Sonnet For a White Swan She befriended me, I so lacking in grace, Though out of her watery field she too, ungainly Mounted the dew-covered hill to receive my embrace. Approaching with snow-white breast bared willingly, Muttering low her sounds of deep content, As I held her close and ever so lightly stroked Her long and lithesome shape with her consent. A godlike dispensation here evoked, A joy forever in the heart enshrined, Beyond all words this investiture of love, An eternal moment's harmony entwined, Blessed by some winged archetype above. Transcendent was the honour of this day, A mystic gift that in my soul shall stay.

Earth in the Balance Earth in the balance seems to hang in space, A vision dimmed by sullen clouds of fate, Of her former glory lingers but a trace Amid the war-torn ravages of hate. Her body cries and seeks the healing balm Her painful deep and bloody wounds to stem, Recover youth, joy and ageless calm To bear the weight of Heaven's diadem. Love perhaps with swift enfolding wings Will wrap the world in a Mother's tenderness Heal the suppurating sores and stings That stifle in her the voice that would express Eternal truth, all evil to forsake. For in the hour of divine largesse Bodies of a finer, subtler make Bearing the

Godhead from our Clay What sudden arrow from the bow of God Has pierced so deep this dense unknowing breast, What fire torched the fortress of the heart And forced the doors of soul ajar and blessed As might an ancient tree whose kindly boughs Protect and shelter give and nourishment, With rain of Grace this parched and dormant soil That little understood divine intent Yet moved to rhythms native to higher spheres While outwardly engrossed in matter's play, To storm the seas and sail to eastern shores And wake to the sun of a near yet distant day When all the masks are torn, and truth revealed. The divinising substance here at

The Warrior, the Hero and the Athlete Where the warrior runs on the roads of life There too I speed in syncronicity, One among a multitude of men Seeking the divine felicity. The hero outstrips the hurried pace of Time, Calm he eyes the distance to the goal, No treachery or foe can turn his eye Or bar the forward journey of his soul. The athlete honed in strength and grace endures And meets the inner challenge with resolve, Laurel-crowned in the stadia of life Outruns his darker nature to evolve New forms to hold the spirit's force and field And to the Light Divine his nature yield.

The Divine Presence We have travelled far together, you and I, The boundless sunlit caverns of the sky, Explored the living seed, unleashed its power And learned in tragedy's fierce and fatal hour To love, to live, centred in gratitude, Forego the past with silent rectitude, Desires that filled the moment and the day, Linking hands to offer and to pray For stillness in the troubled fields of mind And in the anguished cells a peace to find That heals the tortured burden of the years, Relieves from us the birthright of our fears, Seeking together the fount of ineffable bliss, The moment live for God's awakening kiss That burns

Darshan eve, the 40th anniversary of my arrival at the Ashram At His Lotus Feet He bids me enter deeper, deeper still, Into the cave behind the heart-beats' wall And search the darkness leaning on His will Of such compassion I know I shall not fall. A mystic tunnel looms before my eyes And voices of the higher worlds entreat But something in the consciousness denies The full and final offering, the sweet And pure surrender at His lotus feet: For round me hangs the residue of Night And slow am I the sun of truth to greet While visionless eyes await the inner sight. Yet love shall fuel the engines of my prayer To dwell again

The Golden Road August 20, 2012   Deep sorrows I have known and held so dear And clinging habits I must still unseat, Yet I walk assured, unmoved by death or fear On the golden road that leads me to Her feet.

Seeking March 23, 2012   We seek for safety nets yet search in vain For certainty in an uncertain world, From sorrow's grip released return again To aching memories of grief's recalled. Yet something there is in us that strives to find Meaning in the emptiness of days, Escape from television's hypnotic eye And puerile ads that batter beleaguered mind Promising fulfilment of desire, Or music that invites the vital rise And overwhelms the spirit with its claims. Satiety would prod us for still more And yearns for danger and the passing thrill. We are as islands in unchartered seas Oases in the desert of the mind, Eyes of

Ved Prakash June 2012 Now you are gone from the place that called your soul But I shall never forget when first we met Your beacon of light brightening my days. Recalling your indomitable will The inner support that lifted the choir’s voice And though your body weakened by life’s blows You sang the OM in those great choral eves When all who came felt descending peace Enter in the space behind the heart. I saw your hands of strength gripping the rails As you dragged your wounded legs up the stairs To enter the room where we for an hour sang Calling down a music from above. You were a bulwark for us all, of faith, And in your eyes the flame of love was bri

The Serpent March 12, 2012 A shiver perhaps but absent fear Or fear controlled, for what we learned In childhood of the serpent’s bite In memory’s banks quiescent lurks, But if we knew the power and force To move without appendages Lightning fast and tightly coiled Another vision would we hold No longer to be crushed as foe, Respected now and oft revered A symbol seeking through the world His place among eternal things.