows dee

Beloved Mary Helen – In Memoriam I held her dying in my helpless arms, Powerless and impotent to save And called upon her spirit heaven's balms. My human love such as it is I gave And every prayer addressing Him I said, To light the pathway to her rest and peace And bless this cherished soul on Death's grey bed And from the body's temple grant release; But mostly prayers of the heart's gratitude. Aware that she was in a state of grace, This moment of life's final interlude That every soul now born on earth must face. I think of the more I might have been and done Unworthy of the love embracing me This aura bri

To Mother Our Lives Are Joined The pain and sorrow of all living things Thou couldst contain, by love transmute to bliss And all our anguished human sufferings To rapture lift and touch with Godhead's kiss. What prayer may issue from my lips unheard By Thee before the thought was born within, How shall I phrase the halting rhyme or word Or lines that have not Thee for origin? O Light that I have lived to see and love Pure within its burning altar-home To Thee my spirit cries, my longings move And to Thy call my soul replies, "I come." The centuries shall mark thy golden tread Upon this blue resilient mote in space,

She Never Called Me Narad She never called me Narad And rarely spoke my name, Her emphasis was always 'we' Our goals so much the same – To live at Mother's feet, Endure the fiery trial And all life's demons face defeat In the radiance of Her smile. But on her final day She ever so sweetly called Narad, when you pass this way – And then the life-force stalled. Death rang his hollow chimes And as her passing came I repeated one hundred and twenty times Sri Aurobindo's name.

Winter Winter with his hands of lethal skill Has stripped the final vestiges of green And sucked from leaves the living chlorophyll Till only barrenness and death are seen. Patient with autumn's fiery display And riotous flair of spring's extravagance One chill breath upon the verdant day And all reduced to bleak and frozen trance. His artist concept, nude and drab and drear, And palette filled with shades of white and grey, Stark paintings sign the ending of the year And beauty lost that once had lived a day In patience waits renaissance of the spring On his cold grave to dance and laugh and sing.

For Mary Helen At Their Beloved Feet Angelic spirits gladly welcomed her Who have no part of death or dark or pain, In sacred fields of earth she grew and bloomed And ever in their hearts she shall remain. One who in silent communion spread her love Across the bounteous seas of life and smiled Her brightness on the iris and the rose As Nature laughed by all her joy beguiled. Her body fought the fierce and perilous fight To move a closer step towards things divine, She died with Mother's name upon her lips, To Sri Aurobindo's care she did consign Her glowing soul, so beautiful, so sweet, And found her rest at their bel

Do Birds Fall Silent? Do the birds fall silent when we leave, Is the sun less bright because we dream Of night and on its bosom grieve. Are the mountains held in less esteem By souls who follow in our stead Is the fragrance of the forest less, Do new-born souls replace the dead, Does love rescind its tenderness Because death is and life must die? To manifest God and truly live We must forego the strident "I". By self-forgetting ourselves we give.