Minnie Canteenwalla's Supplication (Click for RY Deshpande's & Sri Aurobindo's comments.)

Will you not pour into me
The ancient peace that lights your face?
I do not want it all for me
But just a drop—a tiny trace.

It is in the vast and silent valleys,
In the purple shades of the aged hills;
It is in the tremble of a dying leaf
And in the murmur of low-toned rills.

On a calm and moonlit night
Through tree-traceries the stars are soft-cool.
Give me a little of that perfect coolness
To dip my eyes in its healing pool.

When the day is perfumed with its earthy scent,
And my face caressed by the far sea-breeze,
My heart stops beating and turns truant
To mingle with the quiet of cloud-kissed trees.

It wants to embrace the wet sweet earth
And lie on the dampness, cheek to cheek;
It yearns to shout from the highest hill-tops,
For ever roaming your heaven to seek.

I need no touch to feel your arms;
I need no eyes to see your face;
I gather your light in the cup of my heart,
And drink deep draughts from its secret place.

Let me but enter into your presence,
And the incense of your breath absorb;
Let me be drenched in its utter sweetness,
And feel in my blood its glowing throb.

My only gesture is to give you all,
Whatever I cherish I place in your hand,
For I know that your touch is boundless safety
And my fears shall vanish like script on sand.

11 March 1936