The Fish Way

The ocean way is the fish way

of the watersouls of fish who die becoming the sea.

Fish do not wait patiently for water.

In this world full of shape,

there you are with no form.

You have made a universe

from a drop of my blood.

Now I am confused.

I cannot tell world from drop.

My mouth and this wine glass are one lip.

I am Nobody, the fool shepherd.

Where is my flock? What shepherd?

When I talk of you, there are no words.

Where could I put you, who will not fit

in the secret world, or in this one?

All I know of spirit is this love.

Do not call me a believer.

Infidel is better.

Put This Design in Your Carpet (2)

 Carpet from Konya, the place where Rumi died,

in present day Turkey. Rumi celebrants call the day Rumi died
his "Wedding Day," when the veil was lifted
and he joined the Beloved.
Rumi's Wedding Day is celebrated around the world
on the anniversary of his death, December 17.

Any movement or sound is a profession of faith,

as the millstone grinding is explaining

how it believes in the river.

No metaphor can explain this,

but I cannot stop pointing to the beauty.

Every moment and place says,

Put this design in your carpet.

I want to be in such a passionate adoration

that my tent gets pitched against the sky.

Let the beloved come

and sit like a guard dog

in front of the tent.

When the ocean surges, 

don't let me just hear it.

Let is splash inside my chest.

My notes written during a 2007 Rumi reading by Coleman Barks; 

click on the image if you want to read more easily.
Please click & go to the link about the Rumi reading
to read more about what it's like to hear Barks read,
and dance in spirit while dervishes dance.

Put This Design in Your Carpet (1)

Spiritual experience is a modest woman

who looks lovingly at only one man.

It is a great river where ducks

live happily, and crows drown.

The visible bowl of form contains food

that is both nourishing and a source of heartburn.

There is an unseen presence we honor

that gives the gifts.

You are water. We are the millstone.

You are the wind. We are dust blown up into shapes.

You are spirit. We're the opening and closing

of our hands. You are the clarity.

We are this language that tries to say it.

You are joy. We are all the different kinds of laughing.

We Three

My love wanders the rooms, melodious,

flute notes, plucked wires,

full of a wine the magi drank

on the way to Bethlehem.

We are three. The moon comes

from its quiet corner, puts a pitcher

of water down in the center.

The circle of surface flames.

One of us kneels to kiss the threshold-dust.

One drinks with wine-flames playing over his face.

One watches the gathering

and says to any cold onlookers,

This dance is the joy of existence.

Entering the Shell

Marc Chagall, Village by Night

Love is alive,

and someone borne along by it is more alive

than lions roaring or men in their fierce courage.

Bandits ambush others on the road.

They get wealth, but they stay in one place.

Lovers keep moving, never the same,

not for a second.

What makes others grieve, they enjoy.

When they look angry, do not believe their faces.

It is like spring lightning, a joke before the rain.

They chew thorns thoughtfully,

along with pasture grass.

Gazelle and lioness have dinner.

Love is invisible, except here, in us.

Sometimes I praise love. Sometimes love praises me.

Love, a little shell somewhere

on the ocean floor, opens its mouth.

You and I and we, those imaginary beings,

enter the shell as a single drop of water.

You Are Most Handsome

Think that you're gliding out

from the face of a cliff like an eagle.

Think that you're walking like a tiger walks

by himself in the forest.

You are most handsome when you are after food.

Spend less time with nightingales and peacocks.

One is just a voice, the other just a color.

Harsh Evidence

What sort of person says that he or she

wants to be polished and pure,

then complains about being handled roughly?

Love is a lawsuit

where harsh evidence must be brought in.

To settle the case,

the judge must hear details.

You have heard that every buried treasure

has a snake guarding it.

Kiss the snake to discover the treasure.