Ashram Visit The backlit leaves translucent as the flowers Shimmer above the shining silver lake. Soon my days will shorten into hours For the spirit's journey I must undertake, Reluctantly depart the falling year And the colour-burdened beauty that I love For the hour of my soul draws near And the call to consciousness towards which I move. The birds alight to eat the ripened fruit And a warbler spins his dreams of spring In silver chords as from a silver lute. Earth now fulfilled in multi-hued offering Soon will sleep and late I will return

Being Robed in Light There must be light, light, and more light, Light to swallow, light in which to bathe, Light that eats the cancer and the blight Of mind blindly groping for a faith Lost to increasing decibels of life That can no longer hear, no longer see Nor hold its centre in the human strife That marks the brother as the enemy. There must be peace, peace, peace to ease The pain of inhumanity that sears And blinds the mystic eye that oversees God's birth recur through the uncounted years And life evolve from cell and germ through stone, And in the plant blossom in delight, Through animal to man and one who is known

Conferees of Grace The ruby night sparkles with silver and gold, The car is warm, protected from the cold And the roadways of our dreaming lead us home To a haven of safety beneath a star-pierced dome. The tires hum a hypnotic lullaby As the mountains of our childhood pass us by And we are safe in a moulded tin cocoon. But when the night shall yield again to noon Might we recall a wistful melody Or richly wrought plaintive harmony That moved the soul to wake from its long sleep The bridges of our ignorance to leap As visions passed before the inner eye Of former lives and future destiny. In childhood'

Unearth Divinity Hast thou left a token of thy presence here Perhaps the perfume of an evening flower Or in these rooms once beautiful now drear A last imprint of love in that dark hour Of pain when one could hear the walls cry out In agony as the dreaded Shade drew near. As an automaton I move about Alone in the weeping gardens of yesteryear. The baleful moan of the mourning dove Plays counterpoint to the warbler's trill Summer's heat upon us and the rough Cacophony of crows; high and shrill The red hawks circle screeching out their cry And the fledglings by their mothers led. As thunder-heads, majestic, fill the sky, A down

No Shade of Night Still am I moved by inward things And have no need of fancy's dreams Lost in mental wanderings, For this world's imperfection seems But a half-step from divinity. The instantaneous results Reported so importantly, Of murderous and vengeful cults, Religious superiority Condescending to all outside, The unquestionable sanctity Of dogma's sacred, rigid pride Are wayward moments in a plan Transcending bounds of human thought, A destiny divine for man That but in silence can be caught When all is stilled and luminous, The word of truth by grace revealed Above life's driving animus To eyes and ea

Journey Just Begun 11/17/03 O you prophets of the elemental worlds Can you hear me as I praise the earthly gifts? Where flowers bloom unseen a thousand years I go in dream above the sleeping steppes. I have walked the ancient glaciers of the north, Seen purities of blue no lens could hold And stood before volcanoes belching fire On a burning rim outlasting human time. And all these journeyings were home to me. I have gone below the surface of the sea And wonders found, a living kaleidoscope Of colours and designs some deity In a moment's inspiration by his touc

Beyond Death's Reach.htm Beyond Death's Reach Eternally before Thy feet I bow Knowing nought yet knowing thou art he Who in our chasmed darknesses below Bears the torches of infinity To light the stairs of our laborious climb From ignorance and death to worlds above, Within, beyond the iron vaults of time To the undying consciousness of love. Here on earth the nations vie in hate, The killing age continues among men, Desire, rage and lust still dominate, Our skyward efforts fall to earth again And though the being tries, attempts anew To scale the limitations of the mind Too weak our aspiration, far too few The souls who rise above themselves an

Warrior Souls We could not bear the strong and vast embrace That gathered us into a mother's arms Nor hold the beauty of a perfect face Beguiling us with all of heaven's charms. We could not make the final offering To sacrifice the self at Godhead's feet; So strong the sense of 'person' we would bring, The force She poured in us would then retreat, Welcomed by the soul, by body shunned, Or mind and vital nature might reject The cleansing fire and consciousness now stunned By light's descent no longer could protect The narrowness of old identity. In different ways we opened to Her love, Some through the lotus heart of mystery, Ot

Who Wakes the Sleeping Soul Tread lightly on shifting sand, loose the bond And slowly scale the great forbidding peak Communing with a voice from the beyond Ever aware that he whom you now seek Is lodged within this cabin made of clay, A silent tenant who sanctifies the room And sees through eyes though blind approaching day The breaking light dispelling mortal gloom, Who wakes the sleeping soul from reverie And stokes the fire on the sacred hearth, Assures the body's immortality The stranger we meet upon the sunlit path Whose face and voice from past acquaintance know And steadily into his image grow.

From Realms of God-Experience How calmly, silently you died And I, reciter of psalms, deprived Of limbs more sacred thanmy song That swelled to paeans when you lived. Foundation stone of calm and peace, Love enveloping delight Gift betokened, priceless one, Upholder of my day and night In which I dreamt my spirit-dreams And soared on inspiration's wings. Such beauty in thy wisdom'seyes A life of joyful offerings Now silenced to a single cry Of anguish that yet understands The being's need for pain and death And pressure of the soul's demands For deep regenerating sleep In planes beyond earth's influen