Guardian of Divinity The wounded tree is weeping now, Suffering from Nature's blows And the uncaring souls of men. The grace of blossoms it bestows On pilgrim, devotee, and saint, Cooling with its verdant shade Those who have come in offering And under its arching branches prayed. Shall we who bore her touch, her love Do nothing in its needful hour, Saying, "It is but a tree (Ascribing to ourselves such power!) And sooner or later it must die," She who gave it to my care Who guides us on the sunlit way Of our least acts is most aware And our neglect or apathy. Thy splendour dawn in us to see No mere tree but

Autopsy Tear the animal mask away, Strip me to the barest bone You shall not find the golden ray That long within my heart had shone. Open the skull, expose the brain Examine it if you must, You shall not find me, look again And look until I turn to dust. What is the measurement of soul Or She who dwelt within this breast Never shall you find the whole When all it is but parts you test.

Peace Advancing As A Bride Were we but made to war and play And in the painful hours weep, To drift our lonely nights away Upon the weary wings of sleep? Or is there more we cannot see But feel behind earth's heavy veil The promise of a world to be Beyond this body's brief-lived jail. See the blossoms in their eyes, These sun-bright children lately come From the shores of Paradise, The deathless soul's eternal home, To walk with us on earth awhile To help us find ourselves through love. Bask in the sunlight of their smile And feel the bliss within us move And peace advancing as a bride On feet of

Look, the Stars! Look, the stars and burning galaxies That in the silver silence deck the night With bridal sprays and shower their delight Reflecting but the brilliance of her eyes. For with the dawn each life begins anew. See how these symbol flames light all our skies, A wedding march of bright eternities The radiant smiles of heaven's retinue. Death is but an instant in long time. Look to the flowers for immortality And the mighty rivers that rush to meet the sea And the mounting hills that ever higher climb. This fiery orb has charged the earth with life Yet is but cupped within her mighty hand, Its fires burn as ours at

In the Rapture of Infinity A far off goal of a distant dream Calls me from the slumber of my days. The hours lengthen quickly into years, Recurring habits harder to dislodge Than mountains men once moved alone by faith. I labour in a garden built by love Beneath the burning sun; the breezes chill And memories of dead I knew and loved Return to me at every season's end. I am saddled by the past, restrained by fate And still the voice beseeches me to leap Beyond the little self, this tomb of grief, Free the body from the yoke of time Obliterate the heritage of birth, Ascend to truth, let silence be the guide, Cast out the demo

Where the Starlight Flowers Beyond the nothingness I am, Beyond the call that comes to me As water bursting through a dam Rushes to embrace the sea, Beyond the God I worship here But cannot find within these walls, Not in the spring or waning year Though thrice we met in timeless halls, Aware in silence He is heard And in the ruby heart of love, In the stilled mind the Creative Word Flows in torrents from above. In outer joys He too is found But fleetingly, I cannot grasp His feet upon the sacred ground Or long sustain His fiery clasp. And yet my prayers serve to maintain This life through all its

Song of the Young Wren A tiny wren came to my windowsill And greeted me with cheer. Barely feathered against the early chill, Half his weight was joy. His wings not strong enough for sustained flight, A fledgling visitor He raised his head, a herald of delight And looked into my eyes Then scratchily began his life's first notes Like the scraping of a bow In a young child's hands that cannot hold for long The weight of melody. He sang improving with each new-found trill The wonder-song of earth, His music the expression of a Will Supreme and glorious.

One Brief Glance The world is filled with love though all is veiled And of its golden threads our lives the weave, To outward seeing eyes the earth has failed And man no longer able to believe. But Thou art here at work within the few Breaking iron fastnesses and stone Temples to a God we never knew That we may be when all Thy work is done Divine in human form, as souls of light, Thy force in us to tear from night its mask Revealing to the world intense delight Of free surrender, for we shall not ask For any gift when all the earth is ours To worship Thee, Thy children recognize, In all the myriad joy of life that flowers Fro

Protector of the Way Who is this stranger that I look upon Reflected in the mirror of my soul, An unfamiliar face, a bearing strange, Is this a spirit from eternity Or one more form immortal Self has donned To seek the God who still eludes my search? I have seen him walking through my childhood hours Watched in youth as he outpaced my fate, Discovered him in inner recesses Down the soundless corridors of time. He bears the scars of battle and of pain And yet the years sit lightly on his brow, His voice with a familiar ring resounds And songs recalled among the drift of stars, The music of a higher harmony. In dawn and twilight and

What is our Need? What is beyond our need for love, Beyond our dreams of distant peace, Desire and the want to own Beloved things our taste to please? What is our need when death swoops down Upon the cherished and the fair All we have built was built on sand Our palaces of empty air. In moments when the soul breaks free From the ego-mind's oppressive reign The child within us sings and plays His silver songs of joy's refrain, We love once more though it be brief As the colours of an autumn leaf Or song that sweeps across the skies From far supernal melodies.