When the light of your eyes shall make pallid the mean lesser lights I pursue , And the charm of your presence shall lure me from love of the gay “thirteen two.” - Kipling.More or less in unison and more or less in tune the congregation sang,“Except the Lord build the house; their labour is but lost that build it. Except the Lord keep the city; the watchman waketh but in vain. It is but lost labour that ye rise up early,...

Like a cobra which has cast its coils spiralling conch-like three times… the enchantress of the world, slender as a lotus stem, bright as a lightning flash, lies sleeping, breathing softly in and out, murmuring poems in sweet metres, humming like a drunken bee in the petals of the lotus, how brightly her light shines. - From the Sarchakra-nirupanaAdeline had retired from lunch as soon as she had eaten, making excuses that...

  Be still O rolling waves and hear The happy telling of my love, And you frail craft that homeward steer, Let go the driving winds above! Now all you brethren of the sea, Stay a while and follow me For what I tell is true and wise, It cleaves even stone asunder! Love is the light that tints the skies, Truth is love’s glorious thunder. And though the deluge rises high, It cannot drown a lover’s heart. Now to my love I swi...

III. Will you conquer my heart with your beauty, my soul going out from afar? Shall I fall to your hand as a victim of crafty and cautious shikar? - Kipling“Of course we never really have time to get away you know, Colonel Peck and I. He is ever so frightfully busy especially at this time of the year. What with government business in its usual state, all we can do is look forward to the occasional regimental or viceregal...

II. There was a door to which I found no key: There was a veil past which I could not see: Some little talk awhile of me and thee There seemed and then no more of thee and me.  - Omar KhayyamTwo days later Mackay wound his way slowly through the same narrow street; glancing around from time to time and occasionally pausing to look behind. As he did so he cursed under his breath in a vain attempt to calm himself. He wonder...

I. As I gazed....her countenance changed with her mind As she plann’d how to thrall me with beauty, and bind My soul to her charms, and her long tresses play’d From shade into shine and from shine into shade, Like a day in mid autumn, first fair, o how fair! With long snaky locks of the adder – black hair That clung round her neck……………  - Thomas Hood.  “Father, father, father, quickly, there’s an English officer at the do...

Fair Rose of all seasons; Long enamored of you, The sun searches the daytime Then searches anew, Vainly hoping to snare you In his gossamer light. The stars in their towers All relish the sight Of your dark eyes gleaming And the glint of your smile. Forsaking the heavens, They sail for a while Close to a heart - all knowing, Close to a soul of flame, As the breezes caress you And the seas speak your name. But who knows yo...

. Motionlessly, the spider waited. As always, she was patient and vigilant, but her outward serenity belied an inner tension, the instinctive tension of the watcher, the hunter. If her mind could have conceived of time in human terms, it may have told her that the time was four in the morning. As it was, the spider knew that the prevailing darkness indicated that it was not yet time for her to retire and rest. So she wait...

In a chamber suffused with emotion By the light of innumerable dawns, In a house betwixt forests and ocean, Where the briar rose bristles with thorns; There hangs her portrait in splendour, In mystic silence, forsaken, unknown, In lines both violent and tender And colours of thunderous tone. Her eyes bespeak wisdom and knowing, Her face; enigmatic and ever serene With tresses luxuriant, flowing To realms of delight yet un...

Over the years I have paid homage to Japan in many of my poems but the following piece from 1995, seems particularly significant to me now in light of recent tragic events. It is based on an old Japanese folk tale about the Rashomon Gate in Kyoto. The city slumbers ill at ease As winds assail the maple trees, The kiri and the mountain pine. The shrouded moon so dimly shines Upon the houses as they keep The people safe in...

I O unceasing rain! You fill me with foreboding, As I lie awake All through the haunted hours That precede the golden dawn.II On the warm beach sand A spider’s trail meanders, A lone hunter’s path, Obscured by the summer breeze, Lost amidst the sighing dunes.III Pale chrysanthemum, Heavy with the autumn dew, For whom do you mourn? Will not the sun embrace you Come the promised break of dawn?IV A fallen willow Covered by t...

Introduction. One of my favourite places here in my home town of Adelaide is the South Australian Museum and one of the museum’s most interesting rooms is the Ancient Egypt gallery, a room that I have visited countless times, I can tell you. One of the most beautiful and valuable of the museum’s possessions is the coffin and mummy of a woman called Renpit Nefert. She was bought by the museum in the 1890’s and judging from...

  Weary the soul who for love searches Along the highways of the night. Pity the bird that strays and perches Among the crags devoid of light. Each night they wait for tranquil moments Beneath the stars who watch and know And when the winds relent and scatter I know not where it is they go. But always the winds renew their torments Upon the living and the dead; Howling, they rage, they claw and plunder Lost souls and fled...

I Morose and unkind, Unfeeling, unheeding, blind; The winds laugh and moan, Unknowing, unknown.II Hundreds of seashells, Some gathered from distant shores, Each one a treasure, A memento of the time I spent arm in arm with you.III A brown butterfly Rests itself upon my sleeve. For but a moment Two beings sit together As one, at peace with the world.IV In the heat of noon The mountains sleep silently, Fragrant and serene,B...

Part 2 picks up the story directly ehere Part 1 ended.Afternoon came and with it a gentle breeze. As they drove, the cloudless sky looked to Josef bluer than he could ever remember seeing it. As their Daimler passed by, the trees that lined the roadway seemed almost to bow to them, each offering its shade and inviting them to stop. The rolling hills too seemed somehow more welcoming while the blooms grew in greater profus...