Looking into the Creek

The way the soul is with the senses

and the mind, is like a creek.

When desire-weeds grow thick,

your intelligence cannot flow,

and soul-creatures stay hidden.

But sometimes a flooding comes

that runs so strong

it clears the clogged stream,

as though with God's hand.

No longer weeping and frustrated,

your being grows as powerful

as your wantings were before.

Laughing and satisfied,

that masterful current

lets soul-creatures appear.

You look down,

and it's lucid dreaming.

The gates made of light

swing open. You see in.

The Oldest Thirst There Is

Give us gladness that connects

with the Friend, a taste of the quick.

You that make a cypress strong

and jasmine jasmine.

Give us the inner listening

that is a way in itself

and the oldest thirst there is.

Do not measure it out with a cup.

I am a fish. You are the moon.

You cannot touch me, but your light

fills the ocean where I live.

Who Says Words with My Mouth

All day I think about it, then at night I say it.

Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing?

I have no idea. My soul is from elsewhere,

I am sure of that, and I intend to end up there.

This drunkenness began in some other tavern.

When I get back around to that place, I'll be completely

sober. Meanwhile, I'm lke a bird from another continent, 

sitting in this aviary. The day is coming when I fly off,

but who is it now in my ear who hears my voice?

Who says words with my mouth?

Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul?

I cannot stop asking. If I could taste one sip

of an answer, I could break out of this prison for drunks.

I didn't come here of my own accord,

and I can't leave that way.

Whoever brought me here will have to take me home.

This poetry. I never know what I'm going to say.

I don't plan it. When I'm outside the saying of it,

I get very quiet and rarely speak at all.

Shams Tabriz, if you would show your face

to me again, I could flee the imposition of this life.

Fierce Courtesy

The connection to the Friend

is secret and very fragile.

The image of the Friendship

is in how you love,

the grace and the delicacy,

the subtle talking together

in full prostration, outside of time.

When you are there,

remember the fierce courtesy

of the one with you.

You Are as You Are

Der Spaziergang, Marc Chagall

You do not resemble anyone.

You are not the bride or the groom.

You do not fit in a house with anyone.

You have left the closed-in corner

where you lived. Domestic animals

get ridden to work. Not you.

You are as you are,

an indescribable message on the air.

Hoofbeats

The sound of hoofbeats leaving a monastery

where all is timed and measured.

You are that rider.

Someone who does not care very much about things

and results, illness and loss, you are the soul

inside

the soul that is always traveling.

Mind gathers bait. Personality

carries a grudge. You weave cloth

like the moon leaving no trace on the road.

There is a learning community where the names of God

are talked about and memorized, and there is

another residence where meanings live.

You are on the way from here to there.

Your graceful manner gives color and fragrance

as creekwater animates the landscape it moves through.

The absolute unknowable appears as spring and disappears

in fall. Signs come, not the essence signified.

How long will you be a shepherd singlefiling us

in and out of the human barn. Will I ever see you

as you secretly are in silence?

Ramadan Silence

When the Ramadan banner flies,

soul restrains nature, so it can taste its own food.

The strength of horses and the intensity of fire,

these are the powers of sacrifice.

Fasting, we honor the guest. Clouds of courage

give rain, because it was in this month

that the Qur'an rained down,

light through an opening.

Grab the rope, and be lifted out

of the body's pit.

Announce to Egypt that Joseph of Canaan

has come. Jesus dismounts the donkey,

and the sacrament table descends.

Wash your hands. Wash your face.

Do not eat or speak as you normally do.

Other food and other words will come in the silence.