Hopes

Everything changes
and the truth turns away
to protect those little dreams
from the touch of the world
To let them be
as there are meant to be
at peace, complete
in silence
For them to exist
as all of them have,
in the hold of the universe
rotating, revolving
still,
like the stars,
dancing, spinning
turning
laughing
playing,
each in her own place,
in the universe.
Here we are.
Priyanka
26th March 2009

Mantra

Bless those eyes
Bless that heart
Bless the breathing
Bless the art
Cover those eyes
Cover that heart
Open the breathing
Soften the art.
Stop the coughing
Stop the cheering
Stop the choking
Start the breathing
Soften the stone
It can’t stop seething
with utter cold hardness
with snake-cold kneading
Temper the leather
Temper the wood
Temper the air
which comes in as my food
Remove the bitter
destructive question
Remove the lying
betraying digestion
of how things are.
Beyond the mind
past the inverted
colored reflection
Past the lens
Past the protection
The truth of nature
free of dissection
Let her breathing
come in through the waves
and the shuddering shivering
wind in the trees.
Stop the cold
Stop the machine
Stop the harsh voice
Its only a dream
Let there be sunlight
Let there be motion
Let there be breathing
Through all my devotion
Let there be truth
Let there be freedom
Let there be peace
Like a summer’s hot ocean
With burning gold waves
and the vaporous air
rising softly
to the blistering sun
casting reflections
casting illusions
forgetting reasons
untying nooses.
Living and dying
right under the sea
Carry me to lightness
O let me be free.

Question

I see your words
and see they are true
but for you.
Question now,
question everything,
question the names
you seem to have given.
For as I never knew
You must again not know
As the elements twist,
We must let go,
lest an Unconditioning
become a Reconditioning

In words I play,
a game I don't know,
and in silence I watch
paintings of my life
projected from the eyes
of people I know.
They don't matter,
any more
than raindrops in the leaves.

Looking forward
to the next story,
leaves your eyes unfocused
At a twisted dimension of space and time,
far away, as a dream
is our vision of the future;
Yet those dreams are not
events of the future,
only happening
in the now.

Looking back
Is seeing the fallen leaves
Of a newly blooming tree,
Is the watching of a film
That is playing in the back of our minds
Our only true hint of the way
Of the present, and what is to come.
And yet, is gone.

P.L.Rao
20th April 2009

Universe

O Yesu
the breathing
in and out
of the layers of atmosphere
the heat the dust,
the cold the damp,
the green the red,
Through our bodies
as if we are a part
of it all
And to know, somehow
that we are.
The vastness of every thought
of every image,
every movement
every sound
flows so swiftly past,
That is barely has time
to leave an echo
behind.
And the pounding of my heart
racing in the beauty,
So many gifts
You have set upon me,
the images cast forth
like the rising Sun
for all to see.
And how much I want
to be the drum
upon which are beat
those eternal rhythms of celestial madness
and fire.
To fly on the waves
of that glorious sea.
To give these images
to the ravaged store
of ink and paper,
Lying in the vast open arms
of age old History. .
O if only you could let me be
a carrier of this legacy,
to walk upon the garden lanes
and trim and water
the growing trees,
which grow so big
and wise and old
whole and complete
and free
and happy.

P.l. Rao
10th April 09

To Get Beyond

You don't have to give.
It will get taken from you
The amount that is gone
will always remain
in the air, like the fog
of a dried up ocean
So breathe
breathe it in,
breathe again, and let it go
to a faraway place
just around the bend
which is waiting
without waiting
for you.

P.L.Rao
15th January 2009

Human

Light! It falls on me
It covers me in truth
But I block it with my hand
And think I cannot see.

I sit on heaven’s lawn
with flowers in my hand
I want to smell the scent of grace
But my sense of smell is gone.
жא☼Ж☼אж
-P.L.Rao
13th April 2006