“Good poetry makes the universe reveal a secret” – Hafiz

Know things in nature
are like a person.
Talk to tornadoes;
talk to the thunder,
they are your friends
and will protect you.

- Anonymous Navajo poem

I wish I could show you,
When you are lonely or in darkness,

The Astonishing Light
Of your own Being!

- Hafiz

The Root of the Root of Your Self

Don’t go away, come near.
Don’t be faithless, be faithful.
Find the antidote in the venom.
Come to the root of the root of yourself.
Molded of clay, yet kneaded
from the substance of certainty,
a guard at the Treasury of Holy Light –
come, return to the root of the root of your Self.

Once you get hold of selflessness,

You’ll be dragged from your ego
and freed from many traps.

Come, return to the root of the root of your Self.
You are born from the children of God’s creation,
but you have fixed your sight too low.
How can you be happy?

Come, return to the root of the root of your Self.
You were born from a ray of God’s majesty
and have the blessings of a good star.
Why suffer at the hands of things that don’t exist?

Come, return to the root of the root of your Self.
You are a ruby embedded in granite.
How long will you pretend it’s not true?
We can see it in your eyes.

Come to the root of the root of your Self.
You came here from the presence of that fine Friend,
a little drunk, but gentle, stealing our hearts
with that look so full of fire; so,

come, return to the root of the root of your Self.

- Rumi

The way of love is not a subtle argument.
The door there is devastation.
Birds make great sky-circles of their freedom.
How do they learn it?
They fall, and falling, they’re given wings.

- Rumi

The  Alchemy of Love

You come to us
from another world

From beyond the stars
and void of space.
Transcendent, Pure,
Of unimaginable beauty,
Bringing with you
the essence of love.

You transform all
who are touched by you.
Mundane concerns,
troubles, and sorrows
dissolve in your presence,
Bringing joy
to ruler and ruled
To peasant and King.

You bewilder us
with your grace.
All evils
transform into
goodness.

You are the master alchemist.

You light the fire of love
in earth and sky
in heart and soul
of every being.

Through your loving
existence and nonexistence merge.
All opposites unite.
All that is profane
becomes sacred again.

- Rumi

There Is A Candle In Your Heart

There is a candle in your heart,
ready to be kindled.
There is a void in your soul,
ready to be filled.
You feel it, don’t you?
You feel the separation
from the Beloved.
Invite Him to fill you up,
embrace the fire.
Remind those who tell you otherwise that
Love comes to you of its own accord,
and the yearning for it
cannot be learned in any school.

- Rumi

“Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.”

- Rumi

What hurts you, blesses you.
Darkness is your candle.
Your boundaries are your quest.
I can explain this, but it would break
the glass cover on your heart,
and there’s no fixing that.

- Rumi

There is a life-force within your soul, seek that life.
There is a gem in the mountain of your body, seek that
mine.

This aloneness is worth more than a thousand lives.
This freedom is worth more than all the lands on earth.

To be one with the truth for just a moment,
Is worth more than the world and life itself.

- Rumi

I want to beg you, as much as I can,
to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart,
and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms.

- Rilke

Buddha in Glory

Center of all centers, core of cores,
almond self-enclosed, and growing sweet –
all this universe, to the furthest stars
all beyond them, is your flesh, your fruit.

Now you feel how nothing clings to you;
your vast shell reaches into endless space,
and there the rich, thick fluids rise and flow.

Illuminated in your infinite peace,
a billion stars go spinning through the night, blazing high above your head. But in you is the presence that will be, when all the stars are dead.

- Rilke

Find A Better Job

Now that all your worry
Has proved such an unlucrative business,
Why Not Find a better Job.

- Hafiz

Dropping Keys

The small man
Builds cages for everyone
He knows.
While the sage,
Who has to duck his head
When the moon is low,
Keeps dropping keys all night long
For the
Beautiful
Rowdy
Prisoners.

- Hafiz

Tripping over joy

What is the difference
Between your experience of Existence
And that of a saint?

The saint knows
That the spiritual path
Is a sublime chess game with God

And that the Beloved
Has just made such a Fantastic Move

that the saint is now continually
Tripping over Joy
And bursting out in Laughter
And saying, “I Surrender!”

Whereas, my dear,
I’m afraid you still think

You have a thousand serious moves.

- Hafiz