DR. VERRILL

The US of A in the year ’59 —

From the west a light came, to rise and to shine

The light of pure knowledge, in one man, alone

From the Valley of the Saints he had walked . . . and then flown

Try to imagine the country he found

Creative, perhaps, but ignorance bound

Yet people came forward — a rarefied few

And somehow they seemed to know just what to do

The Verrills, the Granvilles, the Olsens, and more

Their names are preserved in our Movement’s great lore

Good fortune, great wisdom conjoined in these souls

Saints one and all, with divinest of goals

Whatever was needed, that service they did —

Whatever he asked, whatever he bid

Our Movement’s great Founders — they were the ones

We look back on them now, shining like suns

To spiritually regenerate a world gone sterile

Among them, of course, was our dear Dr. Verrill

One thing’s so plain to us — perfectly clear

If they’d not been there — we’d not be here

At the start of the changing of time and its tides

Maharishi would train them as Meditation Guides

Catalina Island was the site of these courses
Sweet weeks with Maharishi and precious discourses
Then, in October in the year ’62

Catastrophe suddenly reared into view

A crisis of missiles, East facing West

The world now faced its most threatening test

Nuclear weapons arrayed on each side —

Never before had the gulf been so wide

The threat was stupendous, the risk inconceivable

Looking back now, it seems unbelievable

Maharishi took action in the field of inaction

In the field of silence, of purest abstraction

Beforehand he called them together to say:
Add more meditations to your schedule each day
More meditations — that was the plan:

Catalina Island, where rounding began

The crisis passed over, the danger subsided

Through dire straits Maharishi the world had guided

How did it happen? The answer is plain

Quite simple, as Maharishi would later explain:

When milk boils up and foam threatens to spill

Add drops of cold water — and it’s once again still

When ignorance had the world over a barrel

The world had passed its most serious peril —
And to help tip the scale was our dear Dr. Verrill

And the courses since then Dr. Verrill attended

Produced this result — the Cold War was ended

Catalina Island — we have it on film

Thanks to Dr. Verrill — we’re grateful to him

Footage on that film is also devoted

To something Maharishi with interest had noted

Water in spiral, in whirl, in swirl

Reminiscent of Rk . . . of a mind self-referral
Reminiscent, indeed, of our dear Dr. Verrill

He narrates his film with both humor and grace —

But never allows us a glimpse of his face!

But he left a group photo as big as a mural

Maharishi, Catalina Guides, and dear Dr. Verrill

We cannot praise David without praising Jessamine

For years by his side, constantly blessing him

Our library recently received some good luck —

The Verrill Collection — it arrived in a truck

Pamphlets and pictures and lecturing notes

SRM newsletters, full of great quotes

The Movement’s first steps, one reads and one traces —

The best U.S. history, packed in suitcases

They lived it and led it, Jessamine and David

What treasure they gathered — we’re grateful they saved it

93 years he’s now circled the sun

These verses can’t count all the things that he’s done

He’s made of himself a great student of Veda

Reverberations from which the whole cosmos is made

In public he’s ever in business apparel

Ever the Governor, dear Dr. Verrill

He always looks dapper, always looks sporty

Ready to speak of the Qualities Forty

We all recall how, at the drop of a hat,

He’d turn himself into a Harmonicat

He’d reach in his pocket, and right then and there

He’d play us some jolly American air

And regardless of weather, one enters the Dome

And there he is sitting, on backjack and foam

Regular in program for 45 years

All we can give is our three-in-one cheers

In Maharishi’s great service, he’s ever dynamic

But closing his eyes, his mind’s panoramic

An ocean of silence, an ocean of Veda

Where divine Laws of Nature have eternally played

A writer, a poet, a University Trustee,

He displays to us all what life’s meant to be

An American Founder — a glorious herald

How fortunate our nation was thus Dr. Verrill-ed

We say, “Dr. Verrill, verily, verily

You’ve lived your great life extraordinarily

Your birthday we celebrate mirthfully, merrily

Generations will honor you — quite necessarily

Lest language here waxes too florid and floral

We’ll hasten and hurry ahead to our moral:

We honor with candle, with conch, and with carol

Our venerated, valued, divine Dr. Verrill

January 10, 2005