Beneath The Cloisters

Today I saw a sight
More exquisite than Man-hattan,
A gift of time
And place
And quiet
And God:

There were four bands of Nature
Set before me in dual dimension,
Distinct in depth
Yet same in stratification:

A coarse and weathered stone wall
Not twenty feet away;

A scarified river face,
Changing texture for current and breeze;

A mantle of tree-covered cliffs
Thick in fall plumage;

And crowning all these,
The sky
In soft hazy blue
Stretched wide in swaths
Of cream-spread clouds.

Four horizons
Met in the moment,
Created a layered quartet
Of balance and peace,
One organic architecture
That only I did see.

Science of Soul

Amidst the realms
of mortal soul,
betwixt the helms
of lust and goal,

Burns bright a flame,
unquench'd, undimm'd:
an essence tame,
of purity limn'd.

And e'en the least
of mankind made,
after the beast
or lost and stray'd,

May feel the flame,
in sating sign,
of Him whose name
doth fore'er shine.

For by burn'd breast,
in witness giv'n,
the mind is blest
of God in heav'n,

To know and see
with untrain'd eye,
the breadth of science,
the width of why.

. . . .

scientiaspirituanimo

Tonight Your Face

Tonight your face
looking at mine
like a glimpse of moonlight
shone through the trees
of my hardened soul;

And by your grace
in nick of time,
though fears posed to affright,
pure love did cease
painful years of dole;

So shall your place
once crossed the line
giv’n last of mortal might
with God increase,
our eternal goal.

… amor vincit omnia …