- Like a bamboo rod, my life has segments with clearly defined joints, five of them so far, each initiated by an awakening or birth experience that completely renewed me and the world as I perceived it.
The first period naturally began with birth into physical form in February, 1939. The second period emerged 15 years later with a series of awakenings during the spring of 1954 in Washington, DC; these events initiated me into a life of intense search for truth.
The third period dawned 12 years later in Greece during the autumn and winter of 1966-67 with the totally unexpected realization that God is Truth; my search had not even considered that possibility. The poems in Quiet Clouds burst into this astonished consciousness to take measure of its new dimensions and express the momentum of its awakening; they are collected in three parts:
- Life Lines
- Pause , Pulse
- Drywater
- The poems in Giftwaves continue the same poetic impulse as those set in Greece; they are, however, selected from many that were written in 1969-70 in Benaras, Bodh Gaya and other places mostly in northern India.
- A few days after receiving shaktipat from Swami Muktananda at a weekend satsang in Arizona in 1974, Silly Bulls and Dog Growls began to well up in a most simple and childlike way. Much of it was composed while living in a teepee in western Georgia during that winter.
- knock on wood
- hang that fruit upon its tree
- the right path appears
- 786 pearly gate road
- lifetime cry
- The fourth period began on the full moon in May, 1976, while I was staying in a small cabin on the edge of Pisgah National Forest in Elk Park, North Carolina. At Easter I had driven to Myrtle Beach Spiritual Center for a weekend in order to ask Meher Baba to be my Master. Oh This Yes dates from that period.
- introduction
- open heart surge
- unreasonable joy
- planet anthem
- airs on the absolute
- honorings and offerings
- The fifth period began 13 years later on September 6, 1989, in Oslo, Norway, about six months after returning from my first pilgrimage to the Beloved's Samadhi near Ahmednagar, India. These poems are collected in seven volumes under the title Eternal Perfect Beloved.
- the golden rain
- shoulder an oar
- winnowing the ocean
- salt from the beloved's table
- no separation is possible
- the pearl tree
- how the rock awoke
All of these poems are essentially expressions of gratitude to the divine Beloved; they seldom name the people who helped me over the years to bring them into forms suitable for sharing with others. I cannot list you all by name, my friends, but I can with pleasure extend my appreciation and gratitude to you all. Thank you and again thank you!
Oslo, Norway
April 21, 1999