From the End to the Beginning (2/24/19)
We are brave, insolent revolutionaries
who play with our own lives.
It is a pity that this muddy flesh
is the peer of our pure, clean soul. Continue reading
Our Voices and Screams (2/10/19)
We have gone. Best wishes to the rest.
Those born here on this planet always die here.
The One who lives above
knows that falling rock will surely hit the ground. Continue reading
Just Empty Words (11/11/18)
On the way to Love, each lover must either annihilate himself
or give up his life in death.
Some say,
“Love’s goal is to drink water from the Fountain of Life.”
These are just empty words, O lover, just empty words.
Rubailer (2016), Page 226, Rubai #3
Hear This Well (1/7/18)
If you are in love with Me, I will make you utterly confused.
Hear this well.
Don’t do too much, because in the end, I will destroy you.
Hear this well. Continue reading
Bees Don’t Make His Honey (10/15/17)
Before wine, the vineyard or the grape ever existed in this world,
our soul was drunk with everlasting wine, with God’s wine.
Before this hide and seek,
before Mansur* said that secret word, made that subtle point,
we kept saying, “I am God,” in the Baghdad of this world. Continue reading
Your Qibla (9/24/17)
Even if sugar envies your sweet smile,
Even if sultans are your slaves and servants,
if you make this rotten world your Qibla,*
you are dead, and people are licking your corpse.
*Qibla Direction of prayer.
Rubailer, Page 371, Rubai #4
The Situation Is Not Like That (8/20/17)
Between the darkness of sleep and the light of awakening,
in the dark of evening, I saw such a person!
He was a traveler with such a beautiful face, on his journey to the Holy Temple.
He was pure wisdom, the light of awareness. Continue reading
Turn (5/14/17)
I really keep turning around bad luck, keep borrowing trouble
when I turn around myself, my illusions instead of You. Continue reading
“God Knows Best” (3/5/17)
I became the confidant of the One who set out to search.
I became a friend of the One who settled down in the land of Glory.
I saw a dome beyond the six dimensions.
I turned into the floor, the dirt of that dome. Continue reading
The Light of Soul’s Mirror (2/18/17)
Look. Look at Me carefully.
Know that I am a friend to you in your grave.
When you are away from the house or store,
I am the one who hangs around with you.
You hear My greeting in the grave,
although you have never been away from My eyes.
All those times you are happy and cheerful,
the times you are sad and in trouble,
I am inside of you, just like your mind and soul.
When you hear a familiar sound at night in a strange land,
know that you are secure from snake bites and troubles from ants.
The drunkenness of Love offers you wine in your grave,
lights a candle, offers appetizers, and burns incense for you.
When you light the candle of the mind,
what yells and screams in the cemetery come from death!
The soil of the cemetery becomes confused from these noises, this humdrum,
the beat of the drums of resurrection.
You tear your coffin; you plug your ears with fear.
What’s the use of brains or ears when they face the trumpet of resurrection?
Wherever you look, you see Me.
Whether you look at yourself or the crowd,
all you see is Me. Me.
Don’t be cross-eyed. Open both your eyes.
Look at Me nicely, because on that day,
poor eyesight will make My bright beauty look like it’s far, far away.
I appear human, but don’t ever make that mistake,
because the soul is very light, and Love is very tough, very jealous.
Never mind shape or form.
Even if I dress in felt, the cloak is still the light of the soul’s mirror;
it shines, becomes a flag, becomes apparent.
Beat the drum. Go to the musicians of the town.
The day of manifestation is for the voyager who is maturing on the path of Love.
If you hadn’t been after money and goods, if you had kept searching for God,
you wouldn’t see yourself in the coffin sitting next to a ditch.
You’ve set up such a house of informers in our town
that you’d better close your mouth now and be a silent informer, just like light.
Divan-i Kebir, Meter 7a, Gazel 125, Verses 1490-1504, Pages 30-341