Turiya Poem by alexander j watt

(Turiya = the deep dreamless sleep of pure consciousness)

Let the eye close without and open within
knowing nothing
I visit sleep and become happy.
Gunned down by day
my idleness stands watching
as I slip into the perfume of a rose -
therein lies my perfection

For what perfection is
not in Turiya?
Mind unfoils
in torpor of abyssal seas.
That wreck that is come down to Thee
meets slow transfiguration

Those people of the world
with outstretched arms
I ask you -
pull not at my still form
for the boat leaves by day
and the city of night
to whence it retreats
is my only light

(2005)