This poem dons the thorny cloak of consequence,
Readers listen for its truth, but only the truthful hear.
Life is a kiss, a soft touch, else the prick from the thorn of a rose.
Seek love through beauty, but do not trample in gardens of idols.
From the mysterious combustibles of the heart,
True love smolders in the eyes of the friend.
Our babbling into oblivion leaves us in rented repose,
Friends made to bide the commands of their hearts…
Meant to wake along the sun’s blue arc of horizon,
Stirred by fleeing zephyrs, our dreams fast on their heels.
God wakes not the dreamers, with wordless hearts,
whose flagons fill with love to overflow reality’s cup.
Those delivered from God, are left to love others;
To dream awake and not wander off on winged words.
Oh, as my consciousness slips away in silence,
My lips spin silk into wildly flailing ribbons of flame.
God seals the scent of truth in my heart
And calls the faithful opener to draw the fiery bow…”
We who glow like embers are also shadows cast by light,
Just as the moon is a phantom without the sun.
As it reflects the sun, the moon cast light as if it’s own
If not mirrors in each other’s sky, what truth and beauty shown?
For each step taken toward God, He takes ten toward us;
how am I to love a Lover like that?
Nothing among everything, everything among nothing;
“Where shall I go, from thy presence, when thou art everywhere.”
Tis the prismatic heart of the poet alchemist
that frees the noble metal from its base alloy.
But my Beloved casts a white light no prism breaks;
No colorful shards to speak, no replicas.
Love is pre-eternal wisdom, named by God,
whispered into the heart, sealed by silence.
A secret unlocked with the lips, flies away untold;
The key lies within the unopened vessel of truth.
It is you who are being unlocked by it,
Your passage to the qalb*, is your annihilation.
Our gift of truth is unwrapped from the inside
From the heart, it ascends through dying bone and sinew.
NOTE:
*Qalb = heart, but different than we “think.” Qalb is more “essence of heart,” the momentum of the soul, not of flesh or romantic metaphor, or worn shape of a hand-gesture. Some languages hold a meaning well beyond the number of letters in it’s words. Arabic is one of them and is more of the pronunciation of a symbol… it is intended to be a spiritually efficient way to speak, one of depth beyond just speech and listening. It is conveyed through the feeling it elicits, which is why the listener is as accountable as the speaker… which is why the translations of such deeply mystic and beloved Arab and Persian poets require more than transliteration – it requires “qalb.”
Annihilation is salvation – the gift of truth is unwrapped from the inside. It ascends through the upwelling of love, an overwhelming disclosure, while our surface of bone and sinew disintegrates and descends. Death is the release of the incarcerated spirit; annihilation of the material container in which salvation awaits. Some spend their lives recklessly tearing open a path to the heart, when it beats softly through, patiently and joyfully awaiting the wearing down of time. Annihilation is not the wanton destruction the body but the desire of the soul to rebuild. Dream, take your time, lest your careless pursuits drift wildly from the path between your mind and your heart. Some truths you seek may be of no use in this lifetime, but rather in the timeless, unfathomable, afterworld – submit to these truths that seek you.
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