Cardinal He hit the window with a blinding crash And lay there, broken, dazed and motionless, I held him warm and dying in my hand, Eyes glazed, no more the rapid beating life , Of a youthful heart beneath a rose-stained breast. He settled slowly into the calm of death. The singing on the boughs never ceased His music and his presence were not mourned. It seemed that from the songs that filled the air All lived in the happy provinces of Spring.

Idle Talk Tattered remnants of a dying past Flutter in the corridors of mind, Fleeting shreds, they hope awhile to last And propagate disturbance in the blind Unknowing avenues on which we walk. Paying scant attention to the thought That lurks concealed in all our idle talk Through our mindless chatter we are caught As in a formidable spider's net Speaking unintended words that sting and wound, Their subtle mischief's play our tongues abet, The harmony of souls so quickly ruined.

Moulding Future Destinies Fire on the blazing hearth, Water in the sacred well, The timeless blessing-fields of earth Cast on my soul their magic spell. Beauty dancing in matter's core, Thrilling with eternal joy Children's spirits known before In lives that Death could not destroy. Holding the cup of love in hand I meet the creatures of the wood Increasingly to understand That all life moves towards the good See light and darkness in embrace, Spirit in body recognize As moving force and fount of grace Moulding future destinies.

Reincarnation A universe of stars above my head, The slowly spinning earth beneath my feet And held within my heart a thousand suns. In every face it is the One I meet. Though the hour and the day is hid from me No harm fear I who having wandered far And down the years have finally arrived To look in the mirror of fate where who we are Is imaged in reflective clarity. To live for others, not for self alone And drink the wine pressed from love's sacrifice, To know the little distance we have gone In one life's span, and yet how great the joy, The music singing in the dark of night, The song of seasons, the threnody of death And deep remembrance

In this Playground of the Lord On the mountain of my failures now I stand And look across the ridgeline of my life, The valleys deep, the summits yet to climb Yet know my days reverent and true, Fear not the precipice; the outstretched hand Upholds and leads, banishes all strife, I move through many births, aware that time Is meaningless and death no meaning too. Escaping from the cell of our despair In the prison of our separateness Unchained and free to soar above the walls That hold our ignorance and seal our fate Whil

Fair Companions I will not cease to love and though I leave The earth and years of loveliness behind, The hourglass has turned into a sieve And through it falls a cataract of mind, The images I saw when I was young, Chrysanthemums the life blood of the fall The music that remains in me unsung. Time and fate will win, we cannot stall The wheel that faster turns within the wheel, We dream and believe in everlasting life And through our prayers the wounded earth to heal, The end of war and man's internal strife. Departing for new shores I go alone A floating essence through the stellar air I shall not grieve for worldly things undone Rememberi

A Time Shall Come 9/4/07 A time shall come when peace again is found And we shall know, expelling doubt, that “love” Will conquer every foe, the dark surround, And in this evolutionary move Great souls come down and God be known on--- earth. And there would be a link as yet 'unfound', A knowledge learned of birth and former birth, The world become a sacred dwelling “ground” And children born in this diviner age Would know what we still labour to “understand”. In an atmosphere of calm the shining sage In audience would bless us with his hand.

The Immortal Word The evil in the marrow of life's bones Must be rooted out or man as man may die The violence excised that he condones, Obliterate the thought of ‘eye for eye'. At every step upon the path to Light We prove ourselves unworthy and effete When the candle of the day is snuffed by night And we live in nether worlds of self-deceit Where hostile entities find willing prey In the black chambers of the twisted soul Who would not hesitate to maim or slay, Attack the innocent, fulfil their role. No force can halt no circumstance deny O seeker with the fiat of the Lord, The crown of glory and the victory Truth divine

In A Time of Illness Now in the silence of my spirit's cell I watch the endless thought-streams come and go, The vexing past holds me in its spell, How little I have learned, how little know. Beset by sorrow from the depths I cry, I cannot move, the pain does not subside And the wells of inspiration have run dry. Beleaguered and oppressed I cannot hide In some nirvanic otherworld of calm Or blindly in extinction's arms find peace. I look to no religion for the balm That cause

On Hearing John Tavener’s “New Musicâ€�.htm On Hearing John Tavener's “New Music” So proudly humble in his attitude, Transfixed in deep devotion are his eyes All human pettiness he has eschewed And all his compositions solemnize His holy journey and his saintly mien. Why do I then hear such monotony, A sameness and a dullness in between Those rarest glimpses of eternity.