Two from Rumi

Excerpts from Coleman Barks' translations from the Five Points journal:





SOUL HOUSES

He heals.
He enlivens...
He makes this dying world eternal.
His greatest alchemy is how he undoes the binding
that keeps love from breathing deep.
He loosens the chest...
Be silent now,
say fewer and fewer praise poems.
Let yourself become living poetry.

DISCIPLES

...watch the man beating a rug.
He is not mad at it.
He wants to loosen the layers of dirt.
Ego accumulations are not loosened
with one swat.
Continual work is necessary,
my disciples.
A carpenter saws and chisels a piece of wood
because he knows how he wants to use it...


Above image from Woven Souls Persian Rug image gallery

Integration

Putting one of my old poems into the play pen--

Integration

In my wildest, craziest dreams
I am the blue-green Atlantic
hugging the Cabo de Sao Roque;
Billowing cluds of Georgia red clay
kicked up at a sanctified tent revival;
Southeastern sun warm
like the tejana negra that I am;
Polaris guiding
Annie Christmas down the banks
of the mighty Mississippi;
A samba sonata,
A reggae riff,
bebop blues guitar,
Flute and violin
Lilting in an aria,
Nyabinghi drums
and soca-lypso punta rock;
In my wildest,
Craziest dreams
My name is Pangea.

(Spring 2000)

Labyrinth (Haiku)

Image from www.innerlightministries.com

Walking the labyrinth

Searching for blessed center

To kneel at the throne

What Does Your God Look Like?

Listening to Giving Birth, Finding Form with Isabelle Allende, Jean Shinoda Bolen and Alice Walker. "What does your God look like?," a woman in the audience asks during the Q&A. So many ways to answer, but perhaps my answer would go something like this:

A peaceful presence
announced by the wind tinkling a chime.
A carnival of raucous spirits
dancing like dervishes at Pentecostalal tent meeting.
A beautiful face hidden behind ninety-nine veils.
Sun, moon, stars.
Deep space and all.
Infinity. Possibility.
Ideas daring to dress themselves
in the finery of matter
The pathway paved by simple words of prayer
leading to the resplendent sanctum of the heart.
The perfect, round symmetry of seasons.
Rain and thunder plus the blooming rose.
The pregnant belly and milk-full breasts.
A heart that alternately celebrates and aches.
The vastness of the ocean
pouring into
the open sky.