Praise be to The Empress of Kings
seated on the throne of five corpses in the palace of ruby.
Her blinking eyes birth and collapse the cosmos,
and her crown is the lunar half-moon.
She whose reddened eyes roll ecstatically,
She is Mahātripurasundarī,
The Great Beauty of the Triads.
Praise be to Parā Aṃbikā,
of allure so exquisite that, enchanted,
Śiva grew his third eye just to worship her beauty.
Her body is anointed with sandalwood,
and her fragrance bathes and deludes the three worlds.
She is Śrīmātā,
The Auspicious Mother.
Praise be to Lalitā Aṃbikā,
The One Who Plays,
whose girdle of tinkling bells stirs creation into being.
She who gifts the sun his effulgence,
Her toenail holds the universes,
and Her auspicious thighs are known only by the fortunate Kāmeśvara.
She is Kāmākṣī,
She whose eyes are desire.
Bhavānī,
you are the nectar of the ocean of compassion:
grace this songstress to only sing of your praises.
🌺 “Hymn to the Empress of Kings”, one of my poems offered to Devī at the magnificent Siri Jyoti Pūjā in Seattle. inspired by the verses of the Lalitāsahasranāma which extoll Lalitā’s rapturous beauty. Śrī Mātre Namaḥ. Happy Navarātra! 🙏
📸: SJP, Seattle, September 2022.
from this month’s newsletter of Śabda Institute. honoured that my poem accompanies the announcement of such an exquisite offering 
this week is one of beginnings for me, and i am delighted that it coincides with the auspicious time of Navarātri… 
in typical fashion, i will turn this around to the Mahābhārata, and hope that this paves the way to translating some of its most beautiful ślokas… sometime in the far future 
amaryllis 