What the Friend Wants Done

One who does what the Friend wants done

will never need a Friend.

There is a bankruptcy that is pure gain.

The moon stays bright

when it does not avoid the night.

A rose's rarest essence

lives in the thorn.

Dhu'l-Nun's Instructive Madness

 Some friends of Dhu'l-Nun, the Egyptian,

go to see him. They have heard
that he has gone spectacularly insane,
that he is a wildfire no one can contain,
this man who has been such a source of wisdom.
They arrive at his house. He yells out,
Hey, you had better watch out,
coming here. Who are you?

Don't you remember us? We are your friends.
What secret are you hiding with this madness?

Dhu'l-nun begins to rave a mixture of filthy language
and gibberish. He rushes out and grabs up stones
and throws them at the group. They run.

See, he calls. You are not friends.
A friend does not run from pain
inflicted by a friend.

There is a joy within suffering
that is the kernel of friendship.
A friend is pure gold singing
inside the refining fire. He thrives on fights
and misunderstandings and even madness.

Messengers from the Mystery

balloon flowers - one opened, one as yet unopened

Love is the way

messengers from the mystery

tell us things.

Love is the mother,

We are her children.

She shines inside us,

visible-invisible as we trust

or lose trust,

or feel it start to grow again.

Singing

When the soul first put on the body's shirt,

the ocean lifted up all its gifts.

When love first tasted the lips

of being human, it started singing.

The King Inside

There are people with their eyes open

whose hearts are shut. What do they see? Matter.

But someone whose love is alert,

even if the eyes go to sleep,

he or she will be waking up thousands of others.

If you are not one of those light-filled lovers,

restrain your desire-body's intensity.

Put limits on how much you eat

and how long you lie down.

But if you are awake here in the chest,

sleep long and soundly.

Your spirit will be out roaming and working,

even on the seventh level.

Muhammed says, I close my eyes and rest in sleep,

but my love never needs to rest.

The guard at the gate drowses.

The king stays awake. You have a king inside

who listens for what delights the soul.

That king's wakefulness

cannot be described in a poem.

Cuisine and Sex

Auguste Toulmouche, le baiser

You risk your life to feed desires,
yet you give your soul only short grazing spans,
and those grudgingly.

You borrow ten and repay fourteen.
Most of your decisions can be traced back
to cuisine and sex.

The fuel basket goes from one stokehole
to the next. Six friends hoist
your handsomeness and carry it
to the cemetery.

Food changes going from table to latrine.
You live between deaths,
thinking this is right enough.

Close these eyes to open the other.
Let the center brighten your sight.

The Wide Plain of Death

I placed one foot on the wide plain

of death, and some grand immensity

sounded on the emptiness.

I have felt nothing ever

like the wild wonder of that moment.