A Way of Passing Away

There is a way of passing away

from the personal, a dying

that makes one plural, no longer single.

A gnat lights in the buttermilk

to become nourishment for many.

Your soul is like that, Husam. 

Hundreds of thousands of impressions

from the invisible world are eagerly wanting

to come through you. I get dizzy with the abundance.

When life is this dear, it means the source

is pulling us. Freshness comes from there.

We are given the gift of continuously dying 

and being resurrected, ocean within ocean.

Lion of the Heart

You that come to birth and bring the mysteries,

your voice-thunder makes us very happy.

Float, lion of the heart,

and tear me open.

The Sacred Liquid

 Pierre Puvis de Chavanne, Young Girls by the Seaside

(Jeunes filles au bord de la mer)

Are you jealous of the ocean's generosity?

Why would you refuse to give

this gift to anyone?

Fish don't hold the sacred liquid in cups.

They swim the huge fluid freedom.

The Great Untying

We search this world for the great untying

of what was wed to us at birth

and gets undone at dying.

We sleep beside a stream, thirsty.

Cursed and unlucky his whole life,

an old man finishes up in a niche

of a ruin, inches from the treasure.

Value

Which is worth more, a crowd of thousands,

or your own genuine solitude?

Freedom, or power over an entire nation?

A little while alone in your room

will prove more valuable than anything else

that could ever be given you.

This Overflow

I could not have known what love is

if I had never felt this longing.

Anything done to excess

becomes boring except this overflow

that moves toward you.

Sour, Doughy, Raw, and Numb

If we are not together in the heart,

what's the point?

When body and soul are not dancing,

there is no pleasure in colorful clothing.

Why have cooking pans

if there is no food in the house?

In this world full of fresh bread,

amber, and musk, what are they

to someone with no sense of smell?

If you stay away from fire,

you will remain sour,

doughy, raw, and numb.

You may have lovely just-baked loaves

around you, but those friends cannot help.

You have to feel the oven fire yourself.