Moreover, poetry today is not generally thought of as a spiritual form of literature. Even among the “greatest” poets of the 20th century, such as Ezra Pound and Cezslaw Milosz for example, both recognized masters of poetic expression during that period, one learns from them to expect serious introspection, precise and interesting views and expressions of human mortality, with an occasional stroke of historical relevance, but definitely not “spirituality.” And in more recent times one expects most commonly to read poetry of intense personal trauma, also sometimes with a stroke of historical relevance.

The best way to access Sri Aurobindo’s unique poetic style and substance, therefore, is to study his philosophy, which is voluminous and takes years of dedicated commitment. This is how I have approached it, in fact, for the past 60 years, and I hope that I can share at least a few relevant observations and reflections at this point, with an audience that is likely to be familiar with, and to some extent dedicated to, such a unique and specialized spiritual point of view and purpose.

MOUNTAIN PEAKS

Mountain peaks

reached toward the sky

again today

beyond the tree line;

Spider plants

hanging on the wall

symbols of our mind’s

experience;

Bucks on the meadow

one seems to know

two seem to sense

the coming snow;

Beyond the peaks

Beyond the wall

Beyond the sensed and known,

The One in All

THE HERON’S FLIGHT

The heron’s flight

encircles the worlds

Bringing to birth

the stream of time;

In mountain vastness,

joining heaven and earth,

The voice of wisdom

is heard;

Bamboos bend gracefully

in the wind

And in the stillness

truth is seen:

An all-knowing, peaceful,

harmonious essence

A silent presence

standing serene.

IMMORTALITY

The qualities of the One

Continually demonstrated

Through competition

By the Many

Become known:

Life and death

Are their dress,

The crown of glory

The wreath of victory

Leave their mortal

Imprint on history.

EARTH SKY MOON

How could these beings of earth

Not embody at every level of Being

The All who descends into darkness

To manifest the One?

How could the ones becoming That

Not endure at every moment

Of its difficult birth

The pains and joys of Time?

How could the overcoming

Of the very substance of darkness

Not reveal the immeasurable

Infinity of Truth, Beauty, Power, Delight?

Hidden behind every cloud

Within the folds of every darkness

Is an opposite sky of destiny

To be discovered, the light of another moon:

A concentration, a realization

A momentary expression and habitation

For its infinite and eternal Perfection

In the ocean of its perpetual manifestation.

THE BEYOND WITHIN

The Individual

Universal

Transcendent

One in All

Extends its invitation,

Opens the eternal door,

Beckoning us to enter

The Beyond

To discover

That we are That

Self of All

Becoming One,

In the divine heart

Of the Rose

HER ARRIVAL

She came to us

on wings of sound and light

A friend of the Sun and Cloud and Rain

She came into this room

Of closed windows, of darkened spirit,

of airless, sunless, space

And minds and bodies constrained

by ropes of habit and chains of illusion;

She flew through unseen doors

and filled the space with radiant delight

And vibrant waves of love

that suddenly swept away all bounds

And freed our hearts to feel the rays of Truth

breaking down the walls that confined them

Releasing the spirit imprisoned within,

filling the soul with Fire, revealing the paths of Destiny:

She awakened in us our will to ascend

opening our mind of light, inspiring our Future to begin.

OUR CALL

How can a body

torn apart by bombs

experience the Divine?

How can a mind

overpowered by falsehood

experience the Truth?

Standing still and firm

we must call down,

open to its descent,

The consciousness and the force,

the stillness and the peace,

the One that is within us;

We must invoke the power

of Truth and Love and Light

to abolish the Ignorance!

DARSHAN MOON

Round as round can be

And bright as I can see

Dawn soft golden eye

In silvery wideness high

Pour the blessed ray

Hold the graceful sway

Reveal the secret identity

White body of infinity

To the soul made vast and free

Show the one divinity

(A 70s poem and today’s Moon)

PATIENCE

Goddess, flowers in bloom

empty cups, patiently await

the tea pot

Dust storm hides the mountain,

Luminous presence fills the air

Om tat sat

Time appropriates space

Mountain reaches heaven

Tea pot finds its place

SMOKE

Smoke fills the air

Obscures the mountain

Still the roses bloom

Still bombs fall

The rhythmic waves of Life

Inspired by Nature’s call

Dance toward her Light

In The Synthesis of Yoga, along with the chapter we have referred to on ‘Concentration,’ there is the chapter titled ‘The Purified Understanding’ in which Sri Aurobindo writes: “We must consider deeply and clearly what we mean by the understanding and by its purification. We use the nearest equivalent we can get in the English tongue to the Sanskrit philosophical term buddhi (translated elsewhere by Sri Aurobindo as the “intelligent will”); therefore we exclude from it the action of the sense mind which merely consists of the recording of perceptions of all kinds without distinction, whether they be right or wrong, penetrating or superficial. We exclude that mass of confused conception which is merely a rendering of these perceptions and is equally void of the higher principle of judgment and discrimination. Nor can we include that constant leaping current of habitual thought which does duty for understanding in the mind of the average unthinking man, but is only a constant repetition of habitual associations, desires, prejudices, prejudgments, received or inherited preferences, even though it may constantly enrich itself by a fresh stock of concepts streaming in from the environment and admitted without challenge…; its purification can only be effected either by dismissing or silencing it altogether or by transmuting it into the true understanding.”

This yantra, or symbolic pattern, of the two triangles in Sri Aurobindo’s Symbol, represents the descent of the Divine Spirit into manifestation and the ascent of the evolving soul, or Nature, back to its source. This process is referred to as “involution and evolution” in Sri Aurobindo’s metaphysical philosophy and cosmology. And in the section from Savitri that I will read, we will hear a description of that highest level of consciousness and force in its cosmic manifestion as Iswara and Shakti, and its descent into the soul of the Yogi who has risen above the mortal mind and realizes union with the Divine Mother, which is the goal of the Yoga of Transformation.

But first I would like to review the meaning and importance of the Idea in the process of sadhana in Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga. ‘Idea’ in this sense refers to a higher realm of consciousness, above the intellect, which is a radiance of the Reality of which all existences in Time and Space are a form. This Idea is a plane of seeing and knowing into which our consciousness can arise when we reject the lower functions of the mind and aspire beyond its normal limitations. In this important chapter of The Synthesis of Yoga, titled ‘Concentration,’ Sri Aurobindo clearly distinguishes the meaning that he gives to such terms as dharana and samadhi from the traditional meanings that they have in the Raja Yoga Sutras, and also the difference in the goal of his Yoga of Transformation from the traditional goal of liberation. The Idea of Involution and Evolution, of the Descent and Ascent of the Iswara and Shakti are Ideas, in this sense of the word, that can enable us to elevate our consciousness toward its source.

Reading from The Synthesis of Yoga, Part II, Chapter IV.

Reading from Savitri, Book I, Canto V. (Note that “Mind” as it is used in this canto refers to Supermind, or the Divine Shakti.)

Khamenei, Bin Salman

the Killers, Murderers, Despots

A significant portion of humanity

still serves these rulers of the world

Who are types of human being

rejected long ago by Evolution;

They demonstrate today for all to see

the qualities of human being that must be rejected

That were rejected by Evolution long ago

That many human beings today choose to follow,

The leaders who represent the past:

the Killers, the Murderers, the Despots,

In the name of Religion and Nationalism,

in the name of Lust for Power and Greed -

The Killers, the Murderers, the Despots

How can a body

torn apart by bombs

experience the Divine?

How can a mind

overpowered by falsehood

experience the Truth?

Standing still and firm

we must call down,

open to its descent,

The consiousness and the force,

the stillness and the peace,

the One that is within us;

We must invoke the power

of Truth and Love and Light

to abolish the Ignorance!

on wings of sound and light

A friend of the Sun and Cloud and Rain

She came into this room

Of closed windows, of darkened spirit,

of airless, sunless, space

And minds and bodies constrained

by ropes of habit and chains of illusion;

She flew through unseen doors

and filled the space with radiant delight

And vibrant waves of love

that suddenly swept away all bounds

And freed our hearts to feel the rays of Truth

breaking down the walls that confined them

Releasing the spirit imprisoned within,

filling the soul with Fire, revealing the paths of Destiny:

She awakened in us our will to ascend

opening our mind of light, inspiring our Future to begin.

The symbolism of the gods, invoked by the Vedic mantras, reveals them to be divine principles present in everything that exists in our sphere of mental, vital, and physical experience, and yet eternal radiances emanating from planes beyond.

Similarly, the geometric symbols of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo, which provide the foundations described by stones in the rose garden, reveal the descending and ascending triangles of involution and evolution, and the circles of the divine forces of manifestation, the spiritual powers of consciousness that create and contain everything in existence.

Agni 1

Agni 2

Agni 3

Garden planted, May 12, 2026. (The temperatures at this altitude now suitable.)

https://www.sriaurobindolearningcenter.com/

Universal

Transcendent

One in All

Extends its invitation,

Opens the eternal door,

Beckoning us to enter

The Beyond

To discover

That we are That

Self of All

Becoming One,

In the divine heart

Of the Rose

The book is available from Amazon.com and other book distributors, and from our website and center in Crestone, Colorado: sriaurobindolearningcenter.com.

EARTH SKY MOON

How could these beings of earth

Not embody at every level of Being

The All who descends into darkness

To manifest the One?

How could the ones becoming That

Not endure at every moment

Of its difficult birth

The pains and joys of Time?

How could the overcoming

Of the very substance of darkness

Not reveal the immeasurable

Infinity of Truth, Beauty, Power, Delight?

Hidden behind every cloud

Within the folds of every darkness

Is an opposite sky of destiny

To be discovered, the Light of another moon:

A concentration, a realization

A momentary expression and habitation

For its infinite and eternal Perfection

In the ocean of its perpetual manifestation.

Moon, March 30, 2026

1) By a specific kind of sadhana (many approaches/practices are

possible) we (practitioners assigned this destiny, sadhakas) should be able to realize

the Brahman/Absolute through a Higher Mind/Illumined Mind ascent in this

incarnation:

Mind the thought-driven chariot of the soul

Carrying the luminous wanderer in the night. ...

Abandoning the dubious middle Way,

A few shall glimpse the miraculous Origin

And some shall feel in you (Savitri) the secret Force ...

Ascending out of the limiting breadths of mind,

They shall discover the world’s huge design

And step into the Truth, the Right, the Vast.

You shall reveal to them the hidden eternities,

The breath of infinitudes not yet revealed,

Some rapture of the bliss that made the world,

Some rush of the force of God’s omnipotence,

Some beam of the omniscient Mystery. (Savitri, Bk. XI)

2) By a continuous surrender and aspiration in that realization we

should be able to creatively participate, to some extent, in the

emergence of the Mind of Light and Truth-Consciousness, among an elite and

growing type of intuitive humanity, under the pressure of the supramental descent,

over a few generations, by sacrifice and rebirth:

But when the hour of the Divine draws near

The Mighty Mother shall take birth in Time

And God be born into the human clay

In forms made ready by your human lives.

Then shall the Truth supreme be given to men:

There is a being beyond the being of mind

An Immeasurable cast into many forms,

A miracle of the multitudinous One,

There is a consciousness mind cannot touch,

Its speech cannot utter nor its thought reveal.

It has no home on earth, no centre in man,

Yet is the source of all things thought and done,

The fount of the creation and its works,

It is the origin of all truth here... (Savitri, Bk. XI)

3) As that Mind of Light and Truth-Consciousness progress and

spread in humanity, the Supermind should have a widening channel of descent and

manifestation on all the planes of existence:

Some shall be made the glory’s receptacles

And vehicles of the Eternal’s luminous power.

These are the high forerunners, the heads of Time,

The great deliverers of earth-bound mind,

The high transfigurers of human clay,

The first-born of a new supernal race.

The incarnate dual Power shall open God’s door,

Eternal supermind touch earthly Time.

The superman shall wake in mortal man

And manifest the hidden demigod

Or grow into the God-Light and God-Force

Revealing the secret deity in the cave. (Savitri, Bk. XI)

4) As the supramental transformation of consciousness – body/

life/mind/soul/spirit – facilitated by the Mind of Light, proceeds

down the world stair, a gradual, universal transformation of prakriti should occur (as

this plane/type of Being conceals/reveals itself in new forms of wisdom, power, beauty,

love, at every level), providing a receptacle for the new species:

The supermind shall be his nature’s fount,

The Eternal’s truth shall mould his thoughts and acts,

The Eternal’s truth shall be his light and guide.

All then shall change, a magic order come

Overtopping this mechanical universe.

A mightier race shall inhabit the mortal’s world.

(Savitri, Bk. XI)

5) The manifestation of supramental beings should then begin to

appear, bringing about the divinization of earth nature in a

rhythmically progressive manner, over perhaps a few centuries (if

humanity survives and evolves in this way):

Then in the process of evolving Time

All shall be drawn into a single plan,

A divine harmony shall be earth’s law,

Beauty and joy remould her way to live:

Even the body shall remember God,

Nature shall draw back from mortality

And Spirit’s fires shall guide the earth’s blind force;

Knowledge shall bring into the aspirant Thought

A high proximity to Truth and God.

The supermind shall claim the world for Light

And thrill with love of God the enamoured heart

And place Light’s crown on Nature’s lifted head

And found Light’s reign on her unshaking base.

A greater truth than earth’s shall roof-in earth

And shed its sunlight on the roads of mind;

A power infallible shall lead the thought,

A seeing Puissance govern life and act,

In earthly hearts kindle the Immortal’s fire.

(Savitri, Bk. XI)

6) The Mind of Light should then become the “norm”

for humanity, sheltering in the vibrational field of the new

supramental species:

The higher kind shall lean to lift up man.

Man shall desire to climb to his own heights.

The truth above shall wake a nether truth,

Even the dumb earth become a sentient force.

The Spirit’s tops and Nature’s base shall draw

Near to the secret of their separate truth

And know each other as one deity.

The Spirit shall look out through Matter’s gaze

And Matter shall reveal the Spirit’s face.

Then man and superman shall be at one

And all the earth become a single life. (Savitri, Bk. XI)

(from Poetizing Spirit (2021) https://auro-ebooks.com/poetizing-spirit-by-rod-hemsell/)

We should realize, and it should perhaps ‘go without saying,’ that building a city from scratch is not easy, especially when one is starting out in a desertified tropical environment in a ‘developing’ country. On the latter topic, India’s per capita GNP even today is about the same as Kenya’s and far below Vietnam’s or S. Korea’s. In 1968 it was relatively even lower and there was as yet hardly any sign of ‘development’ locally in domains such as transportation and communication. Auroville therefore began with reforestation and very basic infrastructure development. It did not begin with the vision of a “smart city” but with a more futuristic dream of creating a spiritually transformed humanity, and carefully, slowly, discovering the road through that jungle. This was the dream projected by the Mother, this was the spirit that drew people to her work. And the people of that day were still quite happy to ride bicycles. There were hardly any cars and few motorcycles on the road. The handful of people who settled in Auroville used kerosene lamps for light at night, and handpumps to draw water. By about ten years later, when many of the earliest residents were deciding to leave, mostly from burn-out, there were fewer than 500 residents, still living under very simple, and difficult, conditions, with few amenities and few opportunities for growth.

Next we should realize that the Mother had envisioned, and had tried to establish, Auroville as an international experiment in ‘human unity.’ The International Zone was described by her as a vision that she had when she first opened the Sri Aurobindo International Center of Education in the Ashram twenty-five years earlier, and it had not materialized there. Through the Government of India she reached out to UNESCO with the vision of a city that would be built by the ‘most highly developed’ nations and cultures of the world in a cooperative endeavor to share their cultures in a concrete, living expression of unity in diversity, as a model for the future of humanity. That vision has still not materialized. Auroville has, instead, developed slowly and organically into an international community of a few thousand pioneers whose lifestyle expresses harmony, simplicity, and respect for the natural environment. The recent takeover by the Government of India was undertaken with the deliberate intention to disrupt that lifestyle, as was explicitly stated by both the Tamilnadu State Governor R.N. Ravi and the AV Foundation Secretary Jayanti Ravi. The reason given for this was to prepare the way for the manifestation of a city for 50,000 inhabitants. And they said it was a development that the Auroville residents had been deliberately delaying and blocking for the past fifty years.

Thirdly, we should realize, not only that Auroville’s purpose was never to be a ‘smart city’ such as envisioned by Jayanti Ravi, a professional technocrat, but that India does not have the technical capability of building such a city. In the four years that have elapsed since the government takeover, the idea of building ‘smart cities’ on a national scale has been abandoned by the central government, and the government appointed administration of Auroville, under the two Ravis, has not managed to build anything. It has only managed to bring about the division and general disruption of community life. The relatively harmonious infrastructure and organization that the Auroville community was creating has been appropriated and dismantled by this administration, and displaced by an inappropriate and dysfunctional bureaucracy with a politically motivated, aggressively technocratic ideology. Although a few members of the Auroville community have succumbed to and been instrumenalized by this autocratic and technocratic displacement, the community has generally opposed it and strives to maintain its original orientation. The Madras High Court has determined the takeover to be in violation of the law, in two separate major rulings against the government’s efforts to undermine the statutory, authorized, and essential role of the residents to determine and manage Auroville’s development. In both cases, the rulings of the MHC were reversed, after being stayed on appeal for more than a year, on the basis of a ruling by a specially appointed partisan judge of the Supreme Court. In other words, the original intention of the Mother in creating Auroville, the lives and values of those who have committed themselves to that purpose, and the law that was passed by the Parliament of India to protect and support it, have all been systematically violated by the intervention of the Government of India through the agencies of the Ministry of Education and the government appointed administration of the Auroville Foundation, since 2021.

This government, controlled by the BJP under its PM, Shri Narendra Modi, first came to power in 2014. The Governor of Tamilnadu State, who was also appointed Chairman of the Auroville Foundation, along with the current Lieutenant Governor of Pondicherry, the Secretary of the Auroville Foundation, and the Supreme Court judge who ruled in favor of the government’s authority to manage Auroville in whatever way it chooses, have all been active agents of the BJP for many years, and most had previously served the government of Gujarat under Narendra Modi. In its affidavits submitted to the Madras High Court, this administration has claimed to be the sole authority over Auroville’s management and development, which it claims is a ‘corporation,’ under the Ministry of Education. As the self-appointed managers of Auroville, the Governing Board and Secretary of the Auroville Foundation, with its appointed officers and representatives, have enacted Regulations, Standing Orders, policies and procedures that deprive the Auroville community of virtually all the rights and responsibilities that it had normally exercised for the previous fifty years. Some of the regrettable consequences of this takeover and disruption, which have been extensively documented, include the displacement of community members from their means of livelihood and the destructive reappropriation of forests and farmlands that were cultivated by the community. But, more importantly, the spirit of Auroville, the inner orientation and motivation originally bestowed upon its resident members by the Mother in the first years of its inception, has been diverted from that essential orientation toward the disruptive process of the government intervention itself, and toward the politically motivated, artificially construed notions of Auroville’s purpose that it has imposed.

If there is to be a restoration of that original and essential spirit, and of the “conviviality” that once characterized the life of the Auroville community, then it is necessary to address the reality of both the inspired nature of that original spirit and purpose, and the destructive and disruptive nature of the government’s intervention. This is necessary because the Auroville that now exists is not the same as the one that existed in the 70s and 80s. Nor is it the same as the Auroville of the 90s up to 2021. Both of these periods of development, though very different, were characterized by a certain enthusiasm and dynamism for realizing a meaningful possibility, a possibility of freedom and creativity with a clear objective. The first was quieter and of a more “spiritual” nature because of the Mother’s presence and an almost total lack of external distractions. The second was motivated by a liberation from preconceived notions and restrictions into a sort of legal and financial spirit of “material” creativity. These two orientations can be restored and unified, but only by those who are committed members of the community and devoted to these realities. For, as the Mother said, it is impossible for any government to realize Auroville; it can only be done by itself, from within itself, by those who have devoted themselves to it. This has been confirmed by many respected authorities who were close to her, such as Kireet Joshi (the educationist), Satprem (the author), and Roger Anger (the architect).

But this is precisely what the government does not want, and what its assertion of ‘corporate control’ wants to prevent. Therefore, that intervention must go. It must be entirely withdrawn, and the management of Auroville must be restored entirely to the community. Then it will be possible, once again, and without the “international” cooperation that the Mother wished for, and without the “smart city” technology that might be imagined by some to be the ultimate tool of authority. Auroville must develop itself organically and freely toward the realization of the potential that its inner “spirit” can manifest under the conditions of its past, present, and future realities.

Rod Hemsell

1

Reciting the news today

(first movement: the warp)

An island of plastic waste

twice the size of Texas

floats in the Pacific Ocean;

16 million people in Karachi

have only enough water

for half the population;

Amazon.com is worth 3 trillion $,

the public is happy with its service,

and its owner is worth 250 billion $;

Front page: Stem cell health centers

call today, seating limited;

knee pain, neck pain, back pain;

More and more citizens spend their leisure time

watching their dogs shit in the margins

of their prosperous civilization;

Increasing numbers of farmers’ suicides,

the lynching of Muslims, relentless attacks on Dalits,

public floggings, dilution of legal protections for minorities;

The massive base of humanity,

6 billion pedestrian bodies and minds,

1 billion more drive cars, enjoy annual vacations;

Innocent pilgrims everywhere

few of whom can read, blindly seek god

in whatever dress the popular culture prescribes;

The religion column has no readers

the editorials have no writers

the obituaries report no souls to resuscitate;

Every click on facebook is a vote

every iphone search a message to the stars

we now can rule the world from our self-driving cars;

It is up to us to discover the threads

that weave these problematic coverings

shielding us from the lies,

While Federally Authorized, heavily armed

and masked militias drag citizens

from their homes,

And a massive solar event

sends electromagnetic waves of light

into our benighted skies.

2

The complex tapestry of this problematic world

(second movement: the weft)

Sorting the threads, from the top:

The calculating measuring mind, technology,

capitalist economy (by each of whom we are mesmerized),

like a web of steel;

Vitalistic greed, desire for control (of everything),

over-consumption, pandemic corruption, like twisted rope;

Physical inertia, inclination to addiction

(to any form of relief or satisfaction),

sensory limitation, like sticky sap;

The ego’s self-importance, identity fears,

warped cognitions, impulsive delusions,

like moss clinging to twisted trees;

The fundamental laws of the human condition:

eros/thanatos, involution/evolution, reality/illusion,

like flaming arrows of gods disappearing in darkness.

3

Behind the tapestry

(third movement: the texture)

Is there something more,

something that we haven’t found

staring at the pages of history?

Are the arrows of the gods a hidden rain,

secretly filling the world with golden light?

Are these millions of emergent eyes

seeking something the eyes will never see,

rising and falling on the waves of the world,

causing every form of life to be,

yet vanishing always from sight?

A secret world of tides and constellations

mirrored by the rising coils of earth,

in the bifurcations of seeds

splitting their dicot symmetry

to release new shoots,

in the downward flowing streams of trees

pulling the rays of the sun to feed their roots,

sucking from the soil the force that sends their cells

spiraling upward to their source;

in the passions of humankind driving upward from the earth

to conquer every quarter, weighing and conserving

every particle of nature for its use.

A Self that dwells within the soul,

secretly looking upward to a higher world of light,

secretly reaching outward to all things with waves of love,

striving to be known, to be felt, to be seen:

the one who moves in all, the infinite origin, the ever-living fire,

unmoving, unseen, unknown.

There is an infinite world of forms we cannot see,

it is there, it is real, its designs are engraved within our minds:

its code deciphered, its hidden pattern known,

we can rise on other waves and leave this world

of limited forms behind: the Unseen can be found,

in the tapestry that we weave, in its subtle vision’s thread,

the soul that was bound can be free.

Why does the wild wind

Wander on this planet

While the hunter runs

Among the stars?

And why does the flute-caught wind

Call softly to the moon

When clarity wears the gown of night?

A child’s innocence or a man’s pride

Could inspire such questions

And the symbol care

The eager soul must seek to answer

Would seal the mystery with a tear.

But what after all is the point

Of agony of thought of art of joy of daylight

And the arrowflight of life?

When the bow is bent

And the true aim is felt

Then the shaft is released

That meets itself in mid air

Like fair game on full wing struck deep

And the wind turns round the world again

While the hunter weeps among the stars

And shadows chase the flute-song moon to dawn.

The archer’s prize is fire

And infinite bliss and eternal peace

Enshrine his muse and his desire -

Finally his spirit is free.

It is an arduous path

Swirling to give birth

To its creator

Biting its tail

Spreading its wings wide

And narrow to the extreme.

We know we do not know we know

The ray behind the cloud

The bridge the stream we cross.

It becomes clearer

Inner and outer

Future and past

If it doesn’t blind

By its brightness

And the right adjustment is made.

To grow and change, create and destroy

Ever renew always from the executive

Supreme point of view:

Ishwara Shakti

Flowering wave on wave

Magnificent at every moment.

To awaken from the dream

And see the way.

2

The beautiful young men

Who sweat in the sun

And laugh in the shade

With the shining girls

Until the world turns gold

And the glowing mountain is born

Listen to the music at night

That sings their life to smoke

In the sweetly turning light.

A silence will purify the mind

And make clear the formula of sight

For the builders who love

In the rising falling light

And listen to the music of the sun.

Form is the forerunner of the future

Growth is the way to the goal

Across the vast unknown;

The gift is given and the gift is received,

The worlds of beauty are born -

The sunborn children

Run softly in the twilight

Toward the wondrous day

And soon the sunburst morning

Will fly them to their nest...

So the seed is sown

And the tree gracefully sways

In the garden where time

Spins a silent web

To find where soon

The flower will be known.

3

All will come to pass this way

And more than I can tell

Says the mystery beyond the veil.

Under his cloak

The prophet croaks a doom

Form is the forerunner of change

His error will be revealed

By sacrifice be fulfilled.

To be like the sun -

It is the music of dawn

That we hear

And we are one with many voices

Who sing the word divine

As we cross the bridge

That we build together

As we listen to the sun.

We are walking in waves of heat

Across the plain toward a peak

Like ancients who gather bones

In the caverns of infinity

For magicians who turn them

To golden towers

That the spaces we build

Might never become crowded

Or unfree;

Children run softly in the twilight

Across the plain

And hide in the shadows

That conceal the happy blaze

Until all is changed in Her smile.

We gather flowers as we walk

Toward the peak

And the beautiful young men

Who listen to their hearts

Build the city of the sun

To guard the golden flowers

That we pick -

In the vital physical currents of the mind

We flow toward the stream of dawn.

Perhaps it will be remembered this way

And perhaps it will be justified

If it is all suspended in a dome

And spun around

So that every point is seen

Rising to express its oneness.

In a similar way one meets another,

The flower opens to its lover,

And the will to transcend

Shines on the brows

Of the beautiful young men.

The children float at dawn

Toward the warm touch of reality

Inside a magic dome

And the light grows within.

They will be one

And the word they speak

Will be love -

In their self giving

To the flame of sacrifice

Their consciousness will increase

To perfection

And they will see all

In the light of truth,

In the joy of Her smile.

4

Brightly halloed she stood alone

And her face of beauty and light

Concealed the laughter or the tears,

The joy or the sorrow that she felt

As hopes and fears flamed before her

And the tides of life and death

Raged around her

Warring through the night

Until the beasts and angels

That danced in the forest

Where she stood

Grew quiet:

The light that filled her breast

Flowed out to quell the madness of the world

And touch every heart with grace.

The pomp and lust that fought

To win their cup of flesh and blood

Filled with silver and gold

Were made to yield and shattered

In an instant

Under the weight of a mightier force:

Her body trembled with ecstasy

As the new world was born

And ascended to the throne.

The dragon slayer sheathed his sword

And brushed the curls from his brow

Then bowed down from dawn to dusk

To see the beginning and end of time

Touch in his praying hands.

The young men who flushed with pride

As they lay beside their maids in the hay

Stood suddenly erect with wonder

At the world’s mystery they beheld.

The altar vessels of the blue ascetics

Smoked in the moonglow

Of the soul’s illumination

And sent a holy fragrance

Drifting through the air

Out the cave’s mouth

To shake the mountain and valley

With divine breath.

The earth’s choirs

Intoned praise of the powers supreme

That made this world a sun

And voiced the truth of every birth.

The One enlightened All.

5

The inward and outward movements

Found their balance forever.

What was always known to be

Behind the veil, was shown:

The future leaped into view

Like blossoms opening in a garden

And the ancients who cared for them

From the first, watched their children grow.

And they gathered ever after

Around the table of the Master

To share with him

The nectarous drink of life

And wandered in the woods

Where strolled in magnificent beauty

The Mother, his mate

And they would listen to her mighty

Words of love

And receive her glorious gift of light

That poured from her beautiful eyes

And revealed all to sight.

The chariots charged ahead

To deliver the conquerors

Unto the conquered land

To offer in Truth

Its riches to the Lord.

6

Chorus

O the city rises

Round the rim

As night’s armor

Clatters to the ground

And in the utter silence

Men of light

Noisily launch their ships

To the sun -

Sights and sounds

Noticed and unnoticed

From the highest peaks

Where the day rolls merrily by

I pray,

Where the day rolls merrily

By Him.

O the kingdom rises round the rim.

(ca. 1971)