- Conrad Aiken |Morning Song From "Senlin"
- St. Teresa of Avila | THE SERVANT OF UNITY
- David Whyte | Easter Blessing
- Rabindranath Tagore | Fireflies
- Mathnawi VI: 3172-78, 83
- David Karchere | The Other Side of the World
- David Karchere | The Joy of Creation
- David Karchere | My Love Is Long
- Rumi | “Where Everything is Music”
- Rabindranath Tagore | Aaji Hote Shata Barsha Pare, from Chitra, translated by Fakrul Alam
- D.H. Lawrence | Song of a Man Who Has Come Through
- David Karchere | Into the Forest
- David Karcher | Waterfall
- David Karchere | Lifting the Long, Black Veil
- Hafiz | Looking for Trouble
- Hafiz | “Who Wrote All the Music?”
- Lao Tzu | Jane English translation of Tao Te Ching, Chapter Eight
- David Karchere | On the Tide
- David Karchere | Osprey
- David Karchere | His Footsteps
- Rum | “Say I Am You”
- D.H. Lawrence | Song of a Man Who Has Come Through
- David Karchere | The Holy Ghost Enters
- David Karchere | We Will Open
- David Karchere | Look, It’s Raining!
- Lao Tzu, Eight | Jane English translation of Tao Te Ching
- Conrad Aiken | Morning Song From "Senlin"
- David Karchere | Your Presence
- David Karchere | Upon Your Holy Mountain
- David Karchere | Love in All Its Glory
- Hafiz | I Have Learned So Much
"Vine-leaves tap at the window, Dew-drops sing to the garden stones, The robin chirps in the chinaberry tree Repeating three clear tones."
- Conrad Aiken |Morning Song From "Senlin"
It is morning, Senlin says, and in the morning
When the light drips through the shutters like the dew,
I arise, I face the sunrise,
And do the things my fathers learned to do.
Stars in the purple dusk above the rooftops
Pale in a saffron mist and seem to die,
And I myself on swiftly tilting planet
Stand before a glass and tie my tie.
Vine-leaves tap my window,
Dew-drops sing to the garden stones,
The robin chirps in the chinaberry tree
Repeating three clear tones.
It is morning. I stand by the mirror
And tie my tie once more.
While waves far off in a pale rose twilight
Crash on a white sand shore.
I stand by a mirror and comb my hair:
How small and white my face!—
The green earth tilts through a sphere of air
And bathes in a flame of space.
There are houses hanging above the stars
And stars hung under a sea…
And a sun far off in a shell of silence
Dapples my walls for me….
It is morning, Senlin says, and in the morning
Should I not pause in the light to remember God?
Upright and firm I stand on a star unstable,
He is immense and lonely as a cloud.
I will dedicate this moment before my mirror
To him alone, for him I will comb my hair.
Accept these humble offerings, clouds of silence!
I will think of you as I descend the stair.
Vine-leaves tap my window,
The snail-track shines on the stones;
Dew-drops flash from the chinaberry tree
Repeating two clear tones.
It is morning, I awake from a bed of silence,
Shining I rise from the starless waters of sleep.
The walls are about me still as in the evening,
I am the same, and the same name still I keep.
The earth revolves with me, yet makes no motion,
The stars pale silently in a coral sky.
In a whistling void I stand before my mirror,
Unconcerned, and tie my tie.
There are horses neighing on far-off hills
Tossing their long white manes,
And mountains flash in the rose-white dusk,
Their shoulders black with rains….
It is morning, I stand by the mirror
And surprise my soul once more;
The blue air rushes above my ceiling,
There are suns beneath my floor….
…It is morning, Senlin says, I ascend from darkness
And depart on the winds of space for I know not where;
My watch is wound, a key is in my pocket,
And the sky is darkened as I descend the stair.
There are shadows across the windows, clouds in heaven,
And a god among the stars; and I will go
Thinking of him as I might think of daybreak
And humming a tune I know….
Vine-leaves tap at the window,
Dew-drops sing to the garden stones,
The robin chirps in the chinaberry tree
Repeating three clear tones.
- Conrad Aiken |Morning Song From "Senlin"
RISE