Hold Fast (6/7/2020)

Hold Fast (6/7/2020)

Without the pure water from the sea of Love,

our pearl would turn into stone.

If there were no world to be found inside of our soul,

our soul and that world would shrink and confine us.

Pain from the Beloved polishes your heart and soul.

Hold fast to it and it will clean away all of your dirt and rust.

Rubailer (2016), Rubai #1, paghe 176.

Lovers of Love (2/16/2020)

Lovers of Love (2/16/2020)

We are the lovers of Love. Love is our salvation.

The soul resembles Hizir.* Love resembles the Water of Life.

Alas to the one who is not decorated by the Sultan of Love.

How could an animal know the soul’s sugar?

*Hizir  A legendary Godsend who attained immortality by drinking from the Water of Life and who comes to aid in a critical moment (also known as Khidr).

Rubailer (2016), Rubai, Rubai #2, page 134.

How Lucky (1/12/20)

How Lucky (1/12/10)

The soul’s Sultan pushes us from one play to another

as if we were pawns in a chess game.

I wonder if He wins. I wonder if He is ever checkmated.

After all, aren’t we the ones on trial?

 

He picked up our particles, gathered them together,

then kneaded them with the universe to make a paste.

 

He pierced our noses and inserted reins made of greed and lust

in order to pull us around the world like camels.

 

Who are we?

He put an oxen’s bell on the neck of the sky

and keeps crushing us under that sky as if we were sesame.

 

How lucky is that camel who has been tied by the halter of God’s Love.

He makes us drunk and excited while we are among the other camels.

Divan-i Kebir, Volume 15, Ghazal 6, verses 48-52, page 11.