LIFE, like an overweighted shaken rose,
Falls, in a cloud of colour, to my feet;
Its petals strew my first November snows,
Too soon, too fleet!
'Twas my own breath had blown the leaves apart,
My own hot eyelids stirred them where they lay;
It was the tumult of my own bright heart
Broke them away.
O SOFT embalmer of the still midnight,
Shutting, with careful fingers and benign,
Our gloom-pleas'd eyes, embower'd from the light,
Enshaded in forgetfulness divine:
O soothest Sleep! if so it please thee, close
In midst of this thine hymn my willing eyes,
Or wait the "Amen," ere thy poppy throws
Around my bed its lulling charities.
Then save me, or the passed day will shine
Upon my pillow, breeding many woes,--
Save me from curious Conscience, that still lords
Its strength for darkness, burrowing like a mole;
Turn the key deftly in the oiled wards,
And seal the hushed Casket of my Soul.
WHEN I set out for Lyonnesse,
A hundred miles away,
The rime was on the spray,
And starlight lit my lonesomeness
When I set out for Lyonnesse
A hundred miles away.
What would bechance at Lyonnesse
While I should sojourn there
No prophet durst declare,
Nor did the wisest wizard guess
What would bechance at Lyonnesse
While I should sojourn there.
When I came back from Lyonnesse
With magic in my eyes,
All marked with mute surmise
My radiance rare and fathomless,
When I came back from Lyonnesse
With magic in my eyes!
I AM the family face;
Flesh perishes, I live on,
Projecting trait and trace
Through time to times anon,
And leaping from place to place
Over oblivion.
The years-heired feature that can
In curve and voice and eye
Despise the human span
Of durance -- that is I;
The eternal thing in man,
That heeds no call to die.
Gazing into the waters, I saw myself at the edge of a pond
I gazed at my reflection, it gazed at me, I felt an eternal bond;
I saw my own image, was a mirage, a creature water bound
It saw a mirage craning over it, a creature bound to the ground.
The bowl that floats on the ocean, can only the waters crown,
The sieve that tastes the waters, in the ocean will drown
The philosopher who describes love and truth is but an empty crown
The Saint who embraces truth and love will gladly drown.
There are many fish in the ocean that swim and swirl
But it's the oyster that turns water into Pearl;
Ideas numerous, as many drops as the ocean can hold
But it's the person who can turn ideas into gold.
Often in life I choose a goal
And proceed to play my role.
If life's goal from me didn't hide
I'd never have agreed to its stride.
If we knew of life's theft
None would have come, stayed, or left.
Our mortal shells, a temporal Show
Eternal souls eternally glow.
The rolling waves against the hard rocks harshly beat
Upon the sandy shores, prostrate at my feet.
The rolling times, the hard hearts harshly treat
The whole world will the gentle heart kindly greet.
The birds congregated on the roof
While in the sun I sat aloof
One by one they fly and go
I wonder what it is they know
And soon the sun sets down on me
I need to go and let them be.
Pre-dawn darkness, a savage beast
Until sunrise lit up the east
Before me it laid out a feast
Enjoy the feast I could do least
I was the flock, nature my priest.
You may touch a bird, if not by hand, by song
To take a horse to water and make it drink is wrong.
If one can not see, can use another sense
But if one will not see, will only put up defense.
My friend said, "scientific rationality is the only thing that makes sense,
For subjective feeling and personal belief there can be no defense."
I said, "I understand this is your feeling and belief,
I shall not argue, to avoid any unwanted future grief."
Early adventurers would bravely explore a region,
Though not easy, their numbers were legion;
They'd enter an unknown land, yard by yard
Explore, overcome, advance, the easy and hard.
Life too is the adventurous exploration of an unknown land
Step by step explore, challenge, take a stand.
Birth is like entering a region without a map,
Death none other than falling into the final trap.
When the sun rises from the East
Sunflower like a solar priest
Turns towards the sun facing the light
And then tracing the solar flight
Chasing its beloved all through the day
So long as the sun is on its way.
With each flower, a thousand seeds
Follow the light as the flower leads.
Each day the seeds with the flower grow
Each reflecting the solar glow;
Until the flower will release each seed
And each seed a flower will breed.
Earth sunflower, we the seeds
Like a Pearl amidst galactic beads
Hurtling with so much delight
Progress its divine plight.
We take part in this flight
And behold the divine sight
Until Earth will let us go
And from each a new world will grow.
Once upon a time I read a book by chance
Where Gandhi said take a risk in romance
I took a risk with an intent and loving glance
But the lady did not wish to dance.
I learnt a risk is only a risk
If we are willing to accept failure brisk,
And if I never took that chance
How could this experience me enhance?
The question is did I lose
Or was failure if this I did not choose?
I succeeded for now I prance
Regardless of outcome take my chance.
Heart for spreading love was designed
Getting even, comes from the ego mind
The heart that can’t put things behind
Will only punish and bind.
Put outrageous and unkind
Conditions out of your mind;
If these, by love were defined
To all misdeeds would be blind.
Noble heart banished, confined
By the calculating, despotic mind;
Yet if the heart freedom can find
Will be generous, loving and kind.
Heart for spreading love was designed
All else is simply maligned.
It is so easy to say
Such & such is the right way
But when it’s time to play
And my neck on the line lay
No more time to talk
But the talk I must walk
My fears all surface
Challenges I must face
It becomes though to tread
The very path I dread
Integrity will demand
By my own rules I command
And if I take a stand
I must first understand
What others I have do
The same I must do too
And if on this path
I encounter much wrath
So be it, I must face
That wrath with much grace
Else stop my talk
Till the talk I can walk.
They say there is a calm before the storm
Yet there is a calm of a different form
Coming in the storm's aftermath,
Followed by another stormy wrath.
Before and after a storm there is calm
Before and after calm too there is storm.
In the desert there is cactus and palm
One prickly, other into food transform.
No point blessing one, the other curse
Face one, with the other yourself nurse.
Through tough times lighten your purse
In good times generously disburse.
A man once asked, "who are you?"
"A traveler, just like you!"
"All my life I've lived here
And here I will disappear!"
"That may be so," I told that man
"look another way, I'm sure you can.
You may be born in this place
And here death will know your face,
But in the long term perspective
You only have a brief time to live.
You come here from another place
And you'll go to a different space,
But for a brief life time or so
This part of your trip you'll get to know.
You too are a traveler, like me
Our difference, the way I see
To cover much space with time I race,
You'd rather stay longer in one place."
I planted some yellow daffodils
Using my best gardening skills.
Unbeknownst to me among the seeds
Were mixed the seeds of some weeds.
Very soon my garden flowered
Was then by weeds overpowered,
I had to dig my garden deep
Uproot the plants and burn that heap.
Many teachers are false preachers
Their plots, minds of naive creatures.
What they teach is half-truths
Their teaching simple minds soothes.
A half-truth is half false
In spite of its living pulse:
The beautiful truth brings delight
The lie, the weed, transforms that sight.
Ignorant gardener who flowers breeds
Among the seeds plants the weeds,
The false teacher with good intentions
Among truths, many lies mentions;
Gardener will dig his garden deep,
False teacher's flames to skies shall leap;
The gardener his plants uproots,
False teacher brings many false fruits.
All around, many a colorful sight
Is created by the power of the light
In the darkness of black midnight
We see no color or shade in sight.
Deprived of color, in our fright
We simply blame the dark night.
We avoid the blinding light
Of the daytime sun beaming bright.
Sun carries all colors in light white
Source of all light, gives color might.
The world of appearance we embrace
Its cause, the mind, we displace
Succumbed to the powerful time and space
We blame the mask, ourselves disgrace
Yet our mind is the place
Which appearance will replace
And our mind's source is God's grace
Which gives rise to the human race.
We turn away from God's face
The source of mind, time and space
