Some of my favorite poems. They work best when read aloud. The Guest House This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they are a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice. meet them at the door laughing and invite them in. Be grateful for whatever comes. because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. ( Jelaluddin Rumi, translation by Coleman Barks ) "Allah, Allah" One night a man was crying "Allah, Allah." Ibis lips grew sweet with the praising. Until a cynic said: "I've heard you calling out, but have you ever gotten any response?" The man had no answer for that. He quit praying, and fell into a confused sleep. He dreamed he saw Kidhr, the Guide of Souls, in a thick green foliage. "Why did you stop praising?" "Because I've never-heard anything back." "This longing you express is the returned message. The grief you cry out from draws you towards union. Your pure sadness that wants help is the secret cup. Listen to the moan of a dog for its master. That whining is the connection. There are love dogs that no one knows the names of. Give your life to be one of them!" The certain Sufi tore his robe in grief and the tearing brought such relief. He gave the robe the name Faraji, Which means "ripped open," or happiness, Or "one who brings the joy of being opened." It comes from Faraj, which also refers to the genitals, male and female. His teacher understood the purity of the action, While others saw just the ragged appearance. If you want spiritual peace and purity, Tear your coverings. This is the purpose of emotion To let the streaming beauty flow through you. Call it spirit, elixir, or the original agreement between yourself and God. Opening into that gives peace, a song of being empty, pure silence. ( Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi ) Because of Our Wisdom In many parts of this world water is scarce and precious. People sometimes have to walk a great distance Then carry heavy jugs upon their Heads. Because of our wisdom, we will travel far for love. All movement is a sign of thirst. Most speaking really says, "I am hungry to know you." Every desire of your body is holy; Every desire of your body is holy. Dear one, Why wait until you are dying To discover that divine truth? ( Hafiz ) The Invitation It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing. It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love for your dream for the adventure of being alive. It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon... I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain mine or your own without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it. I want to know if you can be with joy mine or your own if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful be realistic remember the limitations of being human. It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy. I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence. I want to know if you can live with failure yours and mine and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes.” It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children. It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back. It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments. ( © Oriah Mountain Dreamer, from the book The Invitation published by HarperSanFrancisco, 1999 ) When we get out of the glass bottles of our ego, and when we escape like squirrels turning in the cages of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright but things will happen to us so that we don't know ourselves. Cool, unlying life will rush in, and passion will make our bodies taut with power, we shall stamp our feet with new power and old things will fall down, we shall laugh, and institutions will curl up like burnt paper. ( D.H. Lawrence ) Wild Geese You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting- over and over announcing your place in the family of things. ( Mary Oliver ) You Reading This, Be Ready Starting here, what do you want to remember? How sunlight creeps along a shining floor? What scent of old wood hovers, what softened sound from outside fills the air? Will you ever bring a better gift for the world than the breathing respect that you carry wherever you go right now? Are you waiting for time to show you some better thoughts? When you turn around, starting here, lift this new glimpse that you found; carry into evening all that you want from this day. This interval you spent reading or hearing this, keep it for life - What can anyone give you greater than now, starting here, right in this room, when you turn around? ( William Stafford ) We have not come here to take prisoners But to surrender ever more deeply to freedom and joy. We have not come into this exquisite world to hold ourselves hostage from love. Run, my dear, from anything that may not strengthen your precious budding wings, Run like hell, my dear, from anyone likely to put a sharp knife into the sacred, tender vision of your beautiful heart. We have a duty to befriend those aspects of obedience that stand outside of our house and shout to our reason "o please, o please come out and play." For we have not come here to take prisoners, or to confine our wondrous spirits, But to experience ever and ever more deeply our divine courage, freedom, and Light! ( Hafiz, from The Gift ) Cast all your votes for Dancing I know the voice of depression Still calls to you. I know those habits that can ruin your life Still send their invitations. But you are with the Friend now And look so much stronger. You can stay that way And even bloom! Keep squeezing drops of the Sun From your prayers and work and music And from your companions' beautiful laughter. Keep squeezing drops of the Sun From the sacred hands and glance of your Beloved And, my dear, From the most insignificant movements Of your own holy body. Learn to recognize the counterfeit coins That may buy you just a moment of pleasure, But then drag you for days Like a broken man Behind a farting camel. You are with the Friend now. Learn what actions of yours delight Him, What actions of yours bring freedom And Love. Whenever you say God's name, dear pilgrim, My ears wish my head was missing So they could finally kiss each other And applaud all your nourishing wisdom! O keep squeezing drops of the Sun From your prayers and work and music And from your companions' beautiful laughter And from the most insignificant movements Of your own holy body. Now, sweet one, Be wise. Cast all your votes for Dancing! ( Hafiz, tr. Daniel Ladinsky - 'I heard God Laughing' ) Last Night Last night, as I was sleeping, I dreamt - marvelous error! That a spring was breaking Out in my heart. I said: Along which secret aqueduct, Oh water, are you coming to me, Water of a new life That I have never drunk? Last night, as I was sleeping, I dreamt- marvelous error! That I had a beehive Here inside my heart. And the golden bees Were making white combs And sweet honey From my old failures. Last night, as I was sleeping, I dreamt- marvelous error! That a fiery sun was giving Light inside my heart. It was fiery because I felt Warmth as from a hearth, And sun because it gave light And brought tears to my eyes. Last night, as I slept, I dreamt- marvelous error! That it was God I had Here inside my heart. ( Antonio Machado ) YOUR MOTHER AND MY MOTHER Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions. For your mother and my mother Were friends. I know the innkeeper In this part of the universe. Get some rest tonight. Come to my verse again tomorrow. We’ll go speak to the friend together. I should not make any promises right now. But I know if you Pray Somewhere in the world- Something good will happen. God wants to see More love and playfulness in your eyes. For that is your greatest gift to Him. Your soul and my soul Once sat together in the Beloved’s womb Playing footsie. Your heart and my heart Are very, very old Friends. ( Unknown ) THE ONE THING YOU MUST DO There is one thing in this world you must never forget to do. If you forget everything else and not this, there’s nothing to worry about, but if you remember everything else and forget this, then you will have done nothing in your life. It’s as if a king has sent you to some country to do a task, and you perform a hundred other services, but not the one he sent you to do. So human beings come to this world to do particular work. That work is the purpose, and each is specific to the person. If you don’t do it, it’s as though a priceless Indian sword were used to slice rotten meat. It’s a golden bowl being used to cook turnips, when one filing from the bowl could buy a hundred suitable pots. It’s like a knife of the finest tempering nailed into a wall to hang things on. You say, “But look, I’m using the dagger/ it’s not lying idle.” Do you hear how ludicrous that sounds? For a penny an iron nail could be bought to serve for that. You say, “But I spend my energies on lofty enterprises. I study jurisprudence and philosophy and logic and astronomy and medicine and the rest.” But consider why you do those things. They are all branches of yourself. Remember the deep root of your being, the presence of your lord. Give yourself to the one who already owns your breath and your moments. If you don’t, you will be like the man who takes a precious dagger and hammers it into his kitchen wall for a peg to hold his dipper gourd. You’ll be wasting valuable keenness and forgetting your dignity and purpose. ( Rumi ) The Sun Have you ever seen anything in your life more wonderful than the way the sun, every evening, relaxed and easy, floats toward the horizon and into the clouds or the hills, or the rumpled sea, and is gone-- and how it slides again out of the blackness, every morning, on the other side of the world, like a red flower streaming upward on its heavenly oils, say, on a morning in early summer, at its perfect imperial distance-- and have you ever felt for anything such wild love-- do you think there is anywhere, in any language, a word billowing enough for the pleasure that fills you, as the sun reaches out, as it warms you as you stand there, empty-handed-- or have you too turned from this world-- or have you too gone crazy for power, for things? ( Mary Oliver ) Wisdom is like the rain. Its source is limitless, but it comes down according to the season. Grocers put sugar in a bag; their supply of sugar, however, is not limited to what’s in the bag. When you come to a grocer, he has an abundant supply of sugar. But he sees how much money you have brought with you and measures out the sugar accordingly. Your money on the Path of God is courage and faith, and you will be taught according to your courage and faith. ( Rumi ) From the Large Jug, Drink From the large jug, drink the wine of Unity, So that from your heart you can wash away the futility of life's grief. But like this large jug, still keep the heart expansive. Why would you want to keep the heart captive, like an unopened bottle of wine? With your mouth full of wine, you are selfless And will never boast of your own abilities again. Be like the humble stone at your feet rather than striving to be like a Sublime cloud: the more you mix colors of deceit, the more colorless your ragged wet coat will get. Connect the heart to the wine, so that it has body, Then cut off the neck of hypocrisy and piety of this new man. Be like Hafiz: Get up and make an effort. Don't lie around like a bum. He who throws himself at the Beloved's feet is like a workhorse and will be rewarded with boundless pastures and eternal rest. ( From: Drunk on the Wine of the Beloved, translated by Thomas Rain Crowe ) No More Leaving At Some point Your relationship With God Will Become like this: Next time you meet Him in the forest Or on a crowded city street There won't be anymore "Leaving." That is, God will climb into Your pocket. You will simply just take Yourself Along! ( From: 'The Gift', translated by Daniel Ladinsky ) “Oh what a catastrophe, what a maiming of love when it was made a personal, merely personal feeling, taken away from the rising and setting of the sun, and cut off from the magic connection of the solstice and equinox. This is what is the matter with us, we are bleeding at the roots, because we are cut off from the earth and sun and stars, and love is a grinning mockery, because, poor blossom, we plucked it from its stem on the tree of life, and expected it to keep on blooming in our civilized vase on the table.” ( D.H. Lawrence ) Come, come, whoever you are- Wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving- What does it matter? Ours is not a caravan of despair. Come, even if you have broken your vow A hundred times- Come, come again, come. ( Rumi ) O’ Divine Master grant that I may not so much seek To be consoled as to console; To be understood as to understand To be loved, as to love; for It is in giving that we receive. It is in pardoning that we are pardoned It is in dying that we are born To Eternal Life. ( St. Francis of Assisi ) The Day Sky Let us be like Two falling stars In the day sky. Let know one know Of our sublime beauty, As we hold hands with God And burn Into a sacred existence That defies, That surpasses, Every description of Ecstasy And love. ( Unknown )