Though I'm very fond of Rumi's poetry in general, this one in particular has become especially dear to me over the last 7 years, as I've dealt with successive issues related to an assault/PTSD, a traumatic brain injury, and addiction. It's taken me a long time to understand and accept that I can never go back to being the person that I used to be, and that some parts of my old life are just irrevocably gone; I'm slowly learning how to make peace with that loss and how to finally move forward instead.
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reading rumi
this man has no right to make me feel these things with just a bunch of words
A Dumb Experiment
Break open your personal self
to taste the story of the nutmeat soul.
These voices come from that
rattling against the outer shell.
The nut and the oil inside
have voices that can only be heard
with another kind of listening.
If it weren’t for the sweetness of the nut,
the inner talking, who would ever shake a walnut?
We listen to words
so we can silently
reach into the other.
Let the ear and mouth get quiet,
so this taste can come to the lip.
Too long we’ve been saying poetry,
talking discourses, explaining the mystery
outloud. Let’s try a dumb experiment.
Father Reason
The universe is a form of divine law,
your reasonable father.
When you feel ungrateful to him,
the shapes of the world seem mean and ugly.
Make peace with that father, the elegant patterning,
and every experience will fill with immediacy.
Because I love this, I am never bored.
Beauty constantly wells up, a noise of springwater
in my ear and in my inner being.
Tree limbs rise and fall like the ecstatic arms
of those who have submitted to the mystical life.
Leaf sounds talk together like poets making fresh metaphors. The green felt cover slips,
and we get a flash of the mirror underneath.
Think of how it will be when the whole thing
is pulled away! I tell only one one-thousanth
of what I see, because there’s so much doubt everywhere.
The conventional opinion of this poetry is,
it shows great optimism for the future.
But Father Reason says,
No need to announce the future!
This now is it. This. Your deepest need and desire
is satisfied by the moment’s energy
here in your hand.
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When we were young we used to stare at the sky and wonder where do all the stars fade away once the sun is up?
where are all those breaths we took when we stared at the moon, admiring it’s beauty without knowing if we’ll see it again
where do all the dreams take shelter once we are awake ?
Where do you go when you feel like melting into the ground ?
Where does happiness leave when sadness arrives at the doorsteps of our hearts?
Where?… where does love fade away once you are gone?… where ?
-H
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You cannot appreciate Rumi without appreciating Islamic scripture and thought. Orientalists have stripped his work out of its Muslim identity but that doesn't change the love he had for Allah and his prophet which was indeed a catalyst for the poetry that western audiences enjoy so much. So you cannot appreciate Rumi without appreciating Islamic scripture and thought. Orientalists like to push the narrative that great thinkers of Islamic origins are geniuses despite their religion. This is false and steeped in white supremacy okay ❤️
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There is a secret medicine given only to those who hurt so hard they can't hope. The hopers would feel slighted if they knew.
You were born with potential.
You were born with goodness and trust.
You were born with ideals and dreams.
You were born with greatness.
You were born with wings.
You are not meant for crawling, so don't.
You have wings.
Learn to use them and fly.
~Rumi~
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