Between Dying and Living

I was dead, then alive.
Weeping, then laughing.

The power of love came to me,
and I became fierce like a lion,
then tender like the evening star.

He said, "You're not mad enough.
You don't belong in this house."

I went wild and had to be tied up.
He said, "Still not wild enough
to stay with us."

I broke through another layer
into joyfulness.

He said, "It's not enough."
I died.

He said, "You're a clever little man,
full of fantasy and doubting."

I plucked out my feathers
and became a fool.

He said, "Now you're the candle
for this assembly."

But I'm no candle. Look!
I'm scattered smoke.

He said, "You are the sheikh, the guide."
But I'm not a teacher. I have no power.

He said, "You already have wings.
I cannot give you wings."

But I wanted his wings.
I felt like some flightless chicken.

Then new events said to me,
"Don't move. A sublime generosity
is coming toward you."

And old love said, " Stay with me."
I said, "I will."

You are the fountain of the sun's light.
I am a willow shadow on the ground.
You make my raggedness silky.

~The Illuminated Rumi, pg. 86

GAMES PEOPLE PLAY

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Power games, love games
Attention games and hiding games
Attraction games, repulsion games
Baiting and then seizing games
Releasing games, renouncing games
‘Who knows it all’ games
Open games and shrewd games
‘Me better than you’ games
Group games and solo games
‘Let’s keep ’em out’ games
‘This is mine and that is not’
‘Lets split the whole’ games
Why waste pearls in such a fray
After all its just games people play.

Late, by myself,

in the boat of myself,

no light and no land

anywhere,

cloudcover thick.

I try to stay

just above the surface,

yet i'm already under

and living

-

within

The Ocean

~The Illuminated Rumi, p.63

No one knows what makes the soul
    wake up so happy!
Maybe a dawn breeze has blown the veil
    from the face of God.
A thousand new moons appear.
Roses open laughing.
Hearts become perfect rubies
    like those from Badakshan.
The body turns entirely spirit.
Leaves become branches in this wind!
Why is it now so easy to surrender,
even for those already surrendered?
There's no answer to any of this.
No one knows the source of joy.
A poet breathes into a reed flute,
and the tip of every hair makes music.
Shams sails down clods of dirt from the roof,
and we take jobs as doorkeepers for him.

~The Illuminated Rumi, p.64

A Call

Waves have wet my feet too long.
My body aches to feel the ocean.
Sitting on the rocks, a whole life has passed.
It is time to live a moment.

Hard edges of containment,
Melt into the diffusion of freedom.
Beyond space the heart seeks you,
Desire for tawhid lends it strong wings.

Sohbet makes the impossible easy.
Alone one is lost in the desert of emptiness.
Your wine oh Saki! Makes me sane again,
Come, pour a brimful and slake the loneliness.

It's losing myself in the clamour of the world that I fear.