Two poems

Poems that bring a deeper sense of the experience in Auroville, from a pioneer who passed away in 2020.


Originally published 2017

AUROVILLE

This is our home
Born not of earth,
Though part of earth,
But the sky.
Of ethereal wind-swept whisperings
And a race that borders night,
Of thoughts and hopes and a strange gentle joy,
Vaguely caught,
Like twilight dancing on the leaves
Of a forgotten day.
Though recalled where memory is joy,
Its foreknowledge of love to come
And a sense that we are one.
That when we strive to hold we break
Falling upon the barren canyon rocks,
Until, releasing all, we are one again,
As laughter lights our eyes
And joy does fill our breasts,
As if by an unseen hand caressed,
As if by some great presence blessed.

–       Roger Harris

Mutations, Alchemy and Grace, Auroville Press Publishers, 2017, p. 151

AUROVILLE IS

Auroville is…
A prayer and a curse,
A suspicious sidelong glance,
An explosion of silent love;
A temple in the sun,
A fractured broken jar,
A whisper in the wind;
A laughter and a song,
A strong fraternal clasp,
A blasphemy of the Gods.
A golden-bodied truth,
A prayer beyond the stars,
A battlefield of bliss.
A child against the sun
A bird against the sky,
A golden thought unsung
A flame that is a cry:
Towards an unknown earth
That in our hearts does rest,
And slowly comes to birth
Breaking slowly forth.

–       By Roger Harris  

Forecomers, Auroville, 1978

Mutations, Alchemy and Grace, Auroville Press Publishers, 2017, p. 148
https://auroville.org/page/roger-harris-687

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