Liquidambar Tree* Sheer white cotton velvet dream Still in the silent solar blaze Laser-cut of a sun-sure beam Etching the outline of your days. Seed adornments - a pendant mace Dries brown to take its winged flight, Soft o'er my head your movements trace The blessing fields of summer's rite. A rustle now, the silken breeze In tender motion moves the trees And me to a blue celestial hour, Rapt in heaven's fragrant bower. *

Lift the Pall of Night Break through the ingrained centuries rutted curve That joins us to the acts we would not cease, And chains shored that forge with new-found strength And bind us to the fate we would escape. There pass before us shades of promises Unkept, decisions dead, a panoply Of work unfinished, realized not until A door close upon our vain desires. And though we accept our walls we somehow know An hour shall sweep away millenniums, Re-align

Poem to The Mother We seek the secrets our hurried lives obscure, The long and laboured voyage must endure As on an inner sea alive with fire, We breathe not air that lighter paths inspire. For strength is mete to those unbending souls Who yearn with outstretched arms to higher climb And see in you the secret answer found, The omnipotent cosmologist of time. Clear ray of timeless beauty ever born Give now the foundling spirit inspired speech And hasten with Thy smile the sunlit days So to thy feet our arms outstretched may reach. In every breast a mighty murmur break That calls through aspiring heart the soul to wake. We bow before thee,

Fragments Leaves of old forgotten deeds Scattered vaguely around, Banyan-trees of memories Filling mind's groves abound.

The Dawning Where feet of light would wander not Far past the erring ways I've trod; Though minuscule my steps have been, No path from me was wholly barred. When inspiration's fire grew cold And muses knocked in summons vain Desperate at my deafened door, I lay asleep in dreams of pain. But now my childhood's fears have fled And calm approaches slow and still Light bursts within my heart, Thy Presence in me renews my will. A spirit-peace descends on me As white rain on my blossoming soul A coruscating crystal-fire On a sun-burst sea

Dancing Darkness' Round A pointless parody of self I sink Inexorably drawn towards a dark frontier, The Help forestalled that offers me escape Blocked by confusion and the obstinate role of fear. Obscurity as a gaping hole yawns forth Dragging down the light I would be Embarked am I upon a sea unknown Although a bright horizon beckons me. I see the rapid wonder-bird take wing But I half crippled tread familiar ground Repeating past indulgences at will Ever the same, dancing darkness' round.

NIGHT CHILD Into a world of darkness born Thy folded hands beseeching light, A temple-lamp of kingliness Revealed in birth’s tremendous plight. A symbol journey through a realm of tears, The dark oppressive weight of life, That greets the soul new-born in flesh, While the dust of all infinity Lies scattered on thy God-like feet; Though speechless bringing forth the realms of sound, And breathing gently in the sombre night, One with the silent things of earth. Night child, faint cries bespeak they presence, While motionless in dreams thou liest

Aurora      May 24, 1970 Over the hills and the flatlands I see Children garbed in strength and light, Aurora! They opened in me a vision of Thee Of splendour cast on the loom of night, Aurora! Grant as we wake that our morns may be Offered as incense, fragrant and bright. Aurora!

Samadhi I How cool the marble of thy calm repose; Millions bow to thee from earth and sky, A thousand footfalls slowly passing by, Serene Thou lie and perfect as the rose.

Earth Prayer To walk through fragrant fields on feet of love And pluck from withered blooms the seeds of life, To greet a newer earth by Grace defined. And harmony sow midst all these days of strife, Rain down Spirit, voice of timeless waters, Upon her plundered riven breast, Thy balm. And gentle in the fold of time-born hands Awake her timeless heart to new-born calm.