Inner Visions

Upon a time not so long ago I saw these things, and locked them away, As treasures in memory's secret stores: A sunrise of Apocalyptic brilliance, Clouds of opal strewn Above a sapphire sea. The white ruins of an ancient city, Once home to a great people, Now settled to silence, the only footprints in its dust my own. And just behind these things I felt another something Immense, unnamable That lies beneath our normal perceiving Like water below thin ice. The awareness of this prescence Felt only in the fragile moments When images too beautiful for words or speech Burn their way to the depth of our souls Has given me a sound I sometimes hear in rare times Of perfect stillness: A clear bell that sounds a tone unmade by any instrument, A sound that stills the frantic revolutions of my reasonings And brings to me the pure light That fills the mind of a child. In fleeting impressions Falling past the tempest of experiences Through the cycles that so often grey our lives, I sense the other side of the world, The part that lies forever in the In-Between, The calm and steady eye in the center of the cyclonic round Of creation and dissolution; the drive-train of the Universe, The unmoving hub of the Infinite Wheel. Sometimes I feel this other place, both faraway And nearer than my latest exhalation, Playing counterpoint to my heartbeat, firm beyond all confusion, An isle of strength that sits solid without substance, A haven in the surging sea of doubt. I touch it with my mind, sometimes, in flashing moments And this is enough - enough to bring some peace Between my warring emotions, enough to steady my hands As I guide my life towards its uncertain end. I suppose it is enough to have this gossamer understanding, Some insight without the whole story. It is enough to make me shoulder my pack, And soldier on.