Bhajan, Kirtan – Goes On And On

When I sing Ram my heart
is opened, stilled and active both,
emboldened and awash in joy;
from the root of my spine to my crown

I am home, at home in this Body,
as if in a Temple full of powerful tones,
overtones and undertones, harmonies
which can really hardly be described.

When I sing Krishna I am
out of my skull with an ecstasy
curing ills, and maintaining health, longevity;
I need no radio, MTV, CDs or company,

I am never lonely because never alone.
Whether aloud or muttered or on silent tongue,
nestled in Love's bosom I am,
wherever these blessed Names are sung.

When I sing Shiva only the Self remains,
there is no what or who, no questions of matter,
but grounded in Body and from Body freed –
into dimensions of Body, which returns to seed;

I disappear, I manifest, I am here and I exist,
as I hear and as I'm real, so may I ever present feel
in this world as in every other: nourished by my Divine Mother.
Ah, there's a Love which can't be spoken, but only sung.

On Serving

Just to clarify an oft observed confusion:
when Christ tells us, “the greatest of you is he
who makes himself servant to the rest;”
or when Swami Nityananda instructs, “only who can obey can command;”
or when Neem Karoli Baba tirelessly reminds us, to “love, serve, and remember;”
or when Hanuman replies in the Ramayana, “When I don’t know who I am,
I am Your servant; when I know who I am, I am You” –
the assertion here is this:
Serving makes one sovereign, never servile.
The two are often confused.

Sonnet, of sorts

(ca. 1986/7) 

She stands before the glass contemplative,
critiques her face and faults all relative;
and studies where her form symmetric falls,
familiarly discerns pounds possible –
Ridiculous in naked truth are we;

"too much or not enough" decidedly
of profile, flows of lines, of hip or bust –
She sees it all, as so have I, but just
let her perceive what I beyond form see:
From scar of cheek down through her wrists my eye
traverses fragrant joy yet unreveal'd –
sound glance of love does penetrate and heal
when drawn in love to 'waken inner being:
for what's being look'd for is what's looking.

Kiss

(ca. 1986/7) 

Feel the rhythm of a kiss: tongues in one another's cheek.

Learn the rhythm of this bliss: lips enmeshed – the thing you seek

is in the rhythm of this probing twisting meshing biting working

succulating pulsing ritual we call: the kiss.

This Little Acre

(ca. 1986/7) 

Elixir sweet is the Will refined,

      it empow'rs the personality –

      it swells from heart and stills the mind,

      ennobling our reality.

Of the Self-in-all I sing to you,

      of the joy surpassing reason;

      come sing with me of life renewed,

      come season upon season.

In the expression of hospitality

introductions are an empty gesture

for charity is in the glance.

In the lovingkindness of heart

words are few because inadequate …

for Thought molds and cultivates

the feeling and consideration of feeling.

When one is in love one is in love,

and when that is greater than all considerations

the oceanic quality of the heart

dictates all boundaries,

carrying off all that's entrusted to it

to a place solid beyond imagining,

where no rises or depressions upset the balance,

where the virgin quantity of one's innocence

and profound effervescent beauty are restored.

While we still occupy this little acre,

                                 you and I,

be like a pump and draw this ocean

into a cup, absorbing it in depth.

Looking Deeper In

(ca. 1986/7)

Look into my eyes, look
with the mirror of your heart –
Look beneath my humor, and my eccentricity;
Even my intellect, or the gentle care
with which I regard, even touch you –
Dare to penetrate what seems;
If you heard the song of my soul,
how it surrounds you:
Truly you'd catch the secret
of your own true nature,
revealing to you the Path of Love,
how it comes and goes,
like a single breath, a steady symphonic chord
drawn from the first Humans,
extending through the Ages.

Delicately I walk that Path and serve it.

Kul ad-duniya b'tedowwr b'il-'amr –
W'anti ajmal min al-qamr –
Inna 'ishq-allah m'abud l'illah –
Wa b'kul al-khalaq 'ahubb al-amraa'h.

(All the world turns according to order –
And you are more beautiful than the moon –
Indeed! God is Love, Lover and Beloved –
And out of all Creation I love the Sovereign Order of Love.)

For It Is He That Beckons

(ca. 1986/7)

ALLAH is a Communication –

from AH to AH . . .

When a child looks upon me – I disappear,
it is He that beckons:

AH L' AH L' AH L' AH L' AH

Show me the least gesture of beauty or of subtlety:
Yussuf beholds himself through my eyes . . .

AH L' AH L' AH L' AH L' AH

For it is He that beckons in the personal display
of nobility or of grace –
I hear His ways and would that I were his slave:

AH L' AH L' AH L' AH L' AH

And should I find and should I see the Majesty of His Person
reflected in my very Self –
Surely the way of perfect humility is the very threshold
of effacement in the sovereign and dynamic.

AH L' AH L' AH L' AH L' AH