Dream Vision

The Four Seasons-Artist Unknown-circa 15th Century

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Straying from the centre and its concentric streets
I wandered without purpose through woods and near precipices
With the sun scorching at the nape of my neck
Shoulders aching from the straps arching inwards
Into the skin so tender and too sensitive
Longing for a symbol looking for a sign
Of a new determination forged by a force of destiny
That would reveal to my shuttered senses a revelation
Of a harmonious strength sensuous and holy
To repair and make whole this riven world.

Exhausted by my exertions I searched for a spot
Where I could rest for a while from the rapid changes
Beneath the ground and up above always generating
Growing only to gradually decay before dying
The heat was intense so I lay down on the shady side of the hill
Closed my eyes and slowly drifted through clouds and islands
Past fields of lilies and ponds of lotuses
Valleys where all the birds of the air alighted vaingloriously
To be granted a vision of valour and grace
In a endless pasture of flowering ethereal peonies

With the clear bright gaze of the celestial bound
She surveyed all around and subdued with a glance
Beckoning the beast with a wave of her arm he approached
Slowly the Lion stretched arching its back before lying down
Prostrating its Majesty before the greater power of Her Majesty
Hers was an imperious strength that neither strove or imposed
A will reconciled with the way of the revolving spheres
Of the Empyrean above eternal and absolute
Soft and dark, serpentine and divine
Dream vision of a vaster dimension

Dream Sublime

Bartolomeu Velho-Figure of the Heavenly Bodies-1568

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The stars above, the void below only inclines
So tell me what is the force that compels
Enduring love, boundless desire, the dream sublime

Of the unmoving still point, bisected lines
The circumference of a circle that swells
To the stars above, the void below that inclines

Our too human nature toward the divine
Seeking with the uncertain aid of garbled spells
Enduring love, boundless desire, the dream sublime

Rendering us breathless, tongue tied and supine
In the velvet gloved darkness of fur lined cells
Looking at the stars above, the void below that inclines

Towards the solution of this difficult equation, a cosine
That in the timelessness of the One we will dwell
In enduring love, boundless desire, the dream sublime

That now then and what is to come is yours and mine
Nothing in nature or the world can quell
The stars above, the void below that inclines
Toward enduring love, boundless desire, the dream sublime.

Diamond

Mandala of Pancharaksha

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Dream that descend as waterfalls
Illuminating diamond brilliance deepest night
The glowing tail of a shooting star
Flashes of lightning amidst menacing clouds
Lamp shining in an assassin’s cave
Upon awakening transparent as bubbles
Illusions in the watery morning light
See the endless things as a dewdrop

Floating City III

Vittore Carpaccio-The Lion of St. Mark 1516

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The souls encased within the stone of statues,
Chimerical monsters, phantasmagorical creations, heraldic beasts,
Slowly exhale, stir sleepily, vividly animate, move rapidly,
Alight off the columns,
Descend from church alcoves,
Climb down from rooftops
To roam through the squares, palazzos and streets
Which they have always dominated symbolically
But now is the time to colonize the city concretely.

Imaginary Country

Night Rain at Oyama-Utagawa Toyokuni II-c1834

For a fractured moment I was in an imaginary country
(Though all countries are imaginary in the context of eternity)
Dreaming delicately within the confines of the Palace of the Moon
Of melting and malleable nephrite, diamond, mountain
While the scent of jasmine and rose lingered throughout centuries
Sunlight and shade colluded to cast a permanent twilit glow
Rendering every corner, corridor and doorway mysterious
If I stop at a window the view is always surprising, different
Sometimes birds and butterflies hover motionless in the spring riot
At the next flight a blanket of snow covers the sleeping earth
In between lotus eating I await the one mandated by Heaven
The Empress of desires whose kiss resonates on my lips forever