The Epic of Mandala: Prologue in Rose’s Dream

The breeze blew through the window cool and Rose

Slipped slowly through to vivid-dreaming doze.

And in the dream she found a coiling path

That curled there by a complex fractal math.

And ferns unfurled around her, rising high

Around her as a voice said, “Don’t deny

The purpose I have given you. You are

The one I chose to give birth to a star,

A source of light for unwise days to come,

A time when men are deaf and blind and dumb

To wisdom, thinking they can know what they

Cannot, that there’s no limit to the day,

That knowledge, truth no longer matters, and

Their good intentions are enough. The sand

Of foolishness and ignorance has filled

The land. They think the world is as they’ve willed.

And so I send a son to you to bring

A message of true unity, to sing

Of knowledge and of wisdom and the goal

Of unifying both in beauty. Soul

Of beauty is the goal. One day your son

Will bring this truth as a bright golden light

To man – he’ll be a source of fright, and sight.”

The sky was filled with butterflies that stirred

The air into a hurricane. A bird

Then rose and with its wings it washed away

The sparkling insects form the sky to play

Among the leaves. The bird then spread its tail

In Fibonacci eyes, let out a wail

So that that Rose began to cry. The tears

Rolled down her cheeks, the bird-ails filled her ears,

The tears fell to the dust and from them grew

Up twinning briars to a tree that drew

Up to the sky, then bloomed a single rose.

The voice said, “From this single flower grows

A rebirth of the human universe.

He’ll meet with praise and he will have men curse

The very air he breathes. And thus his name

Will be Mandala, as it is the same

As that which hides the hidden principles

Of growth and change that’s realized in the full

And agnostic tension of the pair

In paradox, a truth he will declare.”

Then all went dark, and rose, with echoed voice,

Said, “If that is your will, that is my choice.”
And rose was standing on the beach, the sea

Was rosing in the sunrise. She felt free.

And standing on the shore, the waves would break

Around her feet. And then she was awake.