The Choral Odes of AUM This is the glory of the waking Spring When from a seeming death that is but sleep The year returns in fruitful blossoming With beauty that makes the envious Heaven's weep. Flowers burst through the still half-frozen crust With a force beyond proportion to their size In an exuberant and joyous thrust To see yet one more burning dawn arise. But now comes winter and the frost appears In sparkling fairy landscapes edged with rime, The rose whose petals droop with dewy tears In a deathless moment of eternal time. My labour done, the garden surely blessed All struggles and successes memories Recurring in

We Bow to Thee, O Queen Although the world in its chaotic haste Thy precious gifts reject and would abuse, Hurrying to destroy and to lay waste Brother, kin, the Power to misuse, Acknowledging our human frailty Eternity within our bodies lies. Towards the absolute necessity The psychic cognizant of deeper ties Begins to stir and consciousness to leap Hearing the timeless call of the Divine, And waking from its mesmerizing sleep Catches here a glimpse and there a sign. Though few now sing to Thee as a pilgrim choir Music that is a flowering of soul, Or weave Thee garlands of song, hearts still aspire, And harps of human

All Questions and All Answers O darkness in whose bosom now I dwell, I cherish thee as God the flame and light. I have tasted heaven, seen the face of hell And glimpsed the One in lonely fields of night. I seek no longer transitory peace Or breaking of the chains that hold me fast Or even that this sorrow soon may cease And Joy my soul's companion find at last – I only ask that gratitude may be Settled in sleep, in waking fill my mind What else might ask that thou did not foresee What treasure lost that I shall never find? All questions and all answers in thee lie Wherein resides my spirit's destiny.

In the Chaliced Heart I saw a rose upon the verge of space Unfolding timeless petals to the sun, So must we turn towards that source of grace Our spirit's light-filled offering begun. A rose of God ablaze above my brow In uttermost simplicity bequeaths Exquisite fragrances I long to know, Her secret charm that all my world enwreathes. O Rose that monarchs in their majesty Are humbled in thy sight and seek tolearn Perfection's form, imprint of Deity, What fire in thy calyces doth burn? Now we must grow surrendered as the rose, And in the chaliced heart our love disclose.

Unseen Presence What unseen presence visited this home And in the rubble courtyards of the mind Cleared a space for silence and for calm And in its wake left spotless hallowed rooms? Who has descended in the darkened cave To bring illumination and surcease Of darkling moods and runnels of desire? Is it Thou to whom the heart has called And soul has seen beyond the bars of time That flowers bloom where once were barren fields And music with a thousand voices lifts To new dimensions prayer and gratitude. Have all known channels coalesced to one Great river of an aspiration's flow Or the fire kindled raised to towering flame? Eyes that held th

Bear with an Indomitable Will As I leave this sacred place a calm descends Suffusing the environment with peace. I know not how it began nor how it ends Or when I shall attain the great release. Winter is slow to come, the flowers sleep Preparing in their roots the fragrant year, The war drags on and sudden widows weep In eastern lands the people live in fear. Suicide bombings continue without pause As if the death of innocents might yield To darkness' forces their infernal cause And all the world become a blood-strewn field. I leave for India again tonight, Alone to breathe the Ashram's atmosphere Recharge th

Mother of Beauty and Delight The rose in its perfection pales Before Thee Mother of Radiance, Describing Thee expression fails Our voices stilled in reverence. Time cannot contain Thy love Nor the heavens hold Thy force, One with all yet far above Describing for the stars their course And man his sacred destiny. Mother of beauty and delight Heal our human enmity Free us from the net of night, Forge in us the strength to hold God's descent, our lives remould.

A Sonnet to Aaron on His Fifth Birthday It seemed the sun in his ecstatic round On this special twenty-first of May, Leaping the heavens like a fiery hound Paused to give his blessings for the day. In a bright morn of wonder touched with joy Awaking from the depths of dream I heard The lilting childlike laughter of a boy And in my heart a faint remembrance stirred Of burning youth so eager to explore The marvels and the mysteries of earth, Running through the future's open door In the unending miracle of birth. Aaron first among the godlike race Accept my salutation and embrace.

Easter Haiku The earth is clothed In petal-fall, The cherry's final ecstasy. Falling like snow, Cherry blossoms Return to earth the gifts of Spring. Ibow before The cherry tree, Her rain of petals blessing me. Easter morn, The earth in white Silent beneath the dogwood trees.

The Clouds of My Unknowing I wake to voices In the wood, Their song in flowered boughs earth's melodies. I labour in silence Content to be Alone in deep communion with the day. And then I rest Tired and torn By sorrow and the suffering I've seen. Night comes slow Though hardly peace, I live a stranger in my spirit's home. I fall asleep Gazing at trees, The clouds of my unknowing drifting by.