Northern Lights A blue mist hangs above these shores of time, As I walk in forests redolent of peat And onwards to the towering mountains climb, A voice of promise calls my homeward feet. The arches rustle greeting as I pass, My close companion the expectant air, The sea a mirror made of frozen glass A grey expanse, desolate and bare. The days are lit with a surreal light, One moves more slowly now with thoughtful pace As if the soul aware that fleeing night Shall soon reveal the mystic morning's face And dawn arrive to burn away all dark, The sky ablaze with spark on coloured spark.

Loss I entered a darkness greater than the night Where every facet of the will was shorn, The psychic moorings loosened in my plight I drifted in a trough of the forlorn. This vessel tossed upon a sea of strife Foundered on the shoals in its slow drift Towards the rock-strewn shores of other life, Closed to the force once known that could uplift The sinking of the soul, the gaping hole That rapier death inflicted with such stealth When he with merciless swiftness came and stole The light of days, the inner being's wealth, The treasure by which my spirit long had grown And left me half-completed and alone, A life to live less meaningful than

A Higher Law Obey Who sets the spheres to their elliptic dance Wakes now the spirit from its dreamlike trance, The mover of the worlds has moved my soul Who fashions diamonds from the hardened coal Now fashions us as once he scattered stars Among the worlds of gods and avatars To return the spirit to its native light, Life's fascination with the lures of night Rescind that we may find ere breath departs The sanctuary in our heart of hearts, Hold love so vast the wounded world embrace, Accelerate the transformation's pace. On silent feet he comes to his abode Divine takes up the heavy human load Of grief and pain that visits a

To Dream of Sages and of Seers In a forest wilderness where Nature dreams I mused awhile among the patient trees And listened to the music of her streams, In an incense-laden air suffused with peace. It was a land unscarred by human greed. Alone I wandered free and unafraid No pressing cares had I, no urgent need, In darkened groves that saw the sunlight fade. Heeding not the posted warning signs Mysterious enchantment lured my feet To a life that on a mother's breast reclines In a green creation bountiful and sweet. The Gods were there and I walked through the shade And moved in regions deep and unexplored, For

Choice To drown in hushed oblivion Or tear the walls of ignorance, Raze the vestiges of sense The inner healing to commence, Appeal to potent fire-gods To conflagrate the mortal past Release in cadence with the suns The spirit-power lone and vast, Or doom the sense-born to the rounds Of perfidy, the soul debase, Or secure the rock-torn, tattered self To God and all obscurity efface.

Battleground Elemental forces o'er quixotic Nature reign Conquistadors and generals are pages of their pain. They sport and kill with foaming face and quick chaotic hand And man unconscious plays their game of havoc on his land. A day will come when wakened we will watch with lidless eyes And halt the play that intervenes twixt earth's and heaven's skies.

Ashram Courtyard When in the whispering womb of night I call to Thee Madonna of Light Thou comest I know but seldom I feel Thy presence on my blinded sight. Too gross this weakling instrument To know communion and content, But prayer in me would fain reveal The impress of the godhead's seal. A song within continues me Though these lips can utter scarce a sound A bridge of light by an ashok* tree I climb the steps... and peace is found.

Thy Touch Remembered One day in my youth a glimpse of eternity came And pierced me in the contact of Thy gaze. It stands a monument of gathered light A force-field filled with all Thy lambent rays. The instant when thou leaned and touched this flesh And the strands of thy silver hair were softly pressed Between thy fingers and my burning breast, Such joy recalled, the psychic being blessed. Often now the heart invokes Thy name To touch these centres still involved in night, Make all my life a paean to Thee, O Lord, Enfold my soul in all Thy calm delight.

Prayer of the Aspiring Soul Dec. 3, 1969 Let me with a heart of boundless joy, O Radiance offering all I am within, Without, above, allow this sapling self To flow to Thee in waves of boundless love Then shall the heart's devotion in me grow. My adoration turn into new song, Enfold me in thy calm and sacred peace, Fill this frame dynamic with living light, Beacon to me the eternal immutable ray. Permit me to see in all Thy Face and Form. Accept the yearning blossom from the tree And still the lonely tempest that is me.

Yearning As laden clouds in this far land Descend and pour then pass again, So with thy touch so long withheld Till all my soul to Thee shall bend.