A Continuum of Light I wandered in an old familiar place Above the lake where arm in arm we stood, A glowing ruby on a emerald base Was burning in the deeply fragrant wood. Pale the beams that filtered through the trees, The leaves of autumn thick beneath my feet, And from the north a chill and welcome breeze Carried a fragrance, wonderful and sweet. Perhaps her soul among the iris dwelt Or lingered in the lilac's scented breast, How cruel a blow uncaring death had dealt, For in my heart there was not peace nor rest. Now Grief the uninvited visitor Had taken up his residence in me No joy could be as it was once before W

The Letter In a letter vibrating with joy, Youthful in its passionate energies, I caught the echo of an eternal voice Resounding in the chambers of the soul. I glimpsed the Idea that had made the worlds And knew that life and death companions are And we are joined as mala or rosary. With or without a body the work goes on, For darkness is only a degree of light. Although the torrent and the quake destroy The unsuspecting and the faultless good, As the order of the stars by one was cast So earth her order makes of man's desires. That pain transforms to pleasure at some height I am not able yet to understand, But love enfolds my heart with beatin

Sacred Chants We sing and through our music call the power That alone can heal the sorrow of the world, Transforming strains a spirit wideness bring, A music falls, a cadence on the ear Attuned to heights from which our souls came down. An innerness of harmony we seek Unburdened of ambivalence of mind, Conventions of the sense-conditioned ear, To find within the silence and the song Diviner sounds sung by diviner man, The Singer who upon the cosmic lyre Shall lift our hearts, our sacred chants inspire.

Disaster Like a Tsunami Jan. 21, 2011 Disaster like a tsunami rushed on her And swept away her fragile house of dreams Her little body, injured and in pain By repeated blows from a father's hand Held a spirit vast as all the earth, And when she sang my soul was taken up Where heavenly choirs sing of earthly bliss. But not for me these wonder months to know For soon the black-wing doubt appeared And trust was shattered in a human day. I wonder now if she will ev

Rejoice in All Things Beautiful Perhaps the spirit in its downward flight Seeing the loveliness of earth forgets In its amniotic bath the native light And tinged perhaps with heavenly regrets Takes up a body to share the human load. Yet waiting in the pulsing heart of man A spark resides, a guide though not a goad To lead the soul in one brief earthly span, Remembering the gate of golden rays From which it came, to become aware Of eternal music singing through our days And rejoice in all things beautiful and fair.

Within Us Still Unknown Time will not return to me Those eyes so diamond-bright, But ever I hold in memory Her legacy of light. The Wheel will not roll back again To joys of yesterday Nor visit me with former pain Upon the upward way. Though I have wept for beauty fled Life was passing sweet And sadness brief when I was led To bow before Her feet. Endless seems the journey now And we have borne the cost Of ignorance, refused to grow What treasure we have lost.! Not seeing Her we climb alone The long and winding stair, She waits within us still unknown As we walk unaware.

Stronger is the Will I carried the weight of sorrow too great to hold And could not let it go for it remained All that was left of riches more precious than gold, The radiant one, the pure, of joy unstained. The years pass slowly before these ancient eyes, In a body despite its age, still unknown, That only in moments is able to recognize The Inhabitant within by which it has grown. The way is found, the problem lies not there But in the sullen forces that oppose And cling to their misfortunes and despair More precious than the essence of the rose. The climb is long and steeper seems the hill Yet by Her Grace stronger is

Towards the Truth-Light Oct. 8, 2011 Now the pansies and chrysanthemums Paint the landscape of the changing year And in my autumn change upon me comes. How many springs have passed me as I walked Unknowing with my hurried feet of clay. I am tired now, the waning year returns With griefs and memories I once had locked Away in brighter seasons, happier days. Each season has its beauty and the fall Of coloured leaf against a burnished sky Evokes a longing in the troubled heart. Earth prepares for its hour of tranquil rest And the white days

Nothing Is As Fine As Memory Nothing is as fine as memory Illusive though it be through time and tears, For in its aura, rainbow-like we see The poignant, yearning dreams of yesteryears. And yet when we recall the taste of things Superior to all we know today Is it a canvas of lost imaginings Or fancy of the dreaming mind at play? If we evoke in a lambent hush a rose Above an arbour of our childhood's door Does memory more beautifully disclose A haunting fragrance we cannot restore To blossoms of a later garden's charm Surrounding us with colour and delight? When we held our lover tightly, arm in arm In the surpa

Each Riven Soul It is a weird benumbing time And only part of me is here, I know not if I sink or climb Or if my soul shall disappear In some enormous void of space My shell to wander aimlessly Or disappear without a trace Into the bowels of history. And yet there is no either-or, The grey penumbra haunting me Is but the shadow of a door Opening on divinity. We must persist through desert days And arctic nights when ideas freeze And we walk unseeing through the maze Of a karmic pasts' firm decrees And nought remains but failing will When the embers of old desires glow And ghosts of selves we cannot kill Assa