THE SERENITY OF A FRAGRANT GROVE

Let the times onward flow, with songs, with tears upsetting,

and at the sandy banks ruthlessly tear away,

I shan’t be undermined, upturned, uprooted, letting

go of bliss, grown-through by my tranquil calm, unswayed.

Bypassed by human grief, by human fortune, passing,

all of them wounded, struck by transience to death,

my blissful melody is all I hear, surpassing

all human cries and laughs, outspanning all beneath.

Oh, fragrant, tranquil grove, in clear-sky elevation,

where acrid smoke shall never slither, to disturb,

where breezes freely breathe o’er blossoming dispassion

with heady fragrance wafting through the darkness uncurbed.

Let the times onward flow, with songs, with tears upsetting,

and at the sandy banks ruthlessly tear away,

I shan’t to them give way, calm – course eternal setting –

while vaults of wonderousness outspanned above me stay.