Dreams of Love
on
this journey may the good lord guide us
and
may the goddess dance beside us
when
you wrap your arms around me
when
you take me close and say
that
you're so happy and so glad you've found me
you
take my rainy days and make them go away
- sinead o'connor - dancing
lessons
For
this is wrong, if anything is wrong:
not
to enlarge the freedom of a love
with
all the inner freedom one can summon.
We
need, in love, to practice only this:
letting
each other go. For holding on
comes
easily. We do not need to learn it.
- Rilke (Requiem for a
friend - 1909)
Be
always thus before me, You dear, peerless, sacred one. Let us go upward
together, You and I--as if up to the great star, each leaning on the other,
each reposing in the other. And if sometimes I have to let my arm fall from
Your shoulders for an interim, I fear nothing: on the next height You will
smilingly receive the tired one. You are not a goal for me; You are a thousand
goals. You are everything, and I know You in everything; and I am everything
and direct everything Your way in my moving-toward-You.
- Rilke's Florence Diary
lovey
dovey lovey dovey all the tiiiime!
Love
is all there is
it
makes the world go round
Love
and only love,
it
can't be denied
no
matter what you think about it
you
just won't be able to do without it
- Bob Dylan
Now all the
fingers of this tree (darling) have
Hands, and all
the hands have people; and
More each
particular person is (my love)
Alive than every
world can understand
And now you are
and I am now and we’re
A mystery which
will never happen again,
A miracle which
has never happened before—
-ee cummings
I have just
three things to teach:
Simplicity,
patience, compassion.
These three are
your greatest treasures.
Simple in
actions and in 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
We are people
who need to love, because
Love is the soul’s
life,
Love is simply
creation’s greatest joy
Through the
stairway of existence,
O, through the
stairway of existence, Hafiz,
Have you now
come,
Have we all now
come to
The
Beloved’s Door.
- Hafiz
Now like a
singing air creature
I feel the Rose
Keep opening
My heart turned
to effulgent wings.
When has love
not given freedom”
When has
adoration not made one free?
- Hafiz
Holy Spirit
Giving life to
all life,
Moving all
creatures,
Root of all
things,
Washing them
clean,
Wiping out their
mistakes,
Healing their
wounds,
You are our true
life,
Luminous,
wonderful,
Awakening the
heart
From its ancient
sleep.
-Hildegard of Bingen
Out beyond ideas
of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
There is a
field, I’ll see you there.
When the soul
lies down in that grass,
The world is too
full to talk about.
Ideas, language,
even the phrase each other
Doesn’t
make any sense.
- Rumi
My heart was
split, and a flower
Appeared: and
grace sprang up;
You split me,
tore my heart
Open, filled me
with love.
You poured your
spirit into me;
I knew you as I
know myself.
Speaking waters
touched me
From your
fountain, the source of life.
I swallowed them
and was drunk
With the water
that never dies.
And my
drunkenness was insights,
Intimacy with
your spirit.
And you have
made all things new;
You have showed
me all things shining.
You have granted
me perfect ease;
I have become
like Paradise,
A garden whose
fruit is joy;
And you are the
sun upon me.
My eyes are
radiant with your spirit;
My nostrils fill
with your fragrance.
My ears delight
in your music,
And my face is
covered with your dew.
Blessed are the
men and women
Who are planted
on your earth, in your garden,
Who grow as your
trees and flowers grow,
Who transform
their darkness to light.
Their roots
plunge into darkness;
Their faces turn
toward the light.
All those who
love you are beautiful;
They overflow
with your presence
So that they can
do nothing but good.
There is
infinite space in your garden;
All men, all
women are welcome here;
All they need do
is enter.
- the Odes of Solomon
The drunkards
are rolling in slowly, those who hold to wine are
Approaching.
The lovers come,
singing, from the garden, the ones with
Brilliant eyes.
The
I-don’t-want-to-lives are leaving, and the I-want-to-lives
Are arriving.
They have gold
sold into their clothes, sewn in for those who
Have none.
Those with ribs
showing who have been grazing in the old
Pasture of love
Are turning up
fat and frisky.
The souls of
pure teachers are arriving like rays of sunlight
From so far up
to the ground-huggers.
How marvelous is
that garden, where apples and pears, both for
The sake of the
two Marys,
Are arriving
even in winter.
Those apples
grown from the Gift, and sink back into the Gift.
It must be that
they are coming from the garden to the garden.
- Rumi
Outside, the
freezing desert night.
This other night
inside grows warm, kindling.
Let the
landscape be covered with thorny crust.
We have a soft
garden in here.
The continents
blasted,
Cities and little
towns, everything
Becomes a
scorched, blackened ball.
The news we hear
is full of grief for that future,
But the real
news inside here
Is there’s
no news at all.
- Rumi
Your angel makes
camp
Near those who
are brushed by awe
Who taste and
see your goodness—
Happy are they
who trust you
Holy ones, be
awestruck in God
And you’ll
want nothing more
Young lions
crave and go prowling
But those who
seek you are satisfied
Come, children,
listen to me
I will teach you
how to fall back in awe
Who has a
passion for life
Loves every day
and exults in happiness?
- Psalm 34 (Norman
Fisher, Opening To You,
Zen-Inspired Psalm translations)
How precious is
your kindness!
And those who
seek your wide wings’ shelter—
They will be
satisfied with your provisions
They will drink
the delights of your streams
For you are
life’s wellspring
You are the
light within the light
- Psalm 36 (N. Fisher,
Opening To You)
XVIII
Shall I compare
thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more
lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do
shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's
lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot
the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his
gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair
from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or
nature's changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal
summer shall not fade,
Nor lose
possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death
brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal
lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men
can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives
this, and this gives life to thee.
- Wm Shakespeare
I sing a new song
to you and the earth sings too…
Day by day announcing
the utter presence of things…
You are each
place and each thing
And nowhere and
nothing
No praise and
all praise
No word and all
words
Touch
this…
Recognize this
light and this power
Bathe your face
in the luminous circle of its named
namelessness
Place your body
there, making it a gift—
I offer you this
life
In the beauty of
the dappled world
Trembling before
you
Earth’s
utter presence
Let the heavens
rejoice
Let the earth
dance
Let the sea
churn with all the life that’s in it
Let the fields
burst with plenty
And the trees of
the forest brim with dignity
In song to you
who comes with justice
Who comes with
the sweetness of truth
- Psalm 96 (N. Fisher,
Opening To You)
XXIX
When in disgrace
with fortune and men's eyes
I all alone
beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf
heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon
myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like
to one more rich in hope,
Featured like
him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this
man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most
enjoy contented least;
Yet in these
thoughts my self almost despising,
Haply I think on
thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark
at break of day arising
From sullen
earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet
love remembered such wealth brings
That then I
scorn to change my state with kings.
- Wm Shakespeare
CXVI
Let me not to
the marriage of true minds
Admit
impediments. Love is not love
Which alters
when it alteration finds,
Or bends with
the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an
ever-fixed mark,
That looks on
tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star
to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's
unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not
Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his
bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not
with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out
even to the edge of doom.
If this be error
and upon me proved,
I never writ,
nor no man ever loved.
- Wm Shakespeare
The voice of my
beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.
My beloved is
like a roe or a young hart: behold, he stands behind our wall, he looks forth
at the windows, showing himself through the lattice.
My beloved
spoke, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.
For, lo, the
winter is past, the rain is over and gone;
The flowers
appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of
the turtle is heard in our land;
The fig tree
puts forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good
smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
O my dove, that
art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see
thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy
countenance is comely.
Take us the
foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender
grapes.
My beloved is
mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.
- song of Solomon 2:8-16
your lightning
flashes through the world
the earth is
convulsed at the sight
mountains melt
like wax at your presence
- psalm 97 (N. Fisher,
Opening To You)
protect me from
fear
for I place my trust
only in you
my soul has
said, “You are my guardian
sole foundation
of my happiness
and I will find
my delight
in all that is
yours on earth” …
You, only you
Are my share and
my cup
You have drawn
my lot
And it has
fallen out agreeably
Lovely indeed is
my estate
My heritage is
pleasant to me
I bless you who
brought me this day
And even at
night in the trying times
My trembling
body is tethered to you
Your presence is
always before me
In all the deeds
of my hand
I will not be
shaken from it
So my heart
rejoices
My spirit is
glad
And my body
rests secure
For you will not
abandon my soul to the darkness
You will not
suffer me to be overwhelmed in terror
You will teach
me the path toward life
- Psalm 16 (N. Fisher,
Opening To You)
A woman is so
frail and you remember her
A man so small
and you think of him
And yet
In you woman and
man become as angels
Crowned with a
luminous presence
And you have
given them care for the works of your hands
Placed the solid
ground under their feet…
- Psalm 8 (N. Fisher, Opening
To You)
like bees from a
hive in the sunlight
only you live,
blessed, my rock
exalted, my
protection
only you who
lifted me up
and placed all
my hatred under me
you who saved me
from hatred
and lifted me
high above it
who anointed me
with loving-kindness
- Psalm 18 (N. Fisher,
Opening To You)
there is no
speech, no language
their voice
falls silent
yet the music
plays everywhere
to the end of
the earth its clear notes float out
to the end of
the worlds the words pronounced
become a
tabernacle for the sun
that comes out
like a bridegroom from his chamber
a robust runner
to run his day’s course
to the end of
the heavens he races
and back again
he returns
and there is
nothing hidden from his heat
your pattern is
perfection
it quiets the
soul that knows it
and its eloquent
expression
makes everything
clear
so that even the
simple are wise
your ways are
upright
making the heart
glad
your distances
are clear
washing out the
eyes…
what you require
is just
for it is
nothing but the truth…
may these words
of my mouth
and these
meditations of my heart
be acceptable to
you
my rock, my release.
- psalm 19 (N. Fisher,
Opening To You)
your flame
kindles all that lives and breathes
and you are the
motive force of all activity
the yearning of
the grasses, the lovers’ ardor
- psalm 22 (N. Fisher,
Opening To You)
who can rest in
your tent?
Who can stand on
your mountain?
The one who
walks upright
Does what is
good
Utters true
words of the heart
And does not
deceive with the tongue
Who does no harm
to a neighbor
And never
reproaches others
Who sees
crookedness for what it is
And honors the
truth that flows from you
Whose word is
firm even in difficulty
Who gives asking
nothing in return
And does not
seek advantage
At the expense
of the innocent
- psalm 15 (N. Fisher,
Opening To You)
you are my
shepherd, I am content
you lead me to
rest in the sweet grasses
to lie down by
the quiet waters
and I am
refreshed
you lead me down
the right path
the path that
unwinds in the pattern of your name…
you prepare a
table for me
in the midst of
my adversity
and moisten my
head with oil
surely my cup is
overflowing
and goodness and
kindness will follow me
all the days of
my life
and in the long
days beyond
I will always
live within your house
- psalm 23 (N. Fisher,
Opening To You)
Go, eat your bread
with joy and drink your wine with a merry heart, because it is now that God
favors your works. At all times let your garments be white, and spare not
the perfume for your head. Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the
days of the fleeting life that is granted under the sun. This is your lot
in life, for the toil of your labors under the sun.
- ecclesiastes 9:7-9
Set me as a seal
on your heart
As a tattoo on
your arm;
For stern as
death is love,
Relentless as
the nether world is devotion;
Its flames are a
blazing fire.
Deep waters
cannot quench love,
Nor floods sweep
it away.
- song of songs 8:6-7
let us love in
deed and truth
and not merely
talk about it
- 1 John 3:18
Your love is a
great mystery
It is like an
eternal lake
Whose waters are
always still and clear like glass.
Looking into it
you can see
The truth about
your life.
It is like a
deep well
Whose waters are
cool and pure.
Drinking from it
you can be reborn.
You do not have
to stir the waters
Or dig the well.
Merely see
yourself clearly
And drink
deeply.
- Lao Tzu, interp. By
William Martin
It is good to
know strength
But always
return to flexibility.
If you can
cradle your beloved in your arms
In nurturing
kindness,
Love will flow
through you.
It is good to
work for change,
But always
return to what is.
If you accept
all things whether painful or joyful.
You will always
know
That you belong
to each other
And to the Tao.
- Lao Tzu, interp. By
William Martin
Your love
requires space in which to grow
This space must
be safe enough
To allow your hearts
to be revealed.
The love of God,
unutterable and perfect, flows into a pure soul the way light rushes into a
transparent object. The more love we receive, the more love we shine forth; so
that, as we grow clear and open, the more complete the joy of loving is.
And the more
souls who resonate together, the greater the intensity of their love for,
mirror-like, each soul reflects the other.
- Dante Alighieri
Come live with
me and be my love
And we will all
the pleasures prove
That hills and
valleys, dales and fields
And all the
craggy mountains yields.
- Christopher Marlowe
O, my
luve’s like a red, red rose
That’s
newly sprung in June;
O, my
luve’s like the melodie
That’s
sweetly played in tune.
- Robert Burns
I love thee to
the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need,
by sun and candlelight…
I love thee with
the passion put to us
In my old
griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with
a love I seem to lose
With my lost
saints, -- I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears,
of all my life!
- Elizabeth Barrett
Browning
Search we sky or
earth
There is nothing
out of Love
Hath perpetual
worth:
All things flag
but only Love,
All things fail
and flee;
There is nothing
left but Love…
- Christina Rosetti
When our two
souls stand up erect and strong.
Face to face,
silent, drawing nigh and nigher,
Until the
lengthening winds break into fire
At either curved
point, -- what bitter wrong
Can the earth do
us, that we should not long
Be here
contented! Think. In mounting higher,
The angels would
press on us and aspire
To drop some
golden orb of perfect song
Into our deep,
dear silence. Let us stay
Rather on earth,
Beloved, -- where the unfit
Contrarious mood
of men recoil away
And isolate pure
spirits, and permit
A place to stand
and love in for a way
With darkness
and the death-hour rounding it.
- Elizabeth Barrett
Browning
with all the
forces of the universe you created, we pray for harmony
and true
happiness as we forever grow young together
- Cherokee prayer
Love is enough:
though the world be a-waning,
And the woods
have no voice but the voice of complaining,
Though the sky
be too dark for dim eyes to discover
The gold-cups
and daisies fair blooming thereunder,
Though the hills
be held in shadows, and the sea a dark wonder
And this day
draw a veil over all deeds passed over,
Yet their hands
shall not tremble, their feet shall not falter;
The void shall
not weary, the fear shall not alter
These lips and
these eyes of the loved and the lover.
- William Morris
Give all to love
Obey thy heart
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
“And now
here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can
see rightly: what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
- the fox to the Little Prince,
Antoine de Saint-Expury
Listen! I will
be honest with you. I do not offer the old
Smooth prizes,
but I offer rough new prizes.
These are the
days that must happen to you:
You shall not
heap up what is called riches,
You shall
scatter with lavish hand all that you earn or achieve.
However sweet
the laid-up stores.
However
convenient the dwelling,
You shall not
remain there.
However
sheltered the port, and however calm the waters,
You shall not
anchor there.
However welcome
the hospitality that welcomes you,
You are
permitted to receive it but a little while.
Afoot and
lighthearted, take to the open road,
Healthy, free,
the world before you,
The long brown
path before you leading wherever you choose.
Say only to one
another:
Camerado, I give
you my hand!
I give you my
love more precious than money,
I give you
myself before preaching or law:
Will you give me
yourself? Will you come travel with me?
Shall we stick
by each other as long as we live?
- Walt Whitman, from Song
of the Open Road
She asks,
“Do you love me or yourself more?
Really, tell the
absolute truth.”
He says,
“There’s nothing left of me.
I’m like a
ruby held up to the sunrise.
Is it still a
stone, or a world
Made of redness?
It has no resistance
To
sunlight.”
- Rumi
Nothing can help
me but that beauty.
There was a dawn
I remember
When my soul
heard something
From your soul.
I drank water
From your spring
and felt
The current take
me.
-Rumi
You that love
lovers,
This is your
home. Welcome!
In the midst of
making form, love
Made this form
that melts form,
With love for
the door,
Soul the
vestibule.
Watch the dust
grains moving
In the light
near the window.
Their dance is
our dance.
We rarely hear
the inward music,
But we’re
all dancing to it nevertheless,
Directed by the
one who teaches us,
The pure joy of
the sun,
Our music master.
When I am with
you, we stay up all night.
When
you’re not here, I can’t go to sleep.
Praise God for
these two insomnias!
And the
difference between them.
The minute I
heard my first love story
I started
looking for you, not knowing
How blind that
was.
Lovers
don’t finally meet somewhere.
They’re in
each other all along.
We are the
mirror as well as the face in it.
We are tasting
the taste of this minute
Of eternity. We
are pain
And what cures
pain, both. We are
The sweet cold
water and the jar that pours.
I want to hold
you close like a lute,
So we can cry
out with loving.
You would rather
throw stones at a mirror?
I am your
mirror, and here are the stones.
- Rumi
The stars come
up spinning
Every night,
bewildered in love.
They’d
say,
“How long
do we have to do
this!”
- Rumi
Love is the
reality, and poetry is the drum
That calls us to
that.
- Rumi
Love one
another, but make not a bond of love;
Let it rather be
a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each
other’s cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another
of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance
together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the
strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your
hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.
For only the
hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand
together yet not too near together:
For the pillars
of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree
and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.
- Kahlil Gibran, The
Prophet
And another thing.
Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And
when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether
your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should
ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not the breathlessness, it
is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion…
That is just being “in love,” which any fool can do. Love itself
is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both
an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that
grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen
from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two.
- Louis De Bernieres, Corelli’s
Mandolin
oh,
i'd give this world
just
to dream a dream with you
on
a bed
of
california stars
- wilco and billy bragg singing
woody guthrie
come
my love come bravely to me
let
your heart be still
for
our time has come my tender one
to
be free of will
and
fly
blind
on fearless love
let
them wild winds blow
we'll
shine
on
all we're fearful of
then
we'll let it go
- bonnie raitt singin
dillon o'brian, fearless love:
If
equal affection cannot be,
Let
the more loving one be me
- WH Auden
Sweet
wonderful you
You
make me happy
With
the things that you do
-
Fleetwood Mac
Two
birds bound together
Even
though they possess four wings
Cannot
fly
- Chinese proverb
The
greatest thing that you will ever learn
is
just to love and be loved in return.
- ??
Let
love rule.
- Lenny Kravitz
When
we're gone, long gone,
the
only thing that will have mattered
is
the love that we shared, and the way that we cared,
when
we're gone, long gone.
- Kierean Kane/James Paul
O’Hara
I can live no
longer by thinking - Orlando,
As You Like It
Apology
A
word sticks in the wind's throat;
A
wind-launch drifts in the swells of rye;
Sometimes,
in broad silence,
The
hanging apples distil their darkness.
You,
in a green dress, calling, and with brown hair,
Who
come by the field-path now, whose name I say
Softly,
forgive me love if also I call you
Wind's
word, apple-heart, haven of grasses.
- Richard Wilbur
Masons, when
they start upon a building,
Are careful to
test out the scaffolding;
Make sure that
planks won’t slip at busy points,
Secure all
ladders, tighten bolted joints.
And yet all this
comes down when the job’s done
Showing off
walls of sure and solid stone.
So if, my dear,
there sometimes seem to be
Old bridges
breaking between you and me
Never fear. We
may let the scaffolds fall
Confident that
we have built our wall.
- Seamus Heany
As a man and
woman make
A garden between
them like
A bed of stars,
here
They linger in
the summer evening
And the evening
turns
Cold with their
terror: it
Could all end,
it is capable
Of devastation.
All, all
Can be lost,
through scented air
The narrow
columns
Uselessly
rising, and beyond
A churning sea
of poppies—
Hush, beloved.
It doesn’t matter to me
How many summers
I live to return:
This one summer
we have entered eternity.
I felt your two
hands
Bury me to
release its splendor.
- Louise Gluck
When
I see your face, the stones start spinning!
You
appear; all studying wanders.
I
lose my place.
Water
turns pearly.
Fire
dies down and doesn't destroy.
In
your presence I don't want what I thought
I
wanted, those three little hanging lamps.
Inside
your face the ancient manuscripts
seem
like rusty mirrors.
You
breathe; new shapes appear,
and
the music of a desire as widespread
as
Spring begins to move
like
a great wagon.
- Rumi
I
would love to kiss you.
The
price of kissing is your life.
Now
my loving is running toward my life shouting,
What
a bargain, let’s buy it.
-
Rumi
Zuleikha
let everything be the name of Joseph, from celery seed
to
aloes wood. She loved him so much she concealed his name
in
many different phrases, the inner meanings
known
only to her. When she said, The wax is softening
near
the fire,
she meant, My love is wanting me.
Or
if she said, Look, The moon is up or The willow has new leaves
or
The branches are trembling or The coriander seeds
have
caught fire or
The roses are opening
or
The king is in a good mood today or Isn’t that lucky?
or
The furniture needs dusting or
The
water carrier is here or It's almost daylight or
These
vegetables are perfect or The bread needs more salt
or
The clouds seem to be moving against the wind
or
My head hurts
or My headache's better,
anything
she praises, it's Joseph's touch she means,
any
complaint, it's his being away.
When
she's hungry, it's for him. Thirsty, his name is sherbet.
Cold,
he's a fur. This is what the Friend can do
when
one is in such love. Sensual people use the holy names
often,
but they don't work for them.
The
miracle Jesus did by being the name of God,
Zuleikha
felt in the name of Joseph.
When
one is united to the core of another, to speak of that
is
to breathe the name Hu, empty of self and filled
with
love. As the saying goes, The pot drips what’s in it.
The
saffron spice of connecting, laughter.
The
onion smell of separation, crying.
Others
have many things and people they love.
This
is not the way of the friend and the Friend.
-
Rumi
My
love wanders the rooms, melodious,
flute
notes, plucked wires,
full
of a wine the Magi drank
on
the way to Bethlehem.
We
are three. The moon comes
from
its quiet corner, puts a pitcher of water
down
in the center. The circle
of
surface flames.
One
of us kneels to kiss the threshold.
One
drinks, with wine-flames playing over his face.
One
watches the gathering,
and
says to any cold onlookers:
This
dance is the joy of existence.
I
am filled with you.
Skin,
blood, bone, brain, and soul.
There's
no room for lack of trust, or trust.
Nothing
in this existence but that existence.
-
Rumi
If
you want what visible reality
can
give, you're an employee.
If
you want the unseen world,
you're
not living your truth.
Both
wishes are foolish,
but
you'll be forgiven for forgetting
that
what you really want is
love's
confusing joy.
Gamble
everything for love,
if
you’re a true human being.
If
not, leave this gathering.
Half-heartedness
doesn’t reach
into
majesty. You set out
to
find God, but you keep
stopping
for periods
at
mean-spirited roadhouses.
-
Rumi
When
I remember your love,
I
weep, and when I hear people
talking
of you,
something
in my chest,
where
nothing much happens now,
moves
as in sleep.
All
our lives we've looked
into
each other's faces.
That
was the case today too.
How
do we keep our love-secret?
We
speak from brow to brow
and
hear with our eyes.
----
The
way of love is not
a
subtle argument.
The
door there
is
devastation.
Birds
make great sky-circles
of
their freedom.
How
do they learn it?
They
fall, and falling,
They’re
given wings.
Let
your throat-song
be
clear and strong enough
to
make an emperor fall full-length,
suppliant,
at the door.
-
Rumi
I
have phrases and whole pages memorized,
but
nothing can be told of love.
You
must wait until you and I
are
living together.
In
the conversation we'll have
then
... be patient . . . then.
--
You've
so distracted me,
your
absence fans my love.
Don't
ask how.
Then
you come near.
"Do
not...," I say, and
"Do
not...," you answer.
Don't
ask why
this
delights me.
-
Rumi
You
bind me, and I tear away in a rage to open out
into
air, a round brightness, a candlepoint,
all
reason, all love.
This
confusing joy, your doing,
this hangover