I Want That Love

I desire you more than food or drink.

My body my senses my mind 

hunger for your taste.

I can sense your presence in my heart 

although you belong to all the world.

I wait with silent passion for one gesture 

one glance from you." ~ Rumi

Lift your veil so that I may see your face.

Part the clouds so that I may see the moon.

Scatter your hair so that I may sense your fragrance.

Part your lips so that I may kiss your breath.

I want that love that moved the mountains.

I want that love that split the ocean.

I want that love that made the winds tremble.

I want that love that roared like thunder.

I want that love that will raise the dead.

I want that love that lifts us to ecstasy.

I want that love that is the silence of eternity.

~ Rumi

Like an Inheritance

“Therefore, dear Sir, love your solitude and try to sing out with the pain it causes you. For those who are near you are far away... and this shows that the space around you is beginning to grow vast.... be happy about your growth, in which of course you can't take anyone with you, and be gentle with those who stay behind; be confident and calm in front of them and don't torment them with your doubts and don't frighten them with your faith or joy, which they wouldn't be able to comprehend. Seek out some simple and true feeling of what you have in common with them, which doesn't necessarily have to alter when you yourself change again and again; when you see them, love life in a form that is not your own and be indulgent toward those who are growing old, who are afraid of the aloneness that you trust.... and don't expect any understanding; but believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it.”

― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Only in Our Doing

Only in our doing can we grasp You

Only with our hands can we illuminate You

The mind is but our visitor

It thinks us out of our world.

Each mind fabricates itself

It sets its limits, for we have made them.

And just when we would flee them, You come

and make Yourself an offering.

I don't want to think a place for You

Speak to me from everywhere

Your gospel can be comprehended

without looking for its source

when I go towards You

it is with my whole life.

Rainer Marie Rilke

The Day Sky

Let us be like

Two falling stars in the day sky.

Let no one know of our sublime beauty

As we hold hands with God

And burn

Into a sacred existence that defies -

That surpasses

Every description of ecstasy

And love.

Hafiz

Compassionate Towards Yourself

“Simplicity, patience, compassion.

These three are your greatest treasures.

Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being.

Patient with both friends and enemies,

you accord with the way things are.

Compassionate toward yourself,

you reconcile all beings in the world." 

Lao Tzu

Break out of this Prison

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'm 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 like 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.

Rumi

Am I a Falcon

I live my life in widening circles

that reach out across the world.

I may not complete this last one

but I give myself to it.

I circle around God, around the primordial tower.

I've been circling for thousands of years

and I still don't know: am I a falcon,

a storm, or a great song?

Rainer Marie Rilke

Quietness

"Inside this new love, die. 

Your way begins on the other side. 

Become the sky. 

Take an axe to the prison wall. Escape. 

Walk out like someone suddenly born into color. Do it now. 

You’re covered with thick cloud. 

Slide out the side. 

Die, and be quiet. 

Quietness is the surest sign that you’ve died. 

Your old life was a frantic running from silence. 

The speechless full moon comes out now."

Rumi

True Love

"Love is essentially self-communicative : those who do not have it catch it from those who have it. 

Those who receive love from others cannot be its recipients without giving a response, 

which, in itself, is the nature of Love. 

True Love is unconquerable and irresistible. 

It goes on gathering power and spreading itself until eventually it transforms everyone it touches."

~Meher Baba

 

Love Itself

'Whether you have loved a human being or whether you have loved God, if you have loved enough you will be brought in the end into the presence of the supreme Love itself.'

Rumi