Sun Blossoms

Ordeal

I HAVE wandered in the forests of the mind
And encountered there fierce beasts of prey
Living on natures weaknesses that bind
Our freedom to an animal sway.

Within hard rocks of passion is their den
Invulnerable like a fort,
The strong assaults of the spirit only win
Over their timeless rule a short

Victory and we lapse back into our old
Pit of stark Self-forgetfulness.
Squandering our pittance of a handful of gold,
We pray for heaven's omnipotent grace

To lift us from the minds dense slavery,
The body's inordinate desire:
A way we find out of their tyranny
Through the ordeal of the heart's fire

And, master of our nature, live in the soul
Whose kingdom is the universe:
Mortality no more a beggars bowl
Held up for an alms of laughter and tears!

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