Beads

       of

    Poetry

 

WHEN THE VIOLIN

When
The violin
Can forgive the past

It starts singing.

When the violin can stop worrying
About the future

You will become
Such a drunk laughing nuisance

That God
Will then lean down
And start combing you into
His
Hair.

When the violin can forgive
Every wound caused by
Others

The heart starts
Singing.



("The Gift", versions of Hafiz, by Daniel Ladinsky)

        Hafiz
    
           Rumi If someone were to play music, it would have to be very sweet.
We're drinking wine, but not through lips.
We're sleeping it off, but not in bed.
Rub the cup across your forehead.
This day outside is living and dying.

Give up wanting what other people have.
That way you're safe.
"Where, where can I be safe?" you ask.

This is not a day for asking questions,
not a day on any calendar.
This day is conscious of itself.
This day is a lover, bread, and gentleness,
more manifest than saying can say.

Thoughts take form with words,
but this daylight is beyond and before
thinking and imagining. Those two,
they are so thirsty, but this gives smoothness
to water. Their mouths are dry, and they are tired.

The rest of this poem is too blurry
for them to read.

 -- Version by Coleman Barks      
     "The Essential Rumi"
     Harper  SanFrancisco  1995

  
           Hafiz

                      

                    Laughter

      What is laughter? What is laughter?
      It is God waking up! O it is God waking up!
      It is the sun poking its sweet head out
      From behind a cloud
      You have been carrying too long,
      Veiling your eyes and heart.

      It is Light breaking ground for a great Structure
      That is your Real body - called Truth.

      It is happiness applauding itself and then taking flight
      To embrace everyone and everything in this world.

      Laughter is the polestar
      Held in the sky by our Beloved,
      Who eternally says,

      "Yes, dear ones, come this way,
      Come this way towards Me and Love!

      Come with your tender mouths moving
      And your beautiful tongues conducting songs
      And with your movements - your magic movements
      Of hands and feet and glands and cells - Dancing!

      Know that to God's Eye,
      All movement is a Wondrous Language,
      And Music - such exquisite, wild Music!"

      O what is laughter, Hafiz?
      What is this precious love and laughter
      Budding in our hearts?

      It is the glorious sound
      Of a soul waking up!

 

      "I Heard God Laughing - Renderings of Hafiz" by Daniel Ladinsky

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

         

 

      Joseph Campbell

 

 

 

 

 

  

                                                 

TODAY
 
I
Do not
Want to step so quickly
Over a beautiful line on God's palm
As I move through the earth's
Marketplace
Today.
 
I do not want to touch any object in this world
Without my eyes testifying to the truth
That everything is
My Beloved.
 
Something has happened
To my understanding of existence
That now makes my heart always full of wonder
And kindness.
 
I do not
Want to step so quickly
Over this sacred place on God's body
That is right beneath your
Own foot
 
As I
Dance with
Precious life
Today.
 
 

("The Gift" - versions of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky)

 

 

The divine manifestation is ubiquitous, 
   Only our eyes are not open to it. . . .
Awe is what moves us forward. . . .
 
Live from your own center. . . . 
The divine lives within you. 
The separateness apparent in the world is secondary. 
Beyond the world of opposites is an unseen, 
but experienced, unity and identity in us all.
 
Today the planet is the only proper “in group.” 
Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. 
We cannot cure the world of sorrows, 
but we can choose to live in joy.
 
You must return with the bliss and integrate it. 
    The return is seeing the radiance is everywhere. 
The world is a match for us. 
We are a match for the world. 
The spirit is the bouquet of nature. . . . 
  
Sanctify the place you are in.
Follow your bliss. . . .