Do we not usually project to the world how talented or spiritual, desirable or acceptable we are, whilst playing down our fluctuating darknesses, our pain, or our griefs and our losses?

The writing of a poem reminds me that as well as embracing personality traits invented by my ego and based on my experiences, are NOT reflections of our true original Self, or Higher Self, or my (Hindu) Atman or Brahman, that is ultimate something that cannot be seen or touched, but which is eternal and everlasting.

This Truth, the "very real man within me as I go", so easily gets hidden by life experiences, observations, desires, addictions and distractions.  Poetry can put the reader in touch with the hidden truth of who we are.
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The words of my poem "Gerontius" were written in memory of my friend, the water-colourist David Evans (1929 - 1988). The 7 parts have a loose structural similarity to Sir Edward Elgar's oratorio "The Dream of Gerontius". They have a context for which awareness and acceptance of the eternal Self in an eternal moment is the key to its understanding. 

GERONTIUS (synopsis)
Part 1
Gerontius's depicts his own dream of dying.... life peacefully trickling away. He surrenders to the peaceful acceptance of death, bright light and celebration. the journey into immortality has begun.

Part 2
Gerontius faces the storm of his critics and his uncertainty of what comes next, and the negative energies of his life. He is in touch with  his rage at having endured such suffering in life.

Part 3
The calm after the storm, in which Gerontius tries to make sense of his ups and downs, reflecting on the positives and the negatives of his life, finally discarding his own explanations as he enters the eternal moment.

Part 4 
The poet tells Gerontius to go forward beyond all the followers he has accumulated, and to allow the Truth to carry him though the debris of his past, void of thought, but trusting in the eternal moment.

Part 5
The poet reminds Gerontius of his beauty as an enquiring spiritual person in his life, praising his artistry on earth, but reminding him that now is the time to recognize his work as a mortal is done.

Part 6
A reflection on the lost souls, the hungry ghosts, whose karma it is to be swamped by the babble of their own vocabulary to face re-birth and further suffering in their future lives.

Part 7
Gerontius, his dream now over, awakens to the reality of new life, immortal, free from mortal speculation and effort. Like a dove, his spirit rising, realised in the fertile streams of his art that saturates his soul.
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