"ODYSSEY
OF HEART"
(1)
Not in myself I trust, for I am
weak
To noble deeds and proofs of
lasting worth
But ever forms of faith and hope
poured over us
When meekness, in heart, with love
communes.
Better than reason, brighter than
the tropes
Wrought by our sager minds who, for
all times
Sought to mark down in sign that
yet unseen...
Better this just humility of faith
That, from itself, bears truth's
emerging light
Able to steer the golden reigns
through heights
Of knowing, where the dryer air
imbues
Essential manna: food of gods, the
mead
Which lovers owning, few dare earn,
is sup
Of perfect comfort, ever over-flown
In foment of new life; from pride's
decay
To boundless grace, our liberty
revealed.
Best Charity, heart of saints and
ever true
To faithfulness of hope!
Great care you show
Where there’s no rod of law
but principles
Most holy, by the proud unknown;
exalting
Sacred sense, beyond surmise;
submissive
(2)
Tender, patient, always kind with
comfort
For the sojourn soul, from
tribulation born…
Relieve our cause, pour down your
shining balm
As in this world we all must yet
forbear
And lead us straight. Held
fast in you we live.
Such faithfulness of care might we
endow
And many hours again, turn aside
Ignoble ways, by empty musings led
Where much is scourged of hope, too
reckless bound
Now helped by love and truth for
healing song.
Even the best of faith, not always
solved
For clearest virtue, evident in
deed
Is made exempt from trial; better
to prove
The gold of piety when thorough
plied...
Such constancy of soul is sooner
known
When, as is judged by some, we're
given leave
To go our way when yet is left
behind
That care of grace we’d
choose, flown from the heart.
So help this stumbling verse our
work portray
Set down in pain to coax the one of
all
And tend the steps of peace our
heroes seek.
(3)
May then we own consistently such
worth
Through mundane laws that,
constant, drape the soul
And from the faintest things,
secure our truth
Distilling clarity in care of all.
Always, for grace, this
comforting's renewed
Untainted by the loot of rotten
gain-
Foul dross! Many, by this,
are bound in chains
Though freedom shunts the petty
tyrant’s rule.
We look to sift and ply the soul
again
For better ways, to each more
kindly given
Though groaning under pride;
wretched stain
Of brutal men, insistent under
heaven.
Yet heaven in each we sing for
tiding songs
And phantom ways distrust. In
each is all-
That cherished faith, for whom the
brave are strong
And proving glad, the patient cares
install.
Great sympathy, the worth of each
conjoined
To mirror in the promised,
home-felt rest
Our truth and proven love, forever
coined
In honor of the victor's upright
quest.
(4)
A call upon the wild that springs
To dignities of life, refined
Not of vulgar mind.
Such secret’s long been
kept…
Of old, the seers saw and wept;
But how shall one, so lonely frail
Train the flashing reigns to
follow?
Steady now, upon the gates and gap
Defending 'gainst presumption,
overflown
To self-conceit, abominable
Glimpse the true and lasting vision
Whose care is no fruitless burden
But for the proper meekness bidden
And yoke humility fast-bound
Not glancing here or there
Fix in heart upon the clear-
New city, famed uncloven stone
That tends azure upon the midnight
sun
Out-braving that of brutal minds
By light of faith and the sublime.
(5)
Yet can the child's waking care
Through tribulation heroes bear
Overcome the vast depravity
Being only a child?
Resolve upon the sojourn friend
And bide the cornered time among
the trees
Whose verdant leaves
Drip honeyed milk from gently
swelling hills…
Reclining on the sacred, bubbling
hearth
Then turn aside the mortal strife
For truth in love, assaying peace;
So drinking down the heart’s
content
Let bow upon the burdens bent
Those iron rods, waved over the
whole
Of seeming men, whose way is
tyranny.
Such fruit to bear and health to
lend
In grace, whose way has flown
within
The open gates of proven faith!
No wielding rule of force then sway
To ends, the burnished virtue
won...
Of such is the Kingdom-
Cere’s preternatural ones.
(6)
Heigh now upon the surging fountain
Whose nourishment brought forth
upon the fold
Life's faithful brook, more true
than what is told
Of bitter waters, flowing pure as
gold!
What can put at naught?
Thus ageless, undaunted abides
The head, by right established
From the heart, just inclined.
No thing in heaven or earth
Thwarts the destined
uprightness…
Straight through the gates, pass on
With wholly complied intent.
Blessed are them who may drink
The waters that flow out
life’s throne
As ancient wonders rise on the
brink
Of Eleusinian fields, whose hearth
is home.
(7)
Descending on the heart anew
Anointed by the morning dew
Seek consistently
To own your vast integrity.
And then, with fuller' soap in hand
Wash the inner walls
Scourging away what is not grand
Within the darkened chamber's hall.
Rely upon substantial grace
And fall upon corrupting stains
Fomenting the one relation
Love's truth has earned and faith
persuades.
So, once nearly cleansed
Incline to fix the will, so pure
Which a lasting and perfect friend
May commend as knowing and true.
Thus seeking only to reflect
The crystal best in every word
Overthrow the world, naught bereft
Innocence allured.
(8)
Though many cynics
traffic in the hour
Barking at the heels of sacred
power
Life kicks the scale of false
standards
As light from out the dark more
daring spreads
Through the lonely wilderness
A flowering festival of peace,
assured.
So mythic seven thunders ring
A promised day of liberty...
A day of freedom for the captive-
Hurrah, the day of Jubilee
Hosanna, arching Sabbath for all
times-
Life and light in love’s
relation!
The potsherds scoff
Alack! They cry-
Aurum heirs treading down the
mountains!
(9)
As firm as a rock I would be set
Against the world and its lewd
contentions
More steady proving clearest
virtue, stressed
With brilliant facets of the light,
resolving factions.
What hope amidst the strife, true
worth bestowed
In character, ruling every
passion's season
For perfect care, great purposes to
show
In blooms of time and speechless,
sacred reasons.
Converging and uniting, such care
met
Life's waking might, more near in
sight to shine
With pure intent, whose knowing
best reflects
All states, now cast in figures of
design.
O dawning vision, pierce the awful
night
And horns of plenty pour, true love
requite!
(10)
In tender age I felt humanity
To be a staunch of comfort and sure
strength;
An eager hope, in every hour to
length
Fleet days of wonder, all of life
to see.
A cherished kindness, lain upon the
breast
Of upright admonitions and
goodwill;
A care of grace, in love, a
founding rest
And honor for my vision’s
windowsill.
How yet, too soon, cruel
condemnations frown
On ways once blessed in youth, now
grown insane
With outward forms, whose worldly
pride bestows
False glory, proving life's dread
infamy.
So here is wasting sorrow and the
shame
That groans with silent tears of
faith betrayed!
(11)
O hours, cruel hours that vex the
wearied soul
With thoughts of contradiction;
fawning days
Of youth are closed, in stock of
lies arraigned
For inquisition and condemning
powers.
What tyrannous and brutal, ruthless
ways
That slam the sanctioned slavery
over head;
Though, bearing all, the brave
endure the crime
And contemplate this shame, too
stark with dread.
So mock, O state, the way of noble
ends…
More false, discharge your rotten
judgments’ fate;
A greater cause, at last, where
first you rend
The back and front of self... all
selves berate.
Dare now upon life’s brow your
six-thrice brand
And testify! All stripes
shall truth withstand.
(12)
Nobody cares for that o'er which
you weep
Nor shares the burden for this
world's foredoom
Seen starkly; now a haunting
specter creeps
Among the binding fates spun on
life's loom.
Wake them not to that dread misery
Which emptiness of pride has
reckless wove
But pluck the web for loss and
trembling
Of idols in the soul for which they
strove.
Put off your cherished youth and
sacred oath's
Confirming constancy; raise up your
cup
To lusty Lethe and thunder with the
strokes
Of fury, treading out the ripened
sup!
They shall not brook to flay their
sacred cows
But shades of death endure and
prostrate bow.
(13)
What trust the ways of parts
obtained
In them that helm the wheeling
state
Shall not to comfort more incline
Than strife of passion wrought of
late.
Between, there is a promise broke
That speaks of ever darkening night
And labors 'gainst the dreadful
stroke
Of death, like ships in dire
flight.
The chartered seas for hope forlorn
In credence of foretokened shores
Allows conveying factions storms
To gain what faith denied before;
Though here, the fool confounded
whence
Brings lurching on familiar scenes
That ciphered sagely, common thence
To revel in their end, obscene.
So blasting on a boasted course
And reckoning the fair or foul
Life's haunting fates of loss
reverse
For remedy, the best avowed?
(14)
If they can, with triple band
Wed Bashan's bull to Shiloh's
mules;
Outrun a troop, alone withstand
Ten thousand thousands of the
cruel.
Still some who may, in bonds of faith
O'er leap entombing walls of
mind
And death undo, whose fallen state
The proof of love could yet resign.
Behold the mass-conniving guilds
Engrossed upon the public store
That plot against the widow's field
Once left as bastion to the poor
Who in their utter impudence
Of ruling pacts in bonds of state
Wrack upon the innocent
With lust of pride, insatiate.
They rape the Earth, gulp down the Sun
Turn native warmth to blasting cold
And glory in what pride has won-
A howling world, to privilege sold!
(15)
These boldly cruel and faithlessly
Indifferent to the common heirs
Contemn the pleadings of the weak
And grace, whose other's burden
bears.
Such favored cliques have scoffed the care
Corrupting in their status quo
To auction off the orphaned heirs
And vagrants of life's chatteled
fold.
Yet ever in the way they choose
Comes bounding from the nether part
Their lover's proof and world's
behoof
For healing remedies of heart.
Both great and small, it is the way
That all must go, advancing now
To sail upon the ageless plane
Where all in course shall prove
their own.
More fates descend upon the head
And helms that roil the factious
state
Than poison asps of slinking dread
That strike them, charmed and
unawake
(16)
While lions, stalking in the brush
Where they conceal their interests
Come lurching in a sudden rush
To wreck the wretched compromise.
Behold is spelled the ruin here
Of that which e're the poet sees
And restless, binds to peerless
fears
The plans of every proud conceit-
A roaring like the oceans' waves
In raging torrents of a loss
And retributive craft, displayed
For shame, on boundless wonders
tossed.
So may the seething tear roll down
And myriad, deconstructing ploys
Dance on the condescending frowns
Once cast upon true care denied.
Worse for sure and wretched more
For those whose rotten bars of
state
Played loose with truth, let slip
the store
Of wealth such care would mediate.
(17)
Now boon and bale upon the mean
Of happenings shall prove the part
And illustrate such worth conceived
Or faithless, quench the huntress'
dart.
A proof of fate in this resolved
With every bit of what we are
To demonstrate what love involves
Or failing, burn like falling
stars.
And whom the awful compass read
Not owning that of common birth
Which points to limit in the need
And contracts on the boundless
worth?
Those brave who, in the breaking hours
Shall wake upon the dawning light
And in the grasp of subtle powers
Reject consumption’s lusty
mite.
Then broached upon the sacred weal
Pours bards’ and sages’
broken bread
For men and gods, whose freedom
steals
To love, escaping from the dead.
(18)
Such noble trial the heroes bore
For all, with unremitting weights
And royal courage, smashed the
norms
Of tyranny and sanctioned fates.
Though fires of such faith have failed
The fool, aloof in vain concerns
They answer sacred will, installed
For truth, the burnished virtues
earned.
(19)
Ages in their veins, more raging,
whirl
As titanic potentials’
dreadful might
Turns girl to boy, conversely boy
to girl
Unlimbing reason for unreason's
fright.
That once gone right then deftly
ventures left
As self-conception staggers to its
doom
Bursting the bonds of day and
night, distressed
With desperate carping measures,
late and soon.
So blown on generation's awesome
curve
Of ageless heart and mind, how
shall they bear
The great abyss impending, madly
swerved
Into contesting congresses of care?
Devolving parts, dividing in the
same
The common wealth, no part the rest
sustains.
(20)
Boast of the times and guilded
privilege
Are the pretended guardians of
strength
Whose politics of power have sought
to bank
Their future 'gainst dissenting
arguments.
With rhetoric advancing their new
age
They come as reasoned wizards on
the brink
Of all disposing will, all ends
betrayed
To serve their allied interests'
nod and wink.
Auctioning the world, their goods
are sold
By education, pride’s
admissive rite
That sanctions lust, in quest of
pyrite gold
And pirate earnings, staked upon
deceit.
Hurrah, the modern liberality
So cunning it it's covert slavery!
(21)
Behold these master men and lords
of time...
From time brought forth, they are
the world's latest
Whose overweening strut is in the
best
Of culminating age, the mind
refined.
Now to and fro they go, their lists
increased
With every tally; line on line
computes
Their beads of enterprise, the
while deceased
Of tribulation, fate of hapless
dupes.
Learning is theirs, precepts are
theirs to bend;
Lawyers, scholars, politicians rest
Upon such pillar; they can split or
mend
The finest lines; no guile their
thoughts distress.
Step by step they round the
universe
And finite lies to infinite
converse!
(22)
Such pride of them that strains for
fleeting fame
Seeking to wrest from time the
wasting plaque
Of recognition, host to every hack
That postures on the stage of the
obscene.
Pretending worth, their practiced
words dispose
In mocking light the scripted
dignity
Though darkening intents; witless
disclosed
On lips and brow their
self-important glee.
As if full-wrought by truth's
heroic wing
Their thoughts aspire; on vain
conceits they soar
Up threw the mist while private
songs they sing
In self-made praise for deeds of
phantom lore.
From belfries of the schools, in
broken flight
They shriek away, hell's banshees
of the night!
(23)
These timely wise, entranced of
mind, decree-
Hear all you hapless what I must
disclose
Which art of my discernment is
repose
Of peace in understanding mastery.
A gift to all, these broad-invested
beings
Pretending to resolve profundities
Shall decoct by their learned
fluency
All tortured ways, and gnostic
knots untie.
Such flair for comedy, their gelded
self
Mounts every snorting bore of
certainty
Then armchair resting, pants to yet
indulge
Another whoring idol’s
reckless scheme.
Behold the stowaway on open seas
And polished sextant of academe!
(24)
Here is an estimation in the creeds
Of judgment and self-righteous
confidence
That proves for nothing to the
innocent
But swamps life's refugees with
vain conceit.
With ages it has built the edifice
Of dogma; every pit and lion’s
maw
Is it's contraption, set in
consciousness
Of the condemning letters of it's
law.
Cunning serpent, masquerading dove
It fashions argument, more vicious
wrought
With rationales to blacklist those
who strove
To flee it's institutions’
heinous plot.
Enamored with a fascist benefit
The systems of the world it
implements!
(25)
Fanatic soul, how bold it scorns
the fates
That meets to each the fruits of
impish will
Redoubled, which was spent in kind
so late
Upon our brothers, sisters, other
self.
It makes an estimation, rules the
span
Between men; lords over our equity
With zero tolerance and brazen hand
To smash upon consanguinity.
Such is the wicked
priesthood’s confidence
In its own judgment, ever owning
not
The way condemned in others, deep
dispensed
To every heart, from roots of life
begot.
More wretched this and haunted with
the same
Of hypocrites, bedeviled by their
shame!
(26)
O laws of learning, sum of
thinkers' best…
How magnified, ensconced upon the
power
Of social worth and boasted mental
dower;
Once ruled by you, the Earth pleads
for redress.
No scruple sought, no reservation
found
To staunch against your certifying
will
Which point of iron stylus now
furrows
The world as object for the kill.
So cart away your pleading victims,
mired
In sleazy wallows of concupiscence
And grace deny, self-dubbed the
doubtless squire-
Errant usurper of the human quest.
How dignified, the rake of your
ambition
That promises continual division!
(27)
All those who in their worldly
dight
Boast learned clans and knowing
dower
Come tremble at the poets' right
And fix your state as fit your
power.
No practiced rationales conceive
When forces on your seeming bend
Nor hasty estimates believe
With pride, attempting the ascent.
Such way all boasting souls have
sought
The compass of archaic strife
But struck upon the verge of
thought
To fall headlong through blinding
light.
So dazzled by the tempting flight
And swaggering with impish lore
They passed in sudden bounds the
night
And heedless through the fabric
tore.
Then wept the parent for the child
Whose compass must the zealot run
Respecting not what mercies mild
Could tend his way upon the sun.
(28)
Alas, is writ the history
Of every pride-indulgent plan
That bolts upon our destiny
And seizes with impious hand
The flashing reigns of deity.
Yet ever clear, those sage at first
Set boundaries upon such pride
To staunch against what bastard
birth
Could yet unleash on earth and sky:
Mix not with recklessness the word
In report of a vain conceit
But triple-bound the fire burns
Or poison from the vessel leaks...
Steady the concoction grows
While patiently allowed the day
Or roaring up, a tempest blows
To wreck the work well underway;
(29)
Not bold to estimate the worth
Or feigning wise, assert the day
Which strutting on, betrays a birth
To be the heir of cursed ways.
Yet prophets of the dawning age
Have tasted tidings full of fate;
So sweet at first, the telling page
Though in the end a bitter slake.
More knowing, writ upon the wall
Amidst the boasting victors’
friends
Who spoiled all else but can't
forestall
The dipping scale of amends.
So spoke the cryptic book of life
Before the many passed this way
And greedy, beckoned every strife
To wrack upon the ageless lays.
Or did it seem the sacred stones
That sages kept was for such use
As men could make and then disown
The consequences of abuse?
(30)
The world they bid, Escape
the maze
And weave the hero’s golden
fleece…
Catch the thread of lovers' faith
And marry the conflicted states!
Such taunting ploys of sapience
Will not untie the troubled knots
Nor shall the reasoned doctrinaires
Indemnify their pirate lots.
Neither shall allied abuse
Whose armies in the world array
Cower recompense, unloosed
As tigers, from the cage enraged.
Nor shall their factory of lies
Run off the plain our sacred heart
Of being, which does not rely
On teaching guilds or
sophists’ art.
New legislators overpass
Their systems, proving all along
What sages knew lay in the grasp
Of wisdom and her proving songs.
(31)
Such anthems would the angels sing
And ancient wonders now unfurl
Enduing on an eagle’s wing
The reclamation of the world-
A golden age from wisdom's wild
Which prophets, in their tears,
foreknew
And yearning, with poetic style
Spoke sacred harmonies of truth.
Now studied men, under the guise
Of knowing, dare rejoin the lots
That fell among the few and wise
Whom gods invoke but they forgot?
Do what they will, it never was
And merely seeming, comes to pass
In echo of the formal cause
While flung upon the void, aghast.
Still boasting not, truth's fit to
be
Lain in the cavern of the past
Which incubating, all may see
And so in seeing, own at last.
(32)
Alike, the mysteries at hand
In twain have lain upon the state
Of being Man and so withstand
The urgency of pending fates.
Thus everywhere, our furthest clue
Admitting to the marriage date-
Where two makes three, that third
is true
In one, a bitter aggregate.
And what of that, the two as one...
Resolves the elemental climb?
Where two the parents, then the
son-
Envoy of perfecting mind.
For such a progeny is stowed
A fourth whose form may ever be
Or being not, as fools have owned
Come rising from the boundless sea.
Still, from sounding depths unknown
This maiden of our nether shore
Comes about, as one betrothed
To ciphers of the healing lore.
(33)
No cunning vixen, who of late
Has preyed upon the absent ruth
She tends the soul and radiates
A heartfelt yearning for the truth.
Such understanding’s subtle
ploy
Of owning what cannot be spoke
More silent bearing, faith employs
To solve in heart what lovers hope.
Unraveling the knotted ways
Once wove upon a partial worth
We answer to a boundless sea
With spirit knowing and rebirth...
A sound of silence in the crush
Of doing where was spent our life
Speaks truth as out a burning bush
And peace upon the storming strife.
At last, our whole in final flight
By reigns, the airy course
conversed
Then clothes the self in forms of
light
Life's quintessential truth
rehearsed!
(34)
Best Charity of heart, let not the
towers
Of tyranny unseat the noble life
That lays before us; seen through
the strife
Your best gleams forth, and this we
would extol.
No wars of dark and light shall we
bemoan
Nor proud deny the factions of our
care
As all this folly we cannot but own
In every way, with heroes' faith to
bear.
There is no purity of gold untried
By hottest heat; once, twice, yes
seven times
All thoughts of good are purged of
staining lies
That cling as vain-conceit; this,
trials refine.
Then stoke the furnace of
experience
With fiery ordeal and fiercer ply
The avenues of self for that
pittance
Of worth that under Jupiter
descried.
What goal of unity your saints
pursue
Through worlds of strife in quest
of what is true!
(35)
Ships hurled upon raging storms are
we
Mystery tossed, the fools of
untamed seas
In lessons yet forlorn, the strong
waves beating.
Hard the struggle in this long,
dark night
Long the venturing for peace
through cruel despite
Groaning, at last, this trial to
overcome.
Such vast recess of peril and naked
doom
To bear, seeking the uplifting
beacon's bright light
Where life’s assuredness is as
the noon
Secured, enduring every worldly
strife.
Yet strange calms where onward once
a hope blew on
With sure contention; desperate
deeds spent
Doubt by doing, in trials a brief
respite.
Then struggle made us strong, on
solid foes
To flex determined thought where
turns the tide
Of loss, intent on worth heroic
will.
But now where is that trust and
surety
As stagnant set the winds and sails
droop down
In vain? All things grow bale
with seething doubts.
Better now seems the hour of raging
storms
When all of being convulsed and,
harder tried
Accustomed in the soul our likely
end
(36)
Which in the circumspection bids us
strive
For remedies against pride's
wrecking will.
Now here is life thrown back on
daunting doubts
As reeling pools descend, whereto
we drift
In weakness, weak against the
courseless air.
So here is madness of our lonely
pain-
Not able to find a sure way.
Aghast
The faithless way, in tested faith,
undone...
Such brooding thought of self that
must bestow
A blazing loss to life's strange
incubation!
What agony and languishing of fate
That winces at the blare of boasted
hours
We lurched on trials, the inward
battle cast
To and fro as, with crushing
contest fraught.
Oh may we tempt this end to
different ways
And sway what hour remains toward
true worth
Secured, held fast in grace.
Then would we glad
Return the heaving sea its fierce
combat
And silent best defend the failing
faith
Of hope; by deed, indeed, undo the
fates
And tortured agonies of conscious
thralldom
Where is lost all joy of life, a
captive fool to chance
(37)
Too backward glancing, like a
cornered beast.
What trial of battered hope and
utmost strain
That tends through loss to face the
awful pain
Of every life; a test of worthy
aims
Fit better to perfect the wayward
thought
Than all insistent law once sought
to fill
With worth more tangible! Yet
we may see
Our heart reflect truth’s
light assured in love
Not measured by the whims of
striving will
Nor held submissive to the glint of
time;
So shall we bring forth care, both
tried and true
To firmly fix the soul’s
expectancies
Upon that sacred liberty in
love’s remand;
Perhaps then better prove our way
when tried severe
Where heart's necessity masters
extremes
Of hope and loss that speaks
experience
And quaff the dregs of strife;
perhaps commune
With families unseen and tribes of
men
Forgot, by them forgot who vainly
claim
Their proof of worth by pride and
every way
Consumption in the ways of
selfishness.
(38)
Such petty means of outward show
and gain
Heaped, starry eyed, with fraud of
pride in self…
Corrupted and corrupting will that
feigns
The rites of men 'gainst loss; real
loss unknown
In those that count the outward
show of things!
But love, the heart of knowing,
evident
In those once proven true, accounts
no thing
As seen through vulgar veils,
times’ niceties.
Such pomp depraved is that, the
outward garb
With which failed faith relieves
the inward dross
In outward style, the false
romantic flair
That postures worth, though no good
intends
Save praise, to some their
world’s acclaim as seems
Where honesty of heart is naught to
glut
The appetites of I. But
firmly brave
The proven fast, laying down the
greedy strife
For consummating grace and unity.
Thought by thought, deed by deed
their love leads on
To lasting worth and peace, which
even death
With its dread severance shan't
separate
Once sympathetic souls have humbly
met.
(39)
More wondrous then to own this
strife of life
Which, in the balance, can resolve
all thoughts
And, by contrition, prove an
upright goad
Of mercy, yielding still an outward
balm
For inward wounds and, by that
salving oil
Of grace best remedy the complex
wrong.
What draught of life is here in
unity
Of pain, hope, faith, and love in
which is found
Our great humanity. Such
awful web
Of night and day to interweave the
heart
That, careful tending, yields a
sweet fragrance
Of liberty and peace to waft along
The soul’s communion; vibrant
as a rose
Its scent of grace, unfolding
evermore
The virtue of our magnanimity!
(40)
This work intends on
strife-revealing trials
To open up the way of sojourn
hearts
Which, too long groaning, they
contend the while
And fix not, pierced through with
searing darts
Of cruel despite. The back
and not the front
They would pursue and turn away the
thought
Which, rightly meek, could
otherwise wax blunt
The plaint of sorrow, though not
falsely wrought.
Such vale they pass, and must,
which set before
Is flood with tears, like all, for
grace remiss…
Unkindly given, faithfully now
born-
Both cheeks for smiting, doubly
felt love's kiss.
Forbearing calls of tempting wrath
uncouth
They still the soul with love and
love in truth.
(41)
Miners do not bemoan their lot or
odds
Toiling amidst the mountains for
the boon
Of rare and costly things, nor
curse the gods
That one is later rich, one richer
soon.
Attentiveness they hold who early
reap
The treasure that's around them
secret sown
While into every crevice careful
peek
To pluck what heedless others pass
unowned.
Life is not slack to proffer all
the glee
Of finding under foot their
stainless wealth
If but their waking heart might,
pious, see
The twinkling vision slipped the
soul in stealth.
Though fools to fortune's way too
tempted cling
A Memory conserves all worthy
things.
(42)
Behold the plowman's good who does
not know
To rend the fallow is a noble work
And sluggard helper who rose not to
sow
For early rains, and still the
labor shirks.
All seasons come upon a favored
time
Accounting naturally important ends
And turn together, pending as this
rhyme
To pass one into each toward that
they tend.
So lives the heart, all
dispositions moved
Proportionate to their respective
toil
And meet the trial of reasons,
thorough proved
To blend experience for richer
soil.
Such constancy lays hold upon the
tares
And garners truth in joy of harvest
tears.
(43)
The carpenters, with line and
cornered rule
Perfect their work, all purposes
befitting;
Discerning every plane, they make
it true
To need and art, nothing good
omitting.
Time, space, and material, they
well acquaint
To suit what in idea they have
known
And do not reckon aimlessly to
joint
The forms of care which discipline
bestows.
Determining at first, their soul
aspires
With upright means to prove a
steady norm
In outward style, contracting the
attire
To fit, more solid, ‘gainst
the pending storms.
All ends appraised, no castle in
the air
They raise integrity’s
undoubted lair.
(44)
The shifting winds of glancing
pride toss on
The ship of fools’ ambition
ere the port
Of youth is left, though life will
not disport
With careless confidence and vulgar
throngs.
Awake you sleepers, grab onto the
helm
Of discipline and keep a watchful
eye
For them false prophets' quackery
that o’er whelms
The use of reason; now, the trial
draws nigh.
Set ores to deeper waters, brave
the depths
Of judgment, yet retain a stern
relief
'gainst barking cynicism, which has
cleft
Many strong bow upon the
siren’s reef.
The hero braves our dark where
Dagon preys
And plucks the opal gem from
wisdom's lay.
(45)
Seeming and unseemly, like and
dislike
The teeter and the totter is such
play
Of mind and meaning, cause and
mirrored sight
Which founding can confound the
night with day.
Such child is parent to the man
while life
On loss is nourished; so a fusion
rules
The universe in verse, returning
strife
To compound allegory, deft endued.
Now what in words the wise of men
contend
Consistent with or contrawise
contrived
Thought veers centripetal as spirit
bends
Like Mercury, upon the
circumscribed.
So understanding, with a salty
might
Transforms the fixed, in point of
solving light.
(46)
A trial’s invocation always
lends
Two ways to go, some lonely
thoughts determined;
An other, proven days of grace
extends
And once encompassed, all sure hope
resounds.
What outward and destructive ways
are there
In boasted things and impish
aspirations
Now darkens careless souls to
proudly bear
The cruelty of vulgar estimations;
Though as an envoy of the light
there’s one
That demonstrates a human dignity
To all the world, illumined as the
Sun
In freedom of divine posterity.
Such paragon of peace must ever
live
In conquest of the other's death
and sin.
(47)
As donning faces on the shift of
things
Accommodation is the passing rite
That gives a semblance to the
newest things
Where right or wrong, as given's,
always nice.
What boasting won, in things of
present worth
Then quits for certain as both
night and day
Impose fierce gauntlets which,
ordained by birth
Initiates all to humanity.
Whether comes fair or foul, life
ever is
Between what was, perhaps that
which shall be
Where nothing good's received,
nothing given
Except that wrought upon integrity.
More prudent hearts, in
seeming-self discern
What loss to own, what gains to yet
forgo.
(48)
No longer bothered in the waking
hours
To vex the soul with thoughts of
proud reproof
They lighten every gloom with
kinder bowers
Of firm affections for shared
primal youth.
Life’s promises they keep,
which sooner turn
On admiration of a sincere care
That judges not but, ever ready,
learns-
What good or bad, by name, is
common shared.
So being one within a true respect
They will no more contend with
right or wrong
Nor weary dawning days with old
regrets
But offer thanks in sacrament of
song.
At last they love in truth
and constant live
By word of grace, their best of
care to give.
(49)
Confessing nothing rash to vainly
give
An estimation of life’s
awesome span
They overcome the world and
constant live
By faith, submitting as is fit to
stand.
Too soon, contesting banter comes
about
On winds of contradiction, outward
born
For inward wreck upon the teeth of
doubt
As partial ways from seeming-self
are shorn.
But owning what is due in right
respect
Of station that sets men among the
stars
So darkly, comes a night to
recollect
Those cares that found and follies
each discharged.
Without more striving then, their
way bestows
A humble truth, in love more
plainly known.
(50)
Now comes the proof upon
transcending will
To study every thought and
whispered care
In what is sought and how may grace
distill
The phantom soul; from private ways
to bear
All things of good and evil in
compound
As strange concoctions are at first
the mead
Of sojourn ways, the ancient roots
to bound
With vital links of continuity.
No star of vacant hope to glimpse
at first
Where subtle intimations strike the
mind
For sacred unction, urging on a
birth
Through shadowed veils of self and
misty kinds.
Once found in each, born by
integrity
They compass perfect care to open
up
The fount of golden youth while
Manhood’s key
Unlocks the treasures of salvific
sup.
Such ripened grace of knowing,
rightly heard
Stores up the nations, garnering
the world.
(51)
O vision in the heart of Man, more
true
To magnify the deed and, pure as
gold
Prove equity of faith in each that
holds
As dung all things which strife and
pride once lured.
Allied and filling up the high
measure
Of righteousness, with precepts
born of love
Now rectify our will, drawing
treasures
From Pluto's misty shrine and dank
abode.
Steadfast, O raise these lamps and
truth reflect
In awesome wonders of life’s
unity
While nothing of our tears let us
regret
Nor grant a loss to love's great
sanctity.
Great mystery, though measured in
the known
It rises, all in each and each in
all!
(52)
Who knows what by the sacred sight
is plied
For proofs more sturdy, sought upon
the word
To shape the justice of our dawning
days
And lift to yet new life the
palling world?
More subtle than the silent creep
of time
It slips on by, like shadows of a
dream
To pierce beneath the hustle and
the grind
Of souls, too careless snared by
cruel disdain.
Not here or there in sweetened
sympathy
Nor couched in dainty flirting of
the mind
Comes forms of light and golden
verity
Clothed in itself, itself a world
sublime.
Substance of being, hope without a
fear
The proven faith, indemnified with
tears.
(53)
Ten thousand times ten thousand
worlds employed
The weight and number, light and
vast devoid
Before this careful seat could
faith enjoin
As heaven’s solar dame to the
sublime.
Compressed within its bowels, this
work's distress
From many tears of trial brings
forth one stone
Which rare carbunculus the sage
invest
With value, their beloved to adorn.
But this and all true wonders have
not shown
What men and women may, in time,
bequeath
As one fleet breath of aurum
spirit, born
To comprehend and compliment the
rest.
Such pains of birth have justified
the odds
In corresponding Man, revealing
God!
(54)
The intimations of our golden youth
Are whispering the dreams of
Manhood-
Shadowed ways of speechless meaning
Which in kind with ambient stars
Quarterly describe, in sudden play
The chiming of a universal soul
Whose consort is a universal heart
In man or woman, ever yielding
scales
From pole to pole, the hermeneutic
art.
Sweet songs of knowing, harmonies
in time
Resolved, upwelling, urging on the
climb
Of sacred being, born to
unify…
Conceived of ash, from ash to
mount the skies
On wings supernal, loft on fiery
reigns
To ring the victor’s anthem
and the aims
Of truth and love for life’s
enduring worth!
(55)
O fair noblesse and sweet repose
Of sacred song, always we hold you
dear
In trials of election and
sojourning.
Your constant grace, deep from
within, unfolds
To free the captive thought and
lonely fears
Of desperate nights and homesick
yearning.
At last in you we find the
kindliness
Of heart, whose honored worth is
bright as gold
To phantom souls and this, more
darkened, world.
Your equipage and host of
tenderness
Wrought pure intent, more bright
than has been told
Of truth by men, the best of mind
unfurled!
Let none forget, in you we find our
rest
From whom we’re born, to whom
we must return
Our hope of innocence, in us the
best
Of love, whose lamp must ever
inward burn.
(56)
Mystery of love that sends
In timeless whisper, on the mend
Of heart and mind, eternal tides
Of being; faith unto sacred faith
Raising up the ancient gates
Where mercy ever abides.
Patiently our silvered dove
Has preened the pinions of our love
Recouping every bit of life’s
content.
Alack, whose awful beauty
drapes the sea
And broods the dark on holy wings
of peace
A train of captives, flown to pure
intent!
(57)
Now working yet upon the day
Though battered in the idols’
fray
We overcome the world and show
forth
The proven heart, all vagrant will
disposed;
Not trusting in those shadowy ways
But piercing what, upon the naked
eye
Has haunted love, too dimly beheld.
While alone the thought matured
No social pacts allied the tortured
doubts
But rose upon the gate beautiful
Acceptance and supplication
Our universal worth, more brightly
lit.
(58)
In recess of the world I'd rather
be
Than in the courts of kings a
foolish thrall
To vain ambitions or moneyed
servitude!
Free to live with honest
contemplation
Though poor for that accounting
among men
I'd scan the awesome work above,
bright heavens
Fixed and revolving orbs set in
their glory-
Arrayed expanse and fierce
infinitude.
Mystic's mirror, image of the heart
Breathing the life and endless age
Of generation, countless among men!
Heigh now upon the hearth, sweet
influence
Kind ways of sojourn fate and drain
the dregs
Inveterate with truth to staunch
this self
For all restoring hopes, more than
can hold
And saturate life, now boundless
poured
With countless kin. So would we
reap
The writ which sages let pour down
In proof that worthy souls ever
live
Each one in each, that none may
ever die
But as the heavens, continue on
With cups profuse, upon each other
poured
Though for countless years our
fixed orbs expired.
(59)
Together then we show the godliness
Which, for integrity, cannot waver
Or be shook off the sphere of
unity-
Each found in each by semblance's
sublime
Supernal, resplendent, on wings of
grace
Traversing life in our most noble
fame
Of continuity, owning the law
And seal by which we’re sealed
in stamp of God.
May never any thought contend to
strive
For other worth, true worth best
justified
By what transcends the part, no bit
denied
Of universal good in common chords
Which year to year, age to age,
proves the same;
But speak of hope, which, lodestone
of the wise
Can hold steadfast the will in
sympathy
With lives of men, though by death
over-shroud…
The equity of heart in constancy
That frees the soul to broad
consideration
And looses all dogmatic claims of
power
With salty understanding.
Here mercy sits
As guard over the heart to weigh
all thoughts
Which cynic souls may, ruthless,
barking forth
(60)
Condemn, and in it wreck the latent
good…
So cruel is spite and worthless is
the theme
Of selfish ways and proud
experience.
Such wretched pride would ever
delegate
Our worth, and delegating block the
way
For peace, resigning each as slaves
to chance
Cut off from cares that keep the
hearth of life.
But equity must own the ways of
each
Lest vain assuredness be hasty
weighed
Unequal worth, to sanctioned
cliques imputed.
Thus preferences must tip the scale
for war
And Mars cut short in wrath our
ancient climb.
Worthless thought, dastard
ignobility
That lifts a law’s conception
over others-
Our brothers, sisters, friends,
remaining self
Which met could bring to whole our
fractured lives!
But let one live in each and each
in all
Then would we raise the torch of
unity
And, with respectful patience,
comprehend
The fateful chords that make for
this sojourn.
Once found in each, each
other’s best admired
The heart would grow in love’s
sweet communion
(61)
And mercy, our best fruit, would
rise to fill
The yearning soul, each
other’s burdens eased
Which sensed in loneliness, the
wastes of pain
Is guided home at last with
kindliness.
Doubtless, none is proven without
love
Which, ever faithful, seeks to
mitigate
The toil of one so snared with
wretched fates
That desperately they fall from out
the light
Unwitting to be pierced with
seething pain
Of spite, the bitter herb of
discontent.
Then pride and blame forsake
love’s law which spoke-
Love others as you love yourself
For all men, as is common to be
known
Seek first their private fare and,
if well done
Perchance may cast a glance to
other’s need.
Of all work here, such as may be
done
None’s more worthy of praise
as this one is
Who sets aside the cruelty that
demands
A brutal blow, more blows returned
in measure
Of recompense, but seeks still to
reconcile
The complex wrong, by men
construed; takes two
(62)
For what is called offense, yet not
one care
To be avenged, only that innocence
Might soon return.
Love’s loss of part is bane.
Should yet be lost this simple care
of grace
Where equity of heart yields every
hope
In ransom of the wronged from natal
care…
Then quake, comes marshal strife
and astral war!
Such vengeance must abide the
reckoned thoughts
That urge despite and beastly
remonstrance
As howling down of night, with fury
spent.
But throwing off conceit, the heart
may live
No more self-proud in cruel
estimations
But fix in soul the welfare of our
whole
And demonstrate that consanguinity
Whose fruit so freely from one root
is trained
To generosity, no justice won
By privilege or the pacts of
honored caste…
Then owning every potent jot for
good
The heart sure holds, no respect at
all
For cliques of interest preference
justified
Our state may prove its best, more
true below
With perfect sympathy, once born
for all
(63)
Except those proud hypocrites who
style themselves
Elect of God, which frowning knaves
of Saturn’s law
Throw shadowed ranks and darken
every day
With judgment. Alas, the
scrolling sight that sought
No condemnation,
‘clean/unclean’, but in love
Shown bright with mercy, ever fit
for all
Confirming peace at last, all ends
conjoined!
(64)
Though in the public place arrives
A winnowing on wisdom’s wind
And threshers haste to finalize
The harvest of its sifting breath
Yet orphans cry and widows plead
Their plight before the sacred site
Where seers peer upon the hearth
Of ages, garnering their end!
Durandus von
Meissen-
Author and Architect of BeingQuest