‘The Sacred Walls of Ancient Angkor Wat’ by Daniel Magdalen

The warmth of daylight’s veil is cherishingly cast
Upon the sacred walls of ancient Angkor Wat,
Whose temple towers show grand myths from ages past,
With timeless lands of gods to fading matter brought.

Enthralled by its distinct yet unassuming grace,
The heirs to transience, while on the sixfold path,
We pause to meditate, inside this mystic place,
And shield our hearts from vice, dispelling lust and wrath.

The otherworldly shrine amid silk-cotton trees
Evokes a wish sublime, through deep epiphany,
For journeying afar, upon the sunlit breeze,
Beyond the azure sky, outside light’s canopy.

We slowly leave behind the lotus temple-mount,
In culture’s earthly book of landmarks shaped in stone,
And sail through seas of stars to life’s primeval fount,
Immersing in Truth’s bliss, approaching Virtue’s throne.

Daniel Magdalen is a graduate student in the Faculty of Letters at the University of Bucharest, in Romania.