HOCUS-POCUS

      The dawn is growing lighter as I sit      
      Waiting for the Spirit to enthuse       
      My torpid mind with something meet and fit      
      For verse—my invocation to the Muse. 
      Soon syllables and sounds begin to flow,     
      A line of thought takes shape across the page,       
      Then ending with a resonance I know       
      Must echo down below at the next stage. 
      Sometimes, as now, I simply marvel at       
      The mystery of this process I invoke       
      That turns my mind into an acrobat       
      Or a magician pulling from his cloak
          Exactly the right word to end a line 
          That makes you think I followed a design.

*

THE VERSECRAFTER

    He came to understand he had a gift,
    Though not for narrative and not for song;
    His readiness to turn a verse was swift,
    His sonnet done before the hour’s gong.

    It said its say more than it sang,
    Discoursing and explaining as it went,
    Midway between a whimper and a bang,
    Clever at times, but never heaven sent.

    At best a rumination versified,
    His fourteen lines displayed an agile mind,
    And yet no sonnet destined to abide
    Emerged: the Muse and he were not allied.

         This then must be his mournful epitaph:
         “He aimed for praise; at best he got a laugh.”

*

COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS

 It cannot be throughout our galaxy,
 Much less in all the Cosmos we can see,
 That we on Earth are all that is of life,
 Which surely through infinity is rife.
 Though yet we see no evidence to claim
 That elsewhere the conditions are the same
 And likewise life has happened to arise
 That’s just like ours, or in some other guise,
 The odds ordain it surely must be so:
 Life is no accident, and we should know
 We’re here to grow in cosmic consciousness,
 Aware that with such knowledge our success
 Will be secure because we understand
 That Mind by which the whole shebang was planned.

*

  TRANSCENDENCE

for Andrew Cohen and Ken Wilber

    Though sitting in a meditative pose
    While uttering your mantra may disclose
    Some wonders of the transcendental kind
    And nudge you toward a more enlightened mind,
    Making you feel more sapient and whole,
    Enlightenment in action is your goal.

    It’s not enough to feel profound and sage
    When there are worldly perils to engage.
    When those in power rule in the dark,
    Your mission then is to transmit the spark
    That now illumines you and bring to light
    An elevated vision of what’s right.

         If our aberrant species can reform,
         The transcendental way must be the norm.

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SEEKERS

What then does every human being need
To be complete and satisfied in life,
For unlike beasts who simply sleep and feed
And live contented with avoiding strife,

We sapiens are prompted to aspire
As quenchless curiosity compels
Us to seek goals and summits ever higher,
A lust that no adventure finally quells.

Perhaps it’s only death that ends one’s quest,
Though wondering to the last what lies beyond,
And maybe then each soul is finally blessed
And rescued from the slough once named Despond.

     Yet till that final moment we shall seek—
     Still mounting toward some cloud-enveloped peak.

*

MIND MATTERS

        That out of chaos order comes is wrong—
        As if a hurricane might sing a song,
        Or if in a tornado’s furious path
        Up sprang a house of mortar, brick and lath.

        Mere randomness and accident can’t make
        A cube of ice or even a snowflake
        Without some laws of nature implicate
        That fashion their components meet and fit.

        Just so it is this poem takes its form
        Because within the elements that storm
        About within the poet’s beating brain
        Is something formative that shapes a train
        Of thought by which the poem is designed:
        Implicit in all matter there lies mind.

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WHAT IS WISDOM?

  Whatever wisdom is, it’s what we need
  To lead us past the selfishness and greed
  Long chronicled in human history,
  The cause of universal misery.
  
  Whatever wisdom is—the opposite
  Of folly and a brain that’s dimly lit—
  Enlightenment and insight that reveals
  What egocentric ignorance conceals—

  Such wisdom is the aim of history’s quest,
  The end toward which the Cosmos has progressed,
  The guide of cosmic evolution’s course,
  The plan devised by some mysterious Source.
  
       Our task is then to fully realize,
       To comprehend and implement what’s wise.

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