Poems of Narad

Journey Just Begun

11/17/03

O you prophets of the elemental worlds
Can you hear me as I praise the earthly gifts?
Where flowers bloom unseen a thousand years
I go in dream above the sleeping steppes.
I have walked the ancient glaciers of the north,
Seen purities of blue no lens could hold
And stood before volcanoes belching fire
On a burning rim outlasting human time.
And all these journeyings were home to me.

I have gone below the surface of the sea
And wonders found, a living kaleidoscope
Of colours and designs some deity
In a moment's inspiration by his touch
Ordained and as the coral bloomed and grew
I swam among the rays most joyously.
Descending in the depths of earth's cave-heart
I heard the music of the stalagmites
And all these journeyings were home to me.

I have stood in the Himalaya's frigid air
And looked above at gleaming Everest,
Soared in skies beyond the eagle's view
Where diamond cities faceted the night.
I bathed in the freezing Ganges purified
In Rishikesh on the banks of her rushing streams.
I have known mountains purple in the noon
And seen the bison thunder on the plains.
And all these journeyings were home to me.

I have walked in forests where the darkness spoke
And watched the fearsome panthers in their play,
Saw the sun a living ember rise
From ocean depths to sink in the unknown
And seen the deserts flower in the spring,
A pageant march across the burning sands
And walked alone on grey and distant shores
Where massive rollers crashed in the bleak morn.
And all these journeyings were home to me.

I have knelt in gardens fragrant with the dew
And wandered lost in deep and darkening woods,
Communed with bird and beast and tree and flower
And foundered in the surge of unkind seas.
I have heard the haunting music of the spheres
And sailed on emerald seas to distant shores,
Watched the play of Nature in her moods
Of calm benevolence and wantonness.
And all these journeyings were home to me.

On a morn of God in a far eastern land
I met a golden lady by the sea.
Her touch unveiled the far transcendences
And the million pathways of infinity.
A host of welcoming voices called to me
Who came in answer to their spirit's need,
Some to build a city known in dreams
A few to realize their destiny.
I have come home, my journey just begun.