Night Poem

At night clouds drift by
In swirling moments,
Starless shadows
Against our pin-holed sky.

Before us
The wood burns;
Sparks and ash,
They fly on the winged wind and
Fill the dark dome.

Above our heads
The stars now spin their circles
Like doubts do
Around an idea.

Or may we say,
Each star’s a grain
Catching our light,
Like a speck,
Caught in our eye?
(Or if we write it:
Like that dot in our i?)

Meaningless movements,
Like a stick splits the sand,
Like worlds fall into their ellipses
Returning
Again and again…
Back to a pointless period.

Beneath us
The waters flow;
Mud and sand,
They fly on moonless tides and
Fill the vast sea.

Just the thinnest of lines
Between two oceans
Like the breath between two lovers,
That horizon lying,
Like the spine of an open book.

Nothing to sea.

The cold wraps around us
And we gasp
As if drowning in air
Yet longing for a skyward plunge.

Listen to the longing.
Find your mind there.

(The tongue will wag
Like the Great Dog’s tail
At Orion’s feet—but no matter.)

Listen to the longing.
And follow that thinnest of lines,
And glide along your Beloved’s breath.
And find the Source of the sound you hear.

For within us
Our Soul sings;
Hope and fear,
They fly on a child's dreams and
Fill the mind of God.

-Swam Ambikananda Saraswati