An Infant In Your Arms
The tide of my love
Has risen so high let me flood
over
You.
Close your eyes for a moment
And maybe all your
fears and fantasies
Will end.
If that happened
God would become an infant in your
Arms
And then you
Would have to nurse all
Creation!
From “The Gift”, Poems by Hafiz the Great Sufi Master by Daniel LadinskyCopyright © 1999 by Daniel Ladinsky. Reprinted by permission of the author.
Do You Love Me?
A lover asked his beloved,
Do you love yourself more
than you love me?
The beloved replied,
I have died to myself
and I live for you.
I’ve disappeared from myself
and my attributes.
I am present only for you.
I have forgotten all my learning,
but from knowing you
I have become a scholar.
I have lost all my strength,
but from your power
I am able.
If I love myself
I love you.
If I love you
I love myself.
~ From: Love Poems of Rumi by Deepak Chopra
My Burning Heart
My heart is burning with love
All can see this flame
My heart is pulsing with passion
like waves on an ocean
my friends have become strangers
and I’m surrounded by enemies
But I’m free as the wind
no longer hurt by those who reproach me
I’m at home wherever I am
And in the room of lovers
I can see with closed eyes
the beauty that dances
Behind the veils
intoxicated with love
I too dance the rhythm
of this moving world
I have lost my senses
in my world of lovers
~ Rumi
Love One Another
‘Love one another, but make not a bond of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other’s cup, but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread, but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone.
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.
For only the hand of life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together.
For the pillars of the temple stand apart.
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.’
~ Khalil Gibran
Touched By An Angel
We, unaccustomed to courage Love arrives
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls
We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love’s light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free
~ Maya Angelou
Like This…
‘If anyone asks you Like this. When someone mentions the gracefulness Like this. If anyone wants to know what “spirit” is, Like this. When someone quotes the old poetic image Like this. If anyone wonders how Jesus raised the dead, Like this. Like this. When someone asks what it means If someone asks how tall I am, frown This tall. The soul sometimes leaves the body, then returns. Like this. When lovers moan,
how the perfect satisfaction
of all our sexual wanting
will look, lift your face
and say,
of the nightsky, climb up on the roof
and dance and say,
or what “God’s fragrance” means,
lean your head toward him or her.
Keep your face there close.
about clouds gradually uncovering the moon,
slowly loosen knot by knot the strings
of your robe.
don’t try to explain the miracle.
Kiss me on the lips.
to “die for love,” point
here.
and measure with your fingers the space
between the creases on your forehead.
When someone doesn’t believe that,
walk back into my house.
they’re telling our story.
Like this…’
If You Forget Me
I want you to know
one thing.
You know how this is
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals, were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.
Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.
If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.
If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.
But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.
~ Pablo Neruda
Song Of The Soul
In the depth of my soul there is How can I sigh it? I fear it may When I look into my inner eyes The deeds of my hands heed its It is a song composed by contemplation, It is the song of love; It is more fragrant than jasmine; It is heartbound, as a virgin’s secret; Who dares unite the roar of the sea ~ Khalil Gibran
A wordless song - a song that lives
In the seed of my heart.
It refuses to melt with ink on
Parchment; it engulfs my affection
In a transparent cloak and flows,
But not upon my lips.
Mingle with earthly ether;
To whom shall I sing it? It dwells
In the house of my soul, in fear of
Harsh ears.
I see the shadow of its shadow;
When I touch my fingertips
I feel its vibrations.
Presence as a lake must reflect
The glittering stars; my tears
Reveal it, as bright drops of dew
Reveal the secret of a withering rose.
And published by silence,
And shunned by clamor,
And folded by truth,
And repeated by dreams,
And understood by love,
And hidden by awakening,
And sung by the soul.
What Cain or Esau could sing it?
What voice could enslave it?
What string could quiver it?
And the singing of the nightingale?
Who dares compare the shrieking tempest
To the sigh of an infant?
Who dares speak aloud the words
Intended for the heart to speak?
What human dares sing in voice
The song of God?
Where I Wander
Where I wander - You! Levi Yitzchak of Berditchov
Where I ponder - You!
Only You everywhere, You, always, You.
You, You, You.
When I am gladdened - You!
And when I am saddened - You!
Only You, everywhere You!
You, You, You.
Sky is You!
Earth is You!
You above! You below!
In every trend, at every end,
Only You, everywhere You!
Translated by: Harry Rabinowicz
Try To Love The World
Do not try ~ Sri Chinmoy
To change the world.
You will fail.
Try to love the world.
Lo, the world is changed,
Changed forever.
