The Garden I Left Now I am gone and the rhododendron bells Ring silently for none is there to turn Whose heart is called to wonder mid the swells Of grasses where the summer roses burn. Hand in hand together then we grew Closer than the lilacs in their sprays, It seemed to me her earthly presence drew Immortal joy as nectar of our days. I live in sanctum of an Ashram's peace Far from the spring that leaped through winter's arms And ran towards autumn blazing in the trees, Remembered summer with its drowsy charms In contemplation at the season

All Darkness Dissipate  September 22, 2004 Elusive sleep why come you not tonight When all the dark enfolds me as I wait And a thousand thoughts within my brain alight, Unwelcome visitors through the open gate Who press for recognition as I lie Confounded by the world that we have wrought, Our hatreds cowled in twisted piety, The endless wars summing up to nought. When shall the radiant soul of man appear, Its light dissolve our ignorance and hate, A heart that draws all living creatures near, A force of truth all darkness dissipate.

The Work For Which We Came I thought I might a singer be And voice my heart's felicity But an unknown divinity Caught my song in a golden jar And held it close while I grew far When bright horizons called to me. Perhaps I would a writer be, Explore the ultimate mystery In words through which the mind might see What thought unable to perceive Or from imagination weave, The drama of eternity. Now I have found the inner sun And all my life is new-begun In presence of the silent one Who sings of the infinity Of love surrendered unto Thee When the work for which we came is done.

Bride of Life I might have heard the winds of silence Blowing through my soul Or learned the names of distant stars Seeking a nameless goal. I could have travelled deep within And found the place of calm A peace no wayward breeze could shake, The silent spirit's balm. But something in me tugged and pulled And gave me little peace Until I found the Bride of Life Beyond the farthest seas. One glance sufficed to cleave my heart Wherein She lit the flame, To fulfil the meaning of my birth For Her my being came.

For Sri Aurobindo The Crystalline Translucence of Your Thought The crystalline translucence of your thought Illumining the ancient mysteries, Your words like jeweled treasures finely wrought Recall the soul's forgotten ecstasies. Behind this whirling sphere of molten fire I have caught within your voice eternal strains Of rapture as upon a spirit-lyre, A music healer of our earth-born pains Is heard amid the violence and din Of this too-loud creation in the vast. O seat your presence firm and deep within, Absolve my vain transgressions of the past, Your calm that soothes the passion of my sea

A Children's Story of the Golden Age – told in couplets For Khusali Paradise on Earth June 18, 2004 "She comes, my child, graceful as the trees That bend in homage with the morning breeze. Her hair seems woven of sunlight's golden strands And in the fragrant petals of her hands . . ." "My father, this bird of paradise came down Onto my hand, his song to me unknown Though I have studied carefully the call Melodious of meadowlark and all The sweet replies of singers on the bough. O father shall you take him to your brow And from the eye that sees discern his heart Or why he came reluctant to depart

Towards the Growing Light Only the living eternal You remains And the secret joy sealed in the heart's alcove, The blush of beauty caught in fragrant lanes In gardens of delight through which I move. I am led by a spirit who informs my days And by a sure and strong unerring hand Into the vast unknown, untrodden ways, The soul's adventure in uncharted land. I seek no more for self but Self to know Amid the turmoil of this whirling sphere, And now to Her with heightened sense I go Towards the growing light that draws me near.

Our Mother We gladly took from Her but little gave Of self and dreams and darknesses we held And chose not to reveal although She saw The depths of our deceptions and yet poured The wine of grace on our anointed heads. She bore intransigence and met with love Our human imperfections, chased our fears And placed a golden chain around our hearts To bind the soul to God that we might feel The Presence that abides through all our lives, Protects and nourishes the spirit's growth, Through death prepares the advent of our change, In sorrow is the comforter who bears All pain and grief as Hers and sends us bliss To fill the emptiness within our breasts.

The Dark Resistance Morning in India. The faithful wake And I unfaithful to my bones prepare For restless sleep to shut the system down, Yet in some corner of the self, aware That I knower of nothing hardly see The present, living the diminished past Still strong enough to fill the heart with grief, And memories the mind cannot outlast. What have they seen? I am of little worth To mine own eyes, a cipher valueless, Caught in the web without the will to break The old desires, let the soul confess Its firm allegiance to the growing light That spreads across the earth so quietly Gaining in strength to swallow up the dark Resi

Years After the Passing of Mary Helen Eyes dimmed by death that once all life embraced, Mute the voice that spoke of beauty's reign A vibrant heart by the dark shade now stilled, Her soul released to soar beyond the pain Earth visits on the children of the light. The rhythms of the dance lived in her limbs, Her path an ordered march to worlds divine, A music like the strophes of choral hymns I heard in the pulsing rapture of her heart. The brilliance of the golden summer skies, Peony on bursting peony Could not surpass the lustre of her eyes. The humble dogwood clothed in clouds of white, The nodding columbine